awesome advice @snowpea. I started in September and, like you, I went all out to follow everyone I could find in hopes that some would follow me back, and some did.

I created (what I thought) were some awesome posts that flashed across the screen for a few minutes before new posts bumped my posts out of sight.

The posts got a few views and a few upvotes, but for the most part the responses to my posts were very disappointing, especially when compared to when I post on Facebook where the likes from Facebook friends keep coming in for hours and even days later.

Watching my results, a couple of things became obvious. My time was better spent finding people with similar interests who posted about things I'm interested in - and - replying to their post with a related comment, upvoting their post and resteeming it and following that person so as to see more posts like that going forward.

From a self-serving point of view my time has been better spent and the benefits have been greater by commenting on more of other people's posts and posting less of my own. I've gained more solid connections, and gained more compensation.

And you answered a question I posted a couple of days ago about why some of the bigger players 'unfollow' others and have only a short list of people they follow. [here's that link -https://steemit.com/follow/@watertoncafe/golden-question-why-unfollow]

Thanks for posting this, it's some very good advice for any newbie Steemers.