I'm still a minnow and I think most of my followers are as well. I have seen a good increase in rewards since the HF, and at the same time I have gradually increased my posts and comments.
It is VERY rare that I will upvote without commenting, and I will almost never write a comment that's less than a few lines related to the post.
If I become a whale, or even a dolphin, I will likely follow similar strategies to the ones I have now; Encourage new users, contribute to discussion, upvote things of interest.
That’s good to hear. Maybe you could then share whether you feel like you’re seeking the new users more or whether they are the ones that seek you. :)
Currently I browse the "new" posts for 4-6 hours a day looking for things that I know about, reading them and replying. Another 30 minutes to 2 hours is spent on creating my own content to attract readers.
Right now the payouts are long-averaging to $5ish a day, yesterday I made a potential $20, I hope as reputation and followers increase so will payouts.
That is real commitment! Keep it up! What I claim is though you simply can’t keep this up because the motivation to do so will decrease when you acquire what you seek. This is not an universal truth of course but rather my assumption.