Thank you for the reply / advice, I for the most part do most of the things you mentioned - in one way or other. I make it a point to spend some of my time actually "curating" other posts - I have a wide range of interests so finding interesting material is not all that difficult (only hindered by the vast quantity of not so good stuff between me and it). I realised this more recently, and started upvoting the comments people make in my posts - you are 100% spot on that it matters, and makes a difference. Regarding your point about followers and following - when I started, I made a serious effort to acquire as many followers, and follow as many people as possible. My hope was to have a large group of people, that I could market and promote my posts directly to them (where as they were already somewhat familiar with me by going through the process). Unfortunately there is really no efficient (efficient being the key word) mechanism to direct market to individuals or subgroups contained within my list of followers - I didn't know it at the time but now I do. There lies (in my opinion) one of the fundamental flaws of the platform - someone just starting (a minnow) has no real means of getting noticed, other than luck or to "buy your way in".

I could go on, but I'll leave it with "now I know"... Thanks again...