Observations On Changes In Challenges And Top Stories On Vocal

Introduction

This was the challenge that finally tempted me with a $2,000 prize, and I thought, "I can do that":

Then

I actually didn't know how to enter, and I never submitted my poem:

I'm sure I wouldn't have won anyway, as I came to realise that due to the sheer number of creators on Vocal, winning was a lot more difficult than I thought.

Also, in those days, Top Stories were not very frequent, so when you got one, it was special. They also had awesome stories which gave you five dollars but were not featured on the home page.

This became a time for making friends with other Vocal creators, learning and writing. Vocal became my most profitable writing venture that I have been involved in.

I joined a few Facebook Vocal groups that I listed in this poem. The fact that I wrots a poem like this shows that I learned things by being on Vocal.

Since then, there have been a lot of Vocal developments, like commenting on stories and improvements to the editor and the search facility.

Now

Vocal Top Stories are now a daily feature, and many people get a lot of them, although it doesn't generally seem to generate reads. One recent one had no reads and no hearts; it wasn't particularly good, but was from a Vocal favourite, which was probably the reason it was chosen.

Challenge now have a $200 top prize, but for recent ones, there are FIVE top prizes, plus runners up and honourable mentions (I have scraped four of those somehow).

So it looks like Vocal are probably paying out more than when I first started, but it is spread over a hell of a lot more people. You look at some profile pages, and they are awash with challenge wins and placements, which makes you feel you really have a chance to do that yourself.

Conclusion

I am close to having my first story with ten dollars from reads, which is something I never expected.

Vocal is an excellent platform, and you can use it to improve your writing and make a bit of coffee money, too.

You won't always get Top Stores or Challenge Placements, but it is nice to see your friends get them.

One side effect of Vocal is that I have always wanted to write a book, and thanks to Vocal, I have twelve self-published volumes on Amazon, including this beauty, co-authored with The Glittering Fox.

Thank you so much for reading and hope you have enjoyed it.