Just good writing never makes money. You need to show yourself to people a little bit and that takes time. You have to make friends with people, expand your circle. You have to add value to people's posts if you want to be valued.
I've never asked for votes for myself, but I've seen a lot of people asking for votes and none of them get the upvote
It's a combination of efforts, isn't it? Improving your writing, public relations, marketing, communications...
I think it also helps your credibility when you have skin in the game by buying tokens on the open market.