As many as you feel comfortable rolling. ;c)

I garnered the mistaken opinion that reputation was the primary focus of your post - when it was 'earnings on reputation' that you were aiming at.

I quickly learnt that the quantity that one puts out is more of a determining factor of success than quality - that and the number and quality of followers that one accrues over time.

Oh... and self-upvoting. That certainly increases success also - perversely so.

Other factors pale by comparison.

As such one thing that I would suggest is to take another look at those two users that you mentioned - and try to identify the variables at play:

• Their reputation
• Their Steem Power
• Their Number of Followers
• Their Subject Matter (and quality and style) of posts
• Their Commenting Habits (are they following certain users around?)
• Their Curating Habits (likewise)

I suspect that looking at these alone may provide clues as to where you might be going "wrong". :c)

I personally can only speculate as to what you shall find... but I do suspect that the behavioral variables shall set them apart from you in some fashion or other - and you can either emulate or take the higher, poorer, path (as I am doing ;cP).