Votes are what provide you with money. People upvote your post, it makes the post more popular and each vote can count towards money. The more influential the voter, the more money you receive. Likewise for comments etc. You also have voting power which starts at 100% and goes down every time you vote on something (You also gain a certain percentage every hour so you can feel free to vote everyday). So you want to spend your votes on things you like, not voting on 2000 things at once. I'll post some links with helpful tips as well. Feel free to follow me if you wish. Best of luck