I am earning jack shit and I am not a whale. The Steem Power I have have been saved from three years of hard work. Not sure what you should do, but I know that the bidbots have succeeded in creating an extra layer of expense and that those Steem simply vanishes from the system. Neither you nor I earn anything from that.

I'm an artist and always wanted to get away from institutions that with little effort took a very large percentage of my work - art dealers charge 50% because they have prevented the artists from making sales directly (artists are fools if you didn't know).

The promoted feature burns the Steem and that way it gives it back to the community... Sadly it never worked.