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You actually should read manual guide on voting they have new structure and up-voting early isn't good anymore. You can google it and it should pull link up.
I'm not a pro but if i'm not mistaken maybe 15 mins to 30 margin is decent time frame to vote on content you enjoy. That's how you will gain curation rewards properly at this moment:) Author rewards you have to post and have steemit value to the dolphins and whales and get votes. Hope this helped somewhat, happy steeming!

Thanks a bunch!