AC Page Views and Poetry - a Look at Poetry on Associated Content

Just scan through my Associated Content Favorites, and you will find many fascinating wordsmiths. In fact, Associated Content enjoys an ever-growing informal community of poets, who are all passionate about poetry.

AC poets encourage one another through constructive comments on our published poetry and sometimes even by writing tributes in poetry to one another. Some of us even have our own poetry blogs, where we share our AC poems and others.

At the same time, if you have visited the AC Forums, you have likely heard the solemn decrees. Poetry statistically seems to receive fewer page views than straightforward articles on Associated Content. And fewer page views equal more modest Associated Content Performance Payments for poems.

Why do poems seem to attract fewer page views?

Poems may rack up fewer page views for several reasons.

First, a poem generally is shorter than most other articles. Rarely will a poem extend past one page on a site such as Associated Content. As a result, each poem may only receive one page view per reader, even if that reader lingers awhile to ponder its creative phrasings.

Although most Associated Content articles stretch to two or three pages, racking up two or three page views per read, poetry does not usually run so long.

Poetry does not accommodate keyword density easily.

Because creative wording variations (see Kady the Hippee), clever pacing (see Coffee Mugg), rhythm (see Mike Sutherland) and descriptive verbage (see Elisa Ashley) are essential to poetry, it can be nearly impossible for poets to repeat keywords within the body of a poem.

Certainly, poets may add keyword-intensive captions, headings and titles. However, the nature of poetry itself does not lend itself to search engine optimization strategies. This can greatly diminish the page hits, or page views, of poetry on sites like Associated Content.

For example, a news story or feature article about the American Democratic Presidential Candidates Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama might be quite keyword-intensive. The candidates' names, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Barak Obama, could appear dozens of times, even within a one- or two-page article.

However, a poem offers no such luxury, even if the poet rhymed "Obama" with "Osama" (as in Osama bin Laden). A second verse might add a "comma" to "Obama," but soon the rhymes will run out.

A poet might rhyme Senator Hillary Clinton's first name with "pillary," or recraft other words to fit (as I did with "The Big Chillary").

On the Republican side, a poet might bump up keyword usage more easily by rhyming John McCain with words like "command chain," "campaign," "right brain," "jet plane," and other terms.

But even such poetic licenses will not amount to sufficient keyword density to draw top billings in the Google search engine. Losing this cyber-advantage can cost poetry several page views.

Most poems can't hold excessive repetition, which builds keywords.

Poetry need not rhyme to require varied phrasings. Although echoed lines are considered appropriate in pantoums and other poetic forms, the repetitions must be accomplished with artfulness and skill.

It takes a poet master, like Edgar Allan Poe, to employ abundant repetition without sacrificing his art. Consider Poe's classic poem, "The Bells," in which the ending of the first stanza sets the pace for all the stanzas to follow. Here are the final lines from Poe's first stanza: "From the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells - from the jingling and the tinkling of the bells."

Perhaps Poe knew something about maximizing keyword density, search engine optimization and page views. Absolutely, Edgar Allan Poe was ahead of his time. (Would someone please ring up Al Gore and let him know? Maybe Poe invented the internet, after all.)

How do popular-level readers feel about poetry, particularly on Associated Content?

Perhaps some readers have not-so-fond memories of high school English classes, in which they were required to memorize image-laden poetic lines, which they could hardly decipher. Such folks may shy away from partaking in poetry on sites like Associated Content. If they do, this may cost the AC poets some page views.

On the other hand, most poems tend to be shorter reads and well worth the visit. An Associated Content subscriber can read and comment on several brief poems quite quickly, as compared to sorting through much longer articles.

Often, poems are rhythmic and even humorous. Although some poetry on Associated Content can pierce the senses with its honest integrity (see Charlie K), other poetic posts may cause readers to laugh out loud (see Robritt). Some poems on AC simply paint a clearer picture of our world or make us sigh with familiar memories (see Missy H).

Poetry need not be stuffy, like the stuff of school memorization assignments and forensic clubs. Sometimes poetry is just plain fun. Perhaps readers opting out of poetry do not know what they are missing.

What about upfront payments on Associated Content?

Associated Content does not offer upfront payments on prose, poetry, fiction or memoirs. What message does this send to creative writers?

Although Associated Content boasts some exceptionally talented poets, the site does not offer remuneration for poetry, except for performance payments, based on page views.

What's a poet to do?

Whether profitable or not, poetry is its own reward. Writing is addictive, no matter how many readers one may reach.

Creative expression is exhilarating to creative writers. After all, poets are positively passionate about poetry, our own and others.

So we will persist in our poeticality, be it practical or not. We will pursue our own poetiveness, even to the point of poverty. And we will fellowship with our poetically-prone fellow poets, particularly here on Associated Content.

(After all, if poets can't invent new words, who can?)