March 2011 Newsletter

Newsletter for the World of Words by Elias Tobias

Who is Elias Tobias?  The real interview excerpts

By an independent Internet publisher

Click here for the entire interview.

IIP:  Thank you for taking a few minutes of your time to talk with us today.

E.T.:  No problem. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the web blog.

IIP:  There has been a recorded dramatic increase in the ranking of the World of Words? Why has this happened?

E.T.: I don’t know. My web site hasn’t changed much over the last year or so, I am surprised at this.  For three years, I had a daily post and remained in the low 6 million world ranking. Now that I have reduced the number of the daily posts and wanted readers to look at what I have developed of the years, the monthly percentage has increase more than 1500 percent. I hope it continues. The challenge now is to make the web blog appealing to maintain the numbers, I suppose.  Do I change much or anything just to keep up the ratings?  Does it really matter? I started this thing with the hopes I would get noticed and someday get invited by a publisher to put together at least one book of my on poems, instead of contests that publish an anthology of many authors.  I just wanted people to read my poems.

IIP:  What do you say to those who don’t like your style of writing?

E.T.:  There are as many styles as there are writers, and there are at least 50,000 to 100,000 poetry web sites around the world. I am pleased that people like my work, but I know somewhere, someplace, a younger writer is starting his or her own blog.  I encourage that.   If people don’t like what I do, then they can start their own poetry site. I have an article on the World of Words that tells them how to do it.

IIP:  Why do you write, then, and what is your inspiration?

E.T.: At first I started writing because it was easy for me to do, and I could express how I felt about things around me, but that sort of thinking is destined only for diaries.  There came a point when I wanted people to enjoy what I wrote. So I went away from the very personal nature of writing to a more public style, and names mentioned were not real people, but symbolic composites of people I knew.

IIP:  What is your inspiration, then?

E.T.: Anything and everything.  I may do a certain task over and over and realize something special about it, or I see something in a different way even though I’ve passed it 100 times before.  The media is my inspiration: music, TV, things I see and hear I react to them. My friends… my wife, Patty, is often an inspiration when she throws out a one-liner in conversation and it stick with me.

IIP:  Do you have any advice for those poets just starting out with their own web sites?
E.T.:   Yes. Be yourself. Try to create a sense of self…a brand of sorts, so people can recognize your work.  This can be done by certain marketing and technical practices, but ultimately, it’s the words that carry the web site to its destiny.  Once a poem is out in cyberspace, it is free child, and you can’t control it really.  In a sense I have more than 200 children out there, not biologically or course, but symbolically. The poems are a part of me.

IIP:  Thank you for your time. Elias.
E.T:  Thanks for letting me tell the world who I am, and perhaps people can better understand my work.

Fourth anniversary of move to WSI celebrated

The move to the Consulting of WSI Internet & Education as the new host of the World of Words by Elias Tobias happened four years ago on Feb. 12, 2007. Things have changed for the better. The new host allowed for more flexibility and expansion in a simpler format, and that has made the difference.  The process to make the move took at least three months to complete the transfer all material from the free host (see press release).

Personal Blog on Fan Club Web site reactivated

Even though the number of daily posts for the main part of the blog is changing (see below), there is one part of the web blog that is new and fresh.  The personal blog on the Fan Club Web site  has been reactivated as part of a personal resolution for at least two entries per week.  Check it out and read what the latest bit of information there is in the life of Elias Tobias.  The blog is part of the Elias Tobias Fan Club, another free aspect of the Elias Tobias World of Words.

World of Words on Yelp

The World of Words by Elias Tobias is now part of the Yelp information web site, and to see the page, go to www.yelp.com and search for Elias Tobias web blog.

 Poem of the Month

Tongue Twisted

I wish I could talk as fast as I
think because my words
stumble and my lips are out
of sync.
I wish I could talk like a deejay
on a radio show because  I would talk clearly
and everyone would know what I want them
to hear,  but I can’t speak well on
my feet and I have reason to fear if
I don’t tackle the issue now, my
problems will get more severe.
I should get a magazine and
read the articles out and my mouth
will move better.
I could step away from under this dark cloud.

Hear Elias Tobias read poems from the Love Note collection, and download the podcasts