By default, earning anything here is more then I was earning before, really I'm just happy that I'm have enough RC that I can actually comment and upvote without worrying about not being able to post up articles. The RC thing took a while to get use too.
And I appreciate it, so far moving my content here to Steemit is seeming to be a good choice overall, so I'll likely be around for some time to come. :p
That understanding is what's going to let you get pretty far on here; as long as the account is growing, it's worth it.