Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Recently, I decided to do a 30-day challenge for myself to publish a post every day on Vocal Media. This case study was to see if writing for a month makes an impact on income, viewership, or attracting followers. Unfortunately, there is a delay on Vocal for submitting articles.
And for once, it’s not my fault.
What Kind of Delay Is Vocal Experiencing?
I started this case study on February 1st of 2022. The idea was to grind out a new post every day for the next month or so. Unfortunately, my first post didn’t go live until early this morning.
When I emailed Vocal about the delay, their response was that editors are working through the queue of submitted work as quickly as possible.
There was quite an influx of content recently, which is about par for the course.
Every year at about this time, both WriterSanctuary.com and CrossingColorado.com get an influx of visitors. This is often caused by people sticking to New Year’s Resolutions about getting healthy or working from home.
So, I can understand an influx of content from people wanting to make money by writing on Vocal. I just wish the delay happened when I wasn’t trying to collect precise data.
Writing On Vocal Despite the Delay
Instead of just waiting for a better month to run this little experiment, I decided I would continue anyway. I’ve put this off for several months and have received comments from people on the Part 1 video about not finishing the case study.
Some of them were even downright rude. I mean, come on, people. I have a mortgage to pay and can’t put every waking moment into video content.
At any rate, I’m continuing with the plan and looking forward to seeing what the data reveals.
Using Journal-Like Entries
So far, I’ve focused more on journal-like entries that tell a story about my day. Mostly about living as a writer working from home while trying to lose weight.
Out of the articles I’ve written for Vocal so far, those seem to perform the best. Though, I don’t have a lot of articles published to make an absolute decision.
Seriously, 23 “stories” isn’t really a solid collection of work to base any kind of an opinion. Especially since some of those were written in 2017 and have had years to accumulate views.
Focused Keyphrases Don’t Always Work
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions with Vocal is the idea of using relevant search terms, like those you’d use for Google search results.
So far, SEO-focused content just doesn’t seem to work as well on blogging platforms like Vocal, Hubpages, or Medium. Sure, you’ll still need to offer an article someone wants to read. But the audience is much different.
It reminds me a lot of how YouTube works. The same topic will perform vastly differently as a YouTube video as it will as a text-based article during a Google search.
I’ll still keep trying to aim for search intent here and there, but I’m not sure if it will have the same impact as, say, a blog.
Postponing the Update Video and Blog Post
Thanks to the delay, I’ll have to postpone the video and blog post I have scheduled for Vocal. This just means that I’ll still have to settle with negative comments that I haven’t created a Part 2 to the video yet.
At least I’ll be able to tell the viewers that I’m currently working on the case study.
If the delay maintains at the three-day mark, it just means I’ll have to postpone the update pieces until March 7th. That’s not completely bad, to be honest. Instead of a Friday post and video, it’ll be on the following Monday.
Unfortunately, this also means that I’ll have to adjust any time-sensitive posts I want to write and have published. So, if I wanted to write something about Valentine’s Day on Vocal, I’ll have to make sure it’s done and submitted no later than the 10th.
This is perhaps one of the biggest downfalls of writing for platforms like Vocal. If there is too much content for the editors to maintain, it’ll have a setback when you want certain things published.
At least with my blog, I can publish anything I want, when I want. Though, this does give me ideas about a blog post and video for the near future.
Before the Case Study on Vocal, and Before the Delay…
I suppose I can share a few numbers with you now, while I’m waiting for Vocal to work through the delay. I just wish Vocal had better built-in analytical tools.
As of February 2nd, I’ve had 2,014 total reads. The total reads over the last 30 days are sitting at 56, which is an increase of 124%, according to Vocal.
I have 5 subscribers and 0 active pledges. Over the last 12 months, I’ve made an average of $0.228 per month.
I’m not including tips and bonuses I’ve received during that time. Those things are not always a guarantee, and I wanted this study to be based on normal income.
Now, it appears that in months when I actually put in the effort to publish content, the income nearly doubled from around $0.15 to $0.40. Though, the reads really didn’t double in those cases.
Still, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens after keeping a regular publishing schedule.
Sometimes, Things Are Out of Your Control
Although the delay from Vocal is a bit of a bummer for what I wanted to do, at least the articles are still being published. In fact, I had one approved while I was writing this post.
When things are out of your control, all you can do is roll with the circumstance. There’s no point in getting stressed out over something that has nothing to do with your ability to create content.
All you can really do is the best you can and let the cards fall where they may.
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