Adventures in Platform Building: Another Win-Win

Reviewing Bobbie Cole’s book, She Does Not Fear the Snow, has helped me to develop another strategy for enhancing my online profile.

I am, of course, promoting her book because I feel that it’s a beautiful true story, well worth reading. However, wherever I post a review, I also post a profile for myself with a link to my website and one or both blogs.

I first posted my review on Goodreads, and then posted a different one on Booksie.

Sunday: To my surprise, Google placed the Booksie review above the Goodreads one on the first page.

I then posted the Goodreads review on Wattpad.

Monday: I just Googled her book again, and my reviews were in this order: Wattpad, Booksie and Goodreads.

An experiment: I’m going to post a review on another site, then see what happens. Watch this space!

Tuesday: I’ve just posted a link to the Goodreads review on Bible study space (please scroll down in that site).
Now I’ll Google Bobbie’s book again . . . .

My reviews are in the same order: Wattpad, Booksie and Goodreads. Biblestudyspace does not appear. I’ll check again later. It may have something to do with the fact that Biblestudyspace appears to be a relatively new site. I have read that Google favors sites that have been around for awhile.

Yahoo has my Goodreads review first and my Booksie one farther down the page. The other two are not to be found on the first four pages.

Bing lists my Goodreads review on page one, Booksie on page two, and that’s it for the first four pages.

Wednesday’s Adventures in Searchland:

1. Google.ca was nothing short of fascinating. I did four searches in a very short period of time. Two turned up my Booksie review followed by someone else’s Goodreads review. The other two turned up Booksie followed by my Goodreads review!

2. On Google.co.uk, page one had my Booksie review followed by the “other” person’s Goodreads review.

3. On Yahoo.ca, page one had my Goodreads review before my Booksie review.

4. Bing.com had my Goodreads review on page one and my Booksie review on page two.

Please note that I’m simply noting the order of the reviews, not what comes before, after, or between them.

That’s it for now, folks, but I do have another review written, quite different from the last two. Will the next site appear in my search? If so, how long will it stay on page one or two?

Stay tuned!

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover? Seriously?

Let’s start with The Blizzard by Betty Ren Wright, a tale with a 4.1-star rating on Goodreads. Oh oh! The children at our local day care don’t consult Goodreads . . . and they didn’t choose The Blizzard until I placed it between two books we’d already read.

Why not? I think because the cover depicts people in a blizzard. There’s plenty of action here, but not much color. Once we got into the story (which I told rather than read as most of the children were a bit young for it), they were very interested in the pictures–so much so that I had to keep telling one little girl not to block the others’ view. Indeed, it’s a sweet tale about the best birthday party ever for a boy we thought wasn’t going to have a party at all.

The librarian had recommended Kitten’s Spring for the toddlers, but I rejected it because it had no lift-the-flap pictures and, to my mind, not much of a story. Tina retrieved it from my reject pile, drawn by the pretty yellow cover with a spotted kitten, ruby-throated hummingbird, monarch butterfly, ladybug, buttercups . . . Tina told me the children would find the book exciting. And she was right.

I read the pretty spring poem to the toddlers and they croaked with the frog, clucked with the hen, scratched with the little chick, and one little girl took up the challenge of trying to wink like the little calf.

Even Bad Dog, Marley! worked with the toddlers when I told the story rather than read it. It seems that a dog drinking from the toilet has universal appeal. A little girl joined me in growling “Bad dog, Marley!” until we got to the end where (spoiler coming!) Marley saved the baby and took his rightful place with the family.

I also recommend Hug by Jez Alborough for toddlers. In just three different words (“hug” is repeated 25 times), the children accompanied a little chimp in his quest to find love.

Back to my book cover (please see the July 5 post), what do you think of the red Coralie chose for Tina’s dress and the book title? My granddaughter Tina chose orange for Katie Kat.

Come to think of it, if you’re a little kid, how else are you going to judge a book but by its cover?