I’m an author by trade, but I publish here to: 1. practice short-form writing, and 2. help build my portfolio for other off-site publications who do reprints. This is where I make money. I get paid on Medium, the reprint happens (often for free), and if the publication is large enough, I sell numerous books from my bio. I try to keep my writing here relevant to my book themes. So, in short, Medium is advertising I don’t pay for that builds word of mouth, and I don’t have to write unsavory topics.