I have done a great deal of digging into this over the past year. Grab a drink and let me share what I have found.

By the way, I am white and I have been named a top writer in Feminism. I hate to tell you this — and I don’t discount the racism — but I don’t make money, either.

Now, before someone trots out the same tired arguments that it’s my fault, let me stipulate that I have published about 300 articles. Many times, my stories are curated in multiple topics. They even get selected for further distribution. I don’t often submit my work to publications because they come to me asking to feature my writing.

I am not bragging, but I am merely pointing out that it isn’t an issue of quality. I have one article written over a year ago which is a top 50 article on The Startup. I have another that earns me money each month that has 85k views.

I promote my work — including my earlier writings. I have nearly 10,000 followers on both Twitter and LinkedIn. I have multiple accounts on Reddit with well over 50k karma. I post on Quora. I have a growing email newsletter following where I publish links to my articles. For every hour spent writing, I spend five on promotion.

My earnings are dismal.

Medium is much like Uber and Lyft. It’s no guarantee of money, but an “opportunity” to get a chance to perhaps make money.

This is the new corporate model, especially for writing. You do all the work and assume all the risk. You write, edit, format, and promote your work for a chance for it to be read and maybe, just maybe, it might go viral and you make a few hundred bucks. Maybe.

And if it doesn’t, Medium has lost nothing except a few bytes on a server space you’ve already paid for. And it’s not just Medium, but everywhere including Amazon and all social media, but especially Facebook and Twitter.

You can’t make money writing because it’s not designed for you to profit.

None of these places give a shit about you or what you have to say. They are willing to benefit from your following, but they aren’t willing to pay you for your work.

It is a giant waste of time. You are never going to figure out their algorithm because it has nothing to do with you making money.