Tips Tuesday – Social Selling Boom, Social in Search, AI Agents Nightmare

Tips this week include:

• My focus is helping you make money – how we do that is changing
• Social Channels in Google Search Console
• The whole internet will be a mall soon – and how to get in on it
• YouTube Shopping Program invite
• What’s competing directly with the Amazon Affiliate Program
• A big money-making opportunity
• Issues with SheKnows and Slickstream
• REACT attacks – will they affect us?
• Vibe Code security issues found – lots of them
• AI Agents nightmares coming true
• When it’s time to say no – helpful tips for creators

About Tips Tuesday

READ THIS – My Focus is Helping You Make Money

For 20+ years I have helped folks make money online.

For all of that time, I’ve shared my crystal ball views with you to keep you well ahead of the curves.

Remember when Pinterest first hit? That spawned an entire industry of mommy bloggers. I jumped right on it, and helped all of the smart folks get on the new SEO bandwagon. Those who listened to me had a major financial headstart on those who waited for 2-3 years to believe that SEO was going to be a real “thing”.

And that took the form of speed and site security being important too. Then we had HTTPS for data security mixed in.

I helped my peeps stay a year or two ahead of those curves. And they made more money!!

Well, it’s happening again. The big changes have been underway for the last 4 years – and I’ve been telling you about them all this time.

We’re here in the new age of the internet now.

Some folks have been complaining this year that there is too much focus on video, brand deals, or products in Tips Tuesday.

You have 2 choices – accept that this is the new cycle for making the most money online, or don’t.

You jump on the new trains or you get left behind.

Bloggers who have chosen not to evolve are getting left at the station now.

For bloggers who are just letting their sites “ride” as is, that’s fine. I’ll help you keep it maintained. And I will help you sunset it properly when that time comes.

Same with service-based, or online presence websites – I’ll be here to help you keep your site in top condition so that you can gain more clients.

But, with all of it, my focus remains the same – helping folks make the most money they can online – and blogging for ad revenue is not where the big money is anymore – and hasn’t been for the last 3-4 years. 

I will always go where the money is – for myself, and for my clients.

And that will be through every change I see coming down the line, just as it has always been.

If this is not for you, fine. Find a source of info that is. 

But don’t complain to me about change. I’ve had to pivot this business every 6 months to keep up with the changes – and keep you in the money. And I will continue to do just that.

What Am I Missing?

If you’re missing the way the online world used to be, I can’t change that.

If you want to know more about how to get your blog content picked up by AI, or other visibility tips, then join the DIY SEO course, as that is where I cover it.

If you think there is relevant info that would help you make money, or have a better site, that I’m not reporting in Tips Tuesday, and is something that I do or offer on BlogAid, let me know.

SEO Tips

Social Channels in Google Search Console

This year in the DIY SEO course we focused hard on ways to get eyeballs on our content outside of Google Search.

And it has paid off!!!

In one of our live workshops we were already starting to see entries from LinkedIn and Reels, mainly on Facebook on regular Google Search.

Now, Google has officially announced that it will be showing more social channels in Search Console.

Every content creator is now getting the message that paying close attention to social channels is super important.

And because of that, Google is starting to pick up more content from those social channels and featuring it in regular Search too. This goes well beyond the info they have been gleaning from X, Reddit, and Quora for the last few years.

While this new Search Console Insights report is only being rolled out to a limited number of websites now, it shows you where the trend is going.

If you want to know where to put your content promotion efforts for 2026, then join us in the DIY SEO course.

Monetization Tips

The Whole Internet Will Be a Mall Soon

I’ve been watching this trend all year and it is only growing.

AI in Search and AI chatbots have turned SEO on its head.

THE gold standard now is brand mentions.

Big brands are no longer exclusively partnering with creators who have mass followers. They are now shooting for mass mentions.

Programs and opportunities are opening left and right for creators to make money with direct sales of both brand products and their own products.

It’s called Social Selling and it is turning the entire internet into one big shopping mall. 

YouTube Shopping Program

I have been invited to join the YouTube Shopping program on my Heartwood Art channel.

YouTube is now partnering with brands and retailers so you can add a tag to your video where you’re talking about that brand. 

Viewers can click to purchase and you earn a commission.

This is very similar to TikTok Shop – and folks have made a LOT of money from selling both these brand items as well as their own items.

I am most definitely going to look into which brands are available.

As you may recall, I expanded my site and YouTube channel to include a category for reviewing things that are helpful to homeowners. And I’ve made a few Amazon Affiliate sales from them.

I see this YT Shopping Program as an extension of that.

FYI, I looked into doing the same thing with TikTok Shop, but they have very few woodworking tools or products I would be interested in reviewing or promoting.

YouTube TV Competing Directly with the Amazon Affiliate Program

When watching ad-supported Prime Video shows, I often see a “button” to buy what’s in the ad.

Well, YouTube TV is going to copy that trend and this new Shopping Program will be eligible for it.

And I think they are most definitely going to give Amazon a run for their money, and my affiliate income money with it.

Big Money-Making Opportunity

This story is about the power of the village at work.

Every year, when my clients get their annual site audit, we have a chat to go over that report, and then we chat about how their business is going, what’s working, and what they want to change.

One of my clients is an OBM (Operational Business Manager) who helps big and busy entrepreneurs get even bigger without the overwhelm of trying to do everything themselves.

She turned me on to a new way some of her clients are making money – and it is BIG  money!!!!

Then I chatted with the person who helped me sort out my IG stuff and she too has a client doing the same thing.

Y’all, I’m talking high 5-figure money for minimum effort. Yeah, I know how that sounds, but it’s true.

I immediately thought of two of my clients who could easily walk into this opportunity with barely even tweaking what they are already doing.

I’ve chatted with both of them and we are all doing our research into it right now.

I will most definitely keep you posted when we get all of the details and I have a whole picture on what it takes to do it.

Changing with the Times

What I can tell you now about this new big money thing is that the folks who listened to me all these years I’ve been jumping up and down about the need to make a change, and who got into creating their own products and then got into video are the ones who have had steady revenue and who will be able to capitalize on all of these new opportunities.

It’s exactly like all of the bloggers who jumped on Pinterest, and then jumped on SEO over a decade ago. They are STILL earning money from those things. That twist in blogging spawned whole new industries and made some folks rich. In fact, I focused my whole business on that turn of fate.

We have been in another turn of industry for the last 4 years.

TikTok did the same thing for short-form video creators that Pinterest did for bloggers.

And now the pendulum is swinging to online shopping via video and it is going BOOM!

I am most definitely going to help those who can take advantage of this turn.

Issues with SheKnows and SlickStream

For an entire month I’ve been working with my site audit Hub clients to fix new issues with both of these services. 

We have finally resolved the issue with SheKnows (no thanks to their poor support). And no other ad agency is having this issue.

We’re still working on the issue with SlickStream, but we do know the cause, at least (thanks to their excellent support help). It’s a security setting on Cloudflare free plans that they will need to change. I’m working with them and hope they resolve it soon.

And I believe this is the same hoohaa we saw back in October with the new rule I added in the summer. Something suddenly changed at Cloudflare and I had to modify that rule. I told you so!!

REACT Attacks

You may have received an email from Cloudflare recently about emergency updates they have released to combat a very serious DoS attack on REACT servers.

Yes, REACT JS is used in WordPress. But I think this issue is about REACT used on Linux servers and does not impact our sites. However, it may impact some hosts.

I will be keeping my clients posted if there is anything we need to do.

Just know that AI has made online security a nightmare and it takes a LOT of time to constantly watch metrics, research, and implement changes to keep everyone safe these days.

Security Tips

Vibe Code Security Issues

I told you so!!!

Researchers have uncovered 30+ serious security issues in vibe coding tools.

As I’ve reported over and over, coding languages and hack attack vectors change all the time.

AI bots are picking up code from all over the internet – including code snippets that have been recycled for 10 years.

So, even if a post were published yesterday, that doesn’t mean the info in it is current.

And not one person who only uses vibe coding tools has any idea how to check it for current code language standards, version control, or security holes. Not a single one!

There are plenty of experienced programmers and devs who use vibe code tools as an aid, not as their only source or method, and that’s fine. In fact, such code snippet sites and repositories have been around for decades.

But, every one of these devs knows not to rely solely on those resources for the finished product. They check and recheck it for standards and security.

And they maintain that code over the years it is in production.

Vibe coders think it’s a once-and-done thing. NOT!!!

AI Agent Nightmares Coming True

I told you so – again!!!!

AI Agents scare the crap out of me.

There is NO WAY I want an agent to take over my browser and do things on my behalf.

And I don’t want to use tools that have their own AI Agents doing anything other than scouring their own databases for info and/or dealing with content I give them to summarize or such.

AI Agents carry executable code. And once they take over your browser, they can do all manner of malicious things.

That is the main concern cited in the article above. They say:

“At its core, these issues chain three different vectors that are common to AI-driven IDEs –

• Bypass a large language model’s (LLM) guardrails to hijack the context and perform the attacker’s bidding (aka prompt injection)
• Perform certain actions without requiring any user interaction via an AI agent’s auto-approved tool calls
• Trigger an IDE’s legitimate features that allow an attacker to break out of the security boundary to leak sensitive data or execute arbitrary commands”

So, watch what you do with AI Agents. Don’t trade ease for security!!

Business Tips

When It’s Time to Say No

Time – that’s the #1 thing every creator says they wish they had more of.

Well, let’s fix that!

What is taking up all of your time now?

The nice folks at the Content Marketing Institute have an excellent post titled Creators: Time to Say No.

• What have you committed yourself to that was a good idea at the time, but no longer serves your needs, wants, or desires?
• What has become a slog that has no inspired energy in it anymore?
• What do you do just because you’ve always done it?

These are just some of the questions in that article.

Go read it and see if it inspires you to just say NO!

I’ve been doing this a LOT over the last 2 years and it has freed up so much of my time and has allowed me to pursue other business and life interests that do match my needs, wants, and desires a lot closer.