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In Short, NO. Some folks never put a dime of U$D into their accounts, but I have. HOWEVER, That being said, you do get "voting power" (VP) that you "use up" every time you vote. if you are on maybe a 20 hour away schedule, you will replenish 16% of your Used VP. So in that sense it is FREE. Mine is low because I like to 'spread the love' around a Lot!
I will fetch you a link that will have a lot of helpful analytics for you to check! BRB

how can I learn more about this I'm still going over the ropes of being on here

here ya go! JuicyJenna'sAnalytics

You need to stop voting ASAP, your VP is down to around 8% and you will not have full VP until Friday, around 2:30 LOL
U do not need full VP but it helps your curations.

Ah, so too much love makes the words not go round. :) thank you so much for all of your help!

Yep, last the Gina-Bot reports were telling me is that your votes were actually Zero, or below the .001 SBD range. Time to REST that VP !

B276FC8F-39EA-4478-8133-CC8B87386289.pngIs it good that I’ve been commenting this much? The $5 something from curation?

Yes, that is good. It will come into your wallet in a week or less. I suggest buying all the SP you can especially early on. You said $5 but that is in SBD or "Steem Backed Dollars" and the U$D equivalents are on the right of that, over $21 :D

I can’t wait til I get a hang of this more. So much to learn!