Oh ok, that makes more sense. I remember Medium being really vague on the earning details for those links. I usually just share a regular link, but I never really get that many extra views when I share my articles on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Every now and then, I go through and block a lot of the inactive or spam followers, but it takes a long time, and I never get close to blocking all of them.

The only reason I have so many is because I started my Medium account back in 2020, but then I gave up writing on here after about a year. I came back in August 2023, so a lot of my followers don't even use Medium anymore.

My main focus now is blocking anyone leaving generic comments, like "Great article" or "Well-written," because they never read anything.

Yes, I've been a full-time freelance writer for almost 8 years. Most of my work comes from two marketing agencies and I also have three other clients that send me work every now and then.

I used to be really active posting articles on Constant Content to sell, but AI has almost killed that platform, so that's why I focused on spending more time on Medium to supplement my income, but you are right, it's like playing the lottery because the earnings are always unpredictable.