Tips Tuesday – Video Report Errors, GA4 Course, TikTok Replace Google Search

Hello Happy Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• Free Gutenberg Block Art webinar today
• Update on Video Report Errors from my clients
• GA4 course creation is underway – and you’re definitely going to need a course
• WordPress 6.0.2 security and bug fix release rolled out
• How to find affiliate programs for your blog
• Why you should consider boosting short-form over long-form content now
• Is TikTok going to replace Google? Important info about search trends changing
• Why I stopped making most TikToks and how I’m pivoting my short videos
• I’m celebrating my first paycheck from YouTube and my plans to make even more

Listen to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

BlogAid Happenings

It’s Muesday for my US peeps as we had Monday off for the Labor Day weekend.

And that also marks the start of the race to the end of the year. 

I know most of my clients are up to their eyeballs in holiday posts and preparations. 

And I’m so glad we got the bulk of our site change stuff out of the way, like PHP 8 update and such.

We just have one more thing to do, which is get going with GA4 and I’ll more for you on that in a moment.

Gutenberg Block Art – Free Meetup Today

On Friday I sent out word to all of my BlogAid News subscribers about a free Meetup happening today that will show us how to get fancy looking blocks with the Gutenberg editor.

I got excited about it because it is being presented by Brian Gardner who was the creative genius behind Genesis themes.

It is this afternoon in the US, so if you’re reading this early, you still have time to register. And if you already have a Meetup account, use that login.

Site Services Update

We are running ahead on site services. 

The wait list is only about 2 weeks at this point. That’s because I went long on my guesstimates going on the number of projects and didn’t realize that so many of them were just returning site audit checkups. Those are so super fast and cheap.

Plus, September is usually a slow month for site projects anyway. So many folks just got their kids back into school and their getting super busy with all of their holiday posts right now.

It picks back up in October and goes bonkers toward the end of the year.

So, if you want something done with your site, now is a great time to make the request.

This is also why I’m doing my deep dive into the GA4 stuff right now too – I have the time. And I want to get the course out to you before things pick back up for the end of the year push too.

BlogAid Course Happenings

Compare Video Report Errors

Last week I posted in the DIY SEO and Video SEO Booster course about the errors some of us are seeing in the new Video Report in Google Search Console.

Most folks aren’t having issues.

Of the ones who are, most of those errors are about the video not being prominent on the page, which we are going to ignore for now.

The other common one is that the video was not processed – again, we’re going to ignore that one for now.

As I mentioned last week, we need to consider this report as a beta. Google is super new to supporting the proper schema markup for videos and it will be refining what and how it crawls, plus what it reports over the next year.

So, we’re not going to be making any changes to our setup over the first run of this report with regard to those 2 common errors. 

If you have other errors, you likely do need to get to the bottom of them.

And I’m available for hire to help you sort through them, as I don’t see enough other types of errors being reported to think there is a wide-spread issue to make this a group thing. Investigations will be on a per-site basis.

GA4 Course Creation Underway

As I mentioned last week, I started my deep dive into GA4 for the upcoming mini course.

This thing is a beast.

And there is zero way you are getting anything useful from it if you just setup the property and stuck the code on your site like you did with GA3, or Universal Analytics.

I guarantee that you will need this mini course if you have any hope of getting all of the settings right, much less getting anything out of the reports.

The native reports are useless. You will need to customize one for your needs that match your settings.

And there is NOTHING about the interface that helps you with the settings, including the checklist Google provides.

It really comes down to what you need to track.

I’m already making notes about how I want to split this info up for you into scenarios based on what you will want to track.

If you have a funnel or products or even outbound affiliate links, you need to configure settings in 2-3 different places. And folks who don’t have those things don’t need info on all of those settings.

So, it’s that kind of stuff that is driving how I’ll be splitting up the course material. Seems to me that listing them by scenario is going to make the most sense.

And I’ll be doing the same thing with teaching you how to customize the reports too. That way you’ll be able to see exactly the info that is most important to you, and remove all of the other distractions of less meaningful data.

I think figuring out how to split up the info so that it is meaningful to you will be the hardest part of creating the course.

I like to be super efficient with tutorial watching time and have a top/down flow for them, but there isn’t going to be a way to do that with this. 

It will likely have a section for all of the global settings that all of us need.

And then split out into these scenarios.

That’s a bit inefficient, as you will have to go into some of the same areas twice. But, it will make far more sense to you. And it will save you time by not having to watch tutorials that you don’t even need.

I can also tell you that this course is different from anything else out there.

Everything I’ve read or seen about it either just scratches the surface, or tries to cover every setting in one, long, boring tutorial that doesn’t connect the dots on the multiple settings you need to complete one scenario.

No thanks.

This course will be different.

That’s all the happenings around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips and news.

WordPress Tips

WordPress 6.0.2 Released

This should have been an auto update for you.

Included were:

• 12 bug fixes in core, one of which was a security issue
• 5 general bug fixes, several of which involved sticky posts

The next major release of 6.1 is due out on Nov 1 and I’ll have a tour for you when that time comes near.

Monetization Tips

How to Find Affiliate Programs for Your Blog

Over the past few weeks I’ve been reporting how much more lucrative product reviews are now becoming, in large part due to changes with Google search and how much they want to feature real folks who really do test and/or use the product.

And you can combine that with affiliate marketing too and make even more money doing it.

The nice folks over at ProBlogger have an excellent post to help you find affiliate programs that are a good fit for your blog.

I’m definitely looking into this for both Heartwood Art as well as my new secret project.

One of the reasons for that is Google is specifically wanting to promote reviews that have more than just an Amazon link for the purchase option. So, finding other affiliate programs could get you a real boost in search.

Content Marketing Tips

Boost Short-Form Over Long-Form Content

TikTok has made every social platform, and every content creator who posts to those platforms have to rethink everything.

The fact is, short-form content is winning.

Folks want a sample of info to even see if they are interested in it before they commit more time to it.

And the fact is, you need to know if folks are even interested before you commit more time to creating content too.

I invite you to go read this post from the nice folks at The Tilt.

It’s all about how to use short-form content to become a data-driven content creator.

You’re going to see what clicks with folks real fast, and before you put a lot of time into developing longer content on that topic.

You save time, and you produce more winners.

FYI, this is exactly why I sent out a survey about the GA4 mini course before I spent a minute on creating it.

Short-form content on social media is just one more way you can “ask your audience” what they are interested in.

On top of it, the practice of creating short-form content will set you up perfectly for getting into short-form video, if you haven’t already. You’ll learn exactly how to create bite-sized pieces of info.

For whatever catches fire, create more.

Video Marketing Tips

Is TikTok Going to Replace Google?

Lately I’ve been hearing a LOT of buzz about TikTok replacing Google as the preferred search engine. I even reported on it in last week’s Tips Tuesday, but from the angle of the younger generation driving this trend.

Well, the nice folks at Moz have a deeper look into this trend, and trust me, you’re going to want to read the whole article.

Here are a few of the quotes in it that caught my attention:

• We’re seeing TikTok take market share from Google in verticals such as food, gardening, and travel.
• Users are even searching for TikTok content on Google, with queries such as “TikTok pasta”, amassing 1,778 searches per month in the US.
• On TikTok, users can seamlessly scroll through all of the content that answers their query, without having to open multiple tabs on their browser. This improves user satisfaction, reduces friction and, most importantly, teaches TikTok the best answer.
• As technology integrates further into our lives, we’ve seen the rise of multisearch. We now search by asking our home assistant devices questions or taking a picture of a tree we don’t recognize. We search on Google Maps, on Youtube, on Instagram and even on Amazon.
• An omnichannel SEO strategy will let you interact with your users beyond your own domain, and it can help your brand take up more real estate in the SERPs.
• TikTok and Pinterest have a lot in common. Both platforms prioritize content discovery based on your interests and serve mainly visual content. (NOTE: in the article they list the top industries that can benefit from being on TikTok and it includes food, fashion, DIY, and several other niches that my clients are in, especially those that grew big on Pinterest back in the day.)

I sure hope you’ll go read the whole article.

And if that doesn’t convince you why you need to start making short-form content, especially video, I don’t know what will.

Why I Stopped Making TikToks

I had all kinds of plans for my BlogAid channel on TikTok and I was having a whole lot of fun making the very long list of video ideas I had created.

But here’s why I had to stop doing them.

It was working.

However, it was attracting the same newbie blogger audience that I was getting from the blogging Facebook groups I was in at the time. And that’s just not the right fit for my services anymore. I stopped answering so many questions in those groups too. In fact, I’ve left most of those groups at this point.

I’ve had to backup and rethink my whole short-form video strategy while I’ve been making a major focus change on BlogAid.

I know what I want to focus on now and I’m busy making my video ideas list again.

I’m also going to be doing a super deep dive into all of the places where I can post that short-form video content and making a new checklist for myself.

That may turn into a new mini course I offer down the road too.

Please do let me know if you’re interested in such a thing.

FYI, video will be the centerpiece of the marketing for my new secret project. And doing all of this research and such now will benefit all of my money-making sites.

Celebrating First YouTube Payment

I just got my first payment from YouTube for my Heartwood Art channel.

Video SEO pays.

And keep in mind that this is a site I haven’t even posted on in a year and only have about 20 posts with videos on it.

Just imagine what kind of money will come in on the channels where I’m posting regularly. In fact, I’m counting on $5000/video from my new secret project. And I’m counting on at least $1000/video from new tutorials I’ll be making for Heartwood Art over the winter.

I’m not counting on much, if anything from BlogAid, as far as video revenue at this point. The tech is just too transitory and it can’t build up enough views over time like evergreen content can do. 

So, I’m putting the bulk of my video making time into those that will pay me the most to do them.

And I’m looking forward to my next paycheck from YouTube.

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

Thanks for sharing this podcast and post with your blogging buddies, and for leaving comments and reviews too.

Subscribe to all BlogAid Posts via email so you never miss anything!

Be sure to visit BlogAid.net for more tips and resources and I’ll see you online.