I think its much easier if you buy some steem and power up.  You don't have to spend money to do that but it will take time.  Use all the faucet sites and join all the airdrops.  Put that money on an exchange and buy steem with it.  Much easier just to buy Bitcoin and exchange it for steem but I know lots of people wont want to do that.

If you just want to start with nothing, you will need good blogging social networking skills.  Don't forget that low earnings today could be worth much more in the future.  Cryptocurrency is volatile and there's big risk, with the potential of big rewards.  Don't use money you can't afford to lose.