Welcome!
Many people get attracted by the idea of making money by using Steemit, but fail to understand most things and do not become regular users.
There are two main possible ways of "making money" (Steem, Steem Dollars, Steem Power) here:
Write valuable content that a lot of people upvote (similar to Facebook's like button); and/or
Curate valuable content by upvoting and you will be rewarded.
There are some algorithms written in the blockchain that calculate how much will be paid. Don't worry about it. All you need to know is:
The more Steem Power the upvoters have, the more you get Author Rewards (#1 above); and
The more Steem Power you have, the more you get Curation Rewards (#2 above), as long as you do it early enough and other people (with lots of steem power) follow you in that curation.
Enjoy!