Be Who You Are
I'm learning this quickly. I'm a glass half full person but I also have a healthy dose of skepticism. I enjoy responding to posts more than writing posts. I'm a true believer in Steemit and that I will find my audience yet I don't believe my audience is going to be the current what is making $1k plus on Steemit. I've had posts that have made next to nothing that I know had some monetary value and that's okay. They and future posts will work out soon.
Fluff Is Not The Only Path To Building An Audience
A lot of the content here is fluff. There is nothing wrong with that. There is a large portion of the masses that will follow the crowd and go for the fluff. What do I consider Fluff? Steemit pump posts, feel good human interest stories, girls in bikini traveling across the world stories, etc. I believe there is a niche for non-traditional content, humor, news, commentary and thought. As membership grows demand for niche content will also. If niche content is your passion stick to your guns and keep turning out that content and your audience will come.
Insightful and Humorous Commentary
There seems to be a dearth of good comments on a lot of posts popular or not. I have profited more on my comments than my posts. The competition for quality comments is quite low on many posts. There is typically a sea of "Nice post", "I agree with that", etc. Adding insightful thoughts to posts offers a valuable contribution to the Steemit platform. I'm not afraid to give my opinion whether it agrees with the OP or not. Often times I give one liners that are humorous accompanied by a photo. Some of my comments go unnoticed but some have made several dollars.
Only You Can Create You Own Success
The only way to succeed on this platform is to put forth an effort and just do it. There are tips and tricks about when to post, format your post, how to comment, curate, etc. Perhaps all valid and some more valid than others but I can almost guarantee that if you are not having fun and posting, voting and curating content that you find enjoyable you will not succeed.