Hello everyone, we all know that certain popular users routinely get their material voted up by whales, and it often seems like other good content goes unnoticed, and while this is true, I'd like to show you that the system, in fact, does reward you for voting on a "hidden gem".
The numbers I'm about to show apply to me. Curation awards depend on how much Steem power you wield.
When I vote on a typical popular user (we all know who they are), I usually have to vote at around the 15 minute mark at the latest, sometimes as early as 12 or 10 to front run the whale votes. You'll remember that the earlier you vote, the less curation award you get and the more of it is given to the poster.
My curation award for popular content is usually between 0.2 SP to 1 SP, for an average of about 0.5 SP. It's nice and reliable income.
A hidden gem, on the other hand, it is safer to vote later, between 20 and 30 minutes or even later if you can spot it. Voting later on a post can give you a much better award. If this post gets picked up by whales afterwards, I can make between 1 SP to as high as 15 SP! (15 is my all time best so far). I'll say the average is probably about 4 SP for these.
A good example of this is 
Curation reward of 5.040 STEEM POWER for vlad/desserts-to-die-for-delicious-jelly-watermelon-grapefruit-orange-all-topped-with-a-smidgen-of-grated-coconut
Not bad at all, so to me clicking on
Of course, it's a risk to vote on a hidden gem, often they don't make it, and then your curation award is tiny, but if you can get good at picking hidden gems, you'll do much better than just voting on the popular stuff!
So, do take a chance on these hidden gems, it can be well worth it.