I think the trick is to to tell people they can do on Steem what they're already doing on main stream platforms - play games, write, network, vlog, meet new friends etc. Make that the primary objective. Anything they earn on Steem blockchain is a nice bonus. That's how I started on Steemit when I was already blogging on WP. To date I'm still resisting from falling in love with what I've earned here, so if everything bellies up one day I won't be heart broken.