good point on STEEM! I think that's the beauty of it, you have options:
1. If you're persistent poster and content creator you get your income from upvotes.
2. If you're just a intense reader you can upvote and commenting other great content and get your income.
Or you combine both and in any case ..
3. you'll invest in a long term opportunity of the growing platform.
In terms of the stock market it's like a Dividend-Growth-Strategy for example where you invest maybe 25% in REIT's with highest dividend and very slow growth, 35% in stalwarts (see categories of Peter Lynch) with high dividends and 10% growth and 40% in fast growing companies 50-100% per year which eventually pay dividends in the long term. Think of growth also like a dividend which is reinvested in the company to accelerate the growth and to avoid taxes and so also the long term outcome for investors. Like Dan Larimer explained in a vlog by @dollarvigilante that 95% of income are reinvested in STEEM Power and that's definitately for the long term success of the poster and the platform because the funds are growing and you can powerup your payouts!
Until now i understand the basic principle of the platform but not any option you have in depth, there are so many to build your own strategy!
picture by onetin84