I watched some early how-to documents on steemit last week where people were recommending upvoting your posts and replies.

So I did that for awhile, but I talk a lot.

Then I realized our votes have limited power. Each time you vote your voting power is decreases a little bit and this regenerates over time until you are back at 100% voting power.

So if you vote a lot on your own stuff you limit the impact you can have on voting for other content.

In my case my handle is @dwinblood. If I go to http://steemd.com/@dwinblood it shows you in that area to the left what your current voting power is.

I've seen mine as low as 25% before. I have therefore been trying really hard to slow down my voting, and when it comes to myself I vote on a reply I may make if it seems like is buried and might not be seen. I like to dialog and discuss with people, so when I reply I generally am hoping for a reply, even if I don't get a vote.

However, it is really important to know about that voting power and how voting too often heavily dilutes your voting power.