Early on, I read someone's definition of a quality post, and it included headings, references, a certain number of words, photos, photo attribution - I don't remember it all exactly, but those things seem to attract, I'm guessing, the bots that bring the human curators.
I figured out early on that I could do those and it would attract attention to varying degrees of financial success. Of course, they also take time if you're researching a subject or want to have good photos. And as much as I would love to travel and write full time, sometimes life gets in the way. When I have the time to really curate, I like the every day nature photos and then I want variety.