I'm no expert by far, but in my short time... I've found that it helps to joing in challenges that TRULY interest you.

Every time I make a post, I go to that category/tag/challenge and find other posts by people that I genuinely like and leave a comment and an upvote. I apparently upvote & comment about 10 times for every post I make.

Consistency, genuine interest/interactions and just writing/posting about what you are interested in is how you get started.

As far as making money? I have no idea. I've had craptastic posts make $100. and posts that I was really proud of make less than $1.00. I am starting to get more interaction and that is good as far as I'm concerned, because it means I'm making actual connections with other people and we really enjoy reading each other's posts and whatnot.

My husband is on here as well as a few of my kids and we're all having the hit or miss thing with posts, but it's satisfying as long as you're not going into it solely watching the $$$, you will do great.

As for the money side of things, I am working towards consistent quality and being real and hoping that the money side of things works itself out. As it is, I've still made as much, if not more, writing here and interacting than I would if I left the house to get a job (because I've been a stay at home mom for two decades, my job prospects aren't well paying anyway)