Lindsey, greetings!

I help run the @helpie community and witness with Eon, who pointed me your direction.

Yes. It's unbelievably hard at first... still. We are all working on that in some way or another.

STEEM, the blockchain, is much more than just Steemit... but we can get into all that later. 😍

Communities and interactions are really the strength of STEEM... but a lot of that interaction happens OFF chain. There are several options (and more every day) to meet and get to know fellow Steemians.

Eon suggested Discord (free voice, video, and text chat app), which is where our community primarily meets and interacts. If you don't have a Discord, don't worry. While it's a bit daunting at first, I can get you going in no time. But, there is no requirement to join.

There are several other text/chat apps where Steem communities 'hang'. You may already belong to one.

Now, to address some questions... (wish me luck! 😉)

... hard time figuring out how steemit works... : Girl. We all are. It's such a new (yes, 3 years now, but...) thing we are all kinda flailing around a bit trying to figure out what works in this vast decentralized world.
How do I get people to vote for me? Interact. Make friends. It's really hard. There are a LOT of new things popping up that should help reach and people seeing content they are interested in. It's not perfect, but people are still trying. 🙂 Communites and interacting off-chain is really where the bonds are being formed. Hopefully, in the future more will be able to be on chain.
Do I need to add money to be noticed and upvoted? You don't need to add money to be noticed... though if you added a LOT you definitely would be. 😲 However, when you invest and power up (stake your STEEM) it gives YOU more upvote power... while taking nothing from you. So... you get to reward the content you see by simply investing. 😍

I'm carrieallen#9415 in Discord. But if you decide to sign up and know NOTHING... just send me your name and # (next to your name) and I can reach out to you. ❤️

I'd like to introduce you to the new Tribe (community) @intrepreneur, which is a group for entrepreneurs. Feel free to click their tag and read about them. It's a lot, but there are folks around to help. ❤️