Hang in there buddy. I know it sucks.
Reward now seem to be a bit free for all and once you are on the front page there is no stopping. Advertising seems to be everything and the top place in the hot list is the golden property.
The $ value of the post is highly inflated btw because trading is down curently. A week ago it would have been like 7k, still a lot but not so "unrealistic" :)

Keep producing, do your thing, tell your stories. The bullshit detector of steemit will hopefully aling in time.
I wish you all the best!