Medium really takes a lot of trial and error. When I first started it was very much the same as you describe. Just writing random things, hoping for the best. Unless you have a massive subscriber base (unlike NB, your subscribers will actually see what you write on Medium most of the time), you really need to depend on submitting to publications. And hopefully, through them, you can build an audience and get some articles to click. I like Medium because it's actually possible to create a following of people that really do like to read what you have to write. That's probably the biggest selling point to me.