Look at it as a challenge. It certainly isn’t easy to get to the top, even by paid means unless you have a bottomless source of funds.
On the other hand, it will force you to discover new methods of marketing, or tapping into existing sources – and hopefully in the long run it will separate the wheat from the chaff.
There are many – almost too many – English-language portals out there, which make it competitive to begin with, even though most of them rely on a unique source of traffic like friends and family and word-of-mouth. It’s not like I’ve been able to compete on the upper scale with the big spenders anyhow, so I’ve worked on finding other ways to land players.
I would suggest everyone else consider that – if we each tap into our own unique resources to attract more clientele, the industry in general will benefit, thus assuring us a longer run. If we are all fighting over the same pile of players, however, it won’t be long before most of us have departed for greener pastures.