I still love the photos, a little too much! I think I understand a little more your questions though - I joined back in March but only started posting on steemit in full a few weeks ago. I'm still learning but was fortunate to have a guide and established poster in Paul @old-guy-photos who makes the most amazing posts and puts so much effort into upvoting mine to help me progress. To answer your question though, each post you make will only have and effect (and response ) based on a number of simple factors:-

1. The time you post it - sounds silly but if you time it right any post will get more coverage just because it is made when the most people are online to see it.
2. The number of followers you have - tough one this, because you start out with few - how to get more. My simple answer is you can not get followers just by posting, the chances of people seeing your post and following you because of it are so slim - unless you do many posts per day which then becomes spam and people won't follow because of that - they want good real personal content.
3. Upvotes, resteems and replies - these all help push your content forward - but you need the help of followers to get your posts noticed.

At this point I can now only suggest how I have approached Steemit, it might not be the best way, the easiest and probably is completely wrong. But I am enjoying reading peoples posts, getting comments on my posts and generally interacting with the community so it can't be all bad. My system is;-

1. Daily check my follow list, and follow anyone that has followed me that I have not already followed.
2. Check my Blog tab (people I follow) read the posts I like, upvote them if I like them and comment on why I liked the post.
3. Check the NEW tab and if I see posts I like follow the poster if I don't already, upvote the post and comment why I liked it.
4. Check my replies, try to always reply to people who reply on my posts and upvote their replies.

Long story short, you need to give alot at the start to get very little back but as you work at it the balance will grow. And you have a lovely smile - which is why I have invested so much time on this post.