Right now I am considering how to to get more followers. My opinion is content is the king. Only valuable content can bring you more quality followers.This is a great analysis @financialctitic.
Would you consider researching and writing about influence of reputation on rewards.
See part 1 of my analysis, where I did look at author reputation. Didn't seem to produce more $ per follower per post. Higher reputation authors did tend to have more followers though.