I think this is more a problem of unrealistic expectations than a problem with Steem itself (though i'm not saying Steem/Steemit doesn't have problems).

It has never been more harder for Content Authors to get rewarded for their content before. Well, perhaps it's been harder before, but it is still very difficult.

I don't know why there's this expectation that anyone should just be able to show up and post some good content and get showered with followers and rewards. It just doesn't make sense. It takes lots of time and hard work to grow a following and earn rewards anywhere in life.

It is currently so much easier to do that on Steem/Steemit now than anywhere else I know of that it's crazy to hear so many people complaining about how hard it is! Yes, it used to be even easier on steemit, but it's naturally going to be harder to get noticed as the platform grows.

Anyone who complains about this has unrealistic expectations of what it takes to succeed, in my opinion.

In fact, it's so bad right now, that you literally have to plan when you will post a bid for a vote in order to break even. Sometimes you may get lucky and get a really large upvote for a fraction of the cost, but basic economics tells us that if enough people abuse this, it will eventually get to a point where profit on your bids will be almost negligable, and all you would be paying for is to be on the frontpage with the other content that people bidded to get there.

I see this all the time too and it gets me so frustrated...buying votes is advertising plain and simple. Why on earth anyone thinks they should be paid to advertise instead of the other way around boggles my mind!

Yes - when you buy a vote all you're paying for is to get your post on the front page and get it more visibility. That should cost you money. The fact that it often doesn't cost any money shows how small and new the steem platform really is.

There is LOTS of content on steemit that gets nice rewards for its authors without having to pay for it. If you only look at the trending page you don't see that, of course, but it's all over the place. And those authors didn't just show up and start earning rewards out of the blue - they worked hard and built their following to get there.

Also it's important to be realistic about what "good" rewards are. If everyone looks at the promoted posts on trending and expects to get hundreds of dollars per post that's just ridiculous. The ability to get even a few dollars each time you post is really amazing in my opinion, and if STEEM does well then that amount will keep going up!

I think the system is actually working pretty nicely, it's just that the trending page doesn't show that and that's all anyone seems to care about here. My feed shows it pretty well however.

This is how I see things:

Anyone can come on to Steem with zero followers and grow a large following and brand for themselves with an extremely low amount of investment. You write some quality posts - they must be relevant and interesting to the current audience here, just like anywhere else - and then you can get nearly FREE advertising for your brand!

By paying to promote your posts you gain followers. Then all of your future posts show on their feed, meaning you get visibility without having to do more advertising.

I've explained this to some people who are new to Steem and they don't believe me because it sounds too good to be true - but it's really how things are right now. It won't stay like that forever - as the platform grows advertising will become more expensive and getting followers will be more difficult as there's more content to compete for people's attention.

I think it's crazy that people complain about how hard it is to be successful here, and I think it's really all a case of unreasonable expectations. I agree the trending page doesn't help properly set expectations, but that's a much easier problem to solve, and other than that I think the system is generally working pretty well providing a mix of promoted and non-promoted posts outside of the trending page.