Examining the accounts of the people I have followed over the last 14 months, 5 things became immediately apparent.
1 - Many have amassed huge followings yet appear unable to achieve a single decent payout.
2 - Some clearly don't understand the resteeming system, using their accounts to endlessly resteem to a small group of followers. Which would make some sense if they at least had some Steem Power in their wallet.... which they don't.
3 - Many have not added a profile banner yet.
4 - The overall standard of post quality appears to have dropped over the last year.
5 - Many people seem to have given up altogether after not posting or resteeming for a number of months.
Take a look at these three accounts:
Example 1 - 3899 followers - $0.34 on last post - inactive for 3 months
Example 2 - 1734 followers - $0.00 on last post - inactive for 2 months
Example 3 - 1123 followers - $0.00 on last post - inactive for 1 month
These people have a large number of followers who appear completely uninterested in supporting them. I suspect this has happened due to the current minnow trend of exchanging follow for follow, without any real interest in what the other people are posting.
It is possible to see how many of your followers are inactive using THIS SITE
So, high number of followers doesn't equal high payout.
I can only imagine how depressing it must feel to have loads of followers but no upvotes after months of work and this is clearly going to discourage them from continuing with Steemit.
Those who are resteeming endlessly to a small following with no SP simply need educating.
The idea is to collect as many followers & as much Steep Power as you can, upvoting and resteeming the articles which you believe have merit. Only in this manner will you actually earn from curation.
Those who have not added a profile banner
Perhaps they simply don't know how to do this? Or perhaps they are lazy or unsure of what image to choose? My advice is to not over think it and get an image in there immediately. Just hit SETTINGS and insert your url into the correct box. This is a big factor in helping people decide if they want to follow you or not.
The decline in post quality
Again, I think it boils down to getting a better understanding of how to maximise your Steemit experience. Consistently quality posts, examining interesting subjects with lots of pics & information are much more likely to do better than a single image or Youtube link with a few words under it.
Those who have stopped posting altogether
Well...these people are most like feeling quite discouraged about their experience with Steemit and will clearly not be encouraging their friends to sign up.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
User retention will continue to decline if something is not done about this and the solution is simpler than you might think.
Just last week 
WE ALL NEED ENCOURAGEMENT & GUIDANCE!
So, wouldn't it make sense if we had a bot which recognises the above factors and sends out a wallet message with some words of encouragement and advice regarding their specific situation?
For example, if someone has under a certain amount of SP & followers and they are using their account to endlessly resteem without ever posting, the bot could politely clarify the situation for them.
And if someone has amassed thousands of followers, posting hundreds of times without seeing more than $0.50 on a single post, again the bot message could congratulate them for their efforts and guide them towards a help page where they can learn what it is they are doing wrong.
Those who have not yet added profile banners could be gently reminded of the advantages of doing so.
It is my belief that with bots like this in place user retention will increase and many more people will find themselves moving quickly up the ranks with ever increasing payouts.
Ultimately leading to the growth of Steemit as a whole.
Perhaps someone out there knows the right dev who might be up for this challenge?
Let us work together now to help this huge number of people who appear lost and somewhat alone on this platform.
Who is 
?
?He was a London based filmmaker until he sold everything and set out on a barefoot journey around the world.
Currently based in Bali he travels with his partner & two children. With no bank account he has been living on STEEM & crypto for over six months.
All content created for this account is 100% original (unless otherwise stated), produced by who invites you to use & share freely as you wish.
is the creator of:
Contact me directly on steemit.chat if you want to know more about this
The dailyquotes tag initiative designed to encourage steemians to share their most life changing quotes with the community on a daily basis.
The Aspiring Steemit Whales & Dolphins group on Facebook which seeks to help newcomers make the transition from Facebook to Steemit, providing them with detailed notes and personal assistance with their posts... resteeming them when he can.
I receive the equivalent of $5 a day using Genesis Mining
This was after investing around $500 (from STEEM payouts) into 2 year contracts, mining Dash, Ether & Litecoin
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