Dear POMfam, We’ve Got Some Work to Do
It can’t be all about writing poetry
The POMfam tagline is “Together, we grow.” Yet, our publication statistics might suggest otherwise.
Our 30-day statistics read like this:
Given that we have great participation from our writers as far as submissions go, what these data say to me is that we are doing the writing work but falling short when it comes to reading and sharing.
With over 800 people following this publication and several hundred writers, we should be having more than an average of 167 visitors per day to our publication. Across the board for all of my publications as well as for my personal page, readership is down, so this is not unique to us — but it does mean that we might have to give a little more reader support within our publication so that Together — we ARE GROWING.
Poetry, in general, is a difficult genre with which to gain traction here on Medium. But this does not mean we cannot accrue a loyal and regular readership of our publication. There ARE people here who love poetry and we want them to be following out pub and browsing our works. We want this to be what our publication homepage says — A PLACE FOR POETRY.
Subsequently, a place for POETRY READERS. We currently have 832 followers, and I think we can improve this.
Here’s what we can do to pick things up
Promote your own ‘The POM’ work
Some time ago I wrote an article about how to promote your work. During these low readership times, it may be useful and encouraging to you if you are feeling this personally or if you want to offer some extra support to this publication and group that we all love so much. I invite you to try any of these marketing techniques on your own work as well as for this publication:
12 Very Creative Ways to Promote Your Writing
If you are using the daily share threads and this is ALL you are doing to promote your work, you are limiting yourself to the same circle of readers and limiting the reach of your work. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new.
Share our publication
Any of the creative marketing techniques outlined in the article above can also be applied to sharing The POM publication and saying a little something nice about the community of writers we have contributing here. Help get the word out about our publication so others will follow and read your work here as well as the work of your fellow POM writers.
Support your POMfam members
Creative support for your fellow poets goes a long way. It gives you a sense of fulfillment, builds community, and helps to stoke the creative fires of other poets in your circle. All of which can enrich your life as a writer of poetry.
Think of it this way:
Poetry in — Poetry out
Poets, indeed, feel real burnout when they focus so much on the “poetry out” portion of that equation and forget to simply seek inspiration in the creativity of others.
Take some time each day to support your fellow POMfam. Here are some ideas of how to do that:
- Read a few poems from The POM homepage each day.
- Find an inspiring nugget in someone’s poem. Highlight it. Share it to Twitter.
- Share a poem you like to your Facebook wall and tell your FB followers why they should be reading it.
- Leave a supportive comment for a fellow poet on one or two of their latest poems. Tell them what you like about their style, their poem, or how their work has moved you.
Support your POMfam leaders
Be patient with us. We are working hard to bring your work to publishing and to keep this group growing together. It is a lot of work so sometimes we don’t get the writing time we would like to have. Take a little time to read and support our work as well.
Side note: these newsletters are no longer applicable for the MPP program, on top of the other daily tasks we do to keep The POM running smoothly, therefore I promote the “virtual tip jars” of our staff so you can thank them for what they do for our group if you so choose.
Editors for The POM publication are:
Additional editor for the FB group:
Now, one last thing — let’s set a goal for ourselves, shall we? I think that if we apply all the above, a little extra effort from our writers — that we can reach 1000 followers on our pub by the end of October. What do you think? Let’s do this!
Thanks for being a part of The POMfam :)