Exclusive Content !!! Extra, Extra Read All About It !!!

Introduction

I have been fairly scathing about Vocal's implementation of Exclusive Content and you can check it out here. Many creators disagree with me and many agree with my concerns.

The music is "Extra, Extra" by The Who from Tommy

These are my thoughts on it

A Good Idea Badly Implemented

Today I saw my first "Exclusive" piece sail by on my subscription feed and thought if I had not subscribed to this person then I would not have seen that in "Latest Stories", it would have been invisible to me. So Exclusive content reduces your visibility on Vocal.

I get a lot of new subscribers because my work is visible to all Vocal users.

The concept of a paid subscription is fine and I know it works from many friends on Patreon, Substack and Only Fans and they often ask my advice about content, which I am happy to give.

The problem is that Vocal Creators are writers rather than readers, although you have to read to be able to write so are unlikely to reduce their earnings by supporting another creator. I won't and I would not expect anyone to subscribe to me.

However, I do tip creators and I get tips from others because they have enjoyed my work.

When you start to produce exclusive content, you have to commit to delivering high-quality content for your subscribers who are expecting you to deliver.

Many famous authors employ this model and I believe Amazon have a serial model that my Vocal Sister Melissa Ingoldsby uses.

So contact her if you would like to know more about that direction.

While Vocal's exclusive content is not for me anyone who goes for it is going to have to tempt subscribers and there is a potential other problem.

If payment is via Stripe then do your subscribers have to be Vocal+ members? I just checked and they have to be a paid subscriber, so that is another major limitation.

I have analogised this to trying to put a Formula 1 Racetrack in a football stadium. They just don't go together at all.

Conclusion

I don't know if Vocal consulted any creators about this (after all they pay for the platform) but we have it now and will see how it fairs. One positive is that they have corrected the comment count at the bottom of the page, but still refuse to give us a read count on a story page.

As I say Vocal is the best writing platform, but it does have faults and I would love to see some attention paid to these.

Good Luck to anyone who starts releasing "Exclusive Content" and builds a paid subscriber one paid subscriber giving you $5 a month is more than a month's read income for many Vocal Creators.

Thank you so much for reading and your 0.6c is fine for me.