The Pros and Cons of Vocal Media: Is it Worth it?
Vocal media is about to step up it’s game and give Medium a run for it’s money…
I first checked out Vocal Media 6-months ago, but put it on hold after reading negative articles. Recently I decided to ignore what I had heard and approach the platform with an open mind.
I don’t like writing about earnings, but for the sake of this review, I will say that within the first 3-days of Vocal I had already earned over $30+ on the platform. In comparison with my very first month on Medium, which was just under $5 — that was a rather impressive start.
I am not going to go in to massive amounts of details in to the background of Vocal, Instead I plan to share my own experiences and a review of writing on this platform.
A Vocal Media Story
The Pros and Cons of Vocal Media
👍 The Pros
I’ll start with the positives…
- Simplicity and Quality
Vocal media has a crisp, clear and simple interface, similar to Medium. You can start writing straight away. Every story is reviewed by a real editorial team before going live on the site, so there’s a level of quality control. Stories that feature are often hand-picked rather than algorithms approved. This is a real strength for this platform.
Also similar to Medium you can pull free images from Unsplash into your story direct from the editor and embed videos and gifs into your posts too!
I am not sure about you but since moving to a more automated system the quality of some distributed stories has gone down on Medium. Especially as people can hack the algo with key words, phrases and formatting.
2. Challenges
These challenges can win you anything from $5,000 — $250.
You are given one weekly challenge and a big challenge that goes on for about 30+ days that has a specific topic to write about.
How competitive are these challenges I don’t hear you ask?
There are some amazing writers on this platform, but ultimately it depends on how many people submit and how unique your story is! The platform has far fewer writers than Medium. Plus the competitions can sometimes select up to 25 winners.
3. Tips and introducing pledges
You can get tips (set amounts set by the platform) via Stripe starting at $1. Currently, you can’t get tips on Medium, but I would love to see this feature here in the future. Just launched is pledges where people can make regular contributions of around $2.99 to their favourite writers.
4. Vocal values writers
Unlike Medium, Vocal Media are very interactive with their writers, particularly on Instagram. If you message them, they will likely respond to you. As Medium moves to a more automated, algorithm-driven mode of operation, real people approve your work on Vocal.
If you make it as a top writer or win a challenge your story will get promoted more than once on all their social media sites. Which will potentially boost your views even more! PLUS you could even receive a bonus of $5- $10 for featuring on the home page.
There are also opportunities for gifted memberships, welcome, and milestone bonuses. These all make me feel valued as a writer on the platform. It would be great to see Medium rewarding milestones in the future.
5. Pay-Per-View
Now this one is rather mixed between a pro and a con! Unlike Medium there is no division between external and internal reads. On Vocal Media, a read is a read regardless of where it is from, so external views count, YAY! However, it’s not as easy as Medium to get views on vocal.
On Vocal, there is also a set amount, which is great in terms of clarity.
- $3.80 per 1000 views.
- Vocal+ members get $6.00 per 1000 views.
Needless to say on Medium I can receive £70+ for 2.6K internal views!
If it wasn’t for the bonus for milestones I would say that Medium is far more generous to it’s writers.
👎The Cons
Now, let’s move on to the cons…
1. Getting featured
On Medium you get distributed, but this seems to be a lot harder on Vocal. Those who tend to get featured on the home page are usually writing about something that is unique and heart felt or it’s about the Vocal platform! Yes, Vocal Media love to feature stories about themselves.
2. Interaction with other writers
What I love most about Medium is you can interact with your readers and other writers.
I keep trying to highlight great quotes and inspiring paragraphs — you can’t do that on Vocal! So, currently, there is no interaction, but that is about to change…
3. Vocal+ membership
If you want to be a Vocal + member, which just means that you can enter challenges, then it’s $9.99 a month. Double the price of Medium.
You can, however, have a free account. All it means is that you get paid less per view and the number of challenges you can enter is restricted.
4. Short-form not allowed
They only accept pieces of work more than 600 words. Therefore if you are a fan of short stories and poems, Vocal Media may not be the platform for you.
5. Cannot edit once published
One of the biggest drawbacks used to be that once published you could not longer edit, but Vocal is now treating us as trusted adults so you can edit , YAY— but this does have its limitations in what you can change.
6. Vocal media has a minimum pay-out threshold
Vocal Media uses Stripe to pay it’s writers, but there is a minimum payment threshold of $35 or $20 for Vocal+ members. Again, the issue is with reach and an over reliance on bonuses.
7. Viability
For you as a writer is it viable to be a Vocal+ member — is this platform an asset or liability?
Option 1: Pay-out Threshold of $35 PLUS $9.99 (Vocal Member Ship)
Option 2: Pay-out Threshold of $20 PLUS $9.99 (Vocal Member Ship)
Technically speaking, if you are confident that you can earn $20 as a minimum per month without the milestones this platform can be seen as an asset, but if you earn less than the vocal membership and it takes 3–6 months just for a pay-out then maybe stick to Medium.
Medium at $5 is an absolute bargain!
8. Wait times for approval
In the terms and conditions the wait time of 24 hours is given. In my own experience this was not always the case for some of my stories, but given some Medium publications can now take 2 weeks it makes 24–48 hours approval time sound great.
Currently there is no option to self-publish, but I believe this is on the cards for a future Vocal update. Watch this space for an update.
So, is Vocal Media really worth it?
As a writing platform, I feel Medium is more advanced in terms of features, what you can earn for reads — even if it’s only for internal. Its relational community focused model where you can build two-way relationships with the readers (and other writers) to gain valuable feedback is great.
Although that said with the new features planned for Vocal Media over the next few months and the bonuses for milestones…
I think this platform is about to give Medium a real run for its money in 2022!
In my personal opinion, I feel Vocal Media is a nice platform for any generation of writers, but it does depend on what you write. If you enjoy writing cryptocurrency and technological articles then stick with Medium. If you like to share experiences, write from the heart and enter competitions do give Vocal a try.
I am going to continue to use Vocal Media for the next 6-months+ to see how it goes. I am not planning to leave Medium anytime soon. Vocal Media has given me a greater appreciation for this platform, but what life has taught me is you should never put all your eggs in one basket!
My vocal profile:
Other Writing platforms in 2022.
Burk has recently made a list of other writing platforms to check out in 2022, we are both in agreement on one thing…
“In the end, though, Medium has been and will be my number one for quite some time, I’m sure”.
