I empathise with what you are saying but I have one piece of advice:
Post what you care about. Not what you think the whales will like.
Build your own audience and in the future (assuming Steemit succeeds) you will reap the rewards. Now that may seem like too much work on something that is a gamble - but go back to any startup in the early days - Apple, Google, Facebook and they were in a very similar position.
Also you may not realise it but you are one of the pioneers just by virtue of being here now. - The equivalent of people mining/buying bitcoin in 2009/2010.
By being here now you still have the potential to be a future whale. You probably won't have a stake the size of what Dan or Ned have (none of us will) but it could still be worth more than anything else you have invested in.
It might not happen but ask yourself what if it did?
What if you gave up and left your chance to make hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars because you got disheartened and did the equivalent of exchanging 10K BTC for a pizza?
For me that would be more galling than just taking the risk and losing some time and money. Maybe I am just weird though.
I agree. I haven't spent money. Just time. I spend time other places and get nothing at all. I don't really consider it a gamble unless you are spending money. The reason I am not spending money is not because, I don't believe in steemit. I simply have no money to spend. :) I was around when BTC was $0.005/coin. I didn't spend $10K BTC on a Pizza, but I did think $20 for this BTC that seems promising, or buy a pizza for my family. I chose to buy the pizza.
I promised I wouldn't do that again. Around the time I was making that promise I accidentally stumbled onto steemit. :) That was in July.
I have never powered down. I do send some of my coins out to exchange for things I can spend, because like I said I have no money. I have never powered down, and I have powered up my SBD instead of spending it many times. If I had more money I'd likely take a gamble and invest in buying more steem power.
It's a good policy. It is always gambling - even with Bitcoin it could easily have never taken off. Only invest what you can put in. If you are already blogging then it seems like a no-brainer to me that you post on Steemit.
@thecryptofiend has written some really good advice. I admit, I've been galled when I've spent a lot of time writing something only to see very little reward. It's one thing to read in the whitepaper that post value is subjective. It's another thing entirely to see what "subjective" means when you see what/who gets into Trending while your own posts sink....
Over at Bitcointalk ( remember it? :D ), @anonymint pointed out this difficulty in a critique of the whole micropayment-for-content model. Writing for free means you can tell yourself that you're writing for the love of it. But once payments enter the picture, a feedback system comes into play that can be really frustrating because it can tell you that you're working hard for next to no pay.
Add to that, the quite natural habit of scanning the Trending posts to see what kind of content gets rewarded. If you're here to earn, that's what you do: you study the market. But that business-like practice induces you to pick up the bad habit that Maw warned us against - comparing yourself to others!
In my case, I stopped watching the Trending category period. It's my way of implementing the most important part of @thecryptofiend 's advice:
Better than getting advice form Mom. :)
That's what I had been doing, then I messed up and went and studied what's in the "hot" and "trending", 80-90% have titles that don't even seem appealing or even good for that matter, but they all have one thing in common,they talk about Steem or Steemit. So I guess I went into the old" if you can't beat them, join them mentality". You're right though, IF it survives, we will be the pioneers so to speak, maybe there's hope,but right now, I can't see the forest for all the trees,js,thanks for your comment!
That is normal. I have been through similar phases. We all do because we are human. Take a break if you need to and then come back. It will still be here and your SP will continue to grow.
My favorite parts of your advice:
&
Thanks:)
I think that is sage advice. If you post about what interests you, and don't worry about how much money you make, you will enjoy it more. And we are all new and learning.
Thanks. Glad you agree.