Why You Should Write on Vocal and Medium

I’ve been writing on Vocal for 2 months and Medium for 10. Many have written why Vocal is better than Medium while others have discussed why they’re leaving Vocal for Medium. While each platform has pros and cons, you should consider writing on both Vocal and Medium and these are the reasons why.

1. You Can Write About Different Topics

Sometimes you just want to write about subjects you find interesting but won't perform well on Medium. For those topics that may be popular for people to search on Google, you should publish on Vocal since you get paid for reads from anyone and not just paying members as you do on Medium.

If you blog about a niche on Medium to attract potential employers, you probably don't want to write about other random topics. I write about crafting and DIY on Vocal because it doesn't make sense to publish those stories on Medium if I want a company to hire me for consulting work. People subscribe to me on Medium to read my stories about my niche and they wouldn't be interested in my stories about my crafting.

2. You Can Maximize Earnings From Two Platforms

You can also write a story and publish it on both Vocal and Medium to maximize your earnings. On Vocal, you make money from anyone reading your stories, regardless if they’re a Vocal paying member. Every 1,000 reads get you $3.80 or $6 as a Vocal+ paying member for $9.99 per month or $99 a year. Vocal always gives bonuses if you meet milestones. I've already earned $25 for making the milestones my first month on Vocal and $0.49 for reads on my stories.

On Medium you earn money when a paying member reads your story. On average, 1 minute of paying member reading time is worth about $0.02 to $0.04. Medium just launched an affiliate program that will pay you half of the subscription revenue as long as the referral stays a paying member. This has huge potential to earn you extra income per month if you write engaging content that attracts readers to subscribe to Medium.

Vocal also has an affiliate program referred to as the Vocal Ambassador Program. More information and the link to sign up for the program are in this announcement from Vocal. You get $5 for each person you refer to sign up for Vocal+ within 60 days of clicking on the affiliate link. I've already earned $10 from the Vocal affiliate program.

3. You Can Enter Writing Challenges For Money

The main reason why I signed up for Vocal is because of their writing challenges. The prizes can be big. A recent Members-Only challenge I entered had a first place prize of $22,500. Unfortunately, the challenges require a Vocal+ membership that typically costs $9.99 a month but right now they'reoffering 2 months of Vocal+ for free! It's an even better deal than when I signed up for 1 month of Vocal+ for $1 in June.

Medium recently launched a writer's challenge with prizes up to $50,000. This is a one-time challenge but depending on the success my guess is they may have more in order to stay competitive with Vocal.

4. You Can Improve Your Writing

Since I'm writing in a niche on Medium, I can only practice a certain way of writing that appeals to that audience of readers. However, the ability to write about other topics helps me work on my writing in other areas.

Vocal currently has a series of challenges with prompts for fictional stories, an area I’ve never tried writing before. There are also non-fiction topics I have no experience writing in that push me to go outside of my comfort zone. I've written poems on Vocal. This was an area I definitely can use improvement in and it was interesting to try writing a few.

Writing on Vocal and Medium provides opportunities to practice a wider variety of writing and I felt it's made me a better writer.

Final Thoughts

If you love writing about a wide variety of topics consider writing on both Vocal and Medium. You can also maximize your earnings and improve your writing at the same time.

Thanks for reading and happy writing!