There really doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason for what becomes popular or valuable at times. It would be more valuable to just post 30 memes from reddit and collect 10c a piece than spend hours on a detailed original post to only get $2.
Im in Australia and usually post when Europe & Usa are asleep so by the time they come online my posts are hours old and less likely to attract voters that can pump up the value since they look for new posts to maximise their curation return, even thou i try to add quality.
I agree with @elena2017 - just enjoy it, talk with those you find a common ground with and use the experience to improve your skills. As more people use steemit, more will seek out quality to follow so just keep up the quality.
Before i started on steemit, i could count on one hand how many people had seen my work but the encouragement and support is real even if the $ may not always be.