I'm totally with you. Facebook has blocked many of my posts from showing up on my friends' feeds. It's ridiculous. Basically, how steemit works is you create content, which could be a blog or a video, and it is voted on by other community members. The more votes you get, the more you earn. Also, if you vote on a post early after it's creation and it goes viral you can earn that way too (as well as many other ways). How you're paid and how it's converted into cash is fairly complex but it's thoroughly explained in the Steem Whitepaper. Check it out! I hope this helps and good luck!