If you’re a writing enthusiast, consider starting a poetry blog. It is a great way to showcase your poetries to passionate readers, improve your writing skills, and open a way to side income.
People have misconceptions about poetry. One is that poetry should be written on a grand idea and deep themes. This misunderstanding leads a lot of great potential authors to think poetry is probably not for them. A poem can be about anything as small as a shoe or as big as a fantasy world.
Read along to learn how to start a poetry blog, brainstorm ideas for a name and content, the frequency of updating poetries, and much more.
Reasons to Start a Poetry Blog
Here are three reasons you should start a poetry blog and how it would benefit you.
1. Improved Work
Getting other people’s opinions on your work is essential to improve it. You may be wrong if you think you can get constructive and useful feedback from your friends and family on your poetry. You can get proper feedback only from interested people who know about poetries.
That’s when your poetry blog can help you. Your audience will be knowledgeable and interested in your poetries. And that’s why their feedback will help enhance your skills.
2. Make Money from Something You Love
There are different ways your poetry blog can make you money. You can monetize your blog and earn money through Google Adsense. You can also earn through affiliate marketing and offer subscriptions. Another way bloggers make money is by offering online coaching. You can offer online classes to your audience about writing and publishing poetries.
3. Showcase Your Work and Make Ways to Opportunities
Showing your work to the right audience and getting appreciation will encourage you to write more and better. Your poetry blog can open doors to numerous opportunities. For instance, getting hired by high-paying clients or being recognized for your work by renowned organizations.
5 Truths About Starting a Blog
Everyone should know these five harsh truths before starting a poetry blog.
1. You Won’t Start Making Money the Day You Start Publishing Content
If you’re creating a poetry blog only to make money, we would suggest you rethink your decision. There’s a long way to go before you start making money through your blog, be it Google ads or affiliate marketing. And to cover that long road, you need your passion to keep you fueled enough to reach the destination.
Initially, your sole focus should be publishing quality content and driving great volumes of real traffic to your website. By real traffic, we mean active readers and not fake traffic that people sell.
2. Getting Readers Takes Time
You publish your very first poetry to your newly created blog. It’s essential to understand that no one knows you yet. Therefore, your blog won’t be showered with many readers immediately.
95% of web pages didn’t rank on Google in the top 10 the same year they were published. For the 5% who managed to rank, it took 61 to 182 days after implementing multiple strategies, like using certain keywords, a great user experience, on and off-page SEO, etc.
Ensure that you publish your best work, your blog’s theme and graphics match the themes of your poetry, and your website offers an excellent user interface and user experience.
3. You Will be Spending More Time on Content Promotion than Creation
No matter how valuable your content is, it needs to be promoted to reach your target audience. There are numerous methods to promote your blog. You can implement SEO strategies and spread the word on social media.
4. You Will Lose Subscribers
If you lose subscribers, that doesn’t mean your content is not worth reading. Getting unsubscribed is normal. Look at it as building a loyal audience and losing unloyal readers. A small number of loyal readers is better than a huge number of unloyal readers. Because loyal readers engage with your content more frequently, increasing your blog’s engagement rate.
5. You Will Find Yourself Comparing Your Blog to Other Bloggers
When you compare yourself to other bloggers, ask yourself a question. How is comparing your new blog to a years-old blog fair? Understand that you will learn many things to build a successful blog. And those things you learned will help your poetry blog grow.
Steps to Creating a Poetry Blog
Before learning how to create a poetry blog, know that you won’t be publishing poetries only. Along with the poetries, you must create content to help and educate your readers. This is one of the most practical marketing strategies.
You can create articles on poetry-related topics like how to write great poems, different types of poetries, etc.
1. Decide Your Goals
To succeed, you must have your goals figured out. Think about if you’re creating a poetry blog as just a hobby or if you will take it as a serious source of income. Note down your long and short-term goals. This will help you decide which steps to take because they can differ according to aims.
2. Think About the Type of Content You Will Publish
Selecting a niche is crucial. Specifying your niche cuts down a part of the audience. For instance, when you say you publish poetries, your target audience will be all poetry lovers. But if you say you publish witty poetries, your target will be some percentage of that poetry lovers’ group.
When you specify your target audience, you’re less likely to get attention from people who wouldn’t like your work. And this protects your poetry blog from negative comments. Another thing you must decide is what kind of poetries you will be publishing. Do you want to go for a modern or classic type? Or will you publish ballads, sonnets, acrostics, free verse poetry, and/or other kinds of poems?
As said above, a poetry blog isn’t only about poetries. It would be best if you publish your niche-related articles as well. Think about what kind of articles you want on your blog. Do you want to publish posts to teach your audience about poetry, and if you want to do any guest posts or interviews?
3. Check Other Blogs in Your Niche
Checking other poetry blogs in your niche can help spark ideas. Observe their site’s design, colours, and style. Think about how you can design your blog by taking a turn at the styles that inspired you. While you’re at it, you can participate in blogging groups as well. Blogging groups can answer your questions when you’re stuck on a problem and encourage you to become a better blogger.
Here are some great blog examples you can see for inspiration:
Funny poems for life. As the name suggests, this blog publishes funny poetries and articles.
Image taken from Funny Poems for Life
Write out loud. Here you can find almost every type and genre of poetries. They allow people to publish their poetries on the Write Out Loud website.
Image taken from Write Out Loud
My Poetic Side. Here you will find poems of numerous categories
Image taken from My Poetic Side
PoemShape. You can read Haikus, fables, poetries, and criticism in this poetry blog.
Image taken from PoemShape
Magma Poetry. This website publishes poetries and blogs and has a magazine as well. They also accept poetry submissions.
Image taken from Magma poetry
4. Think of Your Blog’s Name
One of the most challenging stages of starting a poetry blog is to think of a perfect name. Here are some ideas.
- Use your name.
- Decide specific keywords in your blog’s niche, then think of a name involving them.
- Use acronyms.
- Try a common saying. Don’t go for something longer than three simple words.
Ensure that your poetry blog’s name is short and easy to pronounce and remember.
5. Choose a Platform
You can start your poetry blog from social media platforms like Instagram or other blogging platforms like Medium. Or, you can create a site using website builders.
There are numerous website builders out there. How do you know which one is the best for you? We’ve got the answer. Strikingly is one of the best website builders to create stunning, mobile-responsive poetry websites.
Strikingly is a ridiculously easy-to-use website builder which doesn’t require you to have coding or web designing experience. Its intuitive yet powerful website editor lets you create your website by personalizing site templates. Or, you can start from scratch and design your site using different sections.
Here’s how you can start a poetry blog using Strikingly.
a. Sign up and click on “Create new site” in the dashboard.
Image taken from Strikingly
b. Select the template you like. You will be redirected to the website editor.
c. Tap “Add new section.”
Image taken from Strikignly
d. Click on “Blog” and select your preferred layout.
e. Tap “Manage blog posts.”
f. Click the “Create new post” button, and write your poetry.
Image taken from Strikingly
g. When you click the publish button, you will be given the option to either post your poem instantly or schedule it for later.
Image taken from Strikingly
Strikingly blog feature allows users to categorize their blog posts, enable comments, enable RSS feed, activate Accelerated Mobile Pages, and offer blog email subscriptions.
Once you’ve published your blog, only two things remain.
6. Promote and Keep an Eye on Analytics
You need to tell your target audience that you’re creating content they might love, to gain readers. You can promote your blog through social media platforms such as Instagram and Quora or collaborate with other bloggers.
Strikingly allows users to view analytics for their blog. Keeping an eye on analytics can tell you what your audience likes and dislikes.
Now that you’ve learned how to create a poetry blog, this is your sign to start right now. Don’t let any obstacles stop you from getting where your goals lie.
