I know this dude is wrong. I don't just think it.

Getting noticed is hard, everywhere. In life, online; it's not easy.

Our votes pay people. The money comes from a reward pool. The more Steem Power(SP) someone has in their account, the more value they can add to a post or comment.

People with entitlement issues complained about the lack of rewards on their posts. They wanted participation awards instead of putting in the work and time it takes to build a valuable following. I say valuable following because 1000 followers with low SP cannot pay you as much with their votes as 1000 followers with a higher level of SP. Not every follower will vote so keep that in mind.

Some people came along and started a rumor, basically. They said, "It's hard to get noticed on Steemit." Of course, those who were not getting noticed agreed with that. They thought it was Steemit's fault and not their own. Remember, getting noticed is hard, everywhere. That's life.

Those people who started the rumor also had a solution, but it cost money.

Just picture a small town from long ago. A snake oil salesman would show up, get everyone's attention, create a problem, get the people rattled, then offer a solution for a fee and the people would buy it. The next day the snake oil salesman skips town. In many ways, that's what happened to Steemit. People buy votes. That was the so-called solution to the so-called problem of not being able to get noticed.

Posts with high rewards beside them can reach the trending page. People buy votes, that makes the system here THINK the post is good because of the high value. That's the flaw in the design of the platform that I had mentioned.

New members, like you, see this high value and assume the post is being rewarded because it is popular. This is how they purchase their so called visibility. They basically trick people. Many new members(minnows) follow these bloggers and comment on these posts. What these people who buy excessive amounts of votes are actually purchasing is a low value following. If they gain 1000 followers this way, then stopped purchasing votes; even if all 1000 minnows voted for their posts, they might only see about $10-50, if that.

You can look around and see many posts with $20-$50 beside them. There's a good chance those rewards were purchased as well. That's not profit for the blogger. What's happening now is people purchase these votes, they think they'll get visibility, but really they just end up blending in with all of the other posts that have that much value beside them. They're not getting the visibility they're paying for, at all. They're paying to "promote" their posts but it doesn't have any effect. Sometimes they'll get a few free votes, they'll earn, but if they don't, they end up losing money even though the post says it's worth $50. That $50 might as well just be the new $0, because that's what it's worth. The ones selling the votes make the money. $1000's per day selling a service that doesn't work.

While all of these minnows are distracted by these false rewards and fake heroes like @yallapapi, they end up wasting their votes because they think they're helping a popular blogger. These people want visibility but they're not looking at each other, which would be free and beneficial to one another. To put it bluntly, they're trying to suck up to someone they think has a valuable vote with the hopes these fake heroes will in turn vote for them someday. If @yallapapi voted for you right now, the maximum amount he can allocate to your post or comment is 5 cents. My max vote would give you about $2.25 and maybe a little more or less.

Proof of minnows getting sucked in to voting for @yallapapi's posts and the value of his vote can be found here:

https://www.steemnow.com/@yallapapi

Just click on a few names and you'll see low reputation and low Steem Power(SP)

You want advice?

I don't really know what to tell you anymore. I'm out of character right now. I'm a writer/artist/entertainer and a few other things. What worked for me was; working hard, being patient, slowly building up a valuable following. You can look at my blog, scroll all the way down through hundreds of posts, see the quality and effort along with steady improvement. You can see how I treat people with respect, because I feel they are important and deserve it. I do not treat them like a statistic. I take pride in what I do and embrace the community to the best of my abilities. I don't often come here to blog posts and lose my shit with people but this guy does not know what he's doing and he's attempting to take people down with him.

You need to get out and mingle. Get to know people. Support each other. Build roads together. Be patient, don't expect to get rich overnight. Enjoy yourself. Don't just write about things and offer information. People don't follow information, they follow people; so try to add your personality to everything you do. Some people will like you, many more will not. That's life so don't take it personally.

I don't know what else to tell you. I don't purchase votes. I work for mine. All that money beside my posts goes to me(except for about 25% which goes to those who voted). I'm consistent and that helps too. You can't just expect people to see you though. You have to stand out. If you look at my blog, you can see how I stand out. That still doesn't mean I'll make it to this glorious trending page though. I can do my best, work hard, and all it takes is one asshole with a shit post and poor attitude to buy votes and hog the spotlight. I'll sit there with 200-300 views on a good day. I'll look around and see a post with $50 worth of paid for votes and it only has 5 fucking views... So basically, many of us veterans here see no reason to help these people. That's life.