Make Money On Vocal!

I first heard about this site from a coworker; they sent me a link knowing I had an undergrad in creative writing, had been published, and wanted to get back into the writing world. I gave the site a once over, decided if I got enough traction and views on my account, I would consider starting the free trial and if things kept up, pay for the Vocal+ account. My first submission was a memoir piece that had just won a writing contest, unanimously selected by all of the judges out of hundreds of submissions. Vocal approved it (after verifying I didn't steal it off of the contest winner site) and I followed up quickly with a few poems, and a short story.

About a month later, my stats were still garbage. I didn't get it. I promoted it on social media, like Vocal told me to. I told my friends and family, who passed it on. Why were my reads still so low? I surfed the site, trying to find communities that weren't just click-bait titles and stock photos. I even clicked on the click-bait, "how to lose 10lbs!" and "how I made over $1000 on Vocal in a month!" and that's when I realized why my stats were doing so poorly.

This isn't a site for writers, or promoting writers. Sorry, this isn't a site for talented writers to be recognized for their work. This is a site for people who can pump out as many 100-word articles a day, with no need to edit or spell check because they are always approved, flooding every community with the same garbage the last 10 people just published. At least 5 click-bait articles I read that day were lists that happened to contain the same information that a basic google search resulted in. There is no way to contact or message any user unless they provide their email in their public bio, so even if a publisher stumbled across something well-written, they have no way to contact the writer. Why didn't Vocal think about that? Or rather, what were the projections on how that feature would have negatively impacted their business model?

Disappointed, but not surprised, I tried writing click-bait of my own, "Panic! 5 ways to alleviate panic attack symptoms and tips on dealing with their aftermath,"and failed because I do not write trash and apparently can't even force myself to. It morphed into half-memoir and half advice. It turned out to be my most read article, with Vocal reporting only 22 reads, when I know for a fact more people read it than that. I realized then that the algorithm for counting reads must favor Vocal members reading other Vocal members content, while my fan-base is primarily non-Vocal members.

I have had friends and family contact me asking why the tip button isn't working, and I refuse to force them into making an account when Vocal could easily make the tip button accessible to anyone. But Vocal isn't about writers making money, it's about getting as many profiles made as possible, and about getting their advertisements on as many websites as possible.

So why am I still on here? Because of the little, tiny, microscopic piece of faith I have left in humanity. That maybe people will stop selling their writing for so much less than they deserve for it. The people pumping out garbage all day, every day, are dropping the baseline for writing rates and freelance writers are finding it harder and harder every day to make a living because of sites like this.

Back to the title of this article: "Make Money on Vocal!" I think I covered just about everything. Pump out 100-word articles about nothing, attach a stock photo and title that will make people click on it, the same model yahoo uses to promote fake news, and get as many people as you possibly can to make a Vocal account.

But just know, if you are one of those people, you are destroying the writing market for real and talented writers trying to make a living, who put effort into what they write; research, drafts, editors, etc. and sites like this are actively participating in destroying the creative arts as a career choice for every future generation coming out of school.

This community can take Vocal back for writers. We need to come together and agree to stop the click-bait, to promote well written work, and to make this a real community of real writers.