Why I won’t get vocal, and How not to write a review
These reviews for the most part demonstrate poor writing skills. Many of the poorly written reviews are quite negative; accusations of nefarious intentions among an elite club of judges abound. This leads me to the conclusion that most people who think they can win some money by signing up for this kind of service have not studied the odds of the lottery, nor have they grasped the nature of internet capitalism.
I do not have an account with vocal, but I feel after reading the reviews and plotting myself on a graph of some kind that my chances are higher than average. The only problem is I like pizza more than gambling.
TL
TL
I Found My Voice
Surprisingly, Vocal has helped me find my voice. I started writing on Vocal when I was in a dark place. I don't make enough money on the site to quit my day job but, I've learned from so many people. I took a risk and wrote fiction for the first time. I jumped back into poetry. I entered Vocal Challenges.
NW
N. W.
Review After 3 Months on Vocal
I’ve been using Vocal for 3 months now. I originally joined to enter one of their poetry contests. So far I have broken even on the cost because they give bonuses at certain milestones. They also pay 2/3 of a cent for each read. Not very much. You need to do a lot of self promotion and bring your own audience to the table exactly like anyone in the visual arts or music world if you want to make money. My main focus is to become a better writer. The only way to do that is to write and the challenges they offer do inspire writing. Although the judges on the most recent fiction challenges have not been identified, the judges on the corporate sponsor challenges have been clearly named and you can look them up to see what they might be looking for in the contest. Overall I believe Vocal is trying to improve as a writer’s site, and their parent company Creatd. seems to be attempting to develop it further. The jury is out on how they will go forward.
KI
Kim
Simple but has teething issues
This is not the website for you if you're trying to make money for your writing.
Personally for me it is the site for me, for now. Especially after they work out their kinks. I'm not trying to make money from writing just was looking for an easy platform to submit and share. And other established platforms seemed too instagramy for me. Vocal is relatively new and still has heart. I can understand people's frustration, it seems to be in its early developmental stage.
An issue they have is that there isn't an edit feature (edit: they introduced one today for paid members).
The stats are all also delayed by 42 hours.
I think they would benefit from some sort of community communication. I can understand why they don't allow people to comment etc. But even a feature like allowing other writers to have a column on their profile of favorite stories (from the website) would be beneficial.
At the moment it's just write publish and that's it.
They do have staff picks. But that is problematic within itself cause it would be inherently bias cause it's coming from a limited source of people.
It's okay and vocal media does have potential, sticking to it for now :)
CR
Carl R.
I do not know what is going on.
I do not know what is going on, either Facebook is blocking reactions to my poem "Once There Was a Rose" from my friends and other viewers, or it is Vocal blocking access to viewers in reading my poem. I notified Vocal about first placing my poem within the wrong community. After speaking with Heather, the poem was then placed into the poetry community. However, after posting to Facebook and Instagram on seven different occasions, I have been told that when (several individuals) someone tries to open the site it says "Page Not Found." I have accused Facebook of purposely blocking my poem from an audience, and Facebook has chosen to ignore my accusations. In order to see if what I had expressed was incorrect, I placed my poem "Once There Was a Rose" into my Facebook website page ExpoCorruption (Direct reading of the poem) to acquire readers and exposure. Although Facebook shows that the poem has reached approximately 245 people as of March 4, 2021, it also shows only one (1) reaction and seven (7) likes. I know better, and it is either Facebook, Vocal or both who is trying to keep this poem from acquiring any type of positive or negative reactions. Since I am not personally known to, or by Facebook or Vocal for such (as stated above) to be occurring. I have to believe that the issue is of another origin, and that origin have to be the color of my skin. Now prove me wrong, and stop blocking my written work, because I did not submit my poem to earn money from Vocal.
SR
Shamar R.
Only get if you are passionate about writing
I love writing articles on Vocal Media. I am extreme grateful for the site and will continue to write as I am passionate about it. You have a chance to be picked for their ‘Weekly Five’ which will dramatically boost your views. Even though chances of this are slim. There are a number of downsides to this website:
Firstly, what I find extremely annoying is that when you write it does not highlight any grammatical errors or punctuation mistakes.
Secondly, you are able to view the number of times people have clicked on your article which is good. In agreement with the review below, it is extremely dodgy how a view is recorded and this is also unfair. Vocal Media need to review this and be more lenient with this.
Thirdly, the fact you must pay a monthly fee to become a Vocal+ member does not sit right with me. You should be eligible to become a member when you have written a certain amount of articles or a certain amount of views maybe, just an idea. Furthermore, the chances of you winning a competition are very slim. But I must praise the generous amount of money that is given if you do win.
Finally, the fact that Vocal Media use Stripe and not PayPal is very stupid and sly. I and many others have not heard of the Stripe app until we signed for Vocal Media. It limits the amounts of tips you get greatly as no one wants to fuss with downloading the app and uploading their debit/credit info. Everyone has PayPal, so why not use PayPal? Very tactical from this company.