Writing Poetry - The Loneliest Poem

I used to have a notebook. Every night before I went to bed, I would spend a few minutes or more jotting down a few poetic notes. Sometimes they were just a few words, other times, they were something that took me an hour or more to finish. Yet, I made this habit to write poetry every night before I went to bed.

It was melodic and a way to release my soul. Sometimes the poems unfolded into a beautiful story; other times they were funny and quirky and held nothing of any purpose. More importantly, they allowed my brain muscles to work creatively and look at each object into a different light. It was refreshing. It is renewing.

Unfortunately, while I enjoy writing poetry, it seems publishing poetry is a hard niche to really be successful in. My thoughts on this stems from the hub scores - my poetry usually ranking more toward the bottom. My concern came when one of them actually dropped below 50. To me, that is a sign of a hub lacking quality. I hope that really isn’t the case.

I have been writing on Hubpages for about 6 months. I have yet to settle into a permanent niche. I don’t think I ever will. I write creatively, I write humorously, and occasionally I try to take things with a more serious note. While it has been awhile since I have religiously written in my poetry notebook, I have occasionally pounded out a few poems on here as well, but only when the desire really hits me.

In comparison to my other articles, it seems my poetry sits on the bottom rungs. As I write this, I wonder how I can improve this. I wonder how this effects me as an overall hubber. As the score on this lonely poem continues to drop, so does my overall hubber score. Now granted, the hubber score is just a number and frankly, I don’t think mine is bad. But I am a perfectionist and a little competitive with myself. So as you can see, I am struggling with how to get this number back up.

As I brainstorm, I have come up with a few cheap tricks (or maybe they can be classified as smart tricks… or when you get through them, downright dumb tricks) to try and gain exposure to my failing poem hub.

1. I can spam my Facebook account and hope all my friends will click on the link and vote it up. Why, because they like me and I asked them to. But who am I kidding. I have linked my stuff on Facebook in the past and a very small percentage of my actual reads come from this site. I have asked them to read my stuff and I have asked them to like it, but that has obviously done no good.

2. I can do keyword research and hope there is some small word in my poetry that will draw attention from the Google Monster to eventually ante me up in to the higher ranked pages so the lonely poem is found. But what am I talking about. I am still trying to figure out this whole keyword researching thingy. And I am pretty sure, if I do figure it out, Google will go and change again and then I will have to figure it out all over again. Google really is one big mystery.

3. I will write this short hub, spamming everybody on writing poetry. Along with this careful prose on writing poetry will be a small suggestion to check out this lonely poem. After all, if my poem was a pet, you wouldn’t let that little pet go without a little bit of attention. Well, if the poem is craving attention, how can we deny the thing it needs the most.

And you have to admit, it is a little hypnotic when I keep saying read this hub, read this hub, you are getting sleepy, read this poem. In fact, I am not even sure you have gotten this far. You might have already clicked away, curious about this hub that I am talking about. Only then, you will never return here to find the craziest of my brainstorming schemes, which only get crazier cause I assume no one will make it this far anyway.

4. I can offer a reward. A reward to the person who can leave me the most craziest comment attached to the lonely poem. This reward will be revealed at a later date when I figure out what the reward might be. But don’t be disappointed. I have offered rewards in the past. Granted, they have mostly been smiley faces, but you try sending virtual rewards. It is difficult. If I could, I would even bake you a cake. But most likely I would have to eat it, and maybe send you a picture of me eating it. However, that couldn’t possibly be thought of as a reward, only a tad bit of torture.

5. I can rush out to the store and buy a florescent green tank top, or maybe a variety of florescent color tops, depending on their price and how it fits into my budget. Knowing how much florescent colors irritate people, I vow I will wear these florescent shirts until I finally see the number rising to a satisfactory score. Now mind you, I actually kind of like florescent, so that might take awhile! So while you read that hub, you can imagine how you are helping the world out, by eventually ridding me of florescent colors! But please, whatever you do, save the eyes of the people who must see me on a regular basis.

This is my disclaimer section. In reality, the scores mean very little. I write here because I enjoy writing. I hope along the way someone else will enjoy my writing as well. Trying to get the numbers to raise is my own way of trying to improve myself as an online writer.

From my personal experiences, poetry writing online is difficult and needs constant attention. When it is first published, it will probably be viewed, but after awhile it falls out of site and is eventually forgotten about. Occasionally I might see the additional one or two random visits, but it seems like poems are not easily found. There is an excessive amount of online poetry and only a select few can make it to top ranks. So what happens to those that fall to the bottom? How do you keep your poetry always in sight?

What it really comes down to is a decision. Since poetry is more likely to rank lower (at least for me) do I continue to publish it with hopes that it doesn’t drag to a low ranking making me look bad in the yes of Google? Or do I continue to view it like I always have… Every writing is a work of art! Therefore, the numbers don’t really matter!

Yep - I think that is it. Just keep writing! Write whatever you like… whether it is creative writing, product reviews, funny stories, or series subjects ... And if all else fails… wear florescent colors!