Write good quality content and you get good quality upvotes.
I have tried that multiple times, and it does not work like that.
When you put hours of work and effort into an article, which earns $0.20, then that is really disappointing and discouraging.
Use the right tags and post in the right communities and comment.
I have been doing that. I reached the top 10 in the weekly engagement league.
Its just that hard to grow on here, there are so many options :D
But none of them really worked. At least not for me.