[davidhburton]

You may not find this as exciting as I do, but here it is.

I check my web site each day for how people get to my site - links they came from, links they click on, keywords they entered in google, etc. Over the last year and a bit, I've rarely seen people using my name in the keywords to get to my site, nor those of my books....

Until now!

I've been seeing a rise in the keywords to my site over the last week that include my name and/or Broken.

And then they click the links to purchase from my site.

I have google alerts and I've seen very little mentioned on blogs/websites, so it hasn't hit too many reviewer sites. Looks like word is slowly spreading through word of mouth if people are looking for my title.

 

[Holly A Hook]

Congratulations!  It's a nice feeling. 

 

[Mel Comley]

That's brilliant news, long may it continue. 

 

[davidhburton]

Thanks!! Fingers crossed!

 

[Alan Ryker]

That's great!

I usually see one a day that's a search for my name, and I figure it's from a family member who doesn't use bookmarks, let alone an rss feed reader 

 

[Nathan Lowell]

An interesting metric to track is the number of hits on Google search when you do a "vanity search." Put your name in quotes and kick it.

Look at gross number of hits and then look to see how many are "false" hits (not you) and how many are your ancillary presence sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

When I started the first "me" link was on the second page and there were a grand total of about 500 hits. Now it's 48,000 and I get no false hits in the first 5 pages. (It even finds a couple of my pirated books.)

This is a REALLY handy metric for getting a feel for your digital footprint and measuring the strength of your platform.

 

[ajbarnett]

Hey - great news. Congrats. What a warm feeling that must be.

 

[davidhburton]

Thanks Nathan!! I hadn't really thought to remove the ancillary sites. Fascinating!!

 

[RonnellDPorter]

AWESOME! Here's hoping that BROKEN becomes the Kindle Clap

 

[davidhburton]

ROTFL!!!

 

[Imogen Rose]

Congrats!!

 

[Nathan Lowell]

Thanks Nathan!! I hadn't really thought to remove the ancillary sites. Fascinating!!

Nothing wrong with the ancillaries, but looking at how that search result varies over time has given me some insight into where and how people find me.

YOU have a great footprint, btw. Rock on!

 

[Ashley Lynn Willis]

Congratulations on gaining that foothold!  Oh, and I love your covers.  Very nice. 

 

[davidhburton]

Thanks Nathan. I've been checking my site on website grader. Its grade has been improving. Building up an audience takes work, patience, and time. I'm in this for the long haul, so I'm sure this will continue to get better. (Fortunately, I love my day job)

Thanks all, for the encouraging words! I released my first book in Feb 2010 after my agent couldn't sell it. And believe me, she tried. We went out to 40 editors and the most common comment was that although they loved the writing, they thought the book too risky. My agent advised me to go it alone. Then I decided to release the subsequent books on my own to see how they'd do. I don't generally see more than 50 sales a month, but I might actually break 100 this month. That doesn't seem like much, but I'll take it.

Ashley, thanks for the compliment on the covers. I'm really happy with how they came out.

 

[41419]

Onwards and upwards!

Hold on to your hat!

 

[MartinLake]

I guess it is in the nature of the internet world that things start slowly and build a momentum of their own. 

Congratulations to you.

Martin

 

[Sarah Fawkes]

Just FYI, I'm clicking on your thumbnails but it seems your website is down.

Also have to tell you, those covers are phenomenal!!!!

 

[davidhburton]

Thanks!!!

Selena, can you try again? I just tried and it seems to be working. I know they had some issues recently, but I thought that was over.

 

[Paul Clayton]

That's fantastic.  Congrats.  And...  how do you do that?  How do you find out how folks are finding your books?  I'd like to know how to do that too. 

 

[davidhburton]

On my site, which uses wordpress, I can track how they got to the site - from what location, URL, keywords that brought them,etc.