So i do get question a lot on some of the strategies which I use when it comes to upvoting a post. Does the time of upvoting makes a difference ? At what percentage ... etc ... etc ... many questions.
I'm no expert but here are just some of the basics to increase your curation rewards and it seems to work pretty well for not only me, but by a lot of other people.
Any upvotes before 15 mins of the post coming out gives about 99% back to the author ! It was once a myth .. and let me tell you its real ! Don't expect any curation rewards before the 15 min mark of the authors post
Upvotes between the 15mins - 30mins - great news , the author gets about 50% of the curation rewards and you get 50% of the rewards. Sometimes people vote during this time period if they know for certain that the author would be receiving large upvotes.
If you can wait for it .. upvote only after 30 mins you then get 100% of the curation rewards which is allocated for you.
Use tools to check how much of the curation reward you would be getting. In this case you can use http://steemstats.com . It provides a rough indication on what your rewards gonna look like from your upvote.
Upvote content which you think may be popular ! Let me explain in detail :-
| _ | Minnow1 | Minnow2 | Minnow3 | MrWhale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vote Value | 0.10 | 0.10 | 0.50 | 401.00 |
| Curation from Vote | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.13 | 100.25 |
| Curation Allocation Vote 1 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 0.09 | 100.08 |
| Curation Allocation Vote 2 | 0.01 | 0.02 | 0.12 | |
| Curation Allocation Vote 3 | 0.02 | 0.02 | ||
| Curation Allocation Vote 4 | 0.02 | |||
| Total Curation Per Voter | 0.08 | 0.06 | 0.21 | 100.08 |
| Author Payout | 401.70 | |||
| Author Total Payout | 501.78 |
For a whale, its not much ... however for a minnow it does sums up to a lot accumulated over time / days .
You can use a few tools to keep track of your favourite authors. These are the onces I use :-
Here is the link on implementing your voting script by 
