I can't answer all your questions @blewitt, but I know @paulag has free accounts she gives away if you have one person you are recruiting. My person got setup in minutes this way. There are a few others who give away accounts too, but I do not remember who.

Second, a lot of the problem for your friends is that you are introducing them through steemit - the worst possible dApp on the whole blockchain. I would start them on steempeak for admin, wallets and search. And use esteem dtube, partiko, actifit or any of a number of good places to start posting here. All of those places have a good chance of upvotes for new blogs too. This way the place is less discouraging in the beginning.

Showing them steemit is a deal killer for sure. I stopped using it a year ago and recommend it to no one.