I've found that prediction on steemdollar.com to be off at times, just in case you even notice a discrepancy. But to answer your question...
The short answer is that if you want to be able to give more when you upvote (like going from zero to a penny,) then you will need to have more Steem Power. If that's something you're wanting, then changing your Steem Dollars into Steem and then Powering that Steem up into Steem Power would help towards that. However it can take a while to be able to regularly give a penny with your vote.
How much you give on an upvote depends on multiple factors that include how much Steem Power you hold, what your voting power percentage is at, the current share price of Steem, how much payout is already on the post and how many votes (technically vote weight) have been cast are the more major ones.
Just to give you an idea...right now I'm a little over 7000 Steem Power and give probably about 12-13 cents to a post with zero, when I'm at 100% vote power. I do think getting your Steem Dollars move around into Steem Power will move towards your goal...I just didn't want you to be discouraged if you didn't see it give a penny right away.
I'm a baby minnow. Grinning.
Hehe, I've been there and know exactly where you're coming from. I hope to see you grow bigger on here!
As always right answer at the right time. What I gather is: I can earn crypts by upvotes and by posting stories. I'm going to have to do both because minnow voting is good for reputation but not real earning until you have significant steem.
So far so good?
If I am a good original content creator and I iget attention from power users/whales/dolphins and that will significantly add to my take. The focus though is long term build of equity in the system, via posting and upvoting.
How am I doing?
As always, thanks for being awesome
I think you've got it! Build up the account by getting votes on your posts and comments (unless you want to actually pay for Steem to put in there.)
Earning from curation will come as you get bigger. I only earn about 8-10 SP a week myself (though I don't actually try to maximize this, just vote when I want on what I want.)
As a motivator...I started my account with nothing. While I'm not the biggest person on here...everything I have is from posting. I've not paid for anything here.
You can definitely get there!