RE: Quality Content Takes Time and Effort!
It seems that many of the top paid authors on Steemit are publishing about 4-6 times a day. I have also noticed that a Minnow can publish top quality content that took many hours to produce and still only get a few upvotes.
I believe that quality and rewards are not always in perfect correlation here on Steemit. Unfortunately.
If I were to give advise to a new Steemit user who wanted above all else to gain followers then I would advise him to publish regularly. A "good enough" quality above "top quality" in order to increase his/her efficiency.
Personally I have been spending a ton of time creating my posts and will probably continue to do that (just a personal preference), but I am not sure it is the optimal strategy if you want to get noticed here on Steemit
Yes. I've noticed that too-- many publish multiple posts a day, and by that measure, it's unlikely I will ever become a "top tier" author here; I just don't have the time to give it. But I also remind myself that this is their full-time "thing." Whether or not Steemit is the only thing they do, they still make their living from "web publishing--" blogs, YouTube, Steemit whatever.
There are so many newcomers these days it gets harder and harder to get "seen." And yes, you can create a superb piece of work... and still end up with only 7 upvotes. Which is why I recommend to minnows to spend most of their efforts on becoming very active curators.... but be picky-- get your name in the comment section of as much quality content as you can manage, and meake meaningful comments there; that's how I got started.