I spend about an hour promoting my posts in the various Discord communities I'm a member of. That involves reading and upvoting other people's posts, and commenting on them. Like this one. Some of the groups, the quality ones, require this activity in order to drop a link. I consider it a small price to pay, and the benefit is I get to enjoy some great content and meet new people on the way. That in turn grows my followers and earns me new fans. Post promotion is essential.