Bailey,
As one of this site's more prolific writers, people tend to think that my articles get an undue amount of attention. In fact, the reason that my articles are seen is that I write many, in various subject categories, and I try to be consistently interesting without having too much of a negative attitude. As for featured articles, I've come to the belief that the best way to be featured is to write a concise, general interest article of original material with great attention paid to grammar and punctuation. If your piece is an op/ed piece, supporting the piece with hard facts and raw data tend to catch Brad's eye better than a piece built on conjecture, conspiracy theories and questionable sources.
But, by far the best advice I can give to you to boost your own articles is to respond FAR more than you write. If you continually leave insightful, intelligent responses on others' threads, you will interest them in examining your own work (do NOT link your own articles unless it's relevant to the article or HIGHLY relevant to your response). By reading others' works extensively and responding you will also develop a relationship with potential readers and discover some incredible talent on this site that will help you hone your own writing skills.
The key to building up your blog on JU is to be symbiotic, not parasitic. You MUST give MORE to other bloggers than they give to you. They will, in turn, respond.
You obviously have a keen interest in being part of the blogging community. Of that there is no question. So it would be wise for you to listen to the advice of others.
Best of luck.