@cactii, I appreciate your concerns, and I have been/continue to be in the same place you are talking about.

I have devoted a lot of time and effort and at times I feel like I have not making much progress. That is both good and bad. If it were super easy then everyone would run to Steemit and the spam content would increase even more.

My recommendation is to comment a lot of other people's content and then after you have developed more of a following then start creating your original content.

That is what I would do if I could do everything over again. I have seen several accounts that have never posted a single original story, but have followers because of how much they interact with other people through comments. Sorry that I can not remember one of the top of my head.

I did buy Steempower to get a post. I also was blessed with someone recommended one of my pos to be on @curie. That also accelerated by Steemit journey.

Keep pressing on!