Reads on Vocal are calculated differently than they are on a regular blog. On Vocal, reads are not determined by how many link clicks your post gets but by how many people actually ‘read’ your work according to Vocal’s algorithm. 

Now, I have personally contacted Vocal and asked how exactly Vocal reads are calculated. This is the exact copy of what was sent to me: 

What happens sometimes is that you post your Vocal article on social media, or somebody comes across your story on Vocal for example. But even though they've clicked into the link, their time isn't counted as a 'read'.

This leads us to the big question: How Do We Actually Make Money By Making Sure We Are Getting 

Make sure to have an introductory paragraph. 

Don’t jump right into whatever it is you want to say. Have at least one paragraph that welcomes the reader to the post and tells them what to expect, before jumping right in. This allows the reader to scroll through that introduction and by them making the action of scrolling, it tells the algorithm that they are in fact engaging and “reading” the article on the page. If you start the story from the jump and the reader doesn’t find the first sentence engaging for example, they can easily close out of the page and that may be counted as a 'page view' not a 'read' by Vocal’s algorithm. 

THE SCROLL IS THE WAY TO THE DOUGH on Vocal, you want people scrolling! 

So, one way you can make sure that readers scroll is through the use of vertical images. If a picture is vertical (e.g. 500 x 1000px, 250 x 750px, etc), then users will of course have to scroll through the image to get to the next piece of content you have written. 

My advice for you is that you use tips one and two together so that by the time your readers get into actually reading your story, the ‘read’ should be already noted by the algorithm.

So, to put it together: introductory paragraph, a vertical picture right after, and then begin your story. An example post would look like this: 

The very nature of listicles means that you need to scroll to see all of the list. There is a reason why a lot of popular blogs utilize the power of listicles: “5 Ways To…”, “How I Did This in 7 Steps”, “7 Times…”, etc. People love a list, and it keeps them scrolling. 

PRO-TIP: To make sure they scroll all the way to the end, arrange your list in descending order (i.e. from 5 to 1, not 1 to 5). 

Listicles are a good way to ensure reads on Vocal. 

Engage the use of media, spacing, and block quotes. 

You should be doing this regardless. Large blobs of text can be intimidating, especially in today’s world of dwindling attention spans. Make sure to break up your text with relevant images or variations of text (like block quotes) wherever you can. 

Engaging the use of block quotes, paragraphs, headings, etc make your posts more dynamic and you should always give your audience a reason to keep scrolling and reading. 

The ultimate tip of course, that supersedes all of this, is GOOD CLEAR WRITING. Try to make sure your writing is captivating so that audiences stick around on your page long enough for their time to be counted as a “read”. 

If you have any questions or want anything from this post elaborated on, let me know in the comments.

Until next time, thank you for subscribing and I'll see you in the next post of my 

PRO TIP: How to Actually Get Money from READS

The scroll is the way to the dough

Reads on Vocal are calculated differently than they are on a regular blog. On Vocal, reads are not determined by how many link clicks your post gets but by how many people actually ‘read’ your work according to Vocal’s algorithm. 



PRO TIP: How to Actually Get Money from READS

The scroll is the way to the dough

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PRO TIP: How to Actually Get Money from READS

The scroll is the way to the dough

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