There's lots of little helper sites like those mentioned by others. In the beginning before you know about any of this it can be really frustrating figuring out what's going on, but then you talk to people, like you're doing now and get all the pro tips :) Here's one you might be interested in
http://steemit.serviceuptime.net/check_resteem.php
Also if you don't have it already you should get the SteemPlus chrome extension. It has most of what you need built in.
Hey, thanks! I had no clue that there was stuff you could get/add to Steemit. I'll poke around and try to figure how to use this stuff.