I agree with @solcross! If you take time to give genuine, well-thought comments, you can build a lot of great connections.
I wouldn't look at this like a short-term investment though. If you don't have capital, then you're going to need to invest your time and energy here. You can do that two ways:
- Create high-quality content. It can take awhile for it to get noticed, but there are some great initiatives for minnows (or new users). @mountainjewel mentions these in their post here.
- Find great content, comment on it, and upvote it. You might want to follow @ocd, @asapers, @curie, @qurator and other curation teams to see what they upvote and resteem.
With the transparency of Steemit, you can also find someone you think is doing well and watch their activity. You can go to their feed and click on "Comments" to see the types of comments they give and how much time they take getting to know other Steemians. You can also see who they follow in their feed.
I hope these tips give you a good place to start!