At least on steemit you are not paying for blog hosting or sitting on a pile of merchandise.
But, i do understand where you are coming from.
I could do what @papa-pepper does... but it just isn't me.
Its not that I don't have the knowledge, I got that in spades.
Its that I do not share my life, it is very secretive, and what I really want to do is exchange knowledge.
And thus, the article that took days to write is trounced by the quickly penned post about cat pictures.
Exactly, not all methods of "adding value" are easily classified or packaged into something bite sized.
I figured out in my first few days that holding contests were an easy way to gain attetention, but I don't like it, it feels cheap (which is not to say they're all useless, I think @papa-pepper puts a lot of effort into his contests and so they create a fun atmosphere) . I only do Deadpost cause I think its something the platform needs.
I knew using my own photos could help people relate and remember me quickly instead of slowly after coming across me a few times, but I am not really into pimping my life out on the internet.
I see that YEAH STEEMIT posts always do well and so does crypto related stuff, but I only post about those when I have something to say, crypto only now that I'm actually interested in it (where I wasn't before).
I always just want to let my cat start typing a post and add his picture when I see how my shitpost on him got a higher upvote than a lot of posts that I put hours into. This place is so extremely far from what it COULD be, but it still seems to be better that anywhere else on the internet. All I can do is try my hardest and let things play out how they will.