Anne, let me introduce myself. I have been published for 60 years, and I've been writing for a living on the web since 1999. I have generally always been in the top 5% - although some of that is just pure luck, as it was on Medium. I also won all four $500 prizes.
I have a magazine called 'Born to write.' Inside it, there is an article called 'Don't Blog - Write.' Or something like that. You are blogging, i.e. you are writing about your own life and your own experiences.
Some 93% of us in this world come from dysfunctional relationships. We are inundated with stories about them - on TV, books, movies, magazine articles. It's over subscribed.
The people who are earning money are writing about different things. Either that, or they got in earlier when other people weren't writing about this topic, and so they developed a following then.
I would also go back and eliminate those 31,738 you are following. For a start, you aren't reading anything they wrote, because it's impossible for anyone to read the work of nearly 32,000 people every day.
Anyway who is a reader will immeidate recognize that those 13,000 people who are following you aren't reading you - they will think it just a reciprocal relationship. And so they will pass you by.
If you look at all the writers who are earning, they have far more followers than people they are following. More importantly, they tend to read those people and comment intelligently on them - no flattery.
The quickest way sto get people to read you and earn are:
1. Write things that are NOT about yourself. Certainly, you can mention a view point you hold about what you write, but unless one is rich and famous, nobody is interested in your life. So you can write about music, about politics, about cars, aobut IT, or about anything, but it's not about your life. You also have to find your niche, because some niches are oversubscribed.
2. Comment on the work of those who are writing similar things to you. If you make intelligent comments, readers will click on your work. For instance, most people who read Caren White, Jessica Wildfire, or Umair Haque also read me. That's because the algorithm also pops up the names of people who write similar things to what you write.
3. This is the hard part. So much of getting a readership (even when you're very, very good) is just pure luck. For instance, I was earning between $45 and $65 for the first year. Then I moved from the third world to the first world, and I immediately got a greater following. That happened to be April last year - the first time Ev Williams awarded the $500 and the first time I hit $100. Then I had a piece of luck. I wrote an article on a very contentious event. The piece got picked up by various newspapers, and people flocked to read my piece. That was the month I earned $4300. However, it was pure luck, and I have never done that since. What did happen was that I picked up800 readers in a matter of a week, and since then, while I no longer make 4 figures every month I very definitely make 3 figures. Pure luck.
I wish you well.
