I comment and don't upvote all the time, because my upvote isn't worth anything to begin with, and the power is always down. I prefer to help out by interacting with people, resteeming things that are very good, and I'll even give little upvotes via bots to stuff I really like that other people post, just because I can do that whereas I can't really do much for them with my $.01 upvote.

Another thing I do is share posts that I really like on Twitter. I have more followers there than I do here, so if it helps bring more people to Steemit, good. Especially because I wouldn't share something I didn't think was high quality, so if whatever I shared influenced someone to click the link and make their way over to Steemit, good. Maybe they'll end up joining and create good content. There are certainly many accounts that are just trying to make money, not realizing that creating garbage content and going around begging for upvotes isn't going to get them anywhere. Being consistent with quality content, interacting with others who post similar content, and stuff like that is how you're successful in the long run.