Should I Power down and cash out

Well I have spent a lot of time on steem just to end up getting no where. With almost 800 followers I still find it difficult to make over 5 or 6 cents per post. I have tried many different angles to no avail. Nevertheless, here I sit with almost $500 USD in my account - well at least the equivalent. It is obvious the I am in-capable of making money through blogging - yes I admit a lot of the posts I write are not the second coming of Shakespeare, however, I do spend a fair amount of time writing some of them.

With this being said, with steem at an all time high, should I take what little I have while I am still ahead, or should I continue to write and converse with other users? I am running out of ideas and even if I did have some solid ones to write about, I am still confused on the methodologies of steem. It seems to be very cliquey. You have your group of followers, they vote your posts and then you do the same in return. This leads me to think that content has nothing to do with making money on steem. Sadly in retrospect it seems like the content made on is here pointless and for the most part is never read.

In summation, maybe someone could enlighten me. Is there actually a chance in hell for someone to make money on here by simply creating content, or is steem simply a Ponzi scheme? If I am working towards a unachievable goal, it would be nice to know beforehand, before I waste anymore time.