I don't know if you can succeed long term with "reaching out to only those with power on here and telling them to support me or I can't be spending my time on here." They will only jump once or twice for that comment. I think you have to engage with them so they are interested enough to support you. They've seen 1000's of content creators try and fail and they have not been moved.
I just saw a whale post basically saying "don't expect your good content to succeed here unless you get into chats and suck up to us." lol. Sadly, I have heard the "go into chats and kiss whale butt" advice a few times but so far I have not gone in them at all.
There are many people of 60+ here who are or would be fascinated by your travel posts without doing it for steemit - but for their own interest. If they know you are active by your comments on their posts, then they will come help you. It's a strange paradigm here.
A good group for you is also the "I want to leave the states, but I'm too scared" crowd. I see these comments on your posts frequently. Those people will definitely support you if they know you are showing them how to do it.
Make sure and comment to people you upvote and/or resteem and tell them you did it. This also drives traffic to your posts and FEW people take the time to make this type of comment.
I saw your posts getting better payouts lately - so maybe don't take my advice :)
Enjoy the south - we've had crazy storms up here the last couple of days and I get see it is getting ready to start up again.
Oh! this plan I like and will steal - not the blasting part but the connecting part. Definitely has potential.
There you go! Bit by bit - soon you will be a big fish :)
Well, yes, that is definitely always a good plan - hang out with the winners. This is why my filter is set high for the posts I go to. I will help little people with my votes when I am big - now is not that time.
I'm getting good action on Twitter with my new steemer friends - so I'm working that for a few days hard to see what comes of it. More non-steemers are rting my steem posts by far! Very unexpected.
I've got about 30 steem tweets a day now and the action is pretty good. I'm tweeting my posts and whatever I upvote. Everyone gets 5 days of tweets :)
It's pouring down the rain. I'm inside for the duration. Maybe tomorrow. It's been like this for about 4 days now. When it is not raining I'm asleep and when I wake up it rains. Not just some sissy rain either :)