Allright, so to be entirely truthful, it wasn't technically one of "my" posts that made it to the trending page. It was a post I wrote for the separate 
If you're interested, you can see the post-- entitled "Dealing With the "Business End" of Being an Artist" here.
Of course, it's pretty exciting to check in in the morning and discover that one of your posts is among the most read on Steemit... but this is primarily a story about the fact that there's no "Magic Formula" to making such an event happen. Sorry.
Nobody Was More Surprised Than Me...
Red Clover
The thing is, when I left work on Friday-- a couple of hours after publishing the post-- it had earned seven upvotes and 22 cents. Fairly typical results for what is-- basically-- a "minnow account."
Was it a "good" post? Yes. Had I hoped for a better response? Sure...
On Saturday morning-- with no publicity effort on my behalf!-- I suddenly found that the post has gained over 200 upvotes and now was listed with a payout of $258.00! The rewards have since "shrunk" due to the typical payout declines we see, these days... but on Saturday, it was a top-10 post.
Although the payout will definitely be "nice," the greatest change of lasting value was the fact that the
So Why am I Bothering to Write About This?
Primarily to show that there is usually no rhyme or reason behind why any given post makes it-- or doesn't make it-- to the "featured" page.
Tiny purple flowers in the woods, Denmark
I have written numerous posts of similiar length and quality, some of which have made as little as $2.00, or as much as $200.00.
And-- by extension-- any idea you might have that you can write "for" getting on the Featured page is pretty much fantasy and wishful thinking.
You see, there was no comment left that the post has been selected by one of Steemit's "guilds" for a collective upvote.
Nobody had secretly boosted the post with a "promote" contribution.
Nobody had bought me a stout upvote from randowhale, booster or some other upvoting service.
The post simply "got legs" by itself, and went for a run.
But What About "Those People" who Always Seem to make Featured?
Flowers in our garden
Well, first of all... nobody I'm aware of "always" makes it to Featured, unless it's some major announcement about a change in site features, or a Hardfork update or something along those lines.
But if you take a closer look at the writers who often make it to the featured page, please note that they typically have thousands of followers and a very long posting history.
As was the case with my gallery post... a contribution from a small relatively new account is a relative rarity on the Featured page.
Some might feel that's "unfair," but I'm reminded of a while back, when 
So What Can You Do?
Reeds in the pond
Well, my own "strategy of choice" is to simply create the best quality content you can-- content you feel good about "representing" you-- then making it visually attractive and potentially useful to whatever target audience you think would be interested.
And then publish. And publish. And keep publishing.
Publish without expectations.
Now "without expectations" doesn't mean you have to give up having hopes and ambitions... just keep in mind that "expecting" a specific outcome will most likely lead to disappointment. After nearly six months and almost 260 blog posts, I have never published one with any expectations... but plenty of hopes and prayers!
Good luck! Do your best... and you never know, you might end up on the "Featured" list!
How about YOU? Have you ever had one of your posts make it to the "Featured" page? Or is it a pretty regular occurrence for you? Do you think there's any kind of "secret" to creating a "featured" post? Do you think it matters to your overall Steemit success? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170717 16:55 PDT