I’m One Away From 500 Posts

So I just realised, once my 3 other stories have been approved that I am just 1 story away from reaching my big milestone with this website: my 500th story. Fingertips shaking, but not hitting the keyboards, I have a little black sheep plushie staring at me and smiling at me. I notice her little nose is shaped as a heart. It’s a plushie I ordered from Etsy, and I think it’s one of my favourite purchases ever. I have lots of plushies, but this one has a special place in my heart because I know it wasn’t made in a factory. It was handmade in somebody’s home and made with love, care and great attention to detail. She may be a black sheep, but this shiny wooloo plushie is really bringing life into the room already. Since not everyone is familiar with pokemon, I think I will refer to Wooloo as Muffy from now on as that is my nickname for her.

If Muffy was real, or could talk, I think she would be encouraging me to write as much as I can. She will say, “You can do it!” 500 posts is such a big milestone that I wanted to cross. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I reach that. I don’t know anybody on Vocal who has over 500 posts on Vocal. Maybe somebody else does though. I know some people that had between 200-400 though. As Vocal is a site that only pay for reads rather than how much you post, it is certainly quality over quantity.

I’ll be honest, some of my stories only have 1-20 reads and there’s some that don’t have any reads at all. I had a couple of posts that had no attention at first but overtime they got more views and some that got consistently popular. My fiction and poems don’t get a lot of reads on this site, but I still like posting them on here because I believe in cross-posting.

Things that have always given me lots of reads are lists and reviews. My most read work is a post where I reviewed a Starbuck’s drink and I didn’t even make much effort into promoting that piece. When it comes to promotions, it’s like a random lottery: sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I do share my posts on Twitter and Facebook groups.

I have found using just one social network isn’t enough for lots of reads. Since joining and sharing works on Facebook groups, I have noticed I have had a big boost in my readership. There’s a lot of platforms to share your work on nowadays and I do share my work on Reddit communities if I feel they are suitable. I also have to be careful that my post follows that subreddit’s rules as many frown upon self-promotion. On the other hand, if you want to get your work out there and want to earn money it’s one of the only ways to get your work out there.

Some discord servers also have their own specialised promo channels. I’m a part of two Depeche Mode servers on Discord and got some nice feedback on my Depeche Mode posts.

I’ll admit I have waffled on a bit. I added Muffy the sheep just to add more meat into this post and make it past the 600 word count. On the other hand, I think Muffy is cute and is always worth talking about the beautiful black sheep called Muffy. I think this could be a nice little story coming. Speaking of stories, my friend’s daughter wanted me to write a story about a Flamingo called Ming having a tea party for her birthday. I never actually finished it.