A few tips I have pick up in my first week.

I have 9 hours before I have officially been here a week and get my first pay out. So I am no expert on Steemit, but I am one of those people who when I find something new and exciting out, I have to share it with someone.

The minute I discovered Steemit I told my husband and my facebook friends about it.

I had lots of question when I started and watched a lot of youtube video and read other users blogs and got the basic idea.
I won't repeat myself. Check this blog entry. https://steemit.com/minnowsunite/@kathieletalis/newbie-advice-quality-over-quanity. I kind of wrapped most of my findings in there.
But the basic advice if you are just about to write your first post. Make your post good and make sure you use all your 5 tags, include introduceyourself minnowsunite.
Make sure the first picture in your post is eye catching as this will be the one that will appear on the feed.

Your first post probably won't make much money on your first day, but as you build followers it will slowly climb in value.
Keep checking the 'new' thread and the 'Hot' threads. Comment on the post you find interesting and make your comment relevant to the post. This will help you get followers and might even get you some upvotes.

A nice link to keep you motivated is this one http://steemitboard.com/board.html
It gives you milestones to work to.

OK that all out of the way let me get to the gem I learnt this morning and what has prompted this post. Think if I had known of this page a week back, I might have saved myself the embarrassment of asking so many stupid questions.
I have to thank @bitgeek . I read two of his post this morning and so many pennies dropped in my mind as questions that had been bothering me for days, well a week were answered by his post and by this little link.
https://steemdb.com/
Just put your name in the search account box and see the beautiful information unfold.
I have resteemed his posts from this morning, so you should see it above this one on my blog page. I advise you read some of his others post too.
But the two from this morning explained how important followers are and also how valuable some are.
You will hear the word 'whale' thrown around. I learnt this morning, these are the followers who's vote will make your $ shoot up.
It's worth knowing which of your followers are the whale and now I know who mine are, I plan to try very hard to keep them.

Glad I found this page, so I can appreciate the 'quality followers' I have.

Thank you for following me, especially to my whale. :)