Hello Mack and welcome to steemit! My advice for a beginner is to be social. Post stuff you are interested in, and leave comments in other peoples posts that interest you. The quickest way to success on steemit is the same way as the quickest way in our day to day lives. Get involved with people, leave real comments, not just like "nice" or something. Show that you actually cared enough to type out something of substance.

I can almost guarantee that people will start paying attention to you, everyone likes to be showed that they aren't just putting together posts for nothing. Its the conversations that make social media platforms like this so great and fun.