I think you're taking the right approach. Relationship building counts for a lot, even if you can only give a penny and that doesn't wind up getting paid out unless another person also gives at least a penny (or several join in upvoting to reach that with there sub-penny upvotes). Getting paid definitely counts for a lot on a paid blogging platform, but so does finding people who genuinely appreciate your content and want to engage with you in a more meaningful way than you can find on any other platform.
Early on in my journey on here I found some folks who were creating great content and responding to all the meaningful comments on their posts. I met a lot of cool people in the comments on their posts, because they stimulated people revealing their best ideas by sharing such meaningful posts to begin with.
Taraz presents another great idea, which is to find people you think like the same content you might like, then take a look at their feed so you can find more good people to follow.
Last thought, I don't know if this is an option for you, but I also spent 15 STEEM buying delegated SP so that my 100% upvote is worth about 12 cents (at full VP), which allows me to parcel out 25% upvotes and still be getting someone paid with each vote. I've had to then work to get back that 15 STEEM so that I could still afford the delegations in the next month, so it might not be worth the extra stress to you. Just sharing my experience in case it helps.
I know it's time consuming replying to all comments on a post, that's why it's best to be selective - just as it's best to be selective on who we give our vote to on the platform knowing we only have so much voting power and once that's used up the dreaded waiting period to be back at 100 % I've also made the mistake of what I consider OVER voting and used up all of my voting power in the past. Now I truly search out worthwhile content or content from long term friends and lend my vote.
I've been browsing around a little using the feed suggestion Taraz mentioned, reading the comment section of some of my favorite content creators for ideas that I find intriguing. As he said, there's plenty to read, it just takes weeding through.
Finally, I think I could afford buying delegated SP but I'm not sure how to get started. If you have any suggestions on beginning, I'd appreciate it as I'm not even remotely aware of where to start. I haven't made it to 50 SP yet, but I'm interested in growing my account. I think it would be worth the effort as my aim is to spend more time on this platform than I have in the past several weeks. Thanks for the suggestions and your response!
I had the same experience when I first joined. I was so excited about being able to upvote people's amazing comments, and all these wonderful conversations I was having on here. Then the next thing I knew one of the steemit stats sites would be like, "you'll be at full voting power again in 50 hours!" I had to slow it way down. It definitely helped to get enough SP to be able to make partial votes still pay people a decent amount.
In terms of how to do that, the easiest place is within your wallet, but the cheapest place is on Minnowbooster.net. It's kind of involved for the step-by-step but if you search for "buy delegated steem power" you'll probably find one of the many articles that walk you through it. @ilyastarar has some good articles on this and I think I'd followed the directions on one of his.
You can try it for a month and see how you like the experience. I'm only in my 2nd month of doing it and the jury is still out for me. I'm must more sensitive than before to how much I earn because I want to have the currency left at the end of the month to buy the delegation again without having to keep putting in USD. That changes how I experience the platform in a negative way. But I'm able to really reward a lot of people in significant ways, and this has been wonderful, so it may be worth it in the end. If only we were just all rich!
Ironically enough, I voted a penny on two comments in this thread - I'm still in that trigger happy vote mode where I think a vote is equal to a thumbs up on the other social media platform. It isn't, and this isn't Fascistbook I have to continuously remind myself. It's difficult at times to control the enthusiasm and wanting to see people receive good rewards for their efforts on Steemit.
I am going to look into using Minnowbooster and try to figure this whole thing out with buying delegated SP and as I mentioned on another post, I love How To posts so I'm sure if I dig long enough I'll find some sort of direction. I'll check out the person whom you mentioned above, also.
I'm happy you took the time to respond to my comment as it reassured me that there are people out there who are willing to help the small accounts through advice, upvoting and just taking a little time out of their day to speak!