How I Reached My First Vocal + Payout

59 stories, 2 years, and enough caffeine to kill a small animal. That is what it took to reach this milestone. I usually avoid offering my advice for finding success on Vocal. It makes me feel like a gimmicky guru. However, I think there could be a societal benefit to me sharing my story. Maybe it will look similar to yours. Plus, I have to continue the tradition that Kathryn and Brian set before me.

My goal by telling this story is to keep you from giving up. I don't care if you're not a writer. There's a learning curve to life, and no matter what you do-you'll have to refine it. No matter what skills you're born with, you have to learn before you can have success.

It's my hope that by seeing my mistakes, you can bypass them. Think of it as me giving you the cheats to skip a level.

Front Page Features Won't Make Your Career.

I started out wanting to run a finance blog where I debunked the common advice offered to consumers. After a total of two articles, I abandoned that idea because it didn't bring in the reads.

My first year went that way- a series of random articles in random niches that I thought might garner me a following. It turns out this method sucks. I realized that if I didn't love what I wrote about and chased the reads, I'd never receive them. Nothing short of pure firey love and passion would keep me going when things got tough.

After falling in love with self-help books, I gathered enough confidence to write about what moved me. I wrote an article about Lizzo that became my first front-page feature. I thought for sure it was my big break; before reaching the front page, I held it as the end all be all for increasing reads.

I avoided checking my stats for the weekend, ecstatic to see the results of its promotion. On that Monday, I logged in and navigated to the stats section, heart racing and hopes high.

It barely cracked 50 reads. I sat there stunned with a black hole in my stomach swallowing me. I made up my mind that Vocal was just desperate writers all screaming at one another in a room, trying to get anyone to notice us.

I was wrong then, but even more so now. Vocal is exploding in readership. Of course, articles geared toward finding success on Vocal will always get views, but I wanted to get on the front page differently. A few months ago, another article on the Danish philosophy of hygge reached the front page and raked in a hundred reads.

As recently as last week, I had an article featured on the front page that received 400 reads. Every time the number doubles, if not triples. This is because of multiple factors, but one I can control. My year of screaming into an empty room allowed me to find my writing voice. I stopped trying to be funny, insightful, or smart-sounding. My goal now is just to communicate clearly and add value.

Focus on the quality of your work. The rest really does come.

Challenges

I continued writing, and a few months down the line, Vocal introduced challenges. I entered the first one, and the second, and the third, and won nothing. This spoonful of rejection was hard to swallow. What if I'm just not a good writer?

I took a break from it all and started writing fiction. I was going to start a youtube channel and read my horror stories. I figured I needed a back door into the writing world. But as we've learned, nothing short of love will keep you going. So I ditched another idea, and again I was left lost.

I decided I would give the challenges another shot; one of my entries was removed, and another didn't place. Around this time, wildfire smoke started to hang in the air in my city. City officials warned that evacuation might be on the horizon, and I had no savings or escape method.

The challenge going on at the time was to write a letter to your best friend. I got excited; for the first time in months, I knew exactly what to write and how to write it. I wrote a letter to my girlfriend that would go on to win first place. As Matthew McConaughey would say, "greenlight."

"Greenlights are shoeless summer. They say yes and give us what we want."

Things took off from there. With my confidence restored, I was able to get 5 other challenge wins under my belt. Each win helped me realize what I want to be writing about. For example, I love to write about music, and I would have never known (or tried) If not for Vocal challenges.

I really never saw articles as art before I won a challenge. It gave me a north star to follow- a way to actually monetize my writing without sacrificing my soul.

Submit to the Vocal Challenges; they increase reads, confidence and give you something to work towards.

Don't Check Your Stats.

Yes, I know everyone recommends to "watch your stats closely." I hear you already, "how will I know what's working and what isn't?" I'm not advocating never to check your stats. But I try to avoid it; every few months, I'll analyze the data and see where I can make changes. Time is needed to test different methods and niches of writing.

In the beginning, things move slow, and checking every day will only discourage you. I had to figure out how to do work I liked before I could focus on the masses. Whether your stats are where you want or not, the value affects you.

Be mindful of your self-esteem and how stats affect it.

Media

Getting people to read your stuff is difficult. I try to stuff my articles with bits of value that have nothing to do with me. How can you reinvent the wheel? I noticed other writers don't often use quotes, so I try and implement them into all my work. I believe gifs are engaging and make the story more interesting. Plus, they are much better at telling a joke than I am.

Media can be a powerful tool that will elevate your work and keep readers interested.

Parting Words

If you want it immediately, I'm not the person to follow. I wish I knew an immediate solution. If I had one, I would give it to you. The only way is to improve and continue to write. Imagine you're pushing a snowball down a hill. At first, it's only a measly ball, but it grows, and as it does, it moves faster. Eventually, you can't keep up, and it's rolling all on its own.

It's about building momentum, and you never know which article will be that snowball. My most read article is a marijuana strain review. You truly never know what people will want to read.

It's also so vital not to put your worth in your stats. There are so many factors that affect reads. It's fun to watch the universe align for you; you have no idea how things will turn out. As long as you don't give up, it'll work out. Vocal is continuing to grow at an insane speed. They are working on their own snowball. There is no better time to jump in and start pushing.