Unfortunately, as a minnow, curating is not very beneficial unless you manage to beat the bots and whales at a game they know far more about than you do; and obviously more than I do, because my curation rewards are tiny as well. However, I don't curate to make money, but rather to support content I appreciate.

I find I'm actually bringing in a lot more from responding to posts. It's usually not a lot, but its not that difficult to reply to a good number of posts in one day. It can be surprising what a few 35 cent rewards can add up to in a single day.