Valuable tips here, @rebeccaryan. Learnt a lot of new stuff like the bot voters. I think it's easy for people new to Steemit to get discouraged when they don't see their posts gaining traction.
It's the same with building any other blog. Need to build a following and the results will start to snowball.
I agree and I freely admit that there were times that I questioned my own sanity when my posts would only generate a few cents and I had worked countless hours on them. I hope to make the process a little easier for anyone who happens to read this.