Thanks @luzycypher, upped and resteemed. I've found the #openmic competition really motivating. I was fortunate enough to make 200sbd on an original song I posted within the first couple of weeks of joining; this gave me the motivation to "suffer" through the days and days of quality (imo) posts that followed and which only received a few cents. It was frustrating because I was seeing people who were posting content which I considered less good than mine but which was making loads of money.

But then I'd discovered that they had been on the platform for at least a year and that they had tons of followers. I realised that they had made their mark in the community and produced consistent quality that their followers clearly got a lot of value out of. I hadn't done that, so why was I complaining? Since then my approach has been to challenge myself to post at least one a day during the week (with a few exceptions) but not to be hard on myself if I didn't meet all of my goals. My posts now regularly make in excess of $5, and occasionally blow up and make $100. That's not too bad for a couple of months posting. Open Mic and @minnowsupport have been crucial, by the way, and people who aren't members should definitely join MSP, it's been essential for me.
P.S, readers who've got this far through my comment may be up for checking out my latest entry to Open Mic Week 46 :)