These are the 5 things I wish I had known about or spent time focusing on, my first couple weeks of steemit.. Hope it helps some of you new users increase the payout of your posts and the amount of followers and interactions you have here on steemit!
-1. GAIN FOLLOWERS
You need followers. If you lack them, then the chances of you post picking up steem in the midst of the all the noise is very low!
The best way I've found to get followers at this point is either to find the tags your interested in. Go into those tags and read posts you like or posts that are similar to the ones you are thinking about making, then leave a comment preferably that adds value but it can just be to let them know you like there work and you plan on doing sharing similar content. Or by just keep posting the things you want to post about, and interacting with the people who comment in your posts and your follower count will steadily rise. As enticing as trading follower for follower sounds in the beginning I would strongly recommend you don't. Find people you can relate to, even if you relate mostly due to your newness here. You could grow together.
Your average post payout will increase as your follower count increases. Ask yourself what would make you follow some one, and then BE THE PERSON YOU WOULD WANT TO FOLLOW!
-2. VOTE.
In addition to your steem power, steem and SBD's by having an account here you have the ability and I would even say the RESPONSIBILITY to vote!
Click the 3 lines at the top right of the screen and look for the link that says "Vote for Witnesses" . You can easily vote for the top 50, pick the ones you have seen being active on steemit trying to help it grow. Many of the names are sure to be familiar to you even if you have only been here a short time. If you scroll passed the top 50 there is an option to add a witness that isn't on the top 50 list.. A couple not on the top 50 list worth looking at are 
I really don't have anything bad to say about any witnesses, they are all trying their best to help move steemit forward into the future! Some are more active posting than others, some are more active programming new features or other things that will benefit us all in the future. 5 witnesses from the top of the list you should definitely check out and think about voting for are 
The people you vote for can see that you voted for them. and if 2 good posts are in front of them. that vote might sway them into voting for you. and most of the witness have very powerful votes!
-3. POST PROMOTION.
On the steemitchat and on the steemspeak chat there are separate room to promote your posts. You will find others trying to promote their posts as well. Help eachother get your posts upvoted and maybe even catch they eyes of some of the whales in the chat as well! Its a great way of seeing who is trying, and the people who are trying are good people to follow and have as followers! Links to both of the chats are below. There is a great group of steemit users there willing to help and answer questions should they arise!
-4. the power of commenting, curating, and the resteem. (all these help you with #1)
COMMENTING is the best thing you can do to meet new people, have good conversations, and get paid while you do it. Comments are able to be upvoted also, therefore giving you a payout n the end. The more valuable or witty your comment. The more likely it will be upvoted. Annnd, the more like you are to gain a follower or 2 just from a comment!
CURATING is what happens when you vote on something before early. you become a curator and get paid out a portion of whatever the post makes after the point at which you upvoted it. (NOTE: when a post is 1 minute old you will only get a fraction of the possible curation. at 15 minutes you get half of the curation, and at 30 minutes you get the full curation ((25% post payout split between all curators)) of all the money accumulated after your upvote)) When people notice you upvoting their posts often. They are much more likely to go check out your blog and give an upvote or 2 back!
RESTEEM allows you to resteem a post, bringing to the top of all of your followers home page. It's the only way to get a 2 hour post to the top of anything besides top or trending tabs. It allows that post to be seen by all of your followers and upvoted by them. Helping the person making the post get more upvotes or views. Once you resteem it, it will show up on your blog page so it's also beneficial to resteem a really good article you might want to look at later, or that you need to go back into to find information.
-5. HELP
Find out what you can do to help and support new steem projects.. There are so many projects underway. Here are a few great ones you can get into no matter how old or young you are here!
You can get active in #steemgigs. posting and paying in SBD's for people to do work or projects to help benefit steemit. Or you can complete a job someone already posted and get paid in SBD's. Its a great way to help the community with whatever they need help with, or get help while encouraging the advancement of cryptocurrency as payment!
You can hop onto the ChainBB forum and help beta test what is going to be another great overlay of the steem blockchain. 15% of what you make will go to helping pay to make chainbb better. but there are people who are upvoting all posts in ChainBB to encourage us minnows to help. So a post in ChainBB will more than likely pay out more than the same post posted on steemit (granted you have to give 15% to ChainBB), but it just helps make everything better and helps keep ChainBB steadily advancing forward. NOTE: Earlier today, steemit went down. ChainBB was still up so you could have continued posting in there. That was one good bonus about it I found today! But hey there are other projects in beta that could use some help to and are sure to get you some love by the people who are trying to promote the projects. here a list to look into.
You can also help by going through new posts and commenting answers to questions, or just welcoming new people who may or may not be getting enough steemit love yet! All of this whether you see it or not. Will help get you followers and make it more likely that whales recognize you and your contributions and upvote your posts in the future!
BONUS TIP: Make your post look nice by adding signatures, centering text or images. Adding photos that are free use or that you took yourself! It's the cherry on top to make your post that much easier to give an upvote!
Here is a good list of image resources from 
Thanks for reading. Hope this helps at least a few new users do extra well on this site right form the start. Or helps users that have been here for a while. Take posting to the next level, along with the follower count and post payouts!
Like, resteem, and comment below if I was wrong about anything or if there is anything good I should add!? Look at my blog and if you like the things I post follow along! I hope to have good conversations with many of the new users here soon! Enjoy your day!