Hmm, interesting the way you promoted steem-bounty here. Kind of makes me want to do a tag search, just to find current posts with an open bounty. I have been trying to think of ways to sort of "sell" my comments to people who want them on their posts. Steem-bounty does a good enough job of advertising to everyone which people are willing to pay good money for comments, and makes you compete for it.

What magic technique do I use?

Charm. Authentic. Honest. Relevant. Question. Clincher.

I try to use a combination of these personality traits in all of my posts. As long as I communicate clearly, with minimal typing and grammar errors, I don't have to worry about being poor quality. Write about any topic, and people are sure to be interested in reading it.

People appreciate reading text much more if it has a narrative style, from a person with a real voice and personality. Anytime I can sneak in a personal story into whatever I am sharing, the better.

Charm is easy. Never talk like a sales-person, commercial, or a boring instructor who gives the same lesson every time just like every other teacher who teaches the same lesson. Be slightly weird, hyper, strange, nerdy, narcissistic, or any not-normal personality to slightly enhance your writing persona. This will heighten your personality to a less serious tone, which makes it easier to add your own sense of humor too.

Always include a question, or ask for help, because it connects people together. Everyone wants to have a purpose and feel generous that they can help. So I like to make that offering every time.

A little bit of kindness and courtesy goes a long way, by briefly acknowledging gratefulness to everyone who has volunteered to view, comment, or upvote. Don't be repetitive and use the same words every time. Be genuine, and express your thanks in a regular flow based on how you actually feel in the current moment.

The only thing I never ask for in my posts is for people to upvote and resteem me, because people generally won't do that unless they want to, not because I ask for it. Some people even refuse to upvote anyone who they feel is begging for upvotes, because it is a big turn-off to them.

A clincher is a nice bonus to make your post leave a memorable impression. One last Hail Mary to earn an upvote! It can be an emotional photo, a quote, a joke, or a life lesson learned from the post. Anything positive to contribute to leaving the reader better off than they were before makes a good clincher at the end of the post. Be original and mix it up every post, so that the followers will continue to appreciate following your posts.

I don't have any tricks for promoting my posts to get more followers directly. I gave up on bots and I never give permission for voting services to autovote for me. Sometimes I write posts with certain lucky tags, and it attracts a lot of upvotes because related communities enjoy getting new posts from new writers. Some people like to find out which posts are getting big upvotes from @Curie, and focus on writing related posts that use the same tags as those posts. I don't do this, but I try to post about a variety of subjects each time, to try out a few new tags each time, and continue using one or two tags I think are popular. Just make sure your content is actually related to the tags you choose, otherwise people might get angry and flag you.

Okay, can you see I love giving advice and being helpful? Viewers don't have to take my advice, but it's there if they want it.

Thanks for sharing this steem-bounty @simplymike. That is very generous!