Welcome to steemit. I'm a new member too, and as anyone I try to find the magic recipe. As I had read once in social networks you must socialize. If you see the posts with many upvotes are from people who have 1k followers. Many of us think that we will share our talent in here and people will discover and appreciate it. But this won't happen unless we socialize. Also the contests and the correct tags bring more upvotes.