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Firstly, people write quality content that deserves upvotes in order to get money. you might get lucky and get a few pennies from a funny post, or ever a well thought out post. In the end, having more steem power allows you to make more as well. You can help boost your own post with your power which means other people will think its going to have even more votes (which ends up getting them curation rewards) so they will vote as well. Making quality comments on high dollar posts is also a way to make a little bit. Rewards are all based on content value added to a post, think of it that way

That clarifies a lot, thanks for sharing. I like this platform and intend on publishing lots of stuff!

Yeah, I wish it was a little easier to obtain information about how everything works, but the search function isn't very good on Steem yet

Luck my friend has a big part in it my friend :) And consistent, good quality posts. Now you have your first $0.16 :)