At our own incubation pool called @steemitfamilyph whenever new folks ask me how to get many upvotes I tell them what you summarized here.

Create good Content, Upvote on others good content, Reply and comment with insights that further the discussion and Engage your followers and don't leave them hanging.

Unfortunately a lot of new people are churning our 3-5 different color challenges, selfie challenges, memes and 2-3 liner posts and complain when they don't get upvoted. We are trying to teach them to focus on quality and not quantity.

I have dialed down from 2-3 posts a day to one, to my standards, good quality post and it is rather disheartening if it does not do well but hey its a hit or miss with me at times haha.

One thing I never do without is dropping by other people's post and making a good comment. The aim is not to just seek for upvotes but to make a lasting impression to make curious enough to look at what I write.

I'm not the most talented person out there, I don't write well enough nor can draw to save my life but what I do well is engage. According to Steem.supply I do an average of 11 unique comments outside of the replies in my post. I make 11 impressions out there to make people be curious and in fact 40% of my earnings comes from upvotes on my comment.

So when I tell new folks we are mentoring that my secret sauce is creating good content and engaging people I often hear that it is hard. Everything that matters is hard and takes either working hard or working smart. I try to work hard and smart and give authentic human connections.

Great thoughts this will be shared with my team.