My First 30 Days on Vocal - I Earned $545

Discovering Vocal was like finding out about an unplanned pregnancy. I'm sorry, I couldn't think of a better analogy for a "happy surprise". Are people typically excited about unplanned pregnancies? I guess it depends. I definitely meant it in a happy, over-the-moon kind of way though. My first article was published on Vocal on 28th December, 2020. I discovered the platform through a targeted Facebook Ad. I typically ignore Facebook Ads because I think our phones are always listening to us and that's creepy as hell. The very same day, I had been on the phone with a friend from back home and explaining that it'd be a dream to earn money for my writing. A fews hours later, I pop open the Facebook app and what do I see but "Earn Money Writing on Vocal." I clicked on it and one month later, here we are. I thought that it would be fun to look back at this past month and reflect on what I've written thus far, my experiences on the platform and yes, because I clickbaited the title, how much money I've earned. Full disclosure: this review is actually going to be a month and some change. Because I started posting at the end of December 2020, it made logistical sense to just lump those few extra days in with the entirety of January.

Writing on Vocal

I posted 16 stories on Vocal this month on a range of diverse topics from code-switching to public speaking to music to food reviews and even a short fictional story. As of January 31st 2021, My most viewed article is "Cracking the Code of Vocal Top Stories" which has 347 views and 49 likes.

My least viewed story this month was "Preparing for Winter at Zoom University - Tips for Online Learning Success" which has zero likes and 3 views. I write this to show the great disparity that sometimes occurs when I post. Some stories take off and others don't. It comes with the territory of writing and it's pretty frustrating if I'm honest but you just have to suck it up and keep writing anyway.

By far my favourite article I drafted this month was "Code-Switching: On Having Two Linguistic Personalities." This is a topic that I've been passionate about for a very long time and it felt amazing to share my thoughts on Vocal. I was really encouraged by its reception and to date, it has received 58 likes and 275 views.

This month (or I guess last month when you're reading this), I had the honour of being featured as a Top Story not one but five times which is WILD. Of course, being me, I didn't take a screen shot of everytime this happened because I generally lack foresight. The stories in question that were featured include "Cozy is a State of Mind", "So You Didn't Win a Vocal Challenge?", "Tackling Zoom Anxiety", "Code-switching: On Having Two Linguistic Personalities" and most recently, "Cracking the Code of Vocal Top Stories."

Logging onto Vocal and seeing my story on its landing page for the first time was such a surreal experience. I know it's silly because I firmly believe that you shouldn't seek validation from external sources but still...I let out a really ugly shriek and then proceeded to text my mom and my best friend and everyone who I loved that wouldn't laugh at my nerdiness about it.

Vocal has been an incredible outlet for me this past month and an invaluable tool for self-expression. I write a lot, mostly for myself and this is the first time that I've had the opportunity to share my writing with others. Particularly in these uncertain times, when it's almost too easy to feel all alone and bored by the hum-drum of online everything, it has ensured that I don't absolutely lose my mind.

Earnings

I earned a combined total of $546.67 this month on Vocal.

I placed second in the Dear New Year Challenge and won $500. I also received $37 in tips this month, $25 of which was from Vocal for being featured as a top story and $12 of which was from you guys, the readers. Thank you so much for reading and also liking my work enough to send me money.

I've received 1611 reads across my 16 stories this month. This is an average of 101 reads per story.

These reads have translated to earnings of $9.67. I know this isn't a crazy amount and certainly not as much as other people on this platform but I'm really happy with it because it's $9.67 more than I would have had otherwise. The read figure is also encouraging because it makes me feel like my words aren't being released into the void and there is actually someone on the receiving end consuming my content.

Community

I used to write on Medium before quickly ditching it. One thing that struck me immediately about Vocal is the presence of community. I am a member of the Vocal Media Creators Hub group on Facebook which I encourage everyone to join and also the Vocal Stories Space on Quora. These two spaces have been helpful in fostering a sense of community among creators. Both groups are interactive and were really significant for me in terms of learning the in and outs of Vocal. How it works, how to increase readership, how to optimize your story. They also helped me to discover some amazing stories by incredible writers on this platform. I would encourage everyone to join if you aren't already a member of either. It's a really good way to meet other writers and begin to build a readership.

Goals for Next Month

I have drafted some broad goals for the month of February on Vocal.

1. Publish at least 2x for the week - February is typically a really busy and difficult month for me. It's smack dab in the middle of midterm season at uni so I tend to have a crap ton of assignments due. The month also represents the peak of Winter which always has a downward push on my mood and motivation. For this reason, I'm setting myself the goal of publishing at least twice weekly on Vocal.
2. Earn $12 from my writing - Like I said, I earned $9.67 from reads this month and I want to earn $12 in the month of February. Upping the ante a little bit. Granted, this has very little to do with me and more to do with people actually reading my content which I have little control over. But I will endeavour to write consumable content and hopefully...people will consume it?
3. Learn more about creative ways to promote my stories - So far, I've been kind of halfheartedly sharing my stories on Facebook and not doing much more than that. This coming month, I want to explore unique ways to more effectively promote my stories. I don't particularly have an idea of what that will look like but I'm excited to try out different methods and share the results with you guys.
4. Enter that $20,000 Vocal Challenge (a girl can dream) - I want to work on an entry for the Little Black Book Challenge this month. I'm gonna be honest, I'm a little bit rusty and haven't seriously written fiction in many, many years and there's practically no chance that I'll even win but hey, better to try and fail than fail to try.
5. Read more on Vocal - I've read a few articles here and there but I want to get more involved in the community and read more widely. There are so many talented writers on this platform and I feel that I've barely scratched the surface of discovering them. This month, I wish to make an active effort to read more intentionally.

Vocal was an accidental discovery for me at the end of December and I have to say, things have been amazing thus far. I started writing on Vocal during a time when I was feeling particularly sad and stifled by my outside environment. School had been shifted to online and not only had my motivation to do absolutely anything been quickly expunged but my anxiety levels had skyrocketed. I'm an introverted person by nature and lockdown has exacerbated my horrible tendency of burrowing deep within myself. As a result, I started to experience excruciating bouts of loneliness, self-doubt and acute anxiety. I'm not here to claim that writing on Vocal has completely cured me of my mental illness because that would be a lie but it has given me something to do so that I'm not driven mad by my chronic over-thinking and self-deprecation. I'm pretty pumped to see what the future may hold on this platform and what gaffs and successes I will experience. Here's to many more months of content and writing on Vocal!

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