Please let me 1st caveat this post by emphatically stating that it is no way at all designed to denigrate the tireless and creative efforts of all fellow Steemians, (large and small), who strive to improve, inform and develop the Steem community.

The “problem” as I see it from the perspective of a “Minnow” with very limited exposure, knowledge of the system and capability regarding the “tricks” to increase returns and post visibility, is that your actual CONTENT is absolutely no guarantee or ticket to receiving upvotes, resteems or even positive engagement.

This is something that laughs in the face of Quality VS Quantity and dedication to offering thoughtful and, (hopefully), poignant content with substance for the rest of the community to enjoy, comment on and critique.

I may have only recently learned a bit about upvoting and ‘curation’ thanks to the advice of other helpful and kind Steemians - however, I have been posting a wide variety of content from poetry to geo-political analysis with original photography and philosophy albeit on and off for around 24 months...

Let me be clear: I am NOT complaining. However, I do feel entitled and sufficiently motivated to observe that posts with bonuses, obscure cryptocurrency predictions and repetitive content achieve high and rapid recognition day after day. By stark comparison: have a quick look 👀 at my past and present content and you will immediately note that I have generated about as much interest and feedback (no matter what I post) as a Facebook post or a Tweet about lunch 🥗 or dinner 🥘 i.e. zero/nada/null points... 😲

This is a tad disheartening and I wonder exactly what I’m doing wrong (Tags? Title? Unknown author? Etc.) - please let me know if you see something that my Minnow vision is blind to. Comments gratefully received!

Entering contests and competitions, varying the topics and tone, using imagery and photos, trying different tags and titles - nothing seems to have any effect and help to generate any interest or ‘hot’ / ‘trend’ status at all.