6 Ways to Make Money on Vocal

What is Vocal.media?

Vocal.media is a US-based platform for content writers, creators, podcasters, and anyone willing to share their message with the world and make money out of it.

Vocal.media reports its user base consists of over 700,000 unique users, with roughly 38% of users coming from the USA.

The platform was introduced in 2016 and has grown to around 3.8 monthly visitors, according to Similarweb.

If you wonder whether Vocal.media is legit, keep reading my thoughts and review as a Vocal publisher.

Is Vocal.media legit?

I joined Vocal.media in July 2020 and have published over 50 stories there. Despite a relatively small number of published articles, I managed to get bonuses, tips, and referrals on Vocal.

I track the performance of my posts in the “Stats” tab and see how much money they make.

Note that you can only see the stories’ stats for the past 30 days, even if you joined Vocal a long time ago.

However, Vocal does show you the percentage change. In other words, to what extent did your stories’ views increase or decrease compared to the previous 30 days.

Vocal repays earnings through the Stripe payment system. You can read about Stripe supporting countries and how to set up an account here.

To answer your question, “Is Vocal.media writing legit?” I should say that I’ve never had issues with the platform. Once filly requested and verified, the payment always goes to my Stripe account.

I believe Vocal treats its writers with respect. Otherwise, it would have already lost its reputation.

How Vocal.media works

It’s easy to get published on Vocal, but there are certain peculiarities you should know about how the platform works.

First, sign in to Vocal.media and check their Community Guidelines. You should keep in mind the following rules to get published on Vocal:

Vocal.media is free to use. Publishing, engagement with the audience, and tipping are done at no cost.

You have to be at least 13 years old to become a Vocal creator.

You reserve the right to your stories after publishing them on Vocal.

It takes 24-72 hours for moderators to review and publish your story.

You can republish your old content from other platforms on Vocal.

Stories with less than 600 words are not accepted for publication, same for poems with less than 100 words.

Content in foreign languages (other than English) is not accepted.

As a Vocal creator, you are provided with an essential toolkit for formatting, which lets you create H2 headlines, bold, underline, and italic the text, create quotes and bullet lists.

As a creator, you can promote your products or services in your story, encourage readers to like your posts, and leave tips. Unlike Medium, Vocal does not mind your promo as long as it helps the platform reach new people.

Here is how I finish my Vocal posts:

If you find this piece interesting, please consider leaving a ❤️, or even a tip. Your support means a lot to me as a writer! You can also read more of my stories here.

Once your article is ready, submit it for review. It will be published automatically if it’s in line with Vocal’s rules.

The more you post on Vocal, the shorter your review time is. I’ve made this conclusion solely based on my experience. Perhaps, it might be different for you. Please share your experience with Vocal in the comments below this article. I’ll be happy to learn from you too.

There are a few more creator tools I recommend using on Vocal. These are pinned stories, “subscribe to my stories,” and comments.

Pinned stories

Vocal has recently announced a new feature — pinned stories.

If you believe your best stories are buried somewhere on the 10th page, you can pin three stories to your profile to help readers learn more about you.

Vocal users can see your pinned stories above the rest content. Besides, they’ll be invited to subscribe to your updates and tip you. More on this is below.

Subscribe to my stories

Who we usually call “followers” all over the Internet are named “subscribers” on Vocal.

Note that subscribers don’t pay anything to you when they hit a “subscribe” button. It only means they are loyal readers who want to hear more from you on Vocal.

Unlike Medium, Vocal does not display content from the creators you follow on their main page. Its main page shows stories handpicked by its editors, Vocal challenges, and resources.

If you want to see stories from the content writers you follow, click on your profile link in the right corner > select “Your Subscriptions” > Your Feed.

This way, you’ll see content from the creators you follow, excluding all the rest.

In my opinion, this feature has its pros and cons. You can easily track what your preferred content creators publish. On the other hand, you can’t discover new creators this way. You have to navigate to the home page to read fresh content.

Comments

Vocal has been working on enabling comments for its creators.

It’s been a long-awaited feature that is now available in the creators’ settings. From now on, you can turn comments for your stories on and off.

This functionality is available for both regular and Vocal+ members.

If you are new to Vocal, here is what the Vocal+ membership unlocks for creators.

What is Vocal+?

Vocal+ is an upgraded membership for creators with additional value and features.

You don’t have to pay to publish and make money on Vocal. However, Vocal+ gives you extra benefits.

Vocal regularly adds new features for the Vocal+ creators. Therefore, I’ll keep updating this list whenever new features are available.

In short, Vocal+ lets you try and benefit from all tools on Vocal.

If you are a Vocal+ member, you’ll earn more, pay fewer fees for money withdrawal, get access to exclusive Vocal challenges and pledges. These benefits are not for free, though. You have to pay $10 monthly to maintain your Vocal+ membership.

Many creators wonder if it’s worth paying for Vocal+ membership. Here is my opinion on this matter, which will hopefully help you make the right decision.

If you are an established Vocal.media creator with at least a few thousand monthly views, Vocal+ will help you earn more money.

Let’s say, you have at least 3000 monthly views. Here is how much you would make:

Regular Vocal creator: $11.40

Vocal + creator: $18

Your profit from content views would be $8 compared to $1.40. Besides, there are more ways Vocal rewards its creators I will talk about later in this article.

However, if you barely make a few cents on Vocal, it’s not worth paying $10 regularly.

A tip for Vocal creators:

If you win a Vocal challenge or get some bonuses, sign up for Vocal+ for one month to withdraw your money with the minimum fee.

How to make money on Vocal.media

Vocal is an excellent alternative to Medium. Therefore, it’s one more opportunity to monetize your writing skills online.

In this Vocal.media review, I’ll share how much Vocal pays per view, how else you can make money on Vocal.media (besides writing), and how much money you can make during your first month on Vocal.

Make money per views

Vocal.media pays this much per 1000 views:

*Regular Vocal creators — $3.80

*Vocal+ creators — $6.00

In my opinion, both options don’t seem that promising. For instance, some of my Medium blog posts make way more money. However, Vocal does have some competitive advantages. It pays for both internal and external views, which is incredible!

Let’s say you are a new Vocal.media creator with an established social media presence. If you promote your blog posts on social and attract an army of readers, Vocal will gladly reward you for your efforts.

If you publish an optimized blog post on Vocal, it has a high chance to rank on Google.

According to Ahrefs, Vocal’s domain authority is 78 out of 100, which is pretty solid to rank for some low competition keywords.

I don’t have an extensive social media follower base. However, I do share newly published content on Quora. Here is a list of my top-performing Vocal stories based on views and earnings.You should know that pay-per-view is not the only way to make money on Vocal. I’ve earned much more than these in total.

Furthermore, Vocal.media allows republishing of old content.

In other words, if you publish stories elsewhere, you can give them a second life on Vocal.

For example, I have over 200 blog posts published on Medium as of March 2022. I republish some of them on Vocal and keep making money with my old content. How great is that?

Bonuses

Vocal.media rewards its active and loyal writers with bonuses. Here is how much you can make guaranteed on Vocal.

*$5 — every time your story is featured as a “Top Story.”

*$5 — if your story gets engagement on Vocal’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

*$10 — as soon as you publish ten stories on Vocal.

*$5 — as soon as you like 15 random stories on Vocal.

*$50 — as soon as you post 50 stories on Vocal.

*$5 — as soon as you reach the first 1000 reads on Vocal.

You can see some of my bonuses in the screenshot below. I’ve got this money for republishing my old blog posts on Vocal. You’ll get these bonuses guaranteed too.

Besides, Vocal regularly runs surveys and sends promo emails, offering $5-10 for your feedback.

Tips

Tipping is an accepted and widely used practice on Vocal.

Readers can tip their favorite content creators for their stories. You cannot predict when it will happen and how much money you’ll get as tips. All you can do is create engaging, emotional, and helpful stories.

Furthermore, Vocal encourages content creators to promote tipping within their stories. Like me, you can write a few additional lines and invite your readers to tip your stories.

Besides, Vocal has a sticky footer, reminding readers to subscribe and tip your stories.

If someone tips your story, you’ll see how much they tipped you and for which story in the “Wallet” tab. Tips are sent to your Stripe account immediately without a payment request.

Pledges

As a content creator, you can ask your fans to support your effort through pledges. It is a more stable and recurring income source on Vocal than bonuses, tips, and payment for views.

If your readers decide to support you, you’ll get a recurring $2.30 fee directly to your Stripe account monthly as long as they keep paying you.

Pledges are available for Vocal+ members only! It implies you’ll have to pay $10 monthly to benefit from this feature. You can learn more about how pledges work here.

As a writer, I don’t believe it’s possible to make a living writing with pledges. As for me, it’s an additional bonus, which is nice to get, but you should not necessarily rely on it.

Challenges

Vocal.media challenges are another luring opportunity for content creators.

Vocal runs various storytelling contests to let writers embrace their creativity and earn a decent income.

New challenges are open monthly and guarantee $1000 as a grand prize. Some sponsored challenges, like a “Little Black Book” challenge supported by Moleskine, offered $20,000 as a reward.

If you are into storytelling, fiction, and poem writing, keep an eye on the Vocal challenges page. Some challenges are open for everyone, while others are available exclusively for Vocal+ members.

This way, Vocal encourages more users to become paying members. It’s solely my opinion, and you won’t find it written in the Vocal’s resources.

For instance, over 12,000 submissions competed in the “Little Black Book” challenge sponsored by Moleskine, including mine. Vocal has probably earned over $120,000 from a single challenge. That’s a lot of money!

Some raise concerns over Vocal writing content legitimacy due to many submissions. We don’t know who checks submissions and how they assess stories.

I participated in a few challenges but did not end up winning them. However, I know a few Medium writers who made it. They confirm Vocal sends a reward to the Stripe account, and challenges are legitimate ways of making money on Vocal.media.

If you sign up for Vocal+ membership, give Vocal challenges a try. Perhaps your story will be lucky to bring you fame and rewards.