Turning on a Lightning node to help route payments isn’t quite as simple as depositing funds and keeping your node plugged in. Routing is a lot more like market trading than it is running a networking switch. If you want to route with purpose, you have to take smart market risks. At a basic level the way a payment works is by orchestrating a series of swaps between connected peers on the network. As a router you are a capital service provider. As a payer you are looking for a set of connected providers who will provide the best service at the lowest cost.