Yes writing for money does get you discouraged. But at the same time it is disheartening to see someone copy and paste a news article with 5 sentences do better than a piece you spent a day on. It's not that you are writing just for money, but there should be an easier way to find users content that really try https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemrollin/a-great-reputation-system-that-s-what-we-need makes a wonderful suggestion. A minnow with 5 stars or whatever system based on comments and posts should be able to be more visible than someone posting random nonsense