The Million Dollar Poetry Project

Today I decided to try an experiment, a new project to keep me engaged in the poetry until such time as more poems begin to sell. I tend to be drawn to random things and I like the idea that I’m not sure what poem I’ll write until I’m faced with a subject (sometimes). That caused me to think of StumbleUpon, a service I enjoy using that lets you "stumble upon" various websites in the categories you choose. You can then either thumbs up or thumbs down the site. It opens many possibilities for me when I’m searching for a muse. My goal now is to amass more newer poems and post them on the site, so enter Project StumbleUpon!

I could wait around with the poems and post them sparingly to try and make them look more precious or whatever, but I’d rather release them as they come. If you notice a flood of new poetry, this is why. Right now this is keeping me plenty fueled and excited about my art.

I’ll be announcing some new things in the coming days, as well. See you then!

PS - I’ll be listing the links of the inspiration source for each poem. Credit where it’s due

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I’m delighted to report that the Ebay auctions for the first 3 Sponsored Buttons on the front page have each SOLD! While they did not go for a dollar a line, that wasn’t my intent when I began the auctions. What I wanted was for at least one person to bid on each poem - that was the goal I hoped to achieve. I started them at a penny and fully intended to honor a penny bid if a penny bid I ended up getting for each.

That’s not the case! Here’s what each button went for:

1st Sponsor Button (top billing): $1.50

2nd Sponsor Button: $0.30

3rd Sponsor Button (oddly enough): $0.82

That totals out to: $2.62

A fine total for the very first sales and I’m glad that they get permanent advertising to their sites for winning bid, too. They deserve it for believing in the project when not many people yet do. Those buttons (and the poems they link to) just may become a little part of history!

Please note, these buttons are a "one off" deal that I won’t ever do again for the rest of the project. That’s what makes them so special for me. I’m excited to show the poems once the winning bidders have approved them! Be sure to check back for announcements because I’ll be posting the links to each poem here in the blog, as well.

Tonight means another video and a new ‘weekly feature’ that I’ll be running from here on out. I invite you to come back and take a look! Thanks for visiting, each visit’s encouragement so please know that even if all you do is read along, I appreciate it!

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I’ve been working on

this HubPage

… so I’m in no shape to post up the words to that last experimental video. I will tommorrow..

That HubPage above (which you can find through the link) is basically to give you insight into how I go about art and business. I’m too tired to say more right now, but thank you for coming and OH… atleast one bid on each auction now!

Thanks guys, sleep well

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Guess what?

ALL THREE AUCTIONS NOW HAVE BIDS!!!

If you’ve not checked ‘em out and you wanna, I’ll list the url’s for one last time:

FIRST Sponsor Button/Poem

Second Sponsor Button/Poem

Third Sponsor Button/Poem

A HUGE thank you to all the bidders so far! You guys have made my WEEK!

Now back to work.. should have a new page up tonight and more big changes

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This will be a quick post. I’ll have a new video posted to YouTube today before too long. The poem’s written, all I need to do is shoot the video but the youngest member of the household must first be nestled soundly into her crib.

Also, I’m preparing some articles about the start-up of this site and my own career as an artist. I want to show how I’m starting and write the information about how that’s going as I go rather than looking back afterwards. Hopefully this will help someone at some point. I’ve always wished those I look up to would’ve done something similar so I figured, why not do it myself? I’ll be showing how I started up this blog (and Happy Horror, also) and telling about how long it took to gain traffic and that sort of thing. I may or may not have any powerful insight or tips, but I want to make a record of what I’ve done thus far along the trail that’s lead to the Million Dollar Poetry project. Even though I feel strongly that art and business overlap, I’ll try to categorize the posts into Art or Business so that those of you with a preference for one or the other can read what you’re more interested in. Watch for those articles within the week.

Right now my goal is to write at least a poem per day. I’ve obviously already got a sizeable collection of poetry (and some fiction) that I’ve written, but I feel as an artist it’s important to keep pushing, keep growing and moving forward (hopefully, upward!) so I’m trying to extra on top of maintaining this site and the others that I write for.

That’ll do it for now, but thank you very much for reading and supporting the project! Each of you help encourage me when things look a little less than positive.

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So here we are with only a bit over 2 days left on the Ebay auctions. I’d link to them, but I don’t want to get obnoxious about it. You can find links to the 3 buttons up for bid over on this site’s homepage (this will take you there). From that page simply click on any of the big buttons, each one leads to an auction for that button.

I spent today slaving over Happy Horror, and doing maintenancy-type stuff along with learning how to use StumbleUpon which absolutely rocks! To whoever it was that ’stumbled’ this project’s page and brought us in so many visitors - THANK YOU! I truly appreciate that gesture.

I’m working on a new page that will go up soon, not a bio entirely, but close to that. I want to be able to give more insight into what all goes on in the day-to-day of this project. I’ve always dreamed of an artist or business person (since those are the people I most admire) giving a detailed and thorough account of their rise to wherever they are now. So, I’ll do it!

Starting in the next couple days I’ll be unveiling a few more things for the site and going into specifics about the different investments I’m making to help promote it. Hopefully by operating as transparently as I feel comfortable doing, I can show atleast one example of how an artist comes to be ‘professional’ and makes himself able to afford his own food.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back real soon! If you’d like there are also options along the side to sign up for my newsletter (which is simply a daily email that shows you my posts) or even text alerts. I have made sure there is NO spam/junk mail associated with either of them before setting up those services.

Goodnight!

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I’m not releasing a new YouTube video tonight because I’ve spent today working on making the blog a bit more functional. I’ve added stuff to the feed for those of you who like reading feeds and also got it so there’s a Newsletter feature that will deliver my blog posts to your e-mail inbox! Of course there’ll be ZERO spam and I can’t even see your e-mail address so it’s not going to be sold or otherwise misused. Feel free to sign up if you like.

Beyond that, I’ve taken steps to make the Million Dollar Poetry Project’s blog a bit more mobile phone friendly. You should be able to read it easily from any mobile device so if you encounter problems be sure to let me know! Oh, and in case you’re confused mobile phones are cell phones. We’ve got text alerts, also so if you like txt messaging then you might like knowing when I’ve updated about the project via you phone, too. I subscribe so I know it’s safe and there’s not junk mail or anything (nor does it cost money if you already can txt for free).

I’ve got more work to do updating Happy Horror tonight, but I will be posting a poem before long. It’s not one that’s been purchased, but I figure if this is going to be a poetry project we oughta be able to see some poetry, right? Hope you’ll visit to read it, it’s just a couple days old.

Finally, since I’m not doing a video today I thought you might want to see my pup. His name’s Anthony, he’s a Scorpio and he enjoys playing with soccer balls. I took this picture about an hour ago and it was dark out so that’s why he’s not as shiny as usual.

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Okay, update time! The very first poem I’ve written for SINMinX has been approved by the person who requested it. It’s five lines total and I’ll be putting it up as soon I’ve received payment and the appropriate graphic for the button.

Also, don’t forget to check my completely ghetto YouTube video where I show a couple paintings that I’ve done - two that did NOT sell on E-bay during my first two auctions. Aside from that, I’m ecstatic to announce that the E-bay auction for the TOP (first) sponsor button received its first bid!! Here are the auctions if you’d like to track their progress:

Special Sponsor Button #1 auction

Special Sponsor Button #2 auction

Special Sponsor Button #3 auction

I’ve altered the listing to specify that I’ll be writing a handwritten copy of the poem out for the winning bidders that will include a personalized message from me to them.

Also, the press release for The Million Dollar poetry project has been accepted by four organizations:

Free-Press-Release.com

PRUrgent.com

PRUnderground.com

and TheOpenPress.com, thanks to technical assistance from their CEO!

So, if you come across one of the press releases about this project, I’d be most grateful if you felt like socially bookmarking it to help it reach a wider audience!

Honestly, I had high hopes for SINMinX when I started a couple days ago, but I’m truly awed at the generous support people have been offering. I also appreciate the criticisms because sometimes valid points can be made that way, too.

In the coming days I’ll be fine tuning the more functional aspects of this blog, so please stay tuned. I’m not a graphic arts type person so the site may not wind up LOOKING better, but it’ll have a wider array of useful features that you visitors might want to take advantage of.

Despite the completely hectic schedule I’ve been keeping, I’ve managed to keep up with posting for Happy Horror and even to write a new poem. If anyone’s interested I can publish it here so everyone can take a look, but I’ll wait until someone comments or e-mails to request it.

Again, your support means more to me than I can convey via text, so for those of you rooting for this project (and maybe me, as well) - THANK YOU! Keep your fingers crossed that the Million Dollar Poetry project’s press releases get put in front of the right sets of eyes.

Then we might just end up making a little history and we’ll all be able to say we were there from the very first days! Be sure to speak up and get yourself counted as a founding supporter of the idea, even if you never plan to buy a poem.

Oh, before I forget, here’s my MySpace page so feel free to friend me if you’d like.

That’s a wrap for me, but stay tuned. I intend to be as candid and transparent as possible so I’ll be posting videos daily - hopefully - to keep everyone updated. I want you who took the time to read my blog to get a clear picture of how I’m going about climbing the path to success. I don’t want to give a retrospective based off time-corroded memories, I to tell the
story AS IT HAPPENS.

Simply because those kinds of stories inspire me. Be what you wish you were, that’s one of my guiding philosophies.

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I don’t know that I’ve ever had this much good news at once.. still processing. Until I regain composure.. Here’s my #2 episode on YouTube

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Coming from the forums of a certain website I won’t name at this point. Certain folks seem bound and determined to hate this whole ‘write a million dollars worth of poetry’ idea.

“You’re not selling a real product or service!”

Excuse me? I’m not only writing the poem (a service that’s also a product as an intellectual property), I’m also providing the service of paying for advertising for the link of their choice for a minimum of five years (also a service if I’m not mistaken). It’s almost as if they got so angry reading the idea that they didn’t bother getting past the first few sentences. Ah, well, that’s their right - to be wrong. Not to be arrogant here or anything, but when a person leaves a comment such as “Sounds like you need a loan” or “Why don’t you buy such and such”, they quite clearly missed the meaning of the term ’starving artist’.

I suppose I’m not making a big enough pity party out of it, but I don’t intend to. I intend to write the best poems I can for a dollar a line and deliver far more in terms of quality. I want to EARN the million dollars. It’s not the money that I care about, it’s the pride of being able to say that I earned it myself through services I offered that other people wanted to pay for.

And that’s my soap box.

Oh, here’s the press release if you care to see it. I won’t be angry if you decide to socially bookmark it or anything, don’t worry!

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