I've never been able to break the $1000 mark but my highest paid article landed on $986 or something like that, so it was pretty close!
That was last year, my first of second month on Steemit. - It took me 10 months to reach another $100 post shortly after that one and since then, I have an average of ~$5 or so if I use upvote bots like randowhale etc. I've obviously been more lucky and reached $15, $20 and $30+ too a couple of times, but I'd say that the average rewards is around $5. Perhaps $7.
I remember the makeup tutorial. I thought it was insane and I still believe it's crazy to upvote something that much... But it also brought tons of people to Steemit.
The sad part is, that Steemit still gets new users joining because of all the "earn money" advertising and I think that's a double-edged sword which brings people to Steemit for the wrong reasons.
Good comment and thanks for chiming in. I also had one post over $1,000 but only because I was on Steemit in the very early days. You are are correct about motives and I think that money need to be a secondary thought in order to be happy and succeed here.
To be rewarded is amazing, fantastic and wonderful in all means. It can even change a persons life entirely, in one way or another. We've seen it happen multiple times.
However, one cannot bring people to Steemit for the money. You can't advertise Steemit and tell people that they will earn tons of money or show screenshots of highly rewarded articles from the past and things like that. That makes the entire advertising campaign false in some sense. - Perhaps not false but at least incorrect.
It is a possibility but there's no truth at all behind claiming people to become rich and wealthy if they publish content on Steemit.. And I've seen such false statements on many places.
This is what brings the so-called "takers" to Steemit and we want givers.