Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

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Richard
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby Richard » Mon Jun 29, 2020 12:48 pm

To be honest, unless anyone knows your 'kwirkypoet' name nobody is going to search for it and on top of that the spelling 'kwirky' is not even real so it has about a 'cat in hell's' chance of being found by anonymous strangers looking for poetry.
Sorry to be so blunt, seahermit.

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seahermit
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby seahermit » Mon Jun 29, 2020 3:04 pm

That is exactly what I want, Richard, plain-speaking! E.g. I don't like people saying "That's nice" about my poem, I want them to tell me what's good (or wrong) about it.

Locally and on some websites, I have become sort of famous as kwirkypoet - sometimes names take on a life of their own and the nickname has become my email address. Opinions are divided: authors seem to like their real name to be prominent (jkrowling.com etc.), so some people have said I should use my real name, with an eye on future agents/potential publishers. Others like kwirkypoet.com - short, snappy, memorable.

Google is quite clever of course. It may be that pretty quickly Google would link "Kwirkypoet" with "Tony Frost" and vice-versa. Indeed, when I googled "quirkypoet", a number of listings came up - writers/poets who have been described as such, or even use that handle.

I appreciate the comments. It's all new territory for me and details like this can be very important!

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Richard
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby Richard » Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:54 pm

seahermit, you will have realised by now that I cannot find anything that you have posted online, nor any site name or links that reach it by using your qwirkypoet name.
Also there are many Tony Frosts and Robert Frosts but not including yourself!
'Qwirky' is seen by google as a spelling error
So you are battling uphill and not being recogbised
Similar names create unnecessary competition and the last thing you want to do is make it harder for yourself.
SEO is challenging enough without you throwing in unnecessary hurdles to jump.

What are these websites that you appear on - Social Media?
Then you may want to learn about hashtags.

You say the following:
I Googled kwirkypoet, also my name, the other night. You have to search around, be a bit clever, but some of my old posts came up eventually (including one or two I would prefer to have "died"!).

Please provide links, but as for 'being a bit clever' really, what are you thinking?
Most people are either pretty stupid or just don't have the time to 'be a bit clever'.

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seahermit
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby seahermit » Mon Jun 29, 2020 8:54 pm

I acknowledge, Richard, that all this is not (or didn't used to be) my field of expertise!

FB is one of the obvious sites I use: https://www.facebook.com/tonyfrost.kwirkypoet

I can't explain what I did, but the other day and again today I managed to find myself listed in Google. Will post the link in a minute. On other occasions, I have come across a whole group of listings which were associated with "kwirkypoet" (poems) - can't find them just now. I realise that a lot of people won't have the time or patience to poke around ..

I know there are a number of "Tony Frost" listings in Google, that is why I need to differentiate myself in some way and say something about what I do. I am on a couple of writers websites and some people there felt strongly that I should use just my nickname: i.e. kwirkypoet.com. Short, snappy, unique.

Not sure what hashtags are or how they differ from tags ..

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seahermit
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby seahermit » Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:15 pm

I copied and pasted this but it didn't work properly - never mind, as you see, a couple of searches brought this one up (below). I strongly suspect that, if you know how, you can find online a LOT of info about people, like items posted/listed ages ago and which they have forgotten about!

Bexhill Social Group - Bexhill Message Board - Discover Bexhillwww.discoverbexhill.com ›
messageboard › thread
1 Feb 2011 - home » message board » bexhill social group - making friendly contacts ... Give it a thought I'm on kwirkypoet@outlook.com. Best wishes, Tony.
Memories of Bexhill Thread - Bexhill Message Board
12 Jan 2007
Family & Friends History Research - Bexhill Message Board
24 Jun 2018
Old Schools - Thread - Bexhill Message Board - Discover Bexhill
12 Nov 2006
Looking For People - Thread - Bexhill Message Board
13 Jul 2007
More results from www.discoverbexhill.com

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Richard
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby Richard » Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:22 am

Hi seahermit,

The Bexhill link is a non-starter, it doesn't have a good menu system or much content.
The .com link you provided just opens a win 10 email sending device
The better one is the facebook as it shows a picture of a grumpy-looking old salt, but there is no text writing or poetry content I can find.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought you said you were using 'GoDaddy' (which includes 'Wordpress.com'), rather than
'WordPress.org. which you have to download and install on your own hosting provider as it can be difficult handle all that on your own .
I don't understand why you are having a problem with your domain hosting .
You can either pay GoDaddy or look for another like 'BlueHost' or 'googlehost':

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seahermit
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby seahermit » Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:52 am

That's what I am currently, a grumpy-looking old salt, especially when I post something but none of my specific questions are answered!

I appreciate your responses, however. The Bexhill stuff was not meant to lead you to anything much, it was merely to show you that there are references to me online if one cares to search around ..

Likewise the FB link. There is no writing currently in my FB profile - but a lot of my photos, especially of live music in Hastings etc. Since you don't like the profile photo, I might change it.

I am of course using Wordpress.com. But the domain name was bought from GoDaddy, who just will not map it to the Wordpress site despite my filling in all their boxes.

I have found some excellent tutorial articles online, also videos, which explain how Wordpress's system of themes and blocks works, and a bit about the history of previous versions of Wordpress. Wordpress's own basic instructions are amongst the worst I have come across for a long time, many important points left out and at first they made no sense to me at all.

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Richard
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby Richard » Tue Jun 30, 2020 7:25 pm

No one cares much to search (moodle) around seahermit,
They want it punchy, upfront, and hard-hitting!

We are not living in 'La-La' land.

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seahermit
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby seahermit » Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:25 pm

As a summary, I have had interesting advice from my writers' forums, much of it very pertinent (also somewhat blunt!).

“Don't listen to your rude friend. A lot of writers use pen names instead of their real names. Each one of those writers have their own reason to do it. I like kwirkypoet. It's short and catchy. Since your work is clearly about poetry then the nickname you chose makes sense. You can always make a different page on your website named Stories or Novels or whatever else you're writing”.

“But something like TonyFrost.com or TonyFrostAuthor.com are better in my opinion. You can always include kwirkypoet in your website header”.

“Short and sweet is best. Personally I find it hard to remember Twitter handles and websites of people if they aren't actual names”.

“The odds of you getting passive traffic from search engines is incredibly slim. Most people are going to find you because of direct promotion ..”


So, it became a toss-up between using my real name or continuing to use a knickname/pen name. I am well-known by the nickname .. but I also write songs sometimes, do photography, travel, etc., so it has become broad.

I am probably going to grab tonyfrostwriter.com. Dead easy for people to remember and it sums up much of what I do.

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Richard
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Re: Into the unknown .. with a blog/website

Postby Richard » Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:36 pm

seahermit, You are getting into a lather about obscure things like identification name handles.
who on earth is going to look up (search) poetry or writing using 'kwirkypoet' or 'tonyfrost' unless they already happen to know the, somewhat obscure, names?
Ask yourself exactly that!
Even though you tell me it exists, there is nothing at all of writing or poetry out there when I invoke those hallowed name on google.
That much should be clear to you by now.
Your 'nickname' makes no sense whatsoever, it is obscure, known only to a few 'acolytes' and is basically a dead-end.
As for your comment, "some people have said I should use my real name, with an eye on future agents/potential publishers."
That sounds like your vanity is being stroked and led into false directions before your work has been published properly.

Try routes to print a book on your poetry/writing first, make it very accessible, and promote it locally in Hastings, in the shops, before even remotely expecting agents or publishers to be desperate to beat a path to your door.

Publishing books takes a lot of thought and effort - look at examples and also ways of promoting such material via posters and viewing venues locally.
Keep it punchy and include humour in the promotion, nobody wants 'plain vanilla, at least not in Hastings.
Let this be your guide.

Having said all that I think you are 10 times the person you make yourself out to be.
You certainly have a quirky sense of fun but I don't see how that translates into written material.
Unless you want to be known as a frivolous poet - and what is the point of that?
Spike Milligan was frivolous a lot of the time but then he was known on radio and TV and although I found him not to be to my taste he was well-liked by many for his insane (zany) humour.


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