This demonstrates that the whales have worked out the current Steemit model is flawed. I'm sure there are people who have signed up, written some pretty good content and earned like 7 cents and given up

The vote rewards per article aren't paid out for a minimum period of 24 hours. Once this time elapses you will have the pending payouts transferred into your account.

Thanks. Apologies all for the messy formatting. First post so I am sure I will improve!

Yes the system resets every 24 hours and the post can earn $ again. If a large vote(s) is received just prior to the payout time expiring then it will extend the payout expiry period based on a formula