I have done the same trip as you .. Almost .. I never made any 500 SBD, and i haven't been here 9 months.
I have been here only a month, still try to figure out how to make some money on here.. I make post after post.. People comment and i reply.. I comment myself and tested.. But still only 4 SBD though :( while i see others on here who are making hundreds of dollars a day.
And yesterday went to the intruducemyself and there was a girl who signed up 2 days ago... This was her first post, just telling about herself a little.. Boom 380$ in 1 day and first post.. So there must be trix on here how to do it right.. Because i am obviously doing it WRONG!

But.. What i wanna say is.. I spent a few weeks on Poloniex trying to trade.. Ahahaha.. cost me some... Had 1 Btc and lost 0.7 on 2-3 pump and dumps the first week.. Was later into Ripple and made some back.. But also was stuck when the entire sita froze and when start wrk XRP was down 15%.. Many 100k was lost there.. During these 3-4 weeks i saw pure insider scam by Polo, i saw whales pump and dump scheme so i learned A LOT.. Expensive.. Sure.. Almost 2k $ in todays Btc price.. But in the end i got my btc back... I will never trade alt coin again with low volume.. I ant be in a coin that 1 single person can move 15-20% alone.
So my advice to newbies is.. Do as me and Sebastien here.. Put some small amount btc and try for yourself.. Be prepared that you can lose it all.. But that is the only way learn it properly .. Now i only go in when i see its safe.. The major part of my savings is in silver.. And that not a FIAT like dollar and crypto currency.. Its THE money.
"Gold is money, everything else is debt" J P Morgan.

Good luck!