That sadly, is exactly my point. I write because I enjoy writing. I don't enjoy the strategic side of things where you have to buddy up to certain people and groups. I don't want to feel pressured to join groups in fear of being blackballed; I just want to write and read good content, and reward content I enjoyed reading.
If it is now a huge aspect of doing a range of things to get noticed, then I'd rather focus my time doing that with my books than my blog. I want this to be fun, not a full time job. I've seen people who focus all their lives on their blog and that's not the life I want to live. All I'm saying is the money isn't there for me anymore. Maybe it's there for others for reasons I haven't figured out yet, but it's not there for me. That was my point here, not to slag off Steemit, but to say how much it has changed, and unfortunately for my specific example it has changed for the worse...