More Observations On The Nature Of Vocal Top Stories And Challenge Wins

Introduction

I have been here for three years, initially tempted by the big prize money of the challenges. I soon realised that I was very unlikely to ever win or place in a challenge, because I thought I was not a real writer, and in some ways I still feel that way, but I am always learning new things. As Isaac Asimov said:

"Education is something you can never finish"

I believe that if I ever think that I am a perfect writer I will just stop.

I still worry if I don't get a Top Story for a while, and while I never doubt my own ability I sometimes feel that I have lost the support of Vocal and my audience, but the reality is that is just my own insecurity.

Below is a piece I wrote on the situation and it did get a Top Story.

So lets get into this now.

The Observations

When I started on Vocal Top Stories were not given all that often and there were also "awesome stories" which gave you a $5 bonus but no exposure. The thing is that we seemed to get a lot more reads on stories then, especially if we got a Top Story.

If I got a Top Story I would get a big boost in reads, but these days the amount that I get, and others get (based on comments and hearts) seems to be far less. I have some old stories with a hundred or so reads which they got on first publication, but do not get any new reads or hearts. In the image below the ones it yellow don't get any reads today though the ones not in yellow still get two or three reads today, I think from non-Vocal members:

I love seeing my reads go up, but the five-dollar reward would need 900 reads to achieve without the Top Story bonus for Vocal+ members, double that for free Vocal members.

While I love getting a Top Story or Leader Board bonus, I get more personal satisfaction from comments and reads and if I don't get those I feel that I am failing.

I have seen people get angry because they are not rewarded by Vocal and they may have good reason to feel that way, and I do feel that Vocal at times does not give exposure to deserving creators.

Vocal has five Top Creators for each community, that is 240 Top Creator positions though some have more than one, but a lot of people don't even know about Top Creators, so I wrote this piece to highlight the positions:

I have seen a couple of recent Top Stories and Challenge Placements with minimal comments and hearts. This was not just after their awards, it was a few weeks later, so they got their dollars but little interaction.

Conclusion

Most of my reads are from non-Vocal members and one of the great things about Vocal is that anyone can read your stories and Vocal will pay me 0.6c for their read. Four of my top five most-read stories are getting daily reads from somewhere and I am grateful that Vocal is rewarding me for that.

Writing is a hobby for me, so the money is a cherry on top, but it is the support and comments that I get that raise my spirits and make me want to write another story.

This week I have three stories that I am going to publish when the time is right and that has required me to hold back on publishing.

Thank you for reading and I hope I have given you a few ideas.

The music is "Take The Cash (K.A.S.H.)" by Wreckless Eric