The funny thing is that, when I started, my most simplistic publications received more than the most elaborate ones, but an initial pair exceeded the $50 barrier and it motivated me enough to stay.
If you want to see exemplified how easy work does not bear fruit in Steemit, you can see the user "a-a-a", he follows you and me too, follows practically all the Steemit accounts, with the goal of following him, but as his followers are not real, despite having 23,000 of them, his publications do not receive much reward.
Nor do I have anything against him, but it shows perfectly how you will not go anywhere using cheap tricks.
I loved this line of yours: