Don't beat yourself over it & keep your eyes on the prize. Remember, Steemit is fairly new. Just like any new concepts/platforms/projects/technologies, it's wild west and anyone that makes it through the growing pains, will succeed. Eventually the good get better & the garbage gets filtered out.

In the early .com days, anyone that had a website or email address was "Tech Savvy...", soon every 2nd person went into computer science & networking & graphic design, etc... to become the next BillGates. Before you knew it, anyone that opened Photoshop or knew html was a Programmer or Graphic/Web designer and since NO ONE understood tech-jargon, they got away with it for a little while... eventually companies/people got educated, technologies improved and most of the so-called programmers/designers disappeared and the good ones advanced and secured their piece of the pie. This platform is no different. Steemians will figure out the good publishers and the spammy ones.

It may seem frustrating & hopeless now, but look at google, facebook, twitter.. (as much as I hate using them as examples, but I give credit where credit is due)

Keep doing what you're doing and you'll see, IF you don't gain anything from here, you will gain from the experience while expanding your network of QUALITY followers... 2 birds 1 stone ;)

Best of Luck!