Still Crawling And On Top
More Coffee Money From Vocal Advice
Introduction
I covered this about two weeks back but I am surprised that without any Top Stories on Vocal, the reads of my Vocal stories are still rising significantly. Not only that my subscribers are rising too.
I normally expect forty or fifty reads a day but now that is around seventy or eighty (today I hit ninety, so my sixty thousand reads may be hit sooner than I expected).
This was the last post on this subject but I am going to share a few more observations on the situation with you and hopefully, you can take some advice to boost your own read count.
The music I have included is The Beat's "Twist and Crawl"
I do get a lot of people asking me to read and subscribe, but I only do that if someone has something I want to read, and I subscribe if the creator interests me and/or they comment on my work. Unfortunately, I seldom see who subscribes to me. So if I don't read or subscribe it's just that I've not seen anything that interests me ... yet.
Also, the image I created used the prompt
"Dragon on top of Blackpool Tower with a book"
It didn't quite work out but I loved the dragon's expression
Observations
First of all that was a long introduction for me, but you know that because you have got this far.
One of the problems with stories on Vocal is that people tend to concentrate on what is current so as new stories are published older stories tend to be forgotten, and sometimes they do deserve to be read a lot more than they are.
Top Stories and Challenge placements give a little more traction but even challenges are eventually forgotten by most readers, or maybe they don't know that they exist.
Two years ago I wrote this piece about the first Vocal Challenge:
I found this really difficult to track down, but Vocal's Search facility is excellent for tracking down stories using mentions within the text.
In the end, Vocal Stories are like Instagram, Facebook and any Social Media post, as time passes they sink and are forgotten. I think I am one of the few people who looks through old Vocal stories to find something interesting.
I use the search facility to make sure I haven't covered a story before, and no one else has published something similar. I do find it a bit awkward if I write something and someone else has done virtually the same thing, it makes me feel like a plagiarist when I know I am not.
In the Vocal Social Society, we promote stories on threads for members and non-members which means they stay visible for a long time.
Most of my reads come from non-Vocal members so I don't get many hearts or comments but I get them because I find places to to share my stories elsewhere that are relevant. My most read story was in a Facebook Folk Group but caused a lot of controversy there. Some Folk Music Fans can be very intolerant:
Conclusion
Nine of my top most-read stories have over three hundred reads, onlt two of them made Top Stories although one of those is now a Crawler (the one below) and has just joined my three hundred club.
Thank you for reading, I really appreciate your support.
About the Creator
Mike Singleton π Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
Join & Share In VSS
Creationati
Call Me Les β₯ Gina β₯ Heather β₯ Caroline β₯
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Easy to read and follow
Well-structured & engaging content
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
Keep reading
More stories from Mike Singleton π Mikeydred and writers in Writers and other communities.
Gunpowder: A Mikeydred November Dollar Prompt For All Vocal Creators
Introduction Every so often I set prompts in the Vocal Social Society and offer a dollar tip to five random creators who take part in it and ask them to share their stories in the comments and on the thread in the group.
By Mike Singleton π Mikeydred about a year ago in Writers
The real South African life
Many people have these misguided opinions on South Africa. They don't know what SA truly is. I've heard people ask whether there are houses , do we get chased by lions- NO WE DON'T!! SA life is pretty much normal to some extent really.
By The real South African life6 days ago in Writers
Comments (21)
Congrats on T.S.!
Always appreciate your introspective insights and observations on Vocal itself brother
Happy to see you are getting the recognition you deserve! Congratulations MikeyD on your T.S.!
Congratulations on the top story. I told you no one had forgotten you... π you do good work it's just in such large volumes your ratio of top stories to non looks skewed. I hope this puts your anxiety to rest for good this time. Keep up the hard work. You know I'm here for you behind the scenes. β¨οΈπβ¨οΈ
Will you look at that, someone got a Top Story hahahahaha. Congratulations! ππππππ
Kinda like getting on the 'cover of the rolling stone.' Congratulations!
π Congratulations on hitting Top Story on Vocal! π Your hard work and creativity truly shine through, and itβs so well-deserved! π Keep up the amazing storytellingβthis is just the beginning of even more success! πππ
Ah, I see the Vocal curation team appreciates some irony. Congrats on breaking the streak!
Great bit of analysis and commenting on the Vocal platform as we know it. You are an amazing writer and make some very valid observations. Congratulations, too, on a Top Story, too! Whoop....whoop....whoop - a bit of table dancing is in order!
This is a fascinating analysis of the Vocal platform. Your observations about the cyclical nature of content and the importance of consistent engagement are spot on. Thank you for sharing your valuable insights and strategies. I'll definitely be keeping these tips in mind as I continue to create content on Vocal.
You are one prolific writer and one that teaches how to operate as an online writer. Great work. Congratulations on your writing feat.
70k is quite an accomplishment. Well done..
Folk music and intolerance is deliciously ironic. And totally agree on "even challenges are eventually forgotten by most readers, or maybe they don't know that they exist." Which is why I'll never put "For X Challenge" as my subtitle. Why would an external reader know what that is? Why should they care? A subtitle is a great way to set the stage on after the title gives someone the first taste of what is to come. Maximize that real estate.
You wot hard on this Mike, so take the time for a pat on the back. It is earned. For some reason I dropped off of Facebook. I do miss the vocal sights but to me it became overwhelming. Trying to fit in time for work, friends, families and hobbies. Something had to go. I am glad I got to see your work from the near beginning and watch you grow. Well done, cheers
I wish I had that many reads a day! Advertising has never been my strong point though (to put it mildly).
That is amazing! Do you promote your stories elsewhere and thatβs how you get non-vocal readers?
Wow. Great job!! Thatβs amazing.
The folk thing got me, I think everyone can have an opinion on any topic, no need to hate.... Happy to see you grow, keep up this amazing work!!
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I'm happy to know that your reads and subscribers have been increasing more hehehe
Glad that the leads are coming in, Mike. Guess most of us get more leads out of vocal as we reach out to other communities.
That phenomenon of drifting down to mulch is a unique feature of soc med writing, isn't it? I've been publishing on Wordpress for many years now and am familiar with that very long tail (or mine shaft?) of earlier writing endless scrolling away. So I come to Vocal with some ambivalence. Start again? We'll see how it goes. Thanks for this piece. Appreciated your thoughts.