As a content creator and contributor to the steemit community, I really support this. However, I think there are some fundamental issues that need a good looking at. I think that it's reasonable to have to build up a reputation in order to earn more in steemit. At the same time, I think that the system buries legitimately good articles and content under more seasoned and more invested individuals. And hey, that's totally understandable! However, it can be very discouraging for new users. Frustrating even. Take this for an example.

@mysterymerr was a friend that I donated my design services to. She spent a deal of time working on her introduction post. She wanted to do blogging on makeup and special effects content. She posted a very well written introduction post, and it made 20.00 SBD, which she managed to get maybe 10.00, less actually because of all the fees. Meanwhile, other people were able to blog in introduce yourself and earn hundreds because they knew the right people. It was very discouraging. The last straw for her was when she posted one more time and only made 0.03 sbd. She quit after that, and I don't think she's coming back.

Now, I know what you guys are thinking. Who cares right? She should have kept posting, earned her following and built up from there.

If you say that, you have an extremely solid point. However, I'm in the business of design. I've studied user experience design.

So while @mysterymerr is just one person who didn't do well, she represents a margin of potential newcomers. Her experience is what a lot of other newcomers are experiencing. It's something that we have to assume.

Now, while there may be something wrong with steemit's big picture, an even bigger issue present. The expectations are not correctly set A lot of these promotional materials, and word by mouth promotes steemit as a life changing platform. Step 1: Post, Step 2: ??? Step 3: The moon.

This may be true for a lot of people on the platform, but it is not true for everyone. The expectations are not correct. And thusly, newcomers will come aboard, and quickly realize that earning lots of money using steemit is actually bigger than just posting.

It's about promoting yourself, networking, building a following.

I'd say, that a good way to help counteract this is by finding new ways to spotlight content, more areas to allow good content to reach the light of day. If that were to happen, expectations could be set to reflect the active promotional materials.

Steemit is very much a huge ocean of content. Someone who is new and writes a post or contributes something worthwhile should be able to earn the same as someone who's been here forever, who doesn't actively post helpful or interesting content.

My 2 cents.