For sure it will pay off in the end.
I persuaded an ex-girlfriend to make some steemit posts early last year. She saw some decent rewards with her singing and had 100 SBD in her wallet when it shot up to around $15 last year and consequently was able to buy the piano of her dreams! But had she invested that $1500, it would be three times as much now. And perhaps x10 by the end of the year.
It's crazy how fast one can get rich once investments are in place :)
It's also easy to get discourage :-/ There are many very poor quality post that makes $$ and you keep posting and taking time to post to no return of your time nor interest.
We posted our first video on DLive and thought it would be great content well aligned with our travel posting but it didn't do much really either.
So yes patience is a big deal :-)