Hi Hive account@garyph. I've read your post and had a looked at your feed. We have about the same amount of total funds on Steem. The only difference is I've earned every single penny the hard way, through on site rewards.

I've learned the game and there are two ways to play it. Paying for upvotes from bots or turning on faucets. I'm currently switching from the paying for bots to turning on faucets because I just think in the end I rather not make the whales richer.

First thing you need to do is go to Hive account@minnowsupport and find the post that explains how to sign up. It requires a few steps but only costs 0.002 Steem. Then you may call on the minnowsupport bot to upvote you, completely for free, once every 12 hours or more, and get a 0.10 SBD upvote plus a trail of additonal votes(value varies). Minnowsupport offers so much more as well.

I also belong to the group Hive account@qurator. It's more expensive to join but you get a once a day upvote you don't have to ask for(it's automatic) that include a vote trail worth about a total of 0.25SBD. It cost 2SBD to apply and joining is not automatic but I think your content is strong enough to get in.

I would also suggest following Hive account@minnowpond and Hive account@followforupvotes. They will upvote you for free. Value about 0.01 SBD a day. After you post add Hive account@originalworks to your post.

I already know you are on Steemfollower because that is how I found your post(and upvoted it!). Make sure you upvoting on Steemfollower 10 times a day and using the follower exchange to follower 30 new accounts a day in order to gain 30 new followers. Try to follow accounts with higher reps than you have.