Which Platform Should You Write for - Medium or Vocal Media?

Is writing for Vocal Media or Medium worth it? Is it worth being a member of Vocal Media or Medium? What do you think?

Here are my thoughts on each of these platforms but first a bit about myself.

I have been a writer for over 25 five years. I write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. I have written novels. I mostly write for publications on Medium. I earn much more from my writing on Medium than I do from Vocal Media. Other than being a writer of poetry, fictional short stories, articles, and much more at Medium, I am also an Editor and owner of six publications on Medium. I have been with Medium for 6 years.

I have been writing for Vocal Media for three years and I have 114 stories published so far. I am a paying member for both Medium and Vocal Media.

Learn more about Vocal Media below:

To be honest, I have had more success on Medium than I have had on Vocal Media. In fact, I get nothing from writing at Vocal Media even though I pay the member's fee of $9.99 each month. Medium charges just $5 per month which is nothing. You can easily earn that back every month by writing for Medium. Of course, what I do know is that if you are included in Vocal Media's members program you can earn from pageviews and this can be substantial if you can get your work noticed and seen as much as possible. With Medium, you earn from pageviews only when members read your story. So, if you can manage to be successful with Vocal Media then it is a good idea to keep writing for them.

At Vocal Media, I have never had a top story. I have never won or become a runner-up or been among the ten runner-ups in a challenge at Vocal Media. It is frustrating when you are a paying member of Vocal Media and you write all the time. Of course, I have persevered with Vocal Media in the hope that I will one day have some success here and that it will come soon. Of course, that has not happened yet.

At Medium, I have had one of my poems boosted which also boosted my earnings. This kind of success has never happened to me at Vocal Media.

Writing for Vocal Media can be successful for some writers and poets, especially if your stories are picked for the top story section. When a story is shown on the page of the top story section it gets a wide audience of views and you can earn money for each view no matter who reads it. Even if you win a challenge or are a runner-up or one of the ten runner-ups then this makes it worthwhile, because you get paid for having a top story and you can earn up to $2000 for winning a challenge.

But what if you have never won a challenge or had a story or poem picked for a top story? I bet you get frustrated about this all the time. I know I do. I always wish for success with Vocal Media because I know it would make me feel better about this platform if it did happen. Of course, after being here for three years, it doesn't seem likely anymore. I cannot see myself getting anywhere with Vocal Media as I have done with Medium unless I am going about it all wrong. Perhaps, I need to write much more here and see how the pageviews will go up or not.

Of course, I check the top stories page every day and not one of my stories or poems is ever picked. So, to me, it is not worth paying $9.99 to be a member of Vocal Media unless I commit myself to writing every day here. Most of the time, I earn nothing, and the money that's in my wallet rolls over and over each month. It has been like that for a few months now except when I was paid for a milestone, which is the only success I have had in three years. So, is it time that I step up my game here or is it time to quit?

I also read articles and poems on Vocal Media as I do on Medium. I write comments and click hearts too. I read somewhere that by reading one story after another and by commenting or hearting you can get an incentive (or paid) from Vocal Media for reading people's work, but that has never happened for me even though I read a lot. I have read that if you read fifteen or twenty stories one after the other and heart and comment on them you get paid for doing this, but this has never happened to me and I am not sure that this is true anymore.

So, unless something happens to make me change my mind about Vocal Media then I think this will be my last month of being a member at Vocal Media as it is simply not worth my while writing here anymore.

Of course, if I up my game and write every day will it make a difference for me? What do you think? Does anyone have any different ideas or information about these platforms?

Here is a bit about Medium in the following video:

Learn more about both platforms below: