Thanks for the advice (and the upvotes)! I did notice a surge in new subscribers after commenting on a popular post today.
I feel that there should be ways to develop a solid foundation of followers without having to "siphon" followers from the comments on more popular blogs. It feels like a weakness in the platform to me, although I can't see any immediate solution to the issue.
Gaining a following on social media has never been easy... Try to do it on youtube, it's muchh harder than on steemit.