Thank you for this, @bartcardi! It is important that people follow these rules in order to make this platform better than it already is! Personally, I was kinda confused as to why the payouts of my post were fluctuating, so I did some research and found out that the price is essentially tied to the price of STEEM itself!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@stevensteel/how-the-price-of-steem-affects-your-article-payouts