I hate to put it this way, because as someone who spent 14 years writing for professional platforms I know that the effort needed to create high value content is high regardless of engagement, but 176 reads are not worth anywhere near $6.94, 87 reads aren't even worth 13 cents. I've seen YouTube creators - and the financial value of advertising and such on YouTube is much higher than a read on Medium - and they are making like $500 in a month for tens and tens of thousands of views for many hours of video content. The financial value of a click/view/read/whatever is far, far, FAR lower than it needs to be to support all but the top 0.01% of creators in anything close to a fair exchange for their time. These platforms are all upside down on the economics, I'm not saying they are ripping creators off (though MANY of them, like YouTube and Spotify, definitely are), but I think it's notable that virtually none of these platforms are able to make a profit despite the pittance most of the creators get. Bottom line is, few individuals are willing to spend enough on memberships to properly support creators, advertisement spaces is low value, and the revenue isn't there.

It's a shame, but we're in a desperate race to the bottom on quality content, and there's not much we can do about it. :(

J.Ja