I am also been posting in web for free for years and when I experienced earning cents on Steemit, I told myself this is Real! :D
Although admitted that when I started to put more effort on my posts here and it just gets .01 something, it made me felt disappointment. But it did taught me valuable things to grow in steemit, like I need to do more than posting good quality content like being active in a community here and join contests. :D