Patience is very difficult and yet so important in the Steem game. I had become a full-time Steemian before I was actually being able to afford that step. I followed my intuition as I realized that this is the place where I want to spend my working time from now on. It was hard and many times I struggled. Each month I had to take out Steem to pay my bills and it was painful as I wanted to grow my Steem Power.
Now, seven months later it is already a whole new world. I have not worked much the past four weeks as my parents came visiting us. And yet I made more than I did seven months ago.
Consistency and networking are key to success. I have friends on Steemit who do only one of both and it does not work for them. You can post every day but if you never invest time to network nobody will know you. And if you network but only post once a week or so there is little to upvote. People need to find the right balance in their Steem activities!
I agree completely @flauwy.
That is where comments come in. It is a way to get one's "face" out there. Over time, when posting for the same author, one gets known. Take @Lordjames who wrote a couple comments here. He is on this site 3 weeks and I know him. He posts on every one of my articles...thoughtful comments. He gets an upvote each time when I go through and do my upvoting. It isnt a ton at this point, $.30 or so...but he still gets 2 a day. Over time, that adds up.
Consistency, no matter what approach one takes, is key. If one is haphazard with this, people get lost. Followers have short attention spans (I know I do). It is the ole out of sight, out of mind scenario. Disappear for even a few days, people forget you.