How do I earn money from my poetry? -

I want to earn some extra money. All my friends say that I m a great writer and should try to earn money from my poems. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about a good place to start with the poetry business. like ~where to start selling? ~where to start speaking aloud? ~good websites to publish on? ~etc. any one got any ideas?________1) You will spend way more money than you earn 2) Keep your day-job 3) If you are in school, poetry is fine but make sure you set yourself up with a job that pays after get out of school 4)buy a copy of Poet s Market and/or go to Duotrope.com for magazines that pay 5)hardly any magazines pay 6)Get good enough and you can lead workshops and have a reading schedule which will finally put a few (FEW) dollars in your pocket 7)even if you get paid for something, don t quite your day-job or be a total ****** about it--you re still going to need to get paid next week 8)network, meet people, go to readings, learn the biz 9)Don t let poetry take over your life, it s not worth it, it will never love you back and it will take, take and take. 10)Don t quit your day job!!! Additional: I know plenty of good, seriously good poets who do quite well, they just do quite well in their paying careers. Most of the really good poets either make money in another profession, work in a university, or are independently wealthy. Seriously, go to duotrope.com and sort magazines by how much they pay and then figure out how many poems you would need to publish to make what street musician sees in a day. Next work out what poets get paid for their books and see how many books you would need to publish to make what a street musician sees in a month. Now add that to your college or university salary and subtract your student loans. quot;Make moneyquot; .... HA, INDEED!________not to discourage you, but its going to take about a year to even start on becoming a writer, also most writers have second jobs, because they don t pay much :S________hmm...a good place to start selling would and it s just a suggestion would be Starbucks. Think about it.....almost everyone goes there! It s a really popular place. To really get peoples attention to your writing, Focus on current events going on the world, like the war in Iraq, or the suffering of people in Africa dying of the unbearble heat they have which is destroying their crops and now starving them. Then put those stories to good use by putting yourself in their shoes and convince people to stop the suffering. Writing happy poems is always a good choice too. I think that sad poems make people change in the ways of their thinking though....and since reality is mostly sad, then they can relate to what you are talking about. I hope my information I have provided to you is useful.________You re not going to earn money with poetry. You can try entering contests or poetry slams that offer prizes, or you can stand around on the street reciting poems to passers-by, hoping for change, but that s pretty much it. There is pretty much no steady money to be made from poetry. Why? Because people don t buy poetry. Unfortunately, there s just not much appreciation for it. Too many people think they can write it.________You will not earn money with poetry. Nobody does these days, except maybe if you get the Nobel prize for literature, which (no offense) I doubt very much. .________What s with these people who say you can t earn money with poetry? Good poets can do quite well.________make a book of poems and try to get it published!________myverdict.net has a poem of the month competition, where winners are decided by the votes of registered users. There are no prizes just yet, but when user numbers increase, there will be a cash prize.________You can put them on greeting cards or post cards...if you don t have the talent to design them ask one of your friends...start with ideas for Valentines:) Good Luck________Go to Poetry.com________The sad truth is that if you are a *poet* living off your works you will be broke. There just isn t much of a poetry market right now. But if you are serious - and this is your dream - don t let anyone stop you. Find out if there are any poetry readings in your town - coffee shops, libraries, private groups, etc. Then if you can find some open mic poetry reading places - then get in there with some poems and start reading to people. You ll lose your fear and get a good idea about how talented you are. Also - read as much poetry as possible from all eras. Don t just read modern poetry, read classical as well. FP________You can enter it in online contests and in other such contests, but the example of your poetry on the additional details section is not poetry. It s more of a story. In poetry, there should be a rhyme scheme, like AABB or ABAB, etc. If there is no rhyme scheme, it s called free verse. But even in free verse there should be some incorporation of literary terms like simile, metaphor, alliteration, mood, tone, refrain, etc. In your poem shown here, there is none of that. Also, there should be a cerain rhythm to it when you read the poem. The rhythm is too varied in this poem, making it difficult to read with a rhythmic pattern. Therefore, it makes it more of a story than a poem.________No true artist ask for money for there creations, and yes this includes poetry.