The whales don't have enough time to review all the posts and they haven't yet found enough dolphins to do so. Very good posts are not being rewarded because they are drowned in enormous quantities of useless content posted by "make a quick buck" users.
What you should do now ?
Post less, try to post only qualitative content, make your posts longer, include photos in all your posts, if possible photos that you've taken yourself and not stock photos. Try to post articles that are not avalaible on other sites.
Try not to just rephrase your content from your blog, you are not working for Google.
Work on your title
The title is the most important thing, just as if you were writing an email, try to use an attractive title and don't be deceptive, your content should reflect your title.
Respond to every comment
This one should be obvious but too many people don't take the time to respond to comments. Comments are important, reponses too. Nobody wants to reward someone that don't even take the time to answer comments on his own post. Also the more comments you have the higher you will be in the "reponses" catagory of your tag. By responding to other users you will get noticed in the long run, also, you may be responding to a whale without even noticing it, if he is happy with your answer, he may up vote your post.
Add value to all your posts
If you have found a nice video to share, don't just embed the video from Youtube. Try to post some constructive comment with it. Posts with just a link or an external video won't be rewarded. Nobody wants to reward someone who just copy pasted a link.
Don't try to look too good
People are trying to look too good, and it's too obvious that they are trying to extract some wealth from SteemIt. An example is the numerous posts about visit cards targeting whales, those posts are useless and it's obvious that the author tried to extract rewards by doing it. The author posted 3 topics trying to extract up votes 3 times, on his last attemp he targeted whales :
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rkpl/update-business-card-steemit-for-users-psd
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rkpl/update2-business-card-steemit-for-users-source-psd
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rkpl/update3-business-card-steemit-for-users-version-for-whales-source-psd
If your project is too big and you haven't done anything yet, don't post it until it's finished or very advanced
Another example is about people having big projects but nothing has been done yet, this kind of posts won't be rewarded because you haven't done much yet. Whales can't be sure if you are going to invest in your project or just run away with the rewards. An example is the steem debit card :
Don't follow the crowd
This one is less obvious, but i believe the whales will soon get tired of people posting the same kind of posts over and over again. Try to be original, try to do something new with added value and you will get noticed in the long run.
Don't be here just for the money
I've seen numerous people trying to hit it big and being unhappy because they didn't get voted up by whales. If you are posting just for the money it will be noticed and you will be flagged as a "quick buck seeking" user. You won't get any up votes by doing so. If you get votes and more votes on your posts, you will end up being noticed by whales and they may up vote one of your posts to see how you are doing.
Don't cash out your first payment
This one is my personal view, if i was the owner of this site i wouldn't be so happy if a user i rewarded was going to cash out directly his reward, i would want him to reinvest his reward in STEEM POWER and give back some love to the community. Again, i've seen too many people come here, hit it big, cash out and never to be seen again.
Be yourself, add personality inside your posts
Nobody want's to reward anonymous posts, if we don't know who you are we may be skeptical and decide to not up vote your post.
Good luck to everyone.
Johan, blogging from Starbucks in Bangkok
You can add my IG if you wish to know me more : johanjames1