i read the post by @whatup and i hope they resolve the issue. I noticed something similiar when I followed @wafrica yesterday, only to check later to see that I wasn't following.

As regards low price and inactivity on steemit, I believe it's a resulting effect of the reward system on the platform. Like the price mechanism in demand and supply, suppliers tend to increase their output when prices are high and reduce it when prices drop, leaving few producers in the market to cater for the huge demand. This would later lead to an equilibrium where price matches output. However, on steemit, the producers are also the consumers, thus, when the authors (producers) are not available to supply content there is few people available to consume them.
So what will lead to increase in price of steem? From the little I know about stock market, this would be basically be information available about investment, technology, etc

As a small account holder this period of drought is an opportunity for me to create a niche for myself by filling the gaps left by more popular authors who aren't around at this moment. So low price, like I said in @whatsup 's post, favours small account holders, who are mostly from third world countries and don't mind the little payout because it is of much value to them than those in first world countries.