Told you it would be a good idea to join open mic @moderndayjester. In regards to what you were asking about the votes, lots of people put % votes on a post, so even if there 100% vote is worth $2 they may only put 10% $0.20 vote on your post. This is because the more steem power you get, generally the more time you have been on the platform. If you imagine someone who has been on here a year, networking, making friends etc. They have a lot of people they want to vote on. Roughly 15-20, 100% votes is the max you could do a day without destroying you're steem power. So, if someone has 20 friends they vote on pretty much daily and they like to go out and reward new people/posts they like then they have to start using the % slider (which you get after your steem power goes above 500)to reward each person less but spread the love out more if you get me.

In the case of a competition like open mic the account vote will often remain a low percentage vote, as they have to reward 100's of people. I hope this helps mate. I stopped focusing on post rewards about a month in to steemit and as soon as I did that, things started to improve lol. It's like that old adage about 'a stopped clock only telling the right time twice a day' ;-)