Don't be deceive, most of these forum members actually work full time while others work part-time with monthly earnings, while doing some sort of professional work here to get paid. Cryptocurrency can pay when you have a professional career on the field hence don't rely on it solely.
It's a good perspective, so you successfully stole my last one sendable merit.
Personally, I don't think forum members should be crypto experts to be able to earn income from the forum. You can start from zero to reach what you want to become. So how to make it? It is very simple, start from learning (basic things of the forum, rules, official guides) as well as most helpful topics (including guides from forum community). It is easy to identify which topics are hot, by looking at its total read times, and looking at the total merits received in the OP.