4 simple ways to make your poetry blog stand out

We all know that writing and reading poetry is a unique experience. Words are our tool we use to portrait emotional journey where we want to take our reader. But do we always succeed in that? I pose this question not that much from the writing point of view, but more how do we select and arrange environment where we display our poems. In our blogging space we need to offer an opportunity for that experience to become alive and 'consume' our reader.

There are certain ways you can improve your blog to represent who you are and let your writing really stand out.

Chose a theme that allows your words to be the focus.

We do live in the digital era where is emphasis on photographic beauty and memory. But here what matters are your words. Simple, elegant themes that reinforce the power of your words and enable your poems to pop-up are more pleasant to your reader. It should support your writing voice and emotion it transcends.

I always prefer minimalist aesthetics as it sheds all the unimportant stuff away. So if you write a poem, or a quote, story and use just one or two images, that is much more appealing to your reader than scrolling through the crowded screen of unnecessary information. Playing around with different typography can help you accentuate what you think is crucial for reader to notice.

Do you really need all that widgets 'lingering' around?

In past few months I've experimented with sveral themes and widgets and decided to keep those that I think are beneficial to the reader. The same comes with the menu and header information. I'm usually interested to browse what general topics blog has to offer, and maybe archive. A shortcut for people to follow blog by email, RSS and social media buttons is also good to keep.

I do follow and read a lot of blogs and often I come across those that have duplicate widgets which is quite unappealing (you don't need to display the same information in sidebar and footer, right?). It doesn't matter do you blog just for hobby, to fill up your spare time or you are a professional writer: neat looking blog is what invites people in to read your writing. With a tiny effort you can really make your blog clean and easy approachable for reader.

Yes, about page is important.

So you do have a blog. And you share your work. Guess what, people will often like to know more about you –  there is nothing inherently wrong with that. You control what information you put but I think having that about page and few sentences where you give bits of yourself can be beneficial. Even better, as a poet why don't write interesting poem about your blog/your writing?

I, for example in the beginning had a short version of my CV, which is not that much related to what I'm doing here (except from the creativity part) and I realized it was too heavy. Than I completely rewrote it. Now my about page in more humorous and fun way accentuates just few really important facts about me and my blogging.

For more professional author biography here I share best tips on how to write it.

Offer different formats of your work.

As a writer/poet this is an area you can further explore. Many people prefer audio formats. You can record reading of your poems and use sound cloud services to share your readings. It might be your work or poems from other popular poets. It's good to know that we all differently digest information and we need to use technology to our advantage – in a way it will support our work, not hinder it.

In a nutshell, your content is your branding. Let it shine. We are here for love of writing and reading, and that's where all the magic happens. With these given tips, "shower" your faithful readers with regular writing and you will see how your community will grow.

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