More Observations On The Nature Of Vocal Top Stories And Challenge Wins
Things Have Changed Since I Was First Tempted By Vocal
Introduction
I have been here for three years, initially tempted by the big prize money of the challenges. I soon realised that I was very unlikely to ever win or place in a challenge, because I thought I was not a real writer, and in some ways I still feel that way, but I am always learning new things. As Isaac Asimov said:
"Education is something you can never finish"
I believe that if I ever think that I am a perfect writer I will just stop.
I still worry if I don't get a Top Story for a while, and while I never doubt my own ability I sometimes feel that I have lost the support of Vocal and my audience, but the reality is that is just my own insecurity.
Below is a piece I wrote on the situation and it did get a Top Story.
So lets get into this now.
The Observations
When I started on Vocal Top Stories were not given all that often and there were also "awesome stories" which gave you a $5 bonus but no exposure. The thing is that we seemed to get a lot more reads on stories then, especially if we got a Top Story.
If I got a Top Story I would get a big boost in reads, but these days the amount that I get, and others get (based on comments and hearts) seems to be far less. I have some old stories with a hundred or so reads which they got on first publication, but do not get any new reads or hearts. In the image below the ones it yellow don't get any reads today though the ones not in yellow still get two or three reads today, I think from non-Vocal members:
I love seeing my reads go up, but the five-dollar reward would need 900 reads to achieve without the Top Story bonus for Vocal+ members, double that for free Vocal members.
While I love getting a Top Story or Leader Board bonus, I get more personal satisfaction from comments and reads and if I don't get those I feel that I am failing.
I have seen people get angry because they are not rewarded by Vocal and they may have good reason to feel that way, and I do feel that Vocal at times does not give exposure to deserving creators.
Vocal has five Top Creators for each community, that is 240 Top Creator positions though some have more than one, but a lot of people don't even know about Top Creators, so I wrote this piece to highlight the positions:
I have seen a couple of recent Top Stories and Challenge Placements with minimal comments and hearts. This was not just after their awards, it was a few weeks later, so they got their dollars but little interaction.
Conclusion
Most of my reads are from non-Vocal members and one of the great things about Vocal is that anyone can read your stories and Vocal will pay me 0.6c for their read. Four of my top five most-read stories are getting daily reads from somewhere and I am grateful that Vocal is rewarding me for that.
Writing is a hobby for me, so the money is a cherry on top, but it is the support and comments that I get that raise my spirits and make me want to write another story.
This week I have three stories that I am going to publish when the time is right and that has required me to hold back on publishing.
Thank you for reading and I hope I have given you a few ideas.
The music is "Take The Cash (K.A.S.H.)" by Wreckless Eric
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More stories from Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred and writers in FYI and other communities.
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Comments (15)
I do think there should be a bit more transparency from Vocal on this. I understand how they are trying their hardest and 'almost' get it right so many times!!
As to the selection of Top Stories, I don’t think folks realize that 30-40% of the TS’s in a given week come *directly* from the Raise Your Voice Thread. Certainly not every time, but more often than not I’ve seen something I nominate show up on the front page within the same day. Maybe it’s coincidence, but when you can look at the TS list next to the comment thread and match up story titles, it sure doesn’t look that way. Case in point, I’m fairly confident my last TS came from *your* nomination on the Raise Your Voice Thread 😎
I don't even know how "Top Creator" is awarded. Is it on quantity or quality or engagement or...? I have no clue, so it's meaningless to me. Top Story is always nice, but I never know why I get that either. It's never the pieces I felt most pleased with, had the best ideas for, or worked hardest on. It's all a bit meaningless without meaningful feedback IMO.
Great post, Mike! Thanks for sharing this.
I didn’t even know about Top Creators in each community. Thanks for another insightful story, Mike!
I think there's a few issues at play here. First, the site is not easy to navigate for readers. I can follow creators who I like, but often I'll find that I'm only really interested in part of their output (I know that the people who read my running stuff are generally not the same as people who read my music stuff, for example). Meanwhile, for all top stories are a useful filter to avoid the weakest content here, there's plenty of good stuff that goes unacknowledged (and, to be honest, some that I'm not excited by that gets the thumbs up). Then it's sheer volume of content. If I look at stories published in the last hour or so, I'm scrolling back through four pages. I see only one name that I recognise (that's one of my own submissions! Go read it!). So I'm looking at close to 40 items, with little indication of the likely quality I'll find. And finally, most people are here to write and publish. I imagine many of us read as well, or at least try to. But I wouldn't come here every day on the off chance of some good writing: the quality is too uneven to make that a good trade. I'm not picking on individual writers, just reflecting on the site as a whole. And my interaction is even lower. For Vocal to be more effective, I think it needs to explore ways to encourage more reading, but I'm not sure how it can easily do that.
Great piece. Thanks for sharing this!
I mean, I've never even approached the read numbers you have, but they do seem to be diminished across the platform, don't they.
Mike, you gave me a few ideas as well. Always great work.
Agreed!
Pretty sure you are correct: many people are not aware of the Top Creators shown in each Community. Great post.
You have given me a few ideas.😉Thank you Mike! 😊💕
But it would be so nice if we knew from where exactly those non-Vocal reads are coming from 😅😅
Excellent treatise, just don't let the people that doesn't comment or engage weigh you down, I think a lot of people just find It hard to give a feedback after reading, maybe laziness or pride , just keep going and do your thing, secondly, maybe it's probably because most of your views aren't from vocal subscribers ,you should try and earn more subscribers here ,so they can engage you and you can easily be at the top, my advice tho
On the few interactions despite wins on Top Stories or Challenges......could be for two reasons.....one, different writing styles...hard to appeal to all. Perhaps it's also the visibility of work....some people may not navigate the platform thoroughly due to lack of time, etc.