Hello everyone! The answer to this question is simple for me. Name another investment that returns 30 percent in a year doing mainly passive work. This percentage is from curation rewards and interest. It does not account for author rewards, and Steem made through trading bots. In this post, I will discuss how we are experiencing an unprecedented time in regards to both curation rewards and author rewards.

Curation Rewards on Steem

For the last 4 years, my father and I have been running a curation bot. We have not seen numbers as high as they are right now. At the current rates, our stake is increasing by 30 percent in a year simply through curation and inflation interest. Our bot is not actually programmed to seek the maximum potential rewards. It actually seeks out content for its quality (by analyzing aspects such as spelling, topic, word count, etc. . .)

We have been tracking our curation data since the beginning. Here is the graph of our 4 accounts' curation rewards as time progresses:

As you can see, we are increasing in all fronts in regards to curation rewards. Specifically within the last few months, we have seen our totals double. Here is some data to back that up:

On March 20th, my curation bot @cub1 brought in 13.598 Steem
On June 18th, @cub1 brought in 28.426 Steem

In March, @cub1 was bringing in 50 Steem in a week.
Now, @cub1 is bringing in close to 170 Steem in a week, and is projected (by @steemchiller's Steem World Tool) to bring in over 220 Steem in the coming week!

We are seeing many all time highs in regards to curation rewards, and have been for the last few months! Right now, Steem is a paradise for curation!

Author Rewards on Steem

Since the beginning, I have specifically focused on trying to bring in stake as an author. Over the years, I have made several attempts at forming series that would bring in votes, and receive higher payouts on average.

Some of these series included my Weekly 7 series, Art of War Review, Composer Birthday Series, Commentaries on the Confucian Analects, and my Christmas with the Master Composers series.

What all of these series all had in common is that each article took hours to write, and many of them did not receive substantial upvotes.

Now, Steem is currently seeing an uptick in regards to opportunities for authors to earn rewards. This is largely due to the challenges (and diary game) run by the Steemit Team. For reference, through my participation in these series (and the diary game), I am almost earning in a week the same amount of money that all of my Art of War review made in total over several months of intensive writing.

Conclusion

I would like to say that this upward trend is not solely something I am experiencing. A lot of curators are seeing an increase in their curation rewards, and a lot of authors are now finding it easier to earn some substantial payouts. In all, Steem is a worthwhile investment, and an incredible initiative!