How Did You Find Me Here?

The geographic keyword route to success...

This isn’t my weekly story - the next one of those will posted on Sunday. This is just a news update about my 5 a.m. Stories.

This week, I just got my first-ever subscriber in West Virginia – that doesn’t mean nobody was reading me there before, but finally somebody realized that getting something delivered to their mailbox for free is a pretty good deal.

This made me very happy. William Shakespeare was right when he said, “Almost heaven, West Virginia.”

But wait, there’s more! I now have subscribers in 16 foreign countries, thanks to new followers in Germany, New Zealand and Hong Kong!

When I get a burst of new subscribers like this, I try to figure out why, since we can be damned certain the quality of my product has nothing to do with it.

I often find clues buried in the stories themselves. For instance, my most recent post, Shrimp Fried Rice and Edelweiss, featured the always-popular Baroness, the woman who died in my house back in 1934, and whose ghost still haunts our place.

West Virginia has been called the most haunted state in the country - I’ve taken the Harper’s Ferry Ghost Tour, and I believe it.

The epicenter of the state’s spookiness is a former “lunatic asylum” said to be haunted by former patients. The asylum will let you pay to spend the night, offers ghost tours by flashlight and even features a “Criminally Insane Tour.”

I guess it was just a matter of time before West Virginians obsessed with the afterlife noticed I have my own personal ghost and decided to check me out.

In that very same story this week, the Baroness talks about escaping the Nazis, which may help explain my first-ever subscriber in Germany.

As for my new Hong Kong subscriber, my story has the Baroness eating Chinese carryout food, and even mentions shrimp fried rice in the headline. A logical connection.

The lessons here are not lost on me. Geographical product placement is solid gold, so look for a lot more of it in my upcoming stories.

I’d like to stay and visit with you, but I’m off to enjoy myself some delicious Belgian waffles, Swedish meatballs and French onion soup!

As a little gift for my first New Zealand reader, my cocktail tonight is an icy kiwi daiquiri. I mean, if that’s even a thing.