I Am Excited About Vocal's New Updates And You Should Be Too

Are you looking for an alternative to a writing platform to publish your stories and earn a few more dollars? Are you looking to build up a community of followers that are interested in your writing?

Well, then this post is just for you!

After being on Medium for nearly seven months with not much success, I looked for an alternative to monetize my stories. I knew I was not a bad writer. There were multiple stories on Medium which getting loads of traffic from search engines. But, since Medium didn't monetize external audiences, I ended up with nil earnings on these stories.

My quest for an alternate platform landed me on Vocal.media, a site that paid you for external reads. It also had additional income opportunities like tips and challenges, which seemed like good income-generating opportunities. The idea seemed great, and I decided to give it a try.

But as it's said, "the grass is always greener on the other side."

One month on Vocal gave me a vastly different experience from what I had expected. Writing on Vocal was like paid blogging, which was frustrating. You have to submit your story, wait for acceptance, and then start aggressively marketing it on other platforms.

All this marketing was not my cup of tea. It was time-consuming and took me away from my writing as I had to invest time in putting my story on multiple platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

But more than the marketing, what was hurting was Vocal provided no engagement opportunity. The only way to identify if the readers liked your content was by either looking at the hearts or the tips received on your story.

And frankly, most of these hearts were a swap between the writer. It was like, "You scratch my back, and I will scratch yours." The lack of interaction with my readers and the opportunity to create a fan following were the biggest drawback of Vocal, and at one point I decided to quit the platform.

I was not alone in my perception about Vocal; being part of multiple Facebook groups, I had many fellow writers complaining about Vocal membership and how it was all just a scam to earn from writers like you and me.

The only comfort I had to continue writing on Vocal as a free member was that it was a listed company and could be considered Legit.

But all that is about to change. We have seen Medium changing a few months back to a relationship-based model and connecting writers to their readers. These models create an environment of long-lasting relationships and stronger communities, which is a win-win for everyone.

And Vocal seems to be all set to give other writing platforms a tough competition shortly. If we can go by the changes that Justin Maury proposes, Vocal will beat other platforms hands down.

Exciting changes on Vocal to look forward to

#1 - Follow Authors

Vocal will soon introduce a change that will allow readers to follow a writer. This is probably the biggest change and may turn out to be a game-changer for Vocal. You can imagine the boost it gives you as a writer when people who like to read your content can follow you on Vocal and not rely on any other platform to get updates.

This change, whenever implemented, can be a breakthrough for everyone on Vocal, and I am eagerly waiting for it.

#2 - Comments

Comments are a great way to get feedback from your readers. It's also a way of directly connecting the reader to writers. It helps the writers create content that their readers want and helps readers get answers to their unsolved queries. You can expect this feature on Vocal in the coming months.

#3 - Quick Edits

Maybe the most-requested feature update for writers. We all are humans and make errors while publishing our drafts. In most cases, we get to know these mistakes after some readers point them out or try to read the same after some time.

Doing edits in published stories is a pain on Vocal. You couldn't do it yourself and had to write to the support team and wait for them to do it for you.

Vocal will soon introduce a feature called "Quick Edit" that allows creators to edit only the contents of the body text of their story. It will be the first step towards a more robust suite of post-publish options.

#4 - Unpublish

Very soon, you will be able to unpublish your published stories on Vocal. This feature gives you the freedom to manage the content you want people to see under you.

This is a significant feature, as we writers sometimes publish content that we don't want people to see in the future (maybe some foolish past experiment which may damage reputation today). The ability to unpublish your stories will help you manage your stories better.

#5 - Recurring Creator Support

One more reason to be on Vocal as a content creator is the ability to generate consistent income from your supporter.

Vocal may introduce a recurring monthly support model that allows your fans to subscribe to your profile, providing you with the stability of monthly support.

#6 - Ambassador Program

In addition to the above changes, Vocal has also launched an Ambassador program, which allows you to create an affiliate link, which you promote and earn $5 for every paid sign-up. The earnings can be withdrawn using Paypal, which is excellent for writers who cannot earn due to the unavailability of Stripes in their countries.

Takeaway

Vocal seems to be all geared up to take competition head-on. Once it implements all the changes, it will benefit writers more than probably any other writing platform by giving multiple earning opportunities.

These changes will build confidence in writers and attract more people to Vocal.

All in all, Vocal seems to be well poised for growth, and all set to be the King in its niche.

What are you guys waiting for? Just join Vocal and get ready for a joy ride. You can join the Vocal+ program with my link.

Affiliate disclosure.

There is an affiliate link to sign-up for Vocal membership in this article. If you sign-up with my link, you will not be charged anything extra, but I will earn a small commission from Vocal, which will help me to keep writing.

Source:- The content is derived from the update provided on Vocal by Justin Maury.