Thank you for sharing this! And I'm glad you hit that milestone! - it was quite a while ago now, but still, congratulations!!

There are two things you need if you want to be successful here. One is to write at least a handful of good articles/stories each month, and a huge one is to engage with others a LOT. Read read read other people's stories, highlight, clap, and comment. This sends most of them back to your profile to reciprocate and that's how you'll start getting reads, people will get to know you more, you develop real relationships here.

You've probably figured that out by now, as you wrote this a long time ago, but just thought I'd share this stuff anyway in case it's helpful! If nothing else, it is meant to encourage you to keep going! Keep writing, keep reading, keep engaging, and people will love you!