Many can't sustain the levels of consistency required here to make a real difference to their brand. Further to content-creating-consistency is engagement. I curate for @curangel and often come across reasonable posts that get very low rewards...When I take a look at how much that author engages with others it's almost always very little. Engagement, and consistency is the way to drive one's brand here.

For me, a user's failure to respond with validity to me causes me to never go back to that user. I don't just comment on my circle of friends either...I spread it around, trying to encourage others to engage. Some do and some don't. So, auto-voting aside...One needs to write with passion and quality plus engage with a degree of consistency. Just my thoughts after 2.5 years here.

Edit: Variety helps too. One can only digest so much on the one topic. Keep posting the same stuff, written in various different ways, and users will find their audience dwindle.