Success is relative to each individual but there are some fairly standard parameters for success, especially when it's in relevance to making a profit and Steemit is no different.

Everyone has something different they want to achieve by being here but its pretty obvious everyone is here to make money, if you're not your lying because there are much much better blogging sites to use and you're here because it rewards quality content with monetary value.

That being said lets figure out why people aren't being successful here. Its a mixture of the system in place the people who abuse the system and you yourself.

The system itself

Steemit is like communism, they both work in theory.

Nah, Steemit does work, it just isn't perfect. One of the main issues is that it has a large learning curve, 2 months in i'm learning something new everyday and with the exception of Steemit posts themselves there isn't a whole lot of info out there unless you're watching people like Treyvon James or Jerry Banfield (yuk) on YouTube.

It's having a lot of front-end issues at the moment which is why so many people are using other sites like busy.org etc to access it but if you don't know about them then you're kinda stuck with a broken system. This sucks for new people coming to the site and makes them give up fairly quickly, which brings me to my next point.

You give up too fast. Good things don't come to those who wait, nor those who quit. Becoming successful on Steemit takes time unless you've already got some big whales to back you, and it takes work. a lot of work. My highest payout was $26 and that was pure luck. I sometimes put in a couple hours work on my posts( not including distractions like PAL on discord or my cat, see below) and make $0.80... but that's a far cry more than when i was making 7-8c a post.

2 months in and 2 posts a day at anywhere from 10 mins to 2 hours a post equals a lot of time put in. But i'm watching my upvotes comments and payouts steadily increase, as well as putting money into the Steemit platform myself buying sbd and sp ( although not a lot yet) because you don't get something for nothing.

You need to find your niche or niches and use them to your advantage, are you a good storyteller or poet? can you make good art? are you a captivating writer. Everyone who comes here seems to think they can get rich quick off of memes and YouTube videos, putting in little effort or little time and then complaining that Steemit sucks. No Steemit is awesome, it has its flaws but you're expecting something for nothing and that just doesn't happen.

People who abuse the system

We all know of people who abuse the system, whales with a cult following who will always make hundreds of dollars a post regardless of if its good or not, unless its a blatant ripoff they will always profit. Why? because they have whale friends and they all auto upvote each other, just like the real world 90% of the wealth in 10% of the population.

When you have a group of people just sharing the wealth around it makes it hard for everyone else to get noticed, you might be putting in tons of effort and just not getting anywhere other than from a few minnows or help from MSP etc.

So how to solve this? i don't know to be honest. Networking with whales and dolphins helps, if you can win their approval they may vote for you or resteem or share around your work with others they know. Networking in general as well, build your own little community, people that will regularly upvote your work and support what you do. Don't let it get you down if you're not making big bucks because if you integrate yourself into the community all it takes is a couple of big players to make a huge difference to you.

Problem with this is you get disenchanted so easily when nothing seems to work, i've tried out many subjects, i've tried many formats and the results seem random at best. the only thing i can say with utmost certainty is the quality effects it majorly.

You, yourself.

You are your own biggest obstacle when it comes to success. Everyone has the capacity to be successful its down to how they execute it.

Put in consistent effort and do it often, don't let minimal payouts and upvotes get you down, I've almost reached 500 followers and i can think of nothing more than the work i've put in to attribute it and the resteems i get from people i have networked with.

There are some written and some unwritten guidelines that most of the community adheres to.
Don't plagiarize
Don't spam
Don't forget to source
Don't pretend to be someone you're not

Staying on the right side of these rules is important for keeping up your rep which shows how trustworthy you are to other people and gives u more voting power in terms of affecting others rep. So don't piss off people with higher rep than you :)

Post interesting things, things that haven't been done over the top, things that bring value to the community not just things you think are valuable ( im very guilty of ignoring this sometimes)
If you can be both informative and amusing you'll be kicking goals in no time.
I'd say 90% of the people here will give up on Steemit when they realize it isn't easy money. Be in that 10%.

Hard work+Networking+Consistency+Not giving up= Success!
Any other combination will fail.

Another reason you may not be sabotaging yourself is by posting at the wrong times, take note of who would be online when you post.
For example i often post around 5-7pm Australian EST which is when most of the steemit users are asleep, so i began writing my post then and trying not to publish it until the next morning when i get up for work, hopefully giving it more exposure. The time you post can make a big difference.

I'm not saying you wont be successful but there's a good chance most of us wont, whether that's your fault or the way the system is set up its an unfortunate fact.

If you like my stuff please upvote follow or even resteem

Steem on Steemians.