Building communities is tough. Monetising them is even tougher. Whoever said Medium is a "blogging platform"? If you can't export your own data easily out of the platform, it's a terrible idea to build something from scratch. I'd stick with Telegram (channels, specifically) because I can automate them for content, and a WordPress blog because I own the medium (not the host). While I have been blogging for over 3 years, I stuck to a niche and don't care much about views. If you are shilling on crypto and web3 blockchain kind of trends, then it will definitely hurt your chances to monetise because of the payment cuts required for payment processors etc. Its best to have a clear pathway for premium content, be upfront to your readers, and explore other mediums to amplify your reach. The growth won't be sudden, but a slow tick-tock. It all depends on the external algorithms, which care about virality of content. A shameless plug to demonstrate the richness of content possible in Telegram (https://t.me/thecuriousloop) The content is auto-posted from IFTTT as a manual curation from what I read. I save to a specific Raindrop folder where it gets auto-tweeted and auto-posted to LinkedIn. It allows for comments on all posts and you can post links/multimedia content. Those opting for premium version of Telegram service can upload 4GB files. I do post recommended books and have dedicated section on bypassing paywalls.