I get a fair amount of consistent success and I tried to explain my thinking on why that is here: Last Week I Made $1,500 Worth of Cryptocurrency Blogging on Steemit. Here's How.
I don't know if there's a secret to it or if it just takes consistency or if it's because I've been blogging for 13 years and I've picked up some helpful habits along the way.
I do know a lot of the financial success here comes from being interesting enough to people with Steem Power to put you on their bot voters to support your work and for them to earn consistent curation rewards. As to how to get their attention? I do not know. It does not involve messaging them in chat asking for them to look at your post. At least, it didn't for me. I never do that and I wouldn't suggest anyone do it. If your content is consistently good over a long period of time, I do think you'll get noticed (especially if you're adding useful comments).