Show me that Steemit really works

Hi everyone,

so I subscribed few days ago and I'm still a super newbie, to Steemit and cryptocurrencies in general. Anyway, I heard the famous promise that you can "post content on Steemit and make money" out of it. I'd like to see a sample of this mechanism working in person, before I really decide to get involved.

Now I get it that I can make "Steem". But I want to see if I can really do a COMPLETE CYCLE:

1. Publish this message and obtain a few "likes" from you, that will earn me few dollars worth of Steem.
2. I want to convert that Steem into another currency (dollars, bitcoins...) and cash it.

Give me a few likes and explain me the steps to cash the corresponding dollars please. If it works, I will totally believe that this platform is revolutionary as some say. If I'm confined to Steem currency instead, that's a whole different story...

Show me it works.

Thanks,
Paolo