I'm glad you took the time to tell me your thoughts and glad you found this. Thank you for commenting too. Any I'm not aware of a steemit for dummies but I cover many topics in lots of my blog posts (probably 10 on steemit things I've found), so feel free to go through and read any article you want. And if you have any questions about anything, just tag me in a comment @davemccoy.

As to the advice, yes it is better to not upvote as long as you don't have any power to your votes. But that assumes that you show at least one other way of letting the author know you appreciate the work. This will change as you "grow up" and then you will use your upvotes for other purposes, but for now learning to write comments and using the other 2 tools is far more valuable for everyone.

On raising the value of your vote, it is 2 things (I cover this in a post a few days ago)... but 1) you need to let your power meter be charged. Keep it up in the 90s (unless you are going to be gone for a period of time like a vacation). And 2) as you get "STEEM POWER" (SP) you're votes will be worth more per vote. Essentially every 43 SP your vote will be worth another 0.01 SP per vote cast.

On the wallet, I'm in the process of putting together that article and it will be in 2 components. 1) what are your objectives? (ie cash in your hand or invest in STEEM POWER for the future)... and 2) the different avenues to take your various currencies STEEM and Steem dollars (SBD) and turn them into more STEEM POWER if you choose to stay invested in the platform. This article will be out in about a week. So keep checking to see if I release it or just ask me any day you think about it... I'm definitely excited about how this part of the system works and have been very encouraged with the routes I'm exploring. If you want to dig on your own, you can check out one platform I particularly like, it is @bumper and they have lived up to their words so far (3 days into my tests). Here is an article to read about them and their sister @flagship.

On your third question, I know that you can send it within the steemit community very easily by clicking on your SBD button and selecting transfer (then the instructions are very straightforward, you just need the username, the amount, and type a note into the note box). Outside of here, you would send it through and exchange and I think bittrex.com is the biggest. (check on exchanges that accept steem on google search).

If you have any more questions, just ask... I suggest you go through my blog though and read the various article I've written about the many issues I've faced. And again, ask any questions you have of me at any time, I'm very happy to help you @fracasgrimm :)