How To Pay For Your First 7 Months of Vocal+ For FREE Without Winning Anything!

According to some chatter on the handful of facebook groups for Vocal creators, there have been occasional discrepancies, but at the end of the day, Vocal has done a solid job of offering an enticing bonus structure!

A lot of us are here, writing our faces off, with a blind determination to win a Challenge! I love that. But let's be real -- some things are not guaranteed.

That said, here is a nugget of hope and motivation to help you put pen to paper, or more accurately, finger to keyboard!

It costs $9.99 a month to pay for your dirty little writing habit, fellow Vocal+ members and future members, or $99 for the year if you pay upfront!

It's easy to opt for the totally valid free membership. With the free option, you can still get your stories out there, but without Vocal+ you are unable to take home a coveted challenge win, and your views rack up $3.80 per 1000 instead of $6. It may not be the big bucks, but it can certainly add up if you develop a following.

Full disclosure, I joined without any understanding of bonuses, but I also really believe in my ability to someday win a challenge. I already write for a living and hey, I have to survive this pandemic somehow... So as a single woman in her late 30s, who is beyond isolated, my new passion is raging confidence. It's a new thing I'm trying.

But while we all cross our fingers till we lose circulation and wait for our dreams to come to fruition based on a choice that is quite likely, mostly subjective, here is the good news.

Drumroll please; Here are the actual bonuses:

$5 after publishing your 5th story

$10 after publishing your 10th story

$50 after publishing your 50th story

$5 after "hearting" 15 fellow writer's stories!

Need a BONUS-bonus? For some current members and possible future ones- a survey, sent via email, offering $10 for participating in a simple 10 minute survey. (I was done in 4 minutes, so definitely worth the time).

AND according to current ads, Vocal is offering two months free for new members. I don't have confirmation of how long this promotion is running, but I'm submitting this story on August 7, 2021, so if you're reading around that time, grab that deal!

While there may actually be several more potential bonuses, these ones all have something in common. They are all predictable and based on tangible work.

Not making the initial list is also the bonus that is being offered for writers who make a submission to all 8 of the SFS series challenges because some of you may just be joining this party now- but never fear, it seems likely that Vocal will continue to come up with ways to incentivize their active and devoted members!

Also not mentioned above- reward bonuses for the “chosen” few! Now, I love that you can also receive bonuses for having a featured story, but the reality check is, you can't rely on that.... Focusing on merit-based rewards can easily get a sensitive writer off track.

And as writers... Well, kids...we tend to have a lot of feelings!

So, why should you care about these bonuses? If you're on the fence, the bonuses you receive from simply doing what you came here to do, will 100% pay for 7 months of your time with a Vocal+ membership- possibly more. If you commit to writing about 2 stories a week, you can skip basically ever paying for vocal at all, should you decide to cancel after that time. Or, for the less ambitious (or just those who are particularly busy) write just one story a week and you'll spend no more than $50 on your vocal membership this year.

Doable? It's all up to you and your own commitment; A lesson many writers need to be reminded of. After all, this career is often overtaken by dreamers, and not always by doers. Sometimes we need a reminder to be BOTH.

To be honest, as a NYT-bestseller-hopeful, I'm thankful that most of you are going to shrug this off or write half a dozen stories and give up. But I'm not all obnoxious competition- I'm actually rooting for you! Because the 5% of you who take this to heart and get inspired by the tiny push to keep writing-one $5 bonus at a time; you are my people. When Vocal delivers on their upcoming promise to let creators follow one another, please hit me up so I can do the same.

Meanwhile, I challenge all of you to make this the year that your resolution to finish your novel doesn't get lost with the one to watch less reality tv, because I know you know what happened on The Bachelorette this week...

...and can we talk about that? Jeez, Greg.