Google Alerts is one of those facilities that some people use all day and others don’t touch – which is a shame because it has a great value. It is also something that those of us with a creative bent tend to think is all a bit mechanical – but it can be a rich source of information and ideas.

I’m going to give one example that is relevant to my work by way of illustration as to how the whole process can work, but I want to make it clear, I think this approach can work for almost any business, selling anything.

Last year I published a novel which is focussed on events around the Woolwich Arsenal 100 years ago. In order to publicise the book I set up a website (www.woolwicharsenal.co.uk) about the book, and a blog (www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk) which explores issues around the book. The blog is updated 3 or 4 times a week and covers a whole range of subjects related to Woolwich Arsenal and the book – most of the time it doesn’t retell the story from the novel.

That is all straight forward. The blog has been going for a about 6 months now, and gets around 25,000 readers a month. It also gets picked up by quite a few other sites and stories on the blog get reproduced all over the internet.

I know about this viral effect because I have a Google Alert for the exact phrase “Woolwich Arsenal”. Of course that alert also brings me news of delays on the railway line around that station, and tells me about the property for sale in the area, but each day I tend to get something like this

  • 5 or 6 irrelevant stories
  • 2 or 3 details of how one of my blog stories has been picked up by another site
  • 1 or 2 details of stories about Woolwich Arsenal that are relevant to my book.

I follow up these l or 2 stories, and find that in 90% of the situations, the references appear on sites where one can comment. Generally speaking I find there is something I can add to the story that is on these sites, along the lines of, “what you might be interested to know is…” and then some details and either a reference back to my site, or a link to the book. If links are not allowed, at the very least I put the title of the book in.

What that means is that every day another one or two sites have at best links back to my site, and at worst, a mention of the book. Gradually my site gets more readers, it creeps up the rankings, and awareness of the book rises. Those links tend to stay forever.

“Ah,” but I hear you say, “Isn’t this all horribly time consuming?”

Actually it is not, after the first week it becomes very quick because one knows what one is looking for, and in all honesty, most of my comments on sites are much the same. I think it now takes about five minutes a day.

Which even at the incredibly low salary I pay myself, is still far less than it would cost to do the same thing through Google Ad Words. People use Google Adwords because they are fairly simple (although I always find their site a bit troublesome) and my approach seems just too complex.

But it is free, and it works, and it generates results. And it is cumulative. The links I put in last October are by and large still there today.

If you want to talk about this do give me a call on 01536 399 000 or email Tony@hamilton-house.com This service is part of what we do for our clients in the Velocity programme – there are details of that on www.Velocity.ac - so if you want to try the approach but outsource it, that is an option too.

Tony Attwood