Very interesting, Russell. You deserve more followers for all your hard work. It would be interesting to know what these folks are earning. There isn’t necessarily a direct correlation between numbers of followers and income. I’ve made more in 18 months than a Medium writer friend of mine who has twice as many followers as I do and has been on the platform twice as long. When something goes viral, you pick up a ton of followers, but they don’t necessarily read anything else you write. One viral article can earn you more in a week than everything else you write altogether in a year.