You steemit reputation rating is an important aspect of steemit in the sense that it represents a combination of how long you've been on the platform in connection with how many upvotes you've received over time. The higher your reputation score the more people feel you're an experienced user and create quality content and thus would be willing to follow and upvote your work. Everyone that creates an account starts out at a reputation score of 25. If you're a spammer, then you run the risk of being flagged, at which point your reputation score could drop and drop all the way down to zero. Anyone below 25 is going to find it difficult on steemit. If you reach the 60's or 70's you're in extremely good shape. A respectable score if mid to high 30's through about 50 or so. Anything above 50 is very good. It takes time and a lot of effort to reach these higher levels though.