This Jerrick Media (OTCQB: JMDA) was Originally Featured on CNA Finance

CORAL SPRINGS, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 14, 2018 / Print media is on life support, being replaced by the efficiency of the digital age. Technology has enabled a competitive online marketplace for content creation, consumption, and monetization. It is a new age of creative content, and unlike the printing press, at the end of its nearly 600-year reign, the new platforms and mediums for content creation are infinite in nature.

In the past, blog posts were short, often less than 500 words, and the writer might have made a penny a word if they had a reasonable reputation. Today's published content is a far cry from simple personal reviews, opinions, and instructional tutorials, let alone the congested forums and chat rooms that were once the foundation of the internet. Long-form social content is now one of the most popular and diverse forms of creative expression and writers can now successfully supplement their income.

Blogs or stories are often a work of passion from dedicated authors - who contribute tens of millions of quality pieces of content daily. Only a fraction, though, will reach a broad audience, and an even smaller amount will benefit from any meaningful monetization. Also, these contributors are multifaceted, but regularly struggle to include video, music, and e-commerce components on legacy publishing platforms.

A new opportunity is emerging in the long-form content space. Contributors and bloggers can now capitalize on leveraging forward-thinking publishing platforms, embedded with new social media functionalities. This will change the status quo and disrupt an industry dominated by legacy platforms like WordPress.

These newly engineered platforms benefit the author, advertiser, platform provider, and consumer alike. As innovators jockey their way onto the scene, one, in particular, has already arrived and may solidify their position as the primary platform for long-form content publishing.

Meet "Vocal" (https://vocal.media), Jerrick Media's flagship product. It is a comprehensive platform that is paving the way for authors, advertisers, publishers, and agencies to get their creative work placed directly into an engaged social network representing a highly targeted audience. Vocal also has incorporated several monetization tools so that content creators can get paid. It's a win-win-win scenario for all.

The Vocal Publishing Platform

Created by Jerrick Media, Vocal is a premier long-form social publishing platform that allows content creators to seamlessly publish their creative work to over 30 genre-specific Vocal communities, and monetize their content in the short and long term. Vocal leverages many of the successful concepts implemented by competitors to efficiently gather and house a vast amount of material on diverse topics. Vocal, as a contributor based platform, is not burdened with the extensive cost of creating content which has typically encumbered the digital space. JMDA, like other successful tech companies in the platform space, relies on its creative user base to drive quality content and is quickly emerging as a favorite platform for bloggers, authors, and other creatives to gain visibility for their unique content. More recently, the closing of Creators.co and the pivot by MoviePilot.com was followed by a material increase in Vocal's sign-ups, perpetuating the steady migration of creators to Vocal that began with tired WordPress bloggers looking for a new digital home.

JMDA's publishing platform, Vocal, is strategically designed to address three fundamental problems that content creators face in a new era of digital publishing.

First, JMDA recognized that it is incredibly challenging for an individual to get his or her content out to a sizeable audience. JMDA knew that individual authors and website owners were at a severe disadvantage when trying to attract an audience. Initially, the founders of JMDA created Vocal as a proprietary platform to solve an internal content management issue. It then became clear that there is a significant need in the market for the commercialization of its tech. This is based on a deep understanding of current search engine optimization strategy, management of data and application of design. Unique content that is published on small generic websites whose architectures are not built for search engine optimization, or socialization, will not interact efficiently with the current advanced algorithms of Google, Facebook, Yahoo or any other established search or social architectures.

Second, JMDA noticed that contributors commonly were frustrated with publishing options that were neither intuitive nor efficient, requiring manual management of difficult website formatting issues. Also, they were faced with challenges when trying to import content from other sources. Vocal moves the material forward, relying on its advanced architecture that allows for intuitive, efficient and reliable publishing features.

Third, and most pressing for many bloggers and creators, is that it is incredibly challenging to earn money, especially when faced with distribution and search engine variables that are always in flux. Even when bloggers were able to identify display advertising as a medium to gain exposure, JMDA saw that the traditional advertising services did not offer an average blog or website any realistic monetization opportunities. The founders of JMDA understood that conventional programmatic advertising was in a systemic decline and built a platform that could not be impacted by compressing spreads.

Individuals found that to create a quality blog or website and provide for monetization was a near impossible and time-consuming process. They would sacrifice resources from their core competencies - writing and creating. Thus, bloggers were left with an expensive proposition - either keep plugging away to hopefully - though unlikely - accrue some Google domain authority, Facebook relevancy, or pay handsomely for advertising and pay-per-click viewership. Realistically, neither of those scenarios bode well for the individual content creator and create a limited opportunity for conversions.

The Vocal Platform Can Ignite Creative Genius by Solving Problems

Jerrick has made it their mission through Vocal to address and solve all three of these issues by bringing quality, niche long-form content to readers and rewarding the content creators. The platform overcomes the significant problem of content visibility because of its advanced architecture. As a proprietary content management platform, Vocal can leverage its data and enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for individual users. Social network tools within the platform provide amplification for an author's audience.

Vocal's network consists of over 30 genre-specific communities, designed for a user's interests and preferences. Vocal's technology consistently learns from its user base and, in turn, JMDA draws upon these findings to improve the design and create a superior user experience, always matching the content creator with the right audience. The technology behind the algorithmically-driven SEO of Vocal's platform often results in an improved organic ranking of the creators' names and articles. This content can show up prominently on search engines, such as Google. It costs the creator absolutely nothing to open a Vocal account.

Vocal addresses the issue of simplifying confusing and miscategorized content - with topic-based communities for submissions - while eliminating the need for website creation. By providing a best-in-class editor to its authors and a wealth of resource guides, creators can now focus on their content, rather than the technical formatting details and complexities of legacy blogging and content platforms.

With an innovative monetization platform, Vocal allows authors to get competitively paid for their published work in a number of ways, from pay-per-view, microtransactions such as "gifting," as well as future affiliate marketing plans. This gives authors a chance to find a home for their content with an incentive to publish higher quality pieces and leverage the Vocal community to which they contribute.

JMDA Is Maximizing The Earning Power Of Unique Content

So, how exactly are content creators able to capitalize on the unique benefits of the Vocal platform and generate their revenue by contributing original content? Vocal compensates writers based on their articles' performance. However, here is where the company distinguishes itself from competition while generating revenue in the process - Vocal's in-house creative agency, Vocal for Brands, will assist creators, brands, and publishers to produce high-quality content that can quickly reach their intended audience. Moreover, having that team in the corner which is overseen by Jerrick's Co-Founder Rick Schwartz, can be a lucrative proposition for all types of contributors. Many believe, in fact, that the combination of the advanced platform, combined with a seasoned in-house creative agency team is what will continue to drive the user momentum for Vocal, and maximize profit for the diverse but synergistic business model for JMDA.

The highly-skilled team at JMDA consists of trained creatives, designers, and influencers who work with individuals and companies on a personal basis to highlight their brand and utilize the built-in engaged network and analytics to promote their content to current and new audiences. Vocal's services are unique in that they allow brands to curate a target audience for a particular project. Additionally, the team will work to bring this content to a broader audience through marketing, social promotion, and awareness campaigns. Given the brand interest in participating on the platform, Jerrick has indicated that they might expect to include a native ad server as demand continues to grow.

Another opportunity for both JMDA and Vocal creators to generate revenue is through Vocal's ?Gifting' feature. Vocal provides users a unique opportunity to execute microtransactions within the network. JMDA collects a transaction fee in this process. While other leading content providers gather subscription-based revenue partially allocated to creators, JMDA has recognized that content consumers are moving away from committing to subscription payments and are opting to reward creators only when they have derived value - similar to "tipping" for a job well done. The gifting model leverages the rising of the "giving" economy and allows readers to "gift" a creator voluntarily when they feel they received value. This, in turn, incentivizes higher quality content submission. Having launched this capability in beta form in February, it is already proving to be a revolutionary model.

In addition to microtransactions, JMDA has instituted an advanced affiliate marketing and sales program. With thousands of affiliate relationships with merchants, Vocal generates revenues from all sales derived from content on its platform. JMDA's internal quantitative analytics group can utilize data proprietarily as well as to guide their strategy for brand campaigns. Synthesizing Jerrick's creative and quantitative groups has proven to enhance affiliate marketing metrics. Future plans include the possibility of authors participating directly in the program.

Momentum And Opportunity Exudes From JMDA

JMDA is not naive. They understand that for Vocal to continue to be a successful platform, its creators must be successful as well. Moreover, thanks to its unique offerings and savvy marketing and management, Vocal has seen an exponential increase in its user base since its inception in December of 2016.

As of Q4 of 2017, Vocal had over 175,000 active content creators (with over 50,000 signups in the last 60 days) publishing up to 600 unique stories per day. These stories are generating upwards of 6,300,000 page views per month, an impressive metric by any standard and all the more so because the majority of Vocal traffic is organic. Moreover, JDMA already has the strategies in place to facilitate the additional growth of their platform. First and foremost, they combine creators and readers, bring sponsored content to the equation, and provide enormous SEO amplification to the other authors on the platform which is ultimately resulting in perpetual and significant growth for the platform's macro domain authority. Upon searching the word "Vocal," Vocal.media appears on the first page of search results for most PC and mobile devices. When adding in the managerial expertise, the prospects for more excessive growth is highly likely for a platform that provides significant benefits for each party to the publication process.

Evidenced by the site's exponential gains throughout 2017, the Vocal platform has proven that it can cyclically incorporate new readers and content creators as the network expands. As more quality content is published and becomes readily viewable on search engines, more readers are going to find the content they are interested in on Vocal's platform, making the site a frequent stop for premium content. The creators compound this effect through their social self-amplification.

JMDA may be right to assume that as more readers get drawn into the Vocal ecosystem, many will take notice of the platform's incentives for content creators, resulting in additional authors, additional content, and new readers - a cycle that can generate growth for the company with minimal effort. Innate advantages aside, Vocal has a detailed user acquisition strategy that is designed to bring in new content creators to their platform, as well as to introduce new readers to the website that will drive benefit for the author, sponsor, and ultimately JMDA in the revenue department. This opens the door for revenue generation.

It's The SEO, Silly

Perhaps most important to bloggers and content creators, Vocal's built-in Search Engine Optimization tools tackle the most common challenge faced by most other DIY blogging solutions?appearing prominently on an internet search. JMDA faces this challenge for its users and strengthens the ability to rank user content prominently by utilizing inbound marketing and content amplification strategies. These practices have become some of the most effective ways to attract new users in the digital age. Additionally, JMDA's proprietary data tools allow for detailed and actionable analytics, enabling creators to analyze consumer trends and markets accordingly.

Notably, Vocal has made it a focused priority to provide its first-rate service to its entire user base, working to retain contributors by ensuring timely and helpful customer support to both readers and authors. Astoundingly, even after using sophisticated and proprietary methods to acquire new users, it costs JMDA an immaterial expense to attract original content creators, as well as readers. Taking into account the business model that can maximize revenue through agency partnerships and sponsorships, this cost is almost inconsequential compared to the income new customers can bring to the company. It could be argued that JMDA is both a margin as well as a growth story.

A Foundation for Success

As for any startup venture, investors would be wise to make sure that the company is led by focused and capable management with the experience to bring ideas to fruition. And, there is little doubt that Vocal, with its growing user base and forward-thinking platform, is in good hands.

Founded in 2012, Jerrick Media, in its simplest terms, is a digital technology company focused on the development, expansion, and monetization of online communities through the use of targeted marketing and branded digital content. Founder and CEO Jeremy Frommer leads the company, though, from the standpoint of more than 20 years of experience in the institutional financial services and technology industry. What results is a technology company with a hedge fund mentality Mr. Frommer brings with him valuable knowledge of online financial operations and community development through his experiences as CEO of Carlin Financial Group, and later as managing director and head of RBC Capital Markets Corporation's Global Prime Services group. After two years of investing in the digital media space, Mr. Frommer quickly found that the available commercial technology did not aptly support his business ideas at the time, and partnered with long-time friend and business partner Rick Schwartz to establish Jerrick Media. Moreover, that partnership, which became JMDA, is developing one of the most targeted and efficient long-form blogging platforms available today.

The company's founding principle rests on providing best-in-class solutions for content creators to efficiently publish their content, build influence and monetize their work. Mr. Frommer let his experience dictate the path, and has assembled a highly skilled team to support Jerrick Media's mission and the Vocal platform, providing an excellent foundation for the company to expand and build its portfolio of content creation and marketing services.

Looking Ahead And Recognizing Opportunity

For investors, now may be the perfect time to consider JMDA stock as a value opportunity, and evaluate the short and long-term prospects of this emerging company that is both diligent and focused on driving shareholder value. Moreover, with its flagship product only recently disseminated to the market in 2017, the stock appears to still be under the radar of small-cap investors, adding to a window of opportunity at current levels.

Investors may also be wise to factor in the exponential growth and the continued momentum of Vocal during the second half of 2017, specifically noting the inherently robust platform features, state-of-the-art design, and ability to attract new users daily. Even from a cursory view, there is a good reason to believe that the JMDA share price, at current levels, is grossly undervalued. Following the momentum already in place, Vocal's platform will continue to scale based on the size of its user base and, as stated earlier in the article, there are certain aspects of the platform that will facilitate the generation of users organically. To bolster the prospects, JMDA has alluded to several planned initiatives to strengthen this growth in 2018 further.

Within the first quarter of 2018, JMDA has publicly stated that they intend to secure accretive partnerships that may allow for increased affiliated sales and branded content, thereby generating additional revenue streams for the company.

As an example of the many unique revenue-generating services currently active on Vocal, brand sponsors can quickly engage with their target audience by sponsoring contests, which are entirely maintained and facilitated by Vocal staff. Brands effectively challenge the Vocal community of creators to create content related to their "brand challenge" for a prize. This simultaneously generates brand awareness and also valuable content that can be repurposed for expanded brand promotion. Recent promotions on the Vocal platform produced tens of thousands of unique visits from readers and had proven that the method of leading readers to the site through in-house projects is an exceptionally viable tool.

Being Different Is JMDA's Strength

Jerrick Media's Vocal is a unique platform that can address some of the most problematic issues faced by tens of millions of content creators. The company's business model not only allows content creators to efficiently produce and host high-quality content in a multitude of channels but also enables authors to reach a wider audience and reap financial rewards for their work.

With an already successful launch and nearing seven million page views per month, Vocal is in a position to continue its run of exponential growth as more features are implemented to attract new readers, creators, and authors. At its current trading price, investors would be wise to consider looking into the up-and-coming social media platform that is positioned to become the industry model for success.

SOURCE: CNA Finance