I see
I only write comedy so I'm not sure about the competitions.
Essentially I'm now competing vs how much I would make if I completely lent out my voting power to a bot, which pays maybe 80c to the dollar. So while the self voting may look ugly, it's actually barely breaking even against potential passive income. If i lent it out full time, everyone still loses the same amount in terms of the loss to the rewards pool, just means the average vote buyer will get the money.
So basically it's a choice between traf's content or the average vote buyer's. I'm not an early cyrpto investor as you know and steem is the bulk of my net worth. Recent personal circumstances took a turn for the worse (which is why I was away for so long) and I don't have the luxury to be too altruistic :(
There are good curators begging for delegation and they are far, far superior to bots. Minnowbooster is a way to find some of them if you are looking for money out of it. You can make much more income that way if you gave $$$ to 10 good curators. Some are offering to pay you for it so they can spread the rewards. Give it a try maybe.
And your comedy would be a hit - again try it! Few can do comedy so you might find a niche in some of the challenges. If you have good content, it will be seen there anyway. I write about money tips in ThursdayGreen for example. Yes, there is a green photo but the content is mine about money.
I hope things turn around and the best advice is to diversify with what you have - which is still substantial to most of us. I did not know you were new to crypto so big congrats on your success.
There are quite a few people here who might be able to help you increase the value of some of it. I've been watching a few who give tips and post their results and it's pretty jaw-dropping how much of this crypto is flying around. I'm an accountant and the rest of the world is dead compared to this. I'm so glad to be seeing it now in my old age :)