Medium brings a lot of things for me -- a reason to write (an excuse) and an outlet to talk to other writers and share ideas. If you want to make money, workshop a draft on Medium then submit the article to a paying publication. I don't know how people make real money on medium (despite the many articles they write about it) but I don't think it's the main point of Medium, at least not for me. It gives you a playground to test your ideas -- which is useful for me. I doubt I've made a dollar. But I'll keep at it, to hone my craft (of course, that's just where I am in my article writing.)