I know exactly what you mean when you say the post takes you a lot of effort! Seems like it paid off.. you've got almost $20 there :D

That's how it works, sometimes you can throw a post together quickly and do very well with lots of upvotes and resteems, other times you can put in hours and almost no one will see it. Oh well, it's all part of the learning process! Of course, the longer you're here, producing consistently good content, the more followers you'll get and the more likely it will be for you to succeed.

Oh, here are a couple articles that helped me with writing posts:

1. emoticons that you can copy/paste into your posts > https://steemit.com/emojis/@blueorgy/steemit-emojis-master-list

2. Basic markdown to make your posts fancier ;) > https://steemit.com/steem/@xeldal/how-to-liven-up-your-steem-posts-with-markdown

Hope that helps! Again, looks like you're off to a great start! Glad to meet you :)