No such thing as a dumb question on this alien planet we've set foot on! There wasn't much guidance when I got on nearly a year ago, but now there's some pretty good documentation. When I'm making ^ that face, I do a Google search like "Steemit [whatever my question is] - sometimes that helps... but sometimes it's old info.

Then I remember that there's this resource page: https://steemit.com/welcome

In a nutshell, produce content you love - one every day if you can. Share it on Steam Chat and in FB groups for Steemit users. Don't beg for votes or follows. Make meaningful comments on others' posts. There may be other ways to get followers, but I don't know of any legit shortcuts.

It's really exciting when a post 'hits' and earns money - but sometimes even great posts make practically nothing. That's okay - it's just part of the deal. But other times, you'll earn a little (or a lot). Then you need to make decisions about whether you'll let the rewards ride on Steemit (powering up - SteemPower) or take it out (I have not done so successfully yet, but understand Bittrex may be better than Poloniex). The more SteemPower you have, the higher the rewards you can give.

Your SteemPower is not inexhaustible. The best explanation I've seen on this is:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@scrooger/voting-power-101-how-to-vote-when-to-vote-when-to-stop-simple-and-easy-explanation#@scrooger/re-steemitpatina-re-scrooger-voting-power-101-how-to-vote-when-to-vote-when-to-stop-simple-and-easy-explanation-20170622t171832249z

Hope that little crash course is helpful!