I recently sat down and did a web search on The Book Reviewers Club and R. Clint Peters.
My findings are as follows:
R. Clint Peters:
Google – position 6, 8, 9, 10
Yahoo – position 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Bing – position 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
The Book Reviewers Club:
Bing – position 2, 3
Yahoo – position 2, 3
Google – position 4, 8, 10
The Yahoo and Bing results for The Book Reviewers Club were from thebookreviewersclub.wordpress.com and Facebook. And I had similar results for R. Clint Peters from Yahoo and Bing.
What did this exercise tell me?
1 – The Book Reviewers Club and R. Clint Peters are being seen on browser searches.
2 — R. Clint Peters seems to be seen more on browser searches than The Book Reviewers Club, which is not my intention.
Taking this one step further, R. Clint Peters was found on the first page of Yahoo in these positions:
1 — Linked In
2 — Twitter
3 — rclintpeters.wordpress.com
4 — Amazon
5 – An associated blog
6 – Amazon
7 — Merchant Circle
8 — thebookreviewersclub.wordpress.com
The Book Reviewers Club was found at these positions on the first page on Yahoo:
2 – thebookreviewersclub.wordpress.com
3 – Facebook
When I changed the search term from “The Book Reviewers Club” to “thebookreviewersclub”, there were small changes in the search results.
1 – thebookreviewersclub.wordpress.com
2 – Twitter
3 – Facebook
5 – thebookreviewersclub.wordpress.com
10 – Amazon (Referenced through R. Clint Peters tagged as the blog master of The Book Reviewers Club)
OK, what does all this mean?
First, participation on the Internet controls where you are seen. The Book Reviewers Club is NOT a member of Linked In, other than associated with the R. Clint Peters account, nor is it a member of Merchant Circle. It is also NOT a member of Amazon.
Second, active participation in anything increases exposure. I am a member of several groups on Linked In, and comment frequently. I am also connected to several people on Merchant Circle.
It seems to constantly return to who you know, and what you are doing with those groups. As a member of The Book Reviewers Club are you using ALL of the resources available to you?
Do you:
1 – Tweet a minimum of once an hour?
2 – Post your personally authored blogs on as many blog sites as possible, including The Book Reviewers Club?
3 – Inform everyone you come in contact with, such as Facebook friends, that you are a member of The Book Reviewers Club, or any other organization you are associated with?
4 – Include your affiliation links with your emails?
5 – Keep your biography on The Book Reviewers Club up to date?
6 – Keep your participation in The Book Reviewers Club current (submit excerpts from your books, submit reviews you have completed, submit reviews of your own works).
8 – Have your own blog, and post something regularly?
The key to exposure, as I have detailed above, is constantly refreshing your name on the Internet. I am constantly refreshing The Book Reviewers Club name on the Internet, but I am only one person. Each member can help him or herself with a little effort. Remember, you might help other members, and more importantly, they will be helping you.
I think that no matter how often an author gets their name in the search machine, unless they write a truly good book, it doesn’t matter that much. Fifty Shades of Gray was talked about on The Todays Show by a group of women in their forties and how it improved their marriages, which caused a desire by everyone to see what they were talking about. I read the first book, which was interesting and different, was bored with the second one and only read half of the third. Once an author writes like Grisham or Follett, then just seeing the name causes people to purchase their books although Grisham’s books are more or less the same old, same old.