I feel sorry for you but you made the point there. Beside that I also think that there must be specific time each day that people will check steemit. For example, maybe from 19:00-22:00 is the best time for posting story. So if we could find that golden time it'd increase your chance of success too. But keep in mind that steampower is key, for the same person who get same amount of upvote, I'm sure that the one who has more steampower will overshadow the others very easily.