Blogging For Poetry Writers: 4 Steps To Effective Blog Participation For Writers

 Almost everyone these days knows what a **BLOG** is. You can’t surf the Internet for too long before you run into a blog regardless of what the topic is. Blogging is a two-sided relationship; one that exists between the owner of the blog and the readers of the blog. As a writer, **YOUR GOAL IS TO PARTICIPATE** in other blogs so that the readers of the blog become aware of who you are and what it is that you do. Participating in other blogs is a simple, highly effective, and totally free way to find real prospects on the Internet. *Blogging For Poetry Writers: 4 Steps To Effective Blog Participation For Writers* will outline a few simple ways to find new followers, fans, and potential patrons, along with ways to dramatically increase your exposure to people who are looking for places to find your nature of work. ## Getting Started On Your Goal Before you get started, you will need a few things to make sure that you are able to make the most of your participation. Those things, in order, are: ### 1. A Gravatar A gravatar, also called an avatar, is an image that follows you from site to site and always appears beside your name when you post comments on a blog. Your gravatar allows people to start to recognize you by face, which is very important if you are a writer. Studies have shown that when a person knows you by face, they feel connected to you—and this is precisely what you want if you are trying to gain more exposure. Gravatars are free and only require that you have a picture of yourself to upload for use with the service. Once you upload your picture, you will be given the option to crop it and then save it. After saving it, any blog that you comment on that supports gravatars will show your face next to your comments. ### 2. A Destination  Most of the time, when you comment on a blog, the blog owner will allow you to place a link back to a destination of your choice. For writers, this will usually be a link to your Facebook page or another site (your weblog or other social media page) where the user can learn more about you and what it is that you do. > **Pro Tip:** I do want to stress that in almost EVERY case, you will want to use your Facebook page because it will allow them to friend request you or like your business page which in turn allows you to send them messages in the future. Using a regular website link will not give you those capabilities so make sure you always use your Facebook page unless you have a very specific reason not to. ## Meeting Your Goal ### 3. A Plan Depending on the blog and the amount of readers that it has, making comments on a blog that you are visiting can dramatically increase your exposure to people who are looking for places to see poetry writers perform their work. All that you need to do is look at the articles on the site and think of them as conversations. You need to participate in as many of these conversations as is reasonably possible. To participate, you will need to read the entire article and make an **intelligent and useful comment.** * **Example:** If the blog has an article about another poet, read the article and then use your comment to congratulate the poet on the article and let them know that you will look forward to seeing more of their work in the future. * **Networking:** If you are familiar with the poet, you could also use your comment to give other readers your recommendation of why they should take the time to check out this poet in person. Doing this will encourage other poets to do the same for you, which not only builds a connection between you and other poets, but between you and the other readers of the blog because you are helping them separate the good from the bad when it comes to spoken word poets. **A word of caution:** NEVER use your comments for self-promotion or any sort of unnecessary negativity when it comes to another person’s work. You do not want people to see you as someone that goes out of their way to tarnish another person’s reputation. That's not a good look! Be aware of your online personality! It can make you—and if worse comes to worst, break you. ### 4. Consistency  Being consistent means that people will start to want to hear your opinion on certain topics along with the writer of the article. It is not uncommon for blog readers to value the opinion of specific regular commentators as much as or more than the writer of the content. In many of the top blogs, the commentators are more responsible for the growth of the blog than the content writers are. The reward for being consistent is **conversations and traffic.** People will feel connected to you, want to know more about you, and will also want to talk to you more. ## Conclusion It is my sincere hope that this *Blogging For Poetry Writers: 4 Steps To Effective Blog Participation For Writers* article will give all poets a greater understanding of what it will take to successfully build your brand and profit from your work. I hope that everyone reading this will take these four steps and put them into action right away. Not only will they prove to be extremely valuable, but they will also put you on the road to running your own effective blog if you choose to do so. **Happy Blogging! :-)**