I've actually posted an update to the external views thing - the trial has ended. It's not looking good. https://medium.com/new-writers-welcome/payment-for-external-views-an-update-78a0e39e84dc

What I would suggest, is you chat to Mike Lewis, who is monetising his own personal blog, which contains articles that he previously published on Medium. I think some of them are on both sites at the same time. He may be able to direct you to ads or affiliate sources where duplicate content isn't an issue. https://mike-lewis.medium.com/