Are you a minnow?
Have you heard about Qurator?
From the above name, I believe you should be able to deduce what it's all about...
Qurator is a community that gives support to minnows, they help them grow real good on the platform. Not just any minnow though, I mean serious, dedicated and hardworking minnows.
A kind of minnow that will post a quality content and still end up getting 0.13 after getting 116 upvotes from other fellow minnows, a minnow that will never plagiarize for the integrity of his account, a minnow that does not mind posting on a daily/regular basis after getting no reward for past posts, a minnow who have learnt to use the markdown/html skill properly that he apply it to his post, and also how to reference images properly to structure a very good post and make it well sitted... This kind of minnow is the minnow Qurator seems to be looking for.
If you fall in this category, then I guess there's something you may need to do that you've not done.
Taking a Stair step ahead others
How can you take a step ahead of other minnows on Steemit?
[Image Source: pixabay. Public domain licensed]
It's very easy, the opportunity is right on your nose and you seem not to notice. All you have to do is engage Qurator and simply become a qurite for your daily Curation.
How?
Simply send 4 Steem to
and put your "steem user name" in the memo before sending, and if you were reffered by someone, type in your name and still type "I was reffered by 'refferer's Steem username' in the memo before coicking on send" your account will definitely be reviewed and if you're qualified to be a qurite, your account will be approved and 000.1 will be sent to you to pass the message down to you, and if you're not qualified your 4steem will be forwarded back to you ontouched....
Another thing is to make sure you join the discord group before anything, you can join Here. The reason why I advice you to join is to enable you ask questions in the group in case you're stuck somewhere or something and you can as well chat any admin, they are all very nice and always willing to help.... Trust me.
There are so many benefits you can still get from being a qurite, you can delegate to become a tier member, there are stages for that though but I'm sure you will like it and be interested when you discover the incentive behind it, you can also refer people and get a 1$ upvote if they get approved, you can write a post for Qurator if you feel you're a good writer, so many benefits that can be gotten if you play by the rules...
I won't stop typing if I want to continue listing the benefits and rules..., The rules are not the hard type, because I know some of us may be like "oh... RULES, not again, there are too many rules I'm not in for this" NO!, the rules are little, precised and less complicated, to be sure about how things really work, kindly check out this post and see for yourself.
Become a Qurite
Now I'm inviting you if you know you're a dedicated steemian with quality content and little support, this is a privilege to build your account and make it get more views...
Now send your 4steem to @Qurator, and use put your Steemit name in the memo and also state that you were invited by 
My account also got approved some days ago...
The screenshot I took (Proof of acceptance)
If your account get denied, it does not mean you cannot try again, I've also tried some time ago and I wasn't approved, and I worked harder, learnt better and improved and then gave a try again and finally I got approved... So if you get declined, wait for at least 2weeks or better still after you've posted minimum of ten posts, I mean good posts....
Essence of a quality post
Making a post that cost you days or hours to finish is not a waste regardless of the time invested, someone somewhere is observing you, aside @qurator, there are other Whales out there willing to support upcoming minnows, they check for good posts and upvote randomly, if your post is being observed by a whale doesn't mean you have to get his upvote.
You can suddenly be put on autoupvote for months, you can be delegated to, you can be recruited and be given a tittle in a community that will eventually pay well, you can be assigned as a moderator in a community based on what you write about and you can be summoned to write and get payment for every post you write.
There are so many benefits/opportunities you can gain/get from posting a quality content, if you have the ability - talent to write, why don't you utilize it and make it count, do not just post poems and Poetries because you think you will probably not get support from anyone, besides you can do better... I have friends that can write well, infact they are bloggers on other platform, when I ask why they don't post good and quality content on Steemit too, they say it's not paying well, that they don't get support, gibberish talk, jargons, this are very good writers that can write more than a thousand words in less than an hour but little do they know that Steemit is a great platform in which you need to relate and be patient to grow wide...
The reward of today is not from the effort you make today, the effort and struggles of today will definitely be rewarded to you some other day.
That's it, if you're rewarded today for what you've done it won't look special to you, but when you get it some other time you'll be the happiest person you can be.
For example, my boss is a media consultant RADIOXITY MEDIA, I thought her most if the things she knows about Steemit, she's also a very good researcher, but the fact that I put her through most of the time still stands, she does majorly dtube because she's more of a video person and she posts articles on Steemit once in a while, when she started she posts five times in a day, all quality content, either video/motivational post, recently she was put in auto upvote by 
So the amount of work you put into Steemit also matters, she does it because of the passion for it not because of the money, so let's work on our contents too, it's not always about the reward.
More rewards come out of doing things because of interest/passion.
Steemit is one of the best place to be as a blogger and an investor write that down in your jotter and write today's date, yes I said it.