Vocal Media Payout: My second payout!

6 months ago I had written an article on my first Vocal Media payout. It did really well. The article had the most likes I've ever received for an article since the implementation of the "like" system. The new "like" system is pretty useful in order for me to gauge what people actually like or what people are just stumbling upon.

The lack of comments in Vocal media is both a blessing and a curse. I don't get any engagement in the articles that I write however I prefer not having comments because I don't have to deal with trolls and negative comments that might be directed toward my articles. Besides if you want comments then you can simply share the article on your social media of choice. A lack of comments will help encourage us to write more freely because we don't have that worry about negative reviews and feedback.

I mentioned in my first article that I loved the fact that my hard work was being appreciated. It's always nice to be paid for something that you've done especially when you never expected monetary return for it. Unfortunately, I don't feel that I'm a better writer after writing so many articles and I wrote a ton of articles.

To obtain my first payout I had written 352 articles with 48 articles not even being viewed. In a matter of 6 months I was able to write 219 new articles for a grand total of 571 articles. I didn't realize I was doubling down on the articles but then again when you're living during a global pandemic there's a ton of time to write. I still have 88 unread articles. Most of the articles that I write are movie reviews. During the pandemic there were moments when I was watching 2 or 3 movies a day and just writing about them.

Writing that many movie reviews made writing a bit easy. I pretty much have an easy formula for myself. I never really have a problem keeping with the 600 word minimum. Opinion pieces are still a little difficult to write though. I feel that I have to structure my opinion pieces a little more so that I don't feel so awkward writing them.

The thing about the opinion pieces was that they felt fairly therapeutic especially during the global pandemic. There's not a lot of people to talk to all the time and Vocal Media is a great way to vent your frustrations. Again with no comments, you feel free to write whatever you want with little repercussions.

You can be whoever you want to be on Vocal Media and write whatever you want. Today everyone is fearful of cancel culture and Vocal Media will allow you to have an outlet for this. I did however only had one instance of censorship on vocal media when I talked about religion. I was a little shocked at the censorship because I didn't think it was such a big deal. I was eventually able to adjust the article to remove the religious mention.

Another huge benefit that I noticed was my subscription to Vocal Plus. It's the subscription service that Vocal Media created to increase our chances of an earlier payout. I thought it would be a total farce but they offered a free T-shirt and free month subscription. After taking the bait I can see why people would subscribe to this service. The money does come in a lot faster when you're under the service.

Before my subscription I was averaging $4 a month and then after subscribing my wallet started to increase by 50% each month. Honestly, no matter if you're on the subscription or not your amounts will continue to increase as long as you're a consistent contributor. I'm not exactly sure how the algorithms work but I found that my amounts would always increase as I added more content. The subscription merely increases the value of each of the views you receive. The payout amount is also decreased to $20 but I wanted this article to match my first article so I waited until I reached $35 to write this article.

The only thing I'm kind of mixed about is the contests you can submit to while under the subscription. I find that they don't really fit anything that I write. I realize that they probably create the contests based on what the majority of the creators write on Vocal Media so I don't blame them. Still I try to challenge myself to write an article in order to submit anyways. It's a fun challenge sometimes and it gives you additional content that you can add to your library. Who knows maybe you might like writing in that genre. Again the good thing about this format is that you feel free to write whatever you want. You don't have to worry about algorithms and get pigeonholed as a creator.

I'm not sure if I'd recommend Vocal Plus if you're new to Vocal Media though. I think you have to write a few articles and see if Vocal Media is for you before subscribing. If you have a penchant for writing and you can keep it up consistently, by all means get Vocal Plus. It will help you out a lot!

In my last article I mentioned that opinion pieces are the articles that get you the views but I learned that's not entirely true. Just write as much as you can and you'll eventually have a piece that people will resonate to. You never know what it might be. Some articles can seem dead but may get popular when you least expect it.

Write about as many things as you can so that you find yourself something that you can consistently write about. Your interest in the topic will be reflected in your articles because you'll be able to write them easily. You'll always learn new things to make you better but you won't necessarily feel like you're actually writing better. Keep it up and don't be frustrated. Write because you want to write, not because you want to make money.