Hello, Joe, and Welcome to Steemit.

With your goals of becoming a writer, you've come to what is probably the finest platform for that. Steemit has a large, growing community, an excellent pre-fab blogging platform, and a wide-ranging index of topics thru which you can target your audience.

(For years, I worked part-time as a writer, but never managed to parlay writing into a full-time gig. Until about 6 months ago, when I started on Steemit. Now, I'm thrilled that I can call myself a full-time, freelance writer. Hope you can soon do the same.)

Below are a few basic points of advice re posting on Steemit.

1. Longer posts are more lucrative than short posts. If you make a post of 20–30 paragraphs, it's more likely to earn rewards.
2. Include some photos, images or graphs, to complement the text.
3. Make sure the text and photos are formatted properly, so that your post looks attractive and appealing.
4. Be yourself.
5. Be interesting and informative.
6. Create quality content. Steemit is intended to be a platform of quality content. (You will see many insignificant posts with meager content and no quality. Most of those of posts [called “shitposts” by Steemit whale Stellabelle] will earn few rewards and soon pass into oblivion.)
7. Get online and start curating. Read various posts, comment on those posts you find interesting, and upvote those posts. That’s the best way to attract followers.

Hope this helps for now. Good luck, and Full Steem Ahead!