Thanks for the quick response.
I have one question I have been pondering. In the first post that I made I received about 20 votes and the post says I have earned about 90 cents on it. However, another guy has a post in the same category, and he has about the same amount of upvotes, yet he has a potential payout of 20 dollars on it so far.
I have a sneaking suspicion this has to do with voter influence and STEEM power, but I am not quite sure the specifics and dynamics. Mind clarifying this for me?
SP is dynamic throughout the day. The more SP a person, the more value they bring. But the more they vote that day, the less each of their vites is worth. Also the timing of their vote relative to others who vote on a post affects the value.
Pheonike nailed it - it is the voting power of individual votes, rather than the total number of votes, that determines the payout.