engagement and encouragement like this is definitely enough to keep me personally invested in this platform

This is what I like to hear! While some people were used to their old strategies in #oldsteem, I believe those who step up their content game will have a much better chance to get noticed now while the active stake is looking for worthy content more than ever. All this while the price is going under the radar and without the influx of bigger audience who've yet to realize what's taking place here. Now might be the golden season for creators to earn a decent amount of STEEM which will be much harder to earn in the future once there are more users competing over the rewardpool.

Keep doing what you're doing, you're off to a good start :)