I'm pretty sure the type of people voting for me was a big factor.

Back then I was commonly posting things that were about 10% of whatever the top trending posts were. So if I had continued that then I should have been mostly writing $100 - $300 posts for the past couple of months. I've had a couple do that but my average % versus trending is actually quite a bit lower. This could actually explain WHY my steem power was increasing faster. Oh and I am not complaining... I'm content and satisfied... just sharing my observations.