Spot on. However I never got the sense that it was a misconception that Promotion was profitable. I can see that it can be for anyone starting out.

I use promotion a lot, but i'm very selective with my posts. I recommend only posting top-tier content. I'm often baffled at some of the content that others want to post, however this is about gaining more followers, and you never know what might strike a cord with someone else.

I also believe you should target the first 2 pages (if possible).

Heres a tip: the promotion goes away when the post does. you can figure out when other posts will disappear and what your ranking on the page will likely be from other people's expiration dates. While you don't know what other posts will be, you can roughly get a sense by doing that.

Here is a clear example:

#1 spot is $100 and 1 day away from expiring
#2 spot is $85 and 2 days away from expiring
#3 spot is $40 and 3 days away from expiring

You know #1 and #2 will expire soon so no need to spend $100. Just spend $41 and you will have the top spot. This is a very simple example. $41 won't cut it for top spot, but it may work if you are looking at spots that are not the top spot.

Kryptonaut