Steemit estimated account value - Help

Steemit. I am new to steemit even though I had this account for a year now. This is confusing to me and might be confusing to you.
Let me start here. After being dormant on steemit.com for awhile I decided to log back in and noticed my estimated account value to be over $777,000,000 what does this mean to you? What does this mean to me? After posting and liking I checked it again now it’s just over $2.00 wow, why a drop? Did I screw up? Where did it all go? I don’t know. Do you? There is some kind of calculations that I can not see here. I did some looking around the web to help me understand. I could not find it. I still don’t understand. Can somebody please explain this to me and others that might have experienced the same thing. The only thing I can think of is to see what will happen if I don’t do anything and check back in a month or two and see where I am and then start powering down if I see the the account value is back up. I guess time will only tell.
I seen a couple post here for newbies. https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemrollin/categories-that-make-you-money-on-steemit
This one stood out to me but still did not give me the answers I was looking for. I guess I am looking for an easy way out. Let me know your thoughts. I hope your answers will help all newbies and clearify steemit system.
One thing for sure I do understand is you need good quilty articles and power up if you want to get anywhere here.