Great points! It's all about managing your expectations. What a lot of people don't realize is that Steemit is a global community that is very new. It's going to take time for people to find and follow your content. I came in with very little expectations for my account. I set goals of how often I'd like to be posting and set a time limit of 6 months to see where it goes. So far so good. It's all about expectations: the higher they are, the higher likelihood you are to be disappointed.
You mentioned that you are in it for the long term. Curious as to your timeframe or price target your aiming for.
Absolutely, build. build. build. I don't have a timeframe or certain amount that I need to make in order to consider Steemit worth the time. I really do enjoy it here and the people that I've met along the way, including yourself. But I do plan on building my channel and rewards over time. I made a goal at the beginning of this year and said that I would like to be making $1,500 USD per week by the end of 2018. If I reach that, cool. But if I don't, I'll still be happy as long as I'm progressing. And I've been blown away so far with what 2018 has brought to me on Steemit.
Likewise @brandonfrye, definitely glad to have met you too. I've definitely benefited from your educational videos and have seen your astronomical growth! Congrats on 1000 followers in such a short amount of time! Keep up the great work and I'm sure you'll be well on the way to reaching your goal. KEEP ON STEEMIN