I started writing on Vocal Media so I need to be gracious since I did obtain 2 top stories and earned $60 in the short time I was with them ( 2 months). They pay $5 for a top story, for your 5th publication and if they share a story to their facebook or twitter pages. I received a further $10 for submitting my 10th story. So combined with the reads, I did much better there than am doing on Medium to date.

However, there are some things I prefer about Medium despite being highly intimidated when I joined. First of all, I love how you can interact with other writers either by clapping, and commenting either publicly or privately. I've met some wonderful people already and enjoy that honest interaction. The only way to communicate with Vocal writers was via facebook communities. I did join one but I bowed out as I am not fond of bragging or asking 'if you follow me, I'll follow you". Not my thing. I comment or clap because I like the writing, or message, not the person for the sake of their ego, or hearts, or wallet.

I find the quality of writing on Medium far superior, although the navigation into topics is a little frustrating and it's taken me 3 weeks to wrap my head around how all this works. Can there be a link to topics on the home page instead of just the ones I follow? ( which is not in its entirety). The home page is nauseatingly repetitive. I see the same stories highlighted over and again, AND a lot of them are not recent! I've clicked on contest and submission calls only to find them done and dusted. And how do you beat the algorithm to even feature on there?!

What irritates me about Vocal is the advertisements on their top story page that seem to sit there way longer than any other deserving story does. Yes, it is a money-making scheme for them, but at a creators expense. And it is very easy to get a great story lost in there. Some topics are well populated daily and others aren't. For instance, my top story 'Changing Appearance' is still featured #6 on the STYLED home page and yet I wrote it 2 months ago. My other top story 'HOME TRUTHS' is in the FAMILIES topic under Pregnancy and on page 3. Other stories didn't even get a read as they were swallowed up into the gulf of over-saturation.

Oops, maybe I should have written a story on this! Sorry Dr. Yildiz!