Vocal keeping newbies in the picture

I'm a newbie on Medium and an even newer newbie on Vocal. So still early days, but from what I read on Medium about Medium I'm leaning mightly towards Vocal as the way to go for several reasons.

I also recently found about Substack through some Tim Denning articles on Medium and after checking out the platform it sure looks to have great potential and may even be the future of freelancing writing if what you read is true. So I have signed up there as well.

However, there's one common thread underlying all three platforms, and Quora, that is causing me a lot of headaches and I'm sure there are thousands of writers out there who have the same problem. You guessed it! The payment process is through Stripe, and my country South Africa is one of the many countries not supported by Stripe.

Alternatives to Stripe?

I've been wracking my brain how to get around this. I even opened a Wise account because after reading what is possible to do with a Wise US dollar account I got the impression that having one enables you to open a Stripe account, or link it to your Stripe account and thereby enable payment on these writing platforms.

It took two days to open a Wise account and get verified which was completed last week but I haven't yet tried to open a Stripe account. I have a sinking feeling it's not going to work as I don't have a US residential address, even if I do have a Wise account with US bank account details.

This is a hot potato issue, especially on Medium where frustrated writers are unable to get on to the partner program or the Medium member referral program due to their country not being on the Stripe supported countries list.

Keeping new members in the picture

One needs 100 followers to become a Medium Program Partner but even when that magic number is reached, many writers are not still being accepted into the program whether they have a Stripe account or not according to some of the stories I have read. That is why I feel a lot more positive about Vocal who at least put you in the picture regarding Stripe and open a wallet anyway for each new member regardless. As I do not qualify to be paywalled on Medium, I do not even have a wallet there!

According to some writers on Medium, they managed to get onto the partner program using a Payoneer bank account. I do have a Payoneer account so that is something to look into.

A wallet makes all the difference

On the other hand, Vocal informs new members whose countries are not supported by Stripe to start writing anyway, and any earnings will go into their wallet and be available once Stripe is in their country. There are 35 or 36 countries currently supported by Stripe and the number is growing so apparently it's just a matter of time before your country is also supported. Sooner rather than later I hope!

I already received a $10 bonus for becoming a Vocal+ member and a few cents in my wallet for the one story I have written so far. Also, there are no minimum number of followers needed and stories to be written to start earning on Vocal, as is the case on Medium.

Even though the same would obviously apply to all platforms using Stripe should your country join the Stripe list, I like the way Vocal addresses this problem even though it cannot make promises on Stripe's behalf it gives affected writers motivation to write. It's great having a wallet on Vocal even if you can't access your earnings you can watch them grow! The money doesn't expire or disappear after a certain period of time, it's available for as long as you are on Vocal. And once you have a referral link on Vocal they ask for a PayPal address if you have so that is a great alternative. There's light at this end of this tunnel. Come on Stripe, make a plan. Fast!

Bitcoin and PayPal

As mentioned earlier, I navigated through Substack a bit before signing up, but not in-depth and I know payment there is also through Stripe. News, unconfirmed yet, as far as I know, is that payment using bitcoin and crypto wallets is possibly in the pipeline there. So much easier to open a crypto wallet like Exodus, no matter where you are from. One is spoilt for choice and there are no "supported country" issues to contend with using crypto. Maybe I got it wrong, but I will learn more as I go along with Substack.

To end, a question to all those writing platforms out there, and specifically to the three I'm a member of: what is preventing leadership from making available alternative payment processes instead of using Stripe exclusively? There are so many less restrictive and more accessible payment options available. I'm convinced your membership numbers would increase dramatically with potentially thousands more writers signing up knowing they have access to their earnings.

The ball's in your court.