Welcome to Steemit.
Your first step you have already successfully taken - connect with people whose content you dig. Find content you are interested in by others and add value to it in the comments after reading their work - questions, your own insights, suggestions, whatever your thing is and what wants to be said.
You will find that the more you build a network with people you jive with on here, the more automatic your rewards will come to you.

You could write the best posts ever, but if you have not built your tribe it will be hard to impossible to get noticed. The more you give in terms of offering value, the more will come to you. In that spirit, I followed and will keep an eye on you. Continue building bridges and post about what moves you in life. One post a day is a good suggested maximum if you are in for the long term. Better to post less with high quality than to post several times a day with low quality.

Oh, and disregard the trending page, it's full of bot-bid trash more often than not. Find your people on here, follow them, check your feed often and drop your insights where you feel they want to be dropped. And it will all come back to you in due time and patience.

Also: ignore people and comments begging for upvtoes or asking you to follow them. Only engage with people who you feel are genuine.
Much love