This drop in the price is a motivating factor for me.

• I'm trying to earn enough so I can consistently vote a penny!
  • My ultimate goal is to be able to give my 2 cents,
    but a penny is the stepping stone to 2...
• On my 18th day here (I'm now on day 52), I did a post about setting goals.
  • At that time, it took 54 SP to give your 2 cents.
    • Today it takes 41.9 SP to give a penny.
      and 126 to give 2 cents. WOW!
      Hmm should that be just double?
      I'm using the calculator from steemnow.com...

I've not actually studied it, but I do feel that I'm getting pretty decent reward right now.

• I had been thinking it might be because I've been on longer and am getting more followers...
  +but I think you may be right, with fewer posts overall, there is less competition for the upvote!