Tips Tuesday – AIO SEO is the Future, Reels Mastermind, Chrome Retains Cookies
Tips this week include:
- Now is the time to make gift posts and videos
- Getting triple ad pay on videos
- How to plan for video success
- Reels mastermind this week
- Why we’re still not updating to WP 6.8
- Blue Cross leaked GA4 info to Google Ads
- Are you illegally sharing your email list?
- Google to retain cookies in Chrome
- Check your ad agency 1st-party cookie tracking
- Google’s AIO reaches 1.5 billion monthly users
- Why AI SEO is our future
- YouTube tests AIO
End of April, y’all. One-third of the year gone. Next time we turn around it will be Cinco de Mayo and then July 4th!
BlogAid Happenings
My plans for Thrive in ‘25 got derailed by a couple of months due to all that flood debris cleanup.
So, I’ve adjusted my plans a bit, as far as my timeline.
Making Videos
But, I’m still on time with one of my planned ventures!!
Part of my recent stress relief has been building things in my woodshop.
And that means I’m also busy making shorter videos of woodworking tips and tools.
They are way faster to make and edit, too!
And I’m right on time with those, as I had to wait for it to warm up a bit before I could open the shop. So, it’s a relief not to be behind on everything.
Gift Posts
That first video I released for my new red marking pen review a couple of weeks ago brought in some new subscribers. And I already have plans to market it heavily later this year for the holiday buying season, as it makes a great gift.
In fact, I think I need to come up with a few more review videos like that for the same reason – a gift-giving ideas post.
How can you do that in your niche? I bet you could make a list right off the top of your head!
Now is the time to start making those videos/posts so you can use them in a collection later this year – like starting in August, which is when you need to start promoting holiday posts.
I’m thinking these will do well on Pinterest too!
If you already have a gift-giving post, now is a good time to check on it and refresh if needed.
And, while you’re at it, maybe think of all the holidays you could do gift-giving posts for, or at least market the one you’ve got on other holidays too.
In fact, I’m thinking that marking pen post would be good for both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, which are coming up. There are a LOT of women woodworkers now!
Triple Ad Pay
The one exception I made with doing shorter videos is the new DIY Music Keyboard Pullout Tray one that I released on Sunday.
It’s just over 14 minutes long and that means it qualifies for mid-roll ads.
I saw 3 ads total when I watched it, so that means triple the payout on this one.
And, true to what I reported here recently, YouTube is being strategic about placing those at natural breaks so that folks are not tempted to leave when they hit.
I used a moving graphic in between sections to create that natural breaks in the vid for that reason – and it worked!!!
Plan for Success
Everything about this video was strategic.
There are several videos about music keyboard trays that have over 100k views, but none of them are made by woodworkers.
And NONE of them explain the whole process.
My video certainly does!!!!
And I used the bare minimum of tools, like the kind DIYers would have, or I gave handy substitute suggestions.
Plus, there is only one set of pullout racks that works well for this project, and you better believe I got my Amazon affiliate link featured prominently in the description and mentioned in the video where to find that link, and why these are the only rails that work.
Do you research video topics before you create them? It’s a great way to get ideas and see how you can improve on the info out there.
Reels Mastermind This Week
We’re continuing our focus on video in the DIY SEO Everywhere course this week.
We’ll be focusing on Reels, mainly for Instagram.
This is a mastermind, not a workshop, meaning that we want to put our heads together and share tips about how to use Reels and what’s working.
I do have a few recent posts that I’ll be sharing with what social media pros advise and we’ll discuss them.
So, if possible, try to make it live, as you’ll want to join in on the conversation.
Join us!!!
It’s always a good time to join us in the DIY SEO Everywhere course. Replays are available on every new thing we’ve discussed this year to go way beyond Google to get more eyeballs.
And we’ll be circling back on some of the topics for more tips and challenges too, like a session on how to strategically use Substack if you already have a blog.
Contact me for an insanely huge discount on the course.
WordPress Tips
Still Not Updating Yet
We’re going to hold off for a while longer on the WP 6.8 update.
I am reading that more folks are having a few issues.
I’m betting some of those may be a PHP version issue.
I’ll keep you posted.
Monetization Tips
Blue Cross Leaked GA4 Info to Google Ads
In last week’s eCreators Hub News, I shared tips about running ads as a great way to get more eyeballs and the challenge that me and one of my clients will be doing together.
We’ll be doing those ads on Facebook. But even with that, you need to be super careful about what data you share with them.
Case in point, Blue Cross of California unintentionally configured their GA4 to integrate with Google Ads in a way that leaked sensitive medical data about their clients – for 3 years!!!
There was no hack. It was due to their own setup.
And there is no indication that Google used that data in any way other than to send targeted ads to those people.
But still!!!
Sharing Your Email List
One of the first things that Facebook wants you to do is upload your email list to them so that they can target your ads to those folks if they used the same email for their Meta account.
Don’t do it!!!!!!
I guarantee they are going to use that list in other ways.
And, if you do share it, you just broke the promise in your privacy statement that you gave to your subscribers.
Same with uploading your email list to Substack.
READ: Are You Illegally Using Your Email List? (on my eCreator Tips Substack publication)
You need to guard your subscribers’ privacy like you guard your own. You wouldn’t want somebody to share your email with platforms that you may or may not be on, or get ads targeted to you because of it.
Google to Retain Cookies in Chrome
They are going to have the tracking turned on by default and leave it up to the Chrome user to decide if they want to switch off that tracking.
And I’m guessing that having a setting that can be turned off is how Google is going to deal with current and future lawsuits against them. Plus, users can choose to use another browser that has tracking turned off by default, like Brave and Safari.
Ad Agency 1st-Party Cookie Tracking
Every ad network and agency on the planet is likely throwing up their hands in the air right now. They all had to fork out major expenditures and time to find a 1st-party cookie tracking solution to avoid revenue loss over this whole thing.
And now it’s a mute point – sort of.
If you run ads, you may want to check into how your agency is doing 1st-party cookie tracking and decide if you want to keep sharing your subscriber list with them or not.
They are going to advise you to continue sharing your list with them as that 1st-party tracking data is a gold mine – for them.
If you wish to subscribe to a newsletter, you may want to read the fine print and see if you will also be sharing your email with an ad agency or not by using certain forms on the site. There may be other ways to subscribe that are not connected to the ad agency.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think most pop-up subscription forms are only shared with the list, not the ad agency.
AI SEO
Google’s AIO Reaches 1.5 Billion Monthly Users
Holy cow!!! Google reports that 1.5 billion search users are seeing AIO (AI Overview) search results every month!!
This, despite the fact that Google has been bouncing these results around, as far as where and how they appear in search results.
They’ve been testing to see how this placement impacts their ad revenue.
And I just read articles over the weekend that their reported earnings are higher than expected, which sent their Alphabet stock soaring.
AI SEO is Our Future
This is EXACTLY why I’m focusing so much attention on AI SEO in the DIY SEO Everywhere course.
And it is why I’m being asked to speak about it to other groups.
AI SEO is the way to get new eyeballs now – not only with Google, but with multiple other AI search engines like SearchGPT (OpenAI) and Perplexity.
And this is why I’ve been telling you to write shorter content, especially with focusing on snippets that AI search will want to show, along with a link to your post/video.
YouTube Tests AIO
Google owns YouTube.
And they are bringing AIO search results to YouTube.
They are highlighting relevant video clips.
I suspect this is going to be HUGE on YouTube.
And it’s just one more reason why I’m focused on making shorter tip videos. They are a great way to get featured like this.
I have stopped burying important tips in long videos. I’m making short videos with just that tip.
You Can Do It Too!
How can you apply this strategy to your content, including your written content?
You CAN make faceless videos that show that tip. Folks do it all the time and they are making money.
And, this is why we are doing video workshops and masterminds in the DIY SEO Everywhere course this year too. We did 2 on YouTube already and we’ll be circling back for more as changes like this pop up.
Would a Challenge Help?
During mini consults with clients after their live audit chat, I’m stunned at how many folks are not connecting the dots with what I’m suggesting in Tips Tuesday to their own content.
We connect those dots during that conversation and the light bulbs start going off for them.
Would a live challenge help you find ways to reuse the content you’ve already got and turn it into more short-form content?
Let me know if you’re interested – and let me know if you’re in the DIY SEO Everywhere course, as that would be the best place to do it, I think.
