Quality posts certainly become popular when people with weight read them. Garbage posts can also become popular when people think they can make money off upvoting and resteeming them. This is why I try to make my writing as self-indulgent as possible without disregarding those who read them. I try to put my time and effort in to well thought posts as often as I can but I don't feel guilty about just organizing my thoughts in public either.

Yesterday I posted twice. Once was a spoof of that Matt guy everyone was talking about. It took me 90 seconds to put together, went trending and pulled in $50. Then I went to work on the post I really cared about, spent 2 hours to write it and 2 to rewrite it after accidentally deleting it.... the comments all indicate that it was really well received.....It brought in $0.40.

I am not exclusively writing for money but it's hard not to make comparisons. I feel a bit dizzy by this.

The only thing that consistently helps my posts is interacting with others, commenting and chatting and getting to know people. Everything else is inconsistent so I try to interact as much as I can and write when I can muster up the energy and feel excited by it (which I guess is fairly often).