How To Promote Your Poetry Free... Almost
Last updated 3-29-'08
10 Steps Plus Resources To Advertise Your Poetry
It's been a long hard road getting to where I am today and while it's true I'm nowhere near the top of the hill, I have learned a lot about advertising one's poetry, And because someone asked I’ve decided to pass along some of the things I've learned in the form of a list with explanations for each step, all of them easier than standing on the corner with a sign that reads, “Poet, Will Write For Food.”
1. Get a blog. Make sure your blog comes with an RSS Feed. Most do but there are a couple of dinosaurs out there that don't. I recommend Squarespace at 7 bucks a month. Stay the heck away from MySpace, MSN Spaces, AOL, and Xanga as no one will take you seriously if you’re using a service that caters primarily to children and perverts.
2. Get a short easy to remember URL and redirect it to your blog. If you shop around you can find bargains for as little as $3 bucks a year
3. Print your own business cards-- lots of them. I print out and give away over 200 business cards each week. I print them on regular card stock (not that expensive perforated paper) and I cut them on a cheap paper cutter
that cost me 20 bucks at one of those big name office supply stores. I’ve been using that cheap paper cutter since 2000 without a single failure. You would not believe the traffic a business card can drive to your website. What does my business card have on it? BloggingPoet.com If you’d like you can put BloggingPoet.com on your business cards but you might want to use your own URL instead.
4. Set yourself up a t-shirt shop. The basic shops are free. Then, when your current crop of t-shirts become holier than thou you can buy yourself some new t-shirts to wear everywhere you go. Or you could wear my t-shirts. (Can’t blame a guy for trying, right?)
5. Join a few online groups but only use those who allow you to post links back to your own blog, but spend most of your time and energy on your blog and not on someone else’s blog or website. The Blogsboro Poetry Club is an excellent place to leave links back to your poetry blog
6. Get an affiliate account at Amazon.com and learn how to use it. You can promote a hundred other poets as easily as you can promote yourself and when the sales eventually start rolling in you’ll make money even if your book doesn’t sell. No, it won’t be much and if you get your first check in less than a year then consider yourself lucky.
7. Did I mention promoting other starving poets and writers? Start with the little guys, the ones who need you most. Stephen King doesn’t need you and if you can sell enough of Mister King’s books to get his attention then I’ll kiss your ass and his. But it just might be that a little guy like me might eventually notice what you’re doing for him and if he ever makes it big he might pay it back somehow.
8. Link to other blogs. Nothing gets my attention faster than finding a referral from your blog in my Who Links To Me statistics and I know very few bloggers who aren’t just like me. And remember: measure your progress based on stats and not on the number of comments you get. Some of those sites out there with tons of comments are all really the same commenter. Others draw lots of comments from a very few readers. As long as your stats keep going up you’re doing something right.
Speaking of comments: say nice things to others. Everybody will tell you they hate trolls but the fact is: we all love nice trolls who leave nice comments as long as the comments you make are on-topic and not just, “Hey, come look at my blog, http://....”
9. Let me know you exist. I love to promote other poets and unless you’ve got money to burn I usually do it for free. As a matter of fact I’m planning a new poetry promotion right now.
10. Now that you’ve got your RSS equipped poetry blog up and running it’s time to start submitting your URL and/or RSS feed to the various aggrigators and directories. The following is a list of many of the best I’ve found. I’ve deliberately left out those who I know are a waste of time but there could be some good ones out there I’ve yet to find. Most will want a reciprocal link, some will require the installation of some .html or Java script, but none are known to be malicious. If they cause your site to load too slowly or don’t display properly on your blog then dump ‘em and try another.
And just so you’ll know, all of those I’ve listed are free.
Get your books and chapbooks reviewed at World Class Poetry. No ISBN needed, but you must provide a way for people to order your poetry. No compensation necessary. Just let Allen Taylor know if you have an affiliate program or your books are available through a bookseller with an affiliate program. Allen will still review books if they're not.
Same goes for us here at Blogsboro.com. See our Contact and Submissions page for the info.
Post a few poems or articles to Discovery Place making sure you leave links to your blog or website so that others may find you. Team Blogsboro scouts Discovery Place and moves some of the submissions there to the other Blogsboro Network sites.
Join Blogsboro Videos and be sure to submit your blog's RSS feed to your user profile.
Join Repliqa and Stumbleupon and use their referral systems to add more readers to your blogs.
Poets Who Blog Introduce yourself, let WriterWoman know you exist.
GotPoetry.com
BloggingPoet411.com is a directory and search engine of poetry bloggers.
Poetsarus.com is a poetry search engine.
Allen of World Class Poetry has more tips here and here.
PoetsForDinner is a site designed to not only promote your blog but also get you some paying gigs.
Poetry.net is a great way to get more traffic and thus more eyeballs reading your poetry.
Best Of Blogs has a small but growing poetry catagory but I do get some traffic from there so why not check ‘em out.
Craig's List is a source of free online classifieds that is spreading around the world. There's sections for artists and poets, even communities of poets there.
Headlines Poetry is a poetry aggregator associated with the very well known poet, Ron Silliman. I'm sure they will be happy to add your blog as well.
Metaxucafe’ is a literary blog and aggregator that just happens to like poets, novelists, critics, and others. Metaxcafe is owned and managed by Bud Parr who is very close to the New York publishing and promotional industries.
Wutzle is one of many blog search engines. You can find plenty more by looking through Billy’sBig Little List Of Search Engines. And remember: Never pay anyone to get you listed with search engines.
Then there’s the Answers.com, Add A Blog page and the Open Directory Project. Both are human edited so be honest and be prepared to wait months as their manual check of every website submitted takes what will seem like forever. Many of the lesser known search engines access the Open Directory so submitting is worth the wait.
Get to know other poetry bloggers. There's lots of links to other poets at BloggingPoet.com and throughout the Blogsboro Network.
You'll also discover lots of creative writers with the free Blogsboro Tool Bar.
Check out PoetADay.com by Deb Powers.
Search for local poetry resources. If local for you is Greensboro, North Carolina then I’ve already done part of the work for you with my list of Poets and Poetry In Greensboro, North Carolina for you.
You’ll also want to look for local aggregators with which to list your blog and it just so happens I’ve got the most comprehensive list of aggregators on the entire Internet bar none. And like all the sites listed above they are all free.
Also, why not start you’re own blog ring? It’s free and easy to do. All you need is a free web page and a blogroll.
And finally, nominate yourself or someone you know to become the next Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere. Nominations always begin on April 1st.
Are these suggestions better than advertising on radio, television, billboards, and newspapers? No, but you’ll not get much from conventional advertising outlets unless you’ve got cash and gas to burn. And to keep the fires hot you’re going to be burning a lot. Cheap advertising gets you cheap results but when you’re living life on the cheap... Well, you know how it is or you wouldn’t have read all the way to the end of this article.
Know of other resources that should be added to my list? Please let me know and I’ll be happy to add them.
It's been a long hard road getting to where I am today and while it's true I'm nowhere near the top of the hill, I have learned a lot about advertising one's poetry, And because someone asked I’ve decided to pass along some of the things I've learned in the form of a list with explanations for each step, all of them easier than standing on the corner with a sign that reads, “Poet, Will Write For Food.”
1. Get a blog. Make sure your blog comes with an RSS Feed. Most do but there are a couple of dinosaurs out there that don't. I recommend Squarespace at 7 bucks a month. Stay the heck away from MySpace, MSN Spaces, AOL, and Xanga as no one will take you seriously if you’re using a service that caters primarily to children and perverts.
2. Get a short easy to remember URL and redirect it to your blog. If you shop around you can find bargains for as little as $3 bucks a year
3. Print your own business cards-- lots of them. I print out and give away over 200 business cards each week. I print them on regular card stock (not that expensive perforated paper) and I cut them on a cheap paper cutter
that cost me 20 bucks at one of those big name office supply stores. I’ve been using that cheap paper cutter since 2000 without a single failure. You would not believe the traffic a business card can drive to your website. What does my business card have on it? BloggingPoet.com If you’d like you can put BloggingPoet.com on your business cards but you might want to use your own URL instead. 4. Set yourself up a t-shirt shop. The basic shops are free. Then, when your current crop of t-shirts become holier than thou you can buy yourself some new t-shirts to wear everywhere you go. Or you could wear my t-shirts. (Can’t blame a guy for trying, right?)
5. Join a few online groups but only use those who allow you to post links back to your own blog, but spend most of your time and energy on your blog and not on someone else’s blog or website. The Blogsboro Poetry Club is an excellent place to leave links back to your poetry blog
6. Get an affiliate account at Amazon.com
and learn how to use it. You can promote a hundred other poets as easily as you can promote yourself and when the sales eventually start rolling in you’ll make money even if your book doesn’t sell. No, it won’t be much and if you get your first check in less than a year then consider yourself lucky. 7. Did I mention promoting other starving poets and writers? Start with the little guys, the ones who need you most. Stephen King
doesn’t need you and if you can sell enough of Mister King’s books to get his attention then I’ll kiss your ass and his. But it just might be that a little guy like me might eventually notice what you’re doing for him and if he ever makes it big he might pay it back somehow. 8. Link to other blogs. Nothing gets my attention faster than finding a referral from your blog in my Who Links To Me statistics and I know very few bloggers who aren’t just like me. And remember: measure your progress based on stats and not on the number of comments you get. Some of those sites out there with tons of comments are all really the same commenter. Others draw lots of comments from a very few readers. As long as your stats keep going up you’re doing something right.
Speaking of comments: say nice things to others. Everybody will tell you they hate trolls but the fact is: we all love nice trolls who leave nice comments as long as the comments you make are on-topic and not just, “Hey, come look at my blog, http://....”
9. Let me know you exist. I love to promote other poets and unless you’ve got money to burn I usually do it for free. As a matter of fact I’m planning a new poetry promotion right now.
10. Now that you’ve got your RSS equipped poetry blog up and running it’s time to start submitting your URL and/or RSS feed to the various aggrigators and directories. The following is a list of many of the best I’ve found. I’ve deliberately left out those who I know are a waste of time but there could be some good ones out there I’ve yet to find. Most will want a reciprocal link, some will require the installation of some .html or Java script, but none are known to be malicious. If they cause your site to load too slowly or don’t display properly on your blog then dump ‘em and try another.
And just so you’ll know, all of those I’ve listed are free.
Get your books and chapbooks reviewed at World Class Poetry. No ISBN needed, but you must provide a way for people to order your poetry. No compensation necessary. Just let Allen Taylor know if you have an affiliate program or your books are available through a bookseller with an affiliate program. Allen will still review books if they're not.
Same goes for us here at Blogsboro.com. See our Contact and Submissions page for the info.
Post a few poems or articles to Discovery Place making sure you leave links to your blog or website so that others may find you. Team Blogsboro scouts Discovery Place and moves some of the submissions there to the other Blogsboro Network sites.
Join Blogsboro Videos and be sure to submit your blog's RSS feed to your user profile.
Join Repliqa and Stumbleupon and use their referral systems to add more readers to your blogs.
Poets Who Blog Introduce yourself, let WriterWoman know you exist.
GotPoetry.com
BloggingPoet411.com is a directory and search engine of poetry bloggers.
Poetsarus.com is a poetry search engine.
Allen of World Class Poetry has more tips here and here.
PoetsForDinner is a site designed to not only promote your blog but also get you some paying gigs.
Poetry.net is a great way to get more traffic and thus more eyeballs reading your poetry.
Best Of Blogs has a small but growing poetry catagory but I do get some traffic from there so why not check ‘em out.
Craig's List is a source of free online classifieds that is spreading around the world. There's sections for artists and poets, even communities of poets there.
Headlines Poetry is a poetry aggregator associated with the very well known poet, Ron Silliman. I'm sure they will be happy to add your blog as well.
Metaxucafe’ is a literary blog and aggregator that just happens to like poets, novelists, critics, and others. Metaxcafe is owned and managed by Bud Parr who is very close to the New York publishing and promotional industries.
Wutzle is one of many blog search engines. You can find plenty more by looking through Billy’s
Then there’s the Answers.com, Add A Blog page and the Open Directory Project. Both are human edited so be honest and be prepared to wait months as their manual check of every website submitted takes what will seem like forever. Many of the lesser known search engines access the Open Directory so submitting is worth the wait.
Get to know other poetry bloggers. There's lots of links to other poets at BloggingPoet.com and throughout the Blogsboro Network.
You'll also discover lots of creative writers with the free Blogsboro Tool Bar.
Check out PoetADay.com by Deb Powers.
Search for local poetry resources. If local for you is Greensboro, North Carolina then I’ve already done part of the work for you with my list of Poets and Poetry In Greensboro, North Carolina for you.
You’ll also want to look for local aggregators with which to list your blog and it just so happens I’ve got the most comprehensive list of aggregators on the entire Internet bar none. And like all the sites listed above they are all free.
Also, why not start you’re own blog ring? It’s free and easy to do. All you need is a free web page and a blogroll.
And finally, nominate yourself or someone you know to become the next Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere. Nominations always begin on April 1st.
Are these suggestions better than advertising on radio, television, billboards, and newspapers? No, but you’ll not get much from conventional advertising outlets unless you’ve got cash and gas to burn. And to keep the fires hot you’re going to be burning a lot. Cheap advertising gets you cheap results but when you’re living life on the cheap... Well, you know how it is or you wouldn’t have read all the way to the end of this article.
Know of other resources that should be added to my list? Please let me know and I’ll be happy to add them.
Billy
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Reader Comments (6)
You could also hire Creative Scamper to help you promote and market yourself - specializing in graphic design, PR, marketing, and virtual assisting. http://www.creativescamper.com
And to all who happen to read Tina's comment, she's quite good at her job.
Get your books and chapbooks reviewed at http://www.world-class-poetry.com/poetry-book-reviews.html. No ISBN needed, but you must provide a way for people to order your poetry. No compensation necessary. Just let me know if you have an affiliate program or your books are available through a bookseller with an affiliate program. I'll still review books if they're not.
Allen, Great idea to suggest you site, thanks. I added you to the list above.
Thank you for all this great information.
-Sunny
mina nagi website.
I write for pleasure. For the last decade the poetry has become my passion and keeps me busy. I write very simple and there's no ambiguity in my poems, they unfold like a story told in verse.