I have never had anywhere close to a thousand reads on any of my 450+ articles, and this month, if I'm lucky, I'll clear (after my $5 membership fee) $5. I was averaging about $30/mo with an occasional $100 month until this year. Now it's going down lower every month. I read, I write, I comment, I clap 50 times. I'm not doing anything differently than I did last year, yet my profit continues to decline. I'll keep writing because I enjoy it, but I'm sure not doing it for the money!