When I first started writing on Steem in January 2018, my idea was to earn Steem by cross-posting some old articles I wrote about organ playing. Since I was new, they only earned me a couple of cents. Then I became discouraged of posting old articles and started drawing Pinky and Spiky comics instead. I discovered Artstorm contest by 
I would occasionally cross-post my Secrets of Organ Playing podcast episodes on 
Why was that?
Now looking back I can see that some obscure niche content like Secrets of Organ Playing didn't interest enough people here because there were no other organists there or if they were, my posts didn't have a way of reaching them.
I kept drawing Pinky and Spiky comics for long months with only a couple of comments and I started noticing more attention when I started investing into Steem Power. I became a dolphin and then an orca and my upvotes were worth more. It was especially obvious in the bear market when the general sentiment on Steem was low and lots of minnows and planktons were in need of more support from larger accounts.
When you have more SP, lots of people congregate around your posts. Is it the only way to get noticed on Steem?
On the surface, yes. You become more visible very quickly, your posts receive more comments but interestingly, more comments and more upvotes do not necessarily translate into more SP. It's because people who upvote you don't have much SP themselves.
But now I have relatively speaking a similar-sized account when I first reached orca level. What changed is and I think it's crucial when speaking about increasing engagement is that I started blogging again and started responding to peoples comments and commenting myself on the posts of some of my favorite authors.
Not only posting Pinky and Spiky comic (which I still do) but blogging about a wider variety of topics. As you can see, I post my sketches, organ playing videos, comics, blog posts about my day, and Steem oriented content. I read other people's posts which also give me more ideas about what to write next. If a new post is born out of the idea of some author's post, I always tag him in a post to show my appreciation.
This varied content is what occupies the most amount of my time in my head and this variety seems to be interesting to other people more than if I would simply write about my day. Or about my drawings. Or about my organ videos. Or about Pinky and Spiky. Or about Steem-related stuff.
Here's my final take-away on deep niche posts which if looked upon separately are interesting only to a few people - you either have to invest heavily into Steem to start drawing attention and engagement through your increased stake or have to start producing more varied content which would be of interest to a wider audience or both.
Occasionally your audience will tolerate your deep niche posts but on the condition that you will give them your attention as well.
What do you think?