I Blame Vocal Too

I Blame Vocal is one of the stories that popped up on recent stories today, and it's pretty good. It got me to thinking about Vocal, and what they do and don't do. And, dammit, I blame Vocal too. It is, after all their fault.

I blame Vocal for all the things it made me think were possible, and that for some reason I'm still chasing. How dare they! What were they thinking? You want specific evidence! You question whether or not it's alright to blame Vocal.

There are plenty of things to blame them for, and I blame them for each and every one of them. Sort of.

Enticing Advertising Brought Me Here

Vocal ran advertising that brought me here. Does anybody else recall the advertising they used. I wish I'd taken a screen shot. The advertising they ran was insidious and ingenious at the same time. It guaranteed that people were going to take a look at the site, and that a percentage would go after their unique offer.

$6,000.00 to tell your stories!

It's brilliant! Who doesn't want to make an easy six thousand dollars? And, what could be more easy than getting paid to tell your stories? Hell, I bet that each and every person has such an intriguing tale that 6,000 sounds fair.

Ooops, the fine print. That's where they got everybody. First came excitement, and then came the math. To achieve the all elusive $6,000.00 you were going to have to tell such stories that they'd get a million people or more to read them.

In five or six years, I have yet to stumble across anybody that's reached 1,000,000 readers. Even some of the best, most entertaining, and worldly writers I've met, aren't even close.

Yes, I blame Vocal for running a successful ad campaign, throwing down the gauntlet, creating the hold my keyboard moment, and getting me hooked on trying to be one of those that does reach a million reads. And I've got less than 950,000 to go, so I'm well on the way.

Forcing people to be better! How dare they!

Dammit! I improved as a writer.

That probably wasn't their original mission, to get people who think they can write to improve their writing. And, Vocal didn't exactly put together classes or webinars to help writers improve. But, it happened.

If you don't think it happened to you, go back and look at your very first piece of work on the platform. Surprise! That's what happens when you do something regularly, and you try competing to be a challenge winner, or even just a runner up, or to get the occasional top story.

Yes, Vocal will pay people for their work, but not so much so as to pay you to suck! That's just not a good idea, and is a poor business model.

Dammit Vocal, I blame you for the improvements I see.

Making Me Think

By the time I found Vocal, I'd surpassed the recommended number of concusions a person should get in one lifetime. Brain damage is a bitch. Having your wires focably crossed for you sucks. What it does to the human brain is still being studied, but let me tell you, avoid getting five or more concussions before age 48, if you can.

Vocal did make me think, a lot. And, the more I thought about writing, the more I thought about how to market my own writing, and my long term goals for writing, the more I got done.

Recently, due to the relatively low reads across platforms, I was forced to start thinking of ways to find new readers. And then, one day, I stumbled onto new ways to use picture and video platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to be able to tap into over a billion possible readers.

Did it explode? No!

But my weekend numbers are looking promising, and my dailies are improved by 100% or more. Hell, in this era, who gets 60 reads very often in a single day. Granted, it's not the 3800 in one day record I set back in 2021, but that was going to be a tough one to beat.

I blame Vocal for making me use my brain. Lord knows I had a good time using it as somebody's punching bag. Hitting those fists with my head was always like a weekend at Coachella.

There are other things I'd like to blame Vocal for. However, I think I'll keep that between me and Vocal.

Until next time, write on!