One of our AD members sent out a message saying that PoemHunter.com was an alternative to AD. Being addicted to researching everything that comes my way, here is what I found on PoemHunter.com.

You can post as many works as you want to, and it is free. So it becomes an ideal site to use for archiving your works.

PoemHunter.com is interactive. Members read your work, make comments, and vote (1-10) on its merit. When you subscribe, new comments will come to your email in-box. This is an RSS Feed feature.

A similar tracking model is used. On PoemHunter.com, you hit the "Friend" button and their name is linked for you.

Your works appear on the front page of PoemHunter.com as soon as you post them. There are so many writers posting new things that your newly-posted works may drop off of the front page within a couple of hours.

As of the moment of this writing, PoemHunter.com was boasting "310,931 poems from 24,752 poets.. 124,601 Songs.. 10,145 Artists.. 64,870 Quotations" -- a very busy site, indeed.

PoemHunter.com has a good Stats feature which shows you how many hits each of your works has recieved, and how many comments, etc.

Navigation of PoemHunter.com is a bit confusing at first but, once you browse the available Tabs, it becomes quite easy.

PoemHunter.com, since it is free, seems to be an ideal site to use as an archive for your works. Some of our AD members are economically stretched and cannot truly afford the membership costs of AD, and others are beginning to wonder whether they want to afford these membership fees, even if they have money to spare. Our economic downturn has everyone considering how they are spending their money.

However, PoemHunter.com is NOT the same as AD, by any means, and I am not sure I can define that for you so that it makes sense. Our interaction on AD has a rich and friendly mood to it, which PoemHunter.com cannot match.

The only other site I have found which has this friendly and beautiful presentation is The Writing Forum (link below) which is also free, and a superb spot for serious poets to showcase their work.

No pics or music, other than the small photo for your profile, on PoemHunter.com. No special effects. However, you are not restricted to poems. You may post articles, stories, book promos, whatever you like. I found no notes restricting such postings.

On Blogs, AD has been accused of copyright violations. So has every literary site on the Internet. PoemHunter.com has not been exempt from such silly commentary by those who do not understand copyright law.

So, is PoemHunter.com an alternative to AD? Yes it is, but this is an "apples & oranges" comparison, and you must judge its usefulness for yourself.

9 January 2009 - I have decided to upload a full archive of my stuff to PoemHunter.com, in alphabetical order, thus making recovery of any item very easy (if my hard disk goes down). A-B-C are already completed. Many comments received but, with a couple of exceptions, the comments are not like here at AD. Stats showing a goodly number of hits. All of this builds the Internet footprint, so it is doubly useful. I am especially interested in the wide-open ability to promote books with sales URLs (I am always thinking in terms of effective marketing).