Tami, I am a Senior Editor of Illumination Publications and have eight of my own publications on Medium. I have been on Medium for over four years my friend. I am among the top two per cent of writers in terms of earnings. In addition, I am a 70-year-old man with more than 50 years of writing behind me. I have also created and run no less than four of my own successful websites. So it is probably not a good idea to attempt to teach me how to go about growing an audience. For your information, although Medium did at one time pay for claps, they don't anymore. So they are little more than an ego-boosting device, which I have no need of. If your writing is good enough it will get the reads, responses and claps it deserves without you having to send messages like the one you sent to me. I wish you good luck in your venture here but would advise a more humble less deviously calculating approach to grow an audience which quite frankly will not get you very far at all amongst the better writers such as myself. Thank you.