No it doesnt depend, if you really read stuff. But only around the first 10 upvotes have full value, so better just upvote stuff that is worth it. If you just want to grab the couple of cents and dont support good writers with it, then you should check the photography tag and just upvote pretty pictures there, this will take less time.

Something else that is necessary to know is, as far as i understood it, the most rewards for curation go to the first 10 upvoters. So it would be best for you to always be on the new page instead of trending or hot.

But you get the most out of posting Quality content indeed. Dont spam or copypaste lots of small articles.

If you have good content you will quickly get followers. I have seen one getting nearly 200 in around 4 days! And he writes really original and informative stuff!