How do you handle a problem like Betty?

 
Lest the title be misunderstood, I should start by saying it's meant as a reference to the late great Richard Rodgers. "Betty" itself is not a problem. I'm quite happy with the poem (or non-poem) that has been written, annotated, and blogged; what I wanted to do I did. As a bonus, all of the reactions from readers have so far been quite positive.

Now that that's done, though, it just leads to the actual problem: How do I get readers to look at it? It may be the Best. Poem (or Non-Poem). Ever. -- but that doesn't mean much if almost no one has heard of it, much less seen it. So I have to find ways to attract other potential readers.

My first idea was to get The Betty Blog 'monetized' (ie, to start carrying google ads), so that it would start appearing on google's web and blog search engines. That was accomplished as well, though so far it's been of little help. I noticed today that the blog now has 278 'page impressions', which is pitiful. (In contrast, the articles I've written and posted since my last post here have picked up more than 1,600).

Meanwhile, the blog has dropped way down in Web search, and I can't even find it any more in Blog search. I think the problem there is merely that I didn't write anything here for 10 days. So I am going to have to write more here -- one of my reasons for blogging this column.

The other reason for the column, of course, is to ask my readers for other ideas to publicize the blog. So far all I've done, aside from the search engine bit, is to put announcements on my usenet and Google poetry groups and in my one social networking site, The Artists Project.

I've been considering joining other social networking sites, but I'm a bit hesitant. I still remember, a year or so ago, when about half my co.'s workforce had suddenly gone onto facebook; it was all they talked about and seemingly all they did. I'm hesitant about getting into anything high-intensity like that.

Any other ideas, please let me know. I'm open to all suggestions.