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Engagement.

You can write the world's best article, film the unverse's best video, record the best songs and no one will know about it if no one knows about you. If you look at the top content creator steemian on the platform (disregrading a few special cases), you will realize one thing. Their comment count is at least 2x to 10x compared to their post count.

@gringalicious, @papa-pepper, @anomadsoul, @surfermarly, @aggroed and many others all have this in common.

It may be more nuanced that this, but to give it to you simply, participate in discussion, read and comment on every post you read. Share your thoughts and engage in civil discussion to share your ideas.. make friends in the comment section. More often than not if people gained attention of your username enough times they will likely be curious as to who you are. Be consistent enough and you will be in the zeitgeist of the steem community. even if just a small part of it.

no amount of link spamming and vote bidding can get you anywhere near that level of long term passive promotion.