A good rule of thumb is not to use these silly voting bots. Trust in the value of Steemit. You may not get instant gratification with upvotes from a lot of people, but that's just the natural flow of things.

Start your blog with about 5-8 posts. Then, search around the site for some interesting articles that you enjoy. Upvote those articles and start a conversation in the comments section with some of the authors. The more active individuals will usually try to comment back and have a real conversation. That will help you build a follower base.

There is no "get rich quick" scheme that works on Steemit (at least none that I have found yet). So just be on here to enjoy the platform for what it is, and don't expect to make a living off of Steemit. There are very few who are able to make a viable living from here, and those people are typically part of a group who started on Steemit before there were any monetary rewards provided.

Best of Luck navigating this fun community! I have a post somewhat recently I believe that talks about some useful tools for new uesrs.. I can dig it up and post about it in this comment chain if you're interested.