Back when you could actually mine Bitcoin with a GPU, I was able to pay for my gear with my mining earnings. But as it got harder, I sent my hash rate to a mining pool called Multipool which would automatically mine whichever coin had the best hash-to-btc conversion rate (for the same algorithm). This extended the life of investment in my equipment. Changing to different algorithms when sha-256 got too hard to compete in with arrival of ASIC miners again kept me marginally profitable. Steem offers yet another way to earn in the cryptoverse.
The point of this little story is that it is important to be flexible, keep your eye on the evolving projects out there, and be willing to put some skin in the new parts of the game as it is ever changing at this point. @jamesndungu has been doing a great job at identifying some of these new projects. It’s worth taking a look at his research!