Hi @scrooger I'm a newbie (almost a week) to the steemit community, still trying to understand how it works. There are so many points to your post that are great tips for a newbie trying to find their way in the community. I have noticed the follow for follow, and unrelated to the topic links pasted in replies to other steemians posts and wondered if they even bothered reading the post that someone has given their time and effort to write. I also believe, like you mentioned that producing good quality content in topics and themes you have a passion for or are interested in, will increase your following. Thank you for your post, highly appreciated by this newbie!