Education will help. I have a feeling that very few people actually understand how curation works in detail. And then there are a number who have studied every nuance and are masters at making the system work for them. And then there are those that hate the whole idea and have worked out how it works and are actively spending money to shut the bots down.
For my part I have taken a simple approach. I set out a fixed amount for each post to bid or buy upvotes enough time after posting to know my own followers have voted. I do enough to get to trending page BUT I cannot say that this has built me any more of a following - I have done some measurements.
My view is what I spend each day returns me more than I can get by any other form of daily investing - small beer but positive returns.
Hey @carrinm, are those the culprits who are murdering the profits? I dunno. It's certainly been an education trying to find out the motivation which drives them, if any. I have a similar view to you with regard getting a return on my investment. And with any investments I make there are different time frames for the growth or fruition period. I think as I get older, it's a lot easier to see long term goals blossoming, such as hodling Bitcoin with all it's free dividends (thanks @bitcoinmeister) and the potential for Steem is also very exciting! Thanks for sharing and adding to my ever expanding knowledge of this fascinating subject.
All the best to you,
Phi23