I'm sure as some of you may know if you click on any steemit.com website and change the "steemit" part to steemd.com you can see more information. So like mine is steemd.com/@stealthtrader as you can see below.
If you want to see how much STEEM POWER you have look at your Voting Power.
Now as you can see I am only at 50% voting power.. and you want to be around 100% so your upvotes have the most influence and reward.. (Which regenerates every 36 minutes I believe you can read more details on A Bit About Steemit by @teamsteem here https://steemit.com/steemit/@teamsteem/a-bit-about-steemit)
The big mistake I made as a newbie was just liking everything on the new page hoping to hit a winner, but after 2 days I saw nothing and wondered why. If you read the full post above by TeamSteem you'll see in full detail on how to maximize your curation rewards.
So I had liked so many posts that I had absolutely NO STEEM POWER and was earning nothing.. and now another 2 days later I still am waiting on my Voting Power to get back up and I'm having to choose my upvotes VERY carefully until it gets back to 100%
But on a better note as I started to respect the site, and actually getting to know the real people on here I realized this isn't some hit and run site.. Steemit's a family here and as long as you get people's backs they will support you as well.. So reach out and get to know other people and forget about the money and you'll start getting more money than you expected from stuff like random likes on comments or even people sending you some :D