Hello Sarah. The main way to earn more is by participating more. The more you make good posts, or make good comments, or upvote other people's good posts or good comments, the more money that's possible to make from just voting.
You don't have to ever buy upvotes to make money. Because Steemit is so open, you can see the behind the scenes of your activity at Steemd.com and places like that. I see that your voting power is at 100% because it looks like you never upvote anyone else's posts or comments.
Steemit is about interacting more and the people that invest the most time and sometimes more money to increase their voting power/SP and then interact with others in one way or another, tend to make the most money from what I have seen so far. (I'm new here also) You make money by upvoting good posts and comments. So it's a good idea to upvote things that you think are good posts or that might make more money because you get money for voting. The best time to vote on something is within the first 24 hours ( voting at around 20-30 minutes after a new post comes out is also a good idea) to 7 days because after 7 days, your vote doesn't earn you or the other person any money. It's still ok to vote on older posts because people will still appreciate it and it doesn't hurt your voting power any to do it.
Most of the time, try to only upvote 10-20 times a day so your voting power stays near 100% and you can check your voting power and SP here:
https://steemd.com/@sarahlouise
For other more specific questions you may have, you can probably find the answers here:
https://steemit.com/faq.html
Good luck with everything. :)
Thank you for this comment!!! I've been trying to figure some of these things out and you made it so clear.
From a newbie who isn't techie-lingual for the most part!
You're welcome. Glad I could help. :)
@lundgreenman, exactly you describe the whole story of the question thoroghly and in detail.
Thanks, I'm not sure if I got everything right, but that description is my current understanding of how things work. I'm sure I'll learn more over time.
Thank you for the Infos ! I'm new here too and kinda lost haha
I felt lost too when I first started. That's why I like to share what little I know so far. This place has a ton of potential and even if it's tricky to learn about the details and nuances at first, I think it will be worth the effort in the long run. Others helped me learn when I first got here so it's only fair to pass that along to others. :)