does the number beside our username is an indicator or earning?

I think the number indicates your total participation I mean total posts and comments. Your earnings are added once within 24 hours. You may your earnings for particular day at mylot earning in earning section.

That number is called your participation ranking. It will not go up for everything. When you post a discussion and it has received two replies or comments, you will gain one. When you respond to someone else's discussion, you will gain one. When you go to someone's discussion and see a response by another person and comment on that response, you will go up one, but only that first time. On the other hand, even if that number does not go up, you still earn for your quality comments and responses. Let's say you start a discussion, and you get twenty responses, you will only go up one point, but if you go comment on those responses, you will see that you will earn several cents. Again, it will not update until around 9 a m Central Standard time. That is the timezone where MyLot is. No one knows if we earn one cent or five cents for something we write. It is a MyLot secret, and they intend for it to stay that way. You are paid for all of your participation though.

The number beside your name indicates how many discussions u have posted and responded so far.

It has nothing with earning earning but simply the amount of posts and replies you initiated! Earnings are posted within 24 hours and it based on quality of your posts/comments!