I also had great expectations for Steemit and the potential to earn at least a little and pursue a writing lifestyle.

My most successful unpromoted post was earned $127 and it was based on your idea of using other Steemian comments for writing future stories. The idea was to do it soon enough in order to help promote the commentator before the 7 day window closed. That post was probably at the peak Steem price.
https://steemit.com/life/@sighmanjestah/hey-that-reminds-me-of-a-story-2-save-the-bees-or-the-tales-of-an-amateur-bee-keeper-1

In order to be successful on Steem maybe we should focus on being in the idea business (comments) and not in the money business (upvotes).

Your comment above was reflected in my signature for my longer posts;
Steemit,
do it for the love,
the reward will follow,
it just might not be mon€£¥$.

Thanks for this insightful post and all your support.

SDG