I've been here just a bit longer than you (May 2016) and it was definitely easier to be seen/heard and everyone was able to read everything. At least you got to pay some bills with your steem. I'm not sure how to advise breaking through again because it is awfully time-consuming. So you'll do what y ou do, but my feeling is, if you are going to be online in a public way at all, might as well do it here on steemit (or elsewhere with a link directing to the steemit blog) to get something out of it. GOod luck.