I decided long ago to produce good content that I can be proud of. If I get noticed, trend or make pennies on a post are irrelevant to me. It is hard to hold that perspective when you spend hours creating a post that generates less than a dollar. But steemit is a popularity contest. Whales, gaming the system and networking all can make a difference. I prefer to just interact with a few groups on discord and hope to get noticed sometimes. Steemit will never make me rich. But it gives me an outlet where I get paid for my content. Fair enough.