I am coming up on my 500 follower milestone as well, it's pretty cool! It took me a bit longer though, as I didn't do much research in my first months on here and kinda fell away for awhile. Let that be a lesson readers! Don't give up or fall away, eventually you'll get some momentum and you'll start getting the response you're looking for!
This is all great advice, though I do like to be controversial at times :)