It is rough for sure. The higher you go the harder it is to reach the next level. Bigger upvotes help get your rep up rather quickly. That is why you see a lot of people that buy votes with exceptionally high rep even though their content might not be the greatest. My best advice is to save up some SBD or STEEM and spend some time writing a really good post 500+ words with a lot of great pictures. If you can get noticed by Hive account@curie or one of the other curation groups you might get enough votes to give your rep that boost you need. If they don't notice you, you can always used the saved up Steem or SBD to buy the votes you need.