I invested when there was blood in the streets - Steem was at .000432 in bitcoin. Something like $0.04 cents each. Months and months later, I made all my investment back and took OUT double what I had invested. I was pulling money out when steem was at $2.30+ but when it dropped to $2, I stopped pulling it out. I still have about 2 houses worth of Steem invested.
Having a large balance will get you some eyeballs every time you post. Wallet checkers like to vote on large wallets and comment in hopes of getting that big upvote in return.
Yes, you will gain more votes and followers just from having an SP balance.
But there is money in it too! I had to take a couple months off to move, as you will see in my posts. I went from a shack to a high-rise and took two months to do it. No Steemit posts.
I still made $2000 per month allowing my bots to vote on my friends. (I usually make $6000 with votes and moderate posting).
My advice. Invest if you can. There is money in voting via bot or manually. Keep putting out content that is original. And make it spectacular - try to be the life of the party or get a conversation started.
Every one of my posts takes a couple hours (min) to create. Then 12 to 15 hours of chatting in the comments section - plus returning upvotes for those who vote big on me. It's a full time job. You have to babysit your post all week. Watch for those replies.
Those that won't have a return are those who fail to proof read, hit the post button, then sit there doing nothing and seeing if they get a vote. Or worse, they hit post and go out for dinner and a movie.
Comments and responses is what will get you into the trending page (where more eyeballs go to find the cool stuff).
That's all I can think of for now. I am trying to get you trending - doing my part :)
RE: Commenting VS. Creating Content (For Minnows - Is this the Question or Answer?