I think Steemit is like any social platform. Why do certain things take off? Remember the Chewbacca Mom from few weeks ago that took over Facebook? She got on several tv shows, Khols gave her family free toys, and she got a lot of other things. But why did her video take off? I think it was like the most viewed Facebook video ever.

But she already had a large following on Facebook and that helped her. But again, did it "deserve" to be the most viewed Facebook video? Who knows? But it was.

I still think it is the same thing here on Steemit. Post regularly, build your audience, and then when some one who has a large following, i.e. a whale, upvotes you then things could change.