Sam, you and I are going to part company 100% on this one. I do NOT support writers. I do not write for writers. I write for readers.

If I have to support other writers in order to get read, then I might as well give up on writing. Most of my readers are not writers. They don't write anything. They read my work. When I read other people's articles, I seldom comment or clap. I'm interested in the read, and I read for a good few hours on Medium every day.

I'm not reading in order to support writers. I am reading because people wrote something interesting that I wanted to read. That is the fundamental difference between a reader and a writer who is reading others with the hope that they will build up a readership.

I firmly believe there are only two aspects necessary in order to build a solid readership. The first and most important is luck. Writers often discount luck, but whether one succeeds or not as a writer has a lot to do with luck.

The second is that one writes about topics, or in such a way, that people keep coming back to read more and more of what you write.