Here’s a screengrab from today’s stats for Snake-Boy Loves Sky Prince.
As you can see, three people so far today have found my webfiction site by Googling the title of it, almost verbatim (they left out the dash).
In fact, the only people who have ever found the site via search engine found it because they Googled the title.
I don’t understand this. How is it possible that there are people in the world who know about the title, but didn’t learn about the title by actually, you know, being on the website already? It’s not like I’ve got a marketing budget. And anywhere else you may be on the web where you might read the title, there’s going to be a link right there beside it. Because I know everywhere that the title appears. Those places can be counted on one hand. It’s that un-famous so far, you know? It’s only been around a couple of weeks.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy this is happening. I love you people. It makes me think that the title is really strong. It makes me think that there are a lot of awesome people out there who have been waiting for a story like this, and who are finding it. I’m very, very happy that people are searching for the title on Google.
I’m just confused.
Oh, one other thing: it’s been happening since before I actually launched the site. Before SBLSP launched, all the Googlers were ending up on this blog, joeymanley.com, where I had mentioned the project a couple of times. Some 5-10 people end up here every day, still, after Googling the phrase “Snake Boy Loves Sky Prince.”
If you’re one of those people: help me figure this out. How did you hear about the title? What made you decide to Google for it? Once you found Snake-Boy Loves Sky Prince, was it what you wanted it to be? If not, what were you expecting? I’d love to hear from you.
They may have learned of it verbally from a friend; they could be at a different computer; they could be the kind of person that uses Google rather than bookmarks (I do this; I know that ‘java check’ gets me to the site where I can check what version of java I have and download the current one, but I never bookmark the result).
You can know of something, but not how to get there, pretty easily.
Yup, these are probably the reasons. I am just surprised it’s already happening, given the relative newness of the project. I still think it’s a good sign that the title is really memorable and strong. Of course, the url is really non-memorable and weak, is the other way to think of it.
They probably saw the title in a tweet. I follow you on Twitter and that’s how I know about ‘Snake Boy Loves Sky Prince’. It’s unique and I’ve seen it enough times that it just sticks in my mind.
That makes sense. Thanks, Ranae!
With Legion of Nothing, I find that people find the site through a search on a regular basis. Thanks to Google Analytics, I can tell that many are actually returning visitors. My theory is that some people remember the name, but can’t remember the exact URL.