My Vocal Problem

I have written about this before and have generally vowed not to write complaining or downer posts about anything, but recent things I have seen have just made me want to say this and purge myself and move on. A lot of this is a complaint but check my final paragraphs for my ultimate real feelings about Vocal.

I have said in the past I would not sacrifice the love and feedback I get from my Vocal Friends on Facebook for a Vocal Top Story and that will always stand. I command a high level of respect, love and they give me incredible confidence in myself. Yesterday someone said something complimentary to me that I was totally bowled over with.

I sometimes feel that Vocal have actually blacklisted me from ever being considered for a top story ever, and the one that was “The Lady Of The Water '' was something that slipped through by accident. I know it is an excellent poem, but I have surpassed it several times, I know that because of my own view on things and the incredible feedback I get from my Vocal Facebook friends,

The other thing is that I have quite a lot of awesome stories from Vocal for which I get a five-dollar bonus for which I am grateful. This means I know I am not invisible to Vocal but they are saying that they will not give me any publicity.

You could say that is personal paranoia, or that Top Stories are a bit of a lottery, but it does give me a feeling of confirming my own opinion of myself that I am “not good enough” and there's nothing I can do about that. I sometimes have people asking me why my story is not a Top Story on Vocal and I cannot answer.

I see people post things and get Top Stories for posts on very similar subjects , I am not going to say what because I don’t generally begrudge people as often they are Facebook Vocal friends and I am actually happy they have been recognised with a Top Story.

I try to think what makes me so invisible to Vocal moderators. Is it because I am from the UK, as most Vocal members are from the USA and Canada? Is it that I don’t interact enough by reading Vocal stories, 4000 in eight months is fifty a month so two a day on average, maybe that is it because I have had almost 8000 reads in the same time so the read to post ratio is two to one in my favor, and I recommend a one to two ratio for reading in Facebook groups. I publish a lot of pieces and get reads (sometimes less than ten for many) that add up to a decent return, but maybe Vocal has decided I publish more than I read so, therefore, should not be a candidate for a Top Story.

It also could be that I don’t optimize stories for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) but my stories are for me and my audience, not for something to appear in a Google List.

Many of my posts are in Beat but, and this is ironic because I am giving them extra coverage, I fail to see why these were deemed worthy of a Top Story. They are basically just a vague list of songs but in my opinion, not a Top Story.

And this was actually a challenge winner (Graveyard Smash) but its title, in my opinion, was very misleading. So Top Stories can win challenges ( well it came third)

In our Vocal Facebook Groups we have been asked to share stories of ours that we think should be Top Stories but because of my Vocal standing I didn’t feel I could share any even though I think many of mine are worthy of a Top Story.

So I will finish up with saying that I think that Vocal is a generally excellent model. It has a lot of problems , but it also works to fix problems and is continually improving. I have made more money on Vocal in eight months than from my Seven Days In blog in fifteen years, and the friends I have made because of being on Vocal are an absolute treasure who I could never be without.

So what song should I lead in with (and wondering if this is something that stops me getting a Top Story , but I don’t care , it's my style) , what about “The Number One Song In Heaven” by Sparks and Giorgio Moroder , because although I will never be Number One on Vocal , I will always be Number One with my Vocal friends and that’s what really matters to me, and the song is wonderful.