If someone can bring original content or something of their own, they put in effort or make the post enjoyable to the curators and showing they enjoy what they do and want to share it with the community to enjoy, that are some things that can deserve bigger upvotes.
Engaging with people to provide meaningful responses and just being around when possible to stick with Hive could be a big help.
I am guilty of not engaging often enough these days, I work full time and study part time while having other things going on and I need to try engage a little more with people, not just when someone engages on my posts!
Ultimately if you have a curator come by and enjoy your post and you get the big upvote, then you did something right. 😅