Great post @sarahewaring To me I see steemit as a long term investment and as just a way to socialize with the people in my niche. If you're going from scratch it's going to take time to develop and gain a decent following but with time and patience it will happen. Some posts are bound to perfom better than others. Just give it time. Thanks for the post!
I've been here 8 months and post up to 25 times a week most weeks. I'm giving it dedication and time and have built a good reputation thats paid for 3 holidays. I do believe it can work, just takes time if you do not invest and there is a big divide in who's post trend more.