How do you get your posts to succeed?

Im still having trouble to get the grasp of how this all works.
When i first joined, i posted a couple of links to some youtube videos of mine which paid out about $70 in total, i though that was sweet for some basic videos.

However ive gone to far more trouble and posted some blogs on photography etc and while they start off promising with some positive comments and upvotes, everything drops off after a few mins and no longer shows in the category.

Is it correct that you need to hold more steem power in order to get more upvotes?
Should i be converting my earnings into steem power to do so?

Does upvoting other posts make yours more likely to succeed?

Thanks for any advice, all this is new to me, but i always thought as long as you upload quality content, you should do OK.