The followers came in the first few weeks. At that point he was adding value, but like most things in life, follow through matters, and when supporting Steem required more follow through and effort without being paid $15K/post, he stopped. At this point it is all auto-pilot and even most of the followers are gone (i.e. look at how few actually comment on his posts any more, other than when discussing how they are ripping off Steem)