I'll just have to say that my view of Steemit is just my view. I am still very in doubt what direction Steemit will take. That's the exiting and annoying thing about it.
Then you basically ask how to make the perfect post that gets attention... If I knew I would be on the trending page - and I am not. But here are my observations.
I guess an image is good. I place a small image in the top. 1.75:1 format that will look nice in the feed (Example)
It is a good thing to comment a lot. Make it good interesting comments that are about the post like the one you made in this tread. I am aware of you now because you did for example.
Find some profiles with people who do what you like to do, writing many small posts. I can mention @steevc for example. (he is also the master commenter)
Remember that it takes time to build the network. I write for the people who likes my comic, illustrations and art, who are interested in my texts on music and other art, and who comments on my posts. Often I even get ideas from posts because some of them wrote something in a posts or comment. (example)
Last: Steemit is not fair. If you have the connections you will get upvoted. There can be so many reasons for this. Alliances, gaming of the system, political strategy, friendship (I have made some very good friends here that I never have meet (except @vcelier - who actually visited me), and last - sheer luck.
I know it's not fair. I learned that real quick. I'm up here for the community anyways, but the rewards are nice. of greater concern, though, is my open source project account. that's the one I want getting all the votes. I'm pretty sure that will happen soon. It's just however long it takes me to become an efficient programmer all by myself, I think. That account is @stormlighttech, which I update weekly, for the moment, at least.