Weight loss. Wow a very ccompetive niche for you first try. I would considering something a little less competive. In any case the number of articles is not the determining factor I have found. It is simple the quality of the articles. I personally think one well written article is worth 50 poorly spun or written articles. But that option differs greatly from most internet marketers. Also I am no so convenced that duplicate content is a bad as it is made out to be. Provided it is well written content that is. I have 5 articles that have out preformed the other 100 I have posted. However, it took a lot of research and editing to get those 5 articles written and keeping people interested in clicking through to the blog there promoting. There more replated to the subject than the keywords. In other words I get fewer hits but 10 times the click through ratio. It seams if they like your article and click for more, there pretty much presold at that point.
I agree with what the others are saying. Another thing, sometimes it's not your promotion but your website. If you don't have keywords that can be easily found on your website then all of the promotion in the world might not help you. Review your website, find out the competition that you have going on - see what keywords they use. You don't have to copy those exact keywords but it can give you an idea as to why their website is first and why yours might be last. Think about how long it takes for a website to reach number one, sometimes it just requires patience and constant promotion then if it still is not working with you sale the website on Flippa or DP. One last thing to think about, maybe your writers aren't helping you out by not adding in at least one or two keywords in their articles. That's all it takes, is just simply one or two keywords in the article. With me being a ezine and keyword writer, I have learned that stuffing your website or promotional articles with keywords won't help you either so you've got to understand the balance with everything being seo, backlinking and keywords.