I think they've pretty much made it so they're not gonna be successful here.A lot of the accounts I follow/interact with it started with comments they made on others work. Also between folks upvoting good comments, comment rewarder and the amazing work of topcommentrewarder commenting can be very rewarding in a tangible way.
But if the only person you can convince to give you a vote is a fiance...maybe the issue is the content and maybe the issue is not engaging with other people enough.