Romance Author Blogs - Page 1
Google algorithms - who can understand them?
When I typed the above search term, I had no idea I'd see my face as the 12th result on page one. I can't explain why Google pulled me up there from a February G+ post I shared about my latest interview with Alex Apostol. All I knew was that I had to do something about it!
I, of course, took screenshots, reshared, asked my marketing associates if they had a clue of figuring out what happened. My reshare made it higher than the original page one post. I went from the bottom of page one to the second result overall. Second out of over 18 million results!
Some writers dump untold monies into advertising and marketing ventures, trying for that spot. We target keywords, we boost posts, we pay for 'awards' so we can put crafty .gif symbols on the ditigal covers of our books to make them more appealing. We speak at live events, we come up with our own hashtags, and even look to guerilla marketing when nothing else works.
I, myself, have tried most of those things. I leave cards at the restuarant, I share the bookstore posts, I make videos and I freelance to create backlinks to my site. I purchase Hootsuite subscriptions so I can bulk upload tweets a month at a time. I've sold to family and friends, too.
But I never consistently used the tag 'romance author blogs' in anything. Yet, somehow, that's what got me on page 1 of Google.
This shows me that, no matter what hype I buy into, no matter what proven techniques I stick with and no matter how much I try to SEO my brains out, I'm never going to know how to 'count cards' when it comes to the game of the internet. And without really trying, I made one of the points on my bucket list.
"Current #bucketlist - 'made page 1 of google as a romance writer.' Cross this baby off!"
It's seriously making me reconsider some other goals I had on that list. Goals that now seem less important. There's no amazing accomplishment in spending tons of hours away from my family, tearing my hair out over what 100% can't be won. And in the game of becoming a best-selling famous author, there's no way to stay a step ahead of things, especially when it comes to moments like this. Besides, there is a pool out there in the hot summer sun that is calling and the cool of the woods begging for me to visit again. There's a zuchinni on the counter waiting to be grilled and a Railbender chilling in the fridge for later. And there are characters with stories - and they are standing in line to bend my ear.
What have you found that works?What did you try that landed dead in the water?Now that you've been at this awhile - how have your priorities changed?
I'd love to hear from you - comment below!!
