You are already doing great, reaching a reputation of 41 within a week. As for me i got something below 25cent for my introduction post after hours of editing and rewriting a very big one and my reputation grew very slowly until one day I got an ocd-resteem.
With my little knowledge I can clear some of your doubts.
Your reputation depends on the number of upvotes and engagement you get for each of your post. And your vote value depends mainly on your steem power and then your reputation.

As far as the 2$ confusion, during payout after 7 days some of it will go to the people who comments and upvote on your post too. And it will alsofluctuate according to the market value of steem also.If the price of steem goes down sbd will also be reduced. If you haven't chosen 50% sbd and 50%steem I guess the some part of sbd you receive on a post will be split into some steem also.

And don't worry much about discouraging or negative comments here. People try to be polite with each other as there is a risk of provoking someone and if they choose to flag you it can cost your reputation.So people are generally nice here😁

Do join some discord communities of your interest and you will get support from like minded people over there.Everything on steemit is about engagement and interactions.