I’ve made over that for the last 4 months and there are other ways of doing it:

Having enough stories that do ok, and letting the values stack. I’ve only had one viral article in those 4 months but have made over $2k in a month.

Write for publications that pay fees regardless of performance. Medium owned pubs pay up to $300 I think. Better Humans pays $500. So you can do it with 2 articles (I have).

But the ways you suggest are good, too. Overall it’s a long game and it always comes back to consistently good writing, however you do it. Hope you’re doing well with it too!