@cathou009 I believe that this will change as Steemit evolves... We are still in beta at the moment. Once we have an update that indexes content properly, it will become a far more level playing field.
Where many users are making a mistake is, they are not networking on steem.chat, or commenting/contributing on other users work. Everyone needs to get themselves out there before they'll get noticed... To expect that they'll be noticed by just posting, with no followers is a fallacy