Hello, Ethan, and Welcome to Steemit.

To begin, I'd just like to respond to your statement "I lost a lot." Because I too lost a lot, but those losses were (as they say) "wiped out" by later gains.

On the day I bought BTC a few years ago, the price had been rising and rising. I found a local BTC exchange and funded my account, and by the time I was ready to buy, the price was dropping. I waited a few hours, then bought.

The price kept dropping, and by the end of my very first day of holding my first cryptocurrency, I was down about 70%.

That was over 5 years ago. I have never traded any of that, and in fact realize that I should have bought much more after that first day.

Whatever, I have no regrets. Hope you don't either.

Below are a few basic points of advice re posting on Steemit.
1 – Longer posts are more lucrative than short posts. If you make a post of 20–30 paragraphs, it's more likely to earn rewards.
2 – Include some photos, images or graphs, to complement the text.
3 – Make sure the text and photos are formatted properly, so that your post looks attractive and appealing.
4 – Be yourself.
5 – Be interesting and informative.
6 – Create quality content. Steemit is intended to be a platform of quality content. (You will see many insignificant posts with meager content and no quality. Most of those of posts [called “shitposts” by Steemit whale Stellabelle] will earn few rewards and soon pass into oblivion.)
7 – Get online and start curating. Read various posts, comment on those posts you find interesting, and upvote those posts. That’s the best way to attract followers.

Hope this helps for now. Good luck, and Full Steem Ahead!