And that needs to be our "sales pitch". Stop telling people to post here to make money. Most people won't. Atleast, not right away.

Thars gold in them thar hills!

There seems to be a gold rush of people coming to make their fortune at Steemit. If they come for money, and don't make any, is anyone really surprised when they retreat back to legacy social networks? After all if they don't get paid, at least they can be seen by their friends on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever they have already built a following.

Instead, write great content here, and link all your old followers to back to it. Once here they discover even more great content, and start adding their own.

Here's the huge thing to remember:

People participate on social network sites for free, because of their established network and content.

and they will come here because you're here, and stay for great content. If they get paid, well that's just gravy.