It's an interesting stuff bro. Let me put that straight: If you want to _get money out of your Steem_, only 2 ways:
- Trade
- Invest on Steemit

How to invest on Steemit:
- Write good content? Kid me not, you wont get any close result to the effort you spent now, as Steemit content is flooded with ICO, chains and lots of non-sense stuff like photo posts.
- Use Smartsteem: You can earn with Smartsteem, with 10% profit for total amount spent. It's a 10% weekly profit, and if you combined with powerdown, you will have weekly 10% ROI consistently. Try this way.

If you want to earn money, dont go against the whales, go with them. I learned it a hard way in other financial markets.

I suppose the intrinsic expectation was not satisfied by the false promises that steemit boasted. I understand your frustration...it has taken me a year to finally start making anything from my  instructional videos and blogs, but persistence will win out. Try not to expect too much and then you will not be disappointed.