I Got A Top Story On Vocal

Introduction

These are just some thoughts, observations, and musings about when I drop into other creator's stories and see they have only a few comments and hearts which implies not many reads.

I am not going to include any links or names in this piece, which will make it more difficult for me and maybe less useful for readers, but hopefully, it will make people more observant when they read.

The music I have included is "You Take Me Up" by The Thompson Twins

My Observations

I try and read as many stories by friends and also try to discover new creators, many of whom are just starting up. I am always open to chatting with people about creation and promotion, but just offer advice, tell people what I do, and hope to help them on their way.

I sometimes drop into new stories by certain friends and see loads of comments and hearts for a relatively new story, and feel very late to the party, and think that people must not like me very much because I don't get that many responses. The reality is that I am not in many Facebook Vocal groups because I can't cope and I do not write my stories with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in mind, but I still, overall, get a lot of responses, but my average reads per story is 22, ranging between 1 and 1180.

Then I drop into others, some quite old, and see a few hearts and comments, even with Top Stories, and think that must be very disparaging for the creator. I once complained that a Top Story of mine had only got twenty reads and got slapped down for it.

When I see this happen I always try and leave an informative comment and, if appropriate, invite them to join the Facebook Vocal Group that I help to administer.

This does still happen to me, I don't always get a lot of reaction to my stories. One recent story I put a lot of effort into, including recording a song for it, but at the moment it only stands at two reads and comments, which is disappointing, but then again another one, which grabbed a Top Story has hit nearly two hundred reads in a few days, so for me it is swings and roundabouts.

Unfortunately, I am just one person, and you don't know if a story is well-read until you drop into it, but always try and leave a comment because that will mean that Vocal will be more likely to register a read and the creator will get a little more in their Vocal wallet from your interaction with them.

So What Can We Do?

These are the things that I do, gleaned from how I got started on Vocal after thinking it was another dead-end writing platform.

I always try and comment, and if they are a new creator I will leave a dollar tip, it's not much, but it was a dollar tip (two actually from the same person) that made me believe that my work was worth something, and without that, I would probably not be here on Vocal today.

If they have been on Vocal for a while and do not seem to get a lot of interaction, tell them about the Facebook Vocal Groups for support and maybe grow their audience.

You can offer advice about how to get more reads of their work.

Also, share their work on Facebook in some of the groups.

These are just a few of the things that I do on Vocal, to try and make it a more inclusive environment for everyone, and I hope I have given you a few ideas and pointers.