I am hopeful that curation groups/trails will help rebalance the equation a little as it is very hard to go at it alone here. I know I'd be getting under a dollar per post if it wasn't for TeamAustralia and Steemstem :( I don't think he should feel bad about collecting from Team Australia.
I definitely find it annoying hearing the stories of people saying if you just keep plugging away you will succeed. Some basic math will tell you if you are earning a couple STEEM per week, it's going to take a while to build reputation and SP, and that is assuming you never cash out! Incredibly, I see people earning a couple of cent's per post plugging away for months.
Maybe there is a tipping point at which SP gets you noticeably more influence, but I haven't found it at 800 SP, not sure how much higher !
Getting love from SteemStem is a brick tick in the box all by its self. I want to write some more Stem related posts to try and get some love from that direction. I keep getting distracted by this philosophical stuff though :)
The comments have really brought home how valuable TA is. Lots of people have mentioned how they see accounts that don’t have that kind of support really struggle!