I have also noticed some of the same things my friend. A catchy title, good photo/meme and opening line are very important elements of the article. It also depends on the influence each vote has behind it (I believe).

If you continue to write creative and interesting content I'm sure you can build an audience. Remember this is still in its infancy and should grow by many times the current user base/ readers. You also have to so consider the fact that a lot of the higher paid steemians had followings elsewhere before posting their work here.

I'm new to steemit and have enjoyed the platform so far. I also realize that I'm not a professional journalist so it might take a long time to learn to write quality articles.