Tips Tuesday – Videos in AI Search, Selling on Gumroad, Vibe Coding Dangers 

Tips this week include:

• Seasonal Mastermind in the DIY SEO Everywhere course this week
• Videos are now in AIO Search
• Why scripts work so well when making videos
• New video transcription tool I’m testing
• Adding timestamps and post content counts
• Sell sites for a profit
• Why I’m selling a new digital download on Gumroad
• Do not use the new GA4 tool!!!!!
• Where to get better analytics
• Why sites on Apache servers went down – and why my clients weren’t hit
• The hidden dangers of Vibe Coding

School’s back in session and we’re headed into the busy season with holiday posts and promotion prep. Let’s do this!!!

DIY SEO Happenings

Seasonal Mastermind

We took a summer break from live sessions in the DIY SEO Everywhere course.

But now it’s time to gear up for the holidays and seasonal content.

We’ll be gathering on Thursday for a mastermind to share tips to help us prep.

And I’ll be sharing tips and reminders from the course about how to repurpose your content into fresh things you can post on your site and on your socials too.

AIO SEO Tips

Videos in AIO

I devoted this past weekend to making fun Halloween decor from scrap wood for a new series on Heartwood Art.

Part of that time included being out on my deck with my iPad and using Procreate to draw Halloweeny icon things that will be painted onto wooden blocks. 

It’s been a while since I’ve used Procreate and I had to Google how to do some things.

To my delight, I saw videos in the first snippet of AIO results (AI Overviews)!!!!!

And each one started at a point in the timeline that answered my query.

This is just one more way that having a video can get you seen in AI search, especially on Google.

Video Tips

Scripts Work

For the video tutorials you see on the BlogAid YouTube channel, and in all of my courses, I write a script first and follow it as I create that screenshare video.

That has everything to do with why you love those videos, because they get right to the point, are logically ordered, and have no chit chat in between the steps.

But, for Heartwood Art, I can’t read a script while I’ve got my hands near a power tool!!!

I make an outline for what I want to cover, but the dialogue is live. I just record in short segments, so it’s not like a long monologue I have to recite or such.

New Video Transcription Tool

I have not had good luck with using YouTube captions to generate a clean transcript. It just can’t understand my southern accent.

I also tried transcribing in Camtasia, which is what I use to make screenshare videos, and is my primary editor, as well as Descript. But both of them edit the video when you edit the transcription, unless you jump through some extra hoops to stop that from happening. And since I’m used to editing in the timeline, I just don’t care for editing via the transcript anyway.

So, I got a new app from AppSumo and it seems to work fine on the short test video I fed it.

I’ll let you know what it is if it works well on longer videos, as I plan to test that out this week on my woodworking videos.

Timestamps and Post Content

I had stopped creating detailed blog posts with screenshots on Heartwood Art. You just can’t get the info you need from those like you can by watching the embedded video.

But, when I stopped trying to create transcripts, that also knocked me out of creating headings for the different sections, which I also used as timestamps on YouTube.

For a while, YouTube was doing a good job of creating its own timestamps, called Chapters. But it’s certainly not picking up everything.

And with what I saw in AIO last week, and those videos starting at exactly the point that related to my query, I definitely want to take the time to add my own timestamps as Chapters.

I hope this new transcription app can make faster work out of that, as it also has a mindmap in it, which I haven’t tried yet. That should pull out the major points.

Or, I could feed that transcript into an AI chatbot to have it summarized, and that should do it too.

But, I’ll have to check to see if any of these tools can pick up the timecode in the video, as that is what I need to make a timestamp to put in the video’s description at YouTube.

And I’ll be scouring my most recent video uploads to see how well YouTube did with its automatic Chapter creation to see which ones I need to create my own timestamps for.

If nothing else, these tools will help me create the content for my posts.

It Just Takes Practice

Have you ever been to a little kid’s recital? Did you expect perfection? Of course not!!!

Well, stop expecting it of yourself when you first start making videos!!!!

Y’all, I’ve been on stage since I was 5 years old. And I’ve been making videos for 20+ years. 

Of course I’m comfortable being on camera and talking off the top of my head in them.

But I’m also over the need to make a perfect video – long over it.

The fact is, 90% of videos posted online are unscripted and just shot on a phone in natural lighting.

Get over yourself and just start recording!!!!!

And keep doing it!!!!!!

You’ll get comfortable as you go and you’ll be able to make videos faster and easier as you find your flow.

Just do it!!!!

Monetization Tips

Sell Sites for Profit

A few of my clients buy sites from bloggers that made a good start, but need to get out because they woke up to just how much work running a successful blog can be.

And then my client brings that site to me for an audit and we get it all fast and secure.

Then they apply what they learned in the DIY SEO Everywhere course and take the site up another SEO notch or two.

Pretty soon it’s making real money.

Then once they recoup their investment and make some profit for a year or so, they flip the site.

And honey, they walk away with a real profit at that point!!!

If you’re thinking about flipping sites, or selling one, contact me. 

I’ve got a whole checklist of stuff you will not have thought through, or thought of at all, that will bork both you and the new owner during the transfer.

Keep in mind that you have next-level site security and the new owner will need to be made aware and/or we need to disconnect some of that stuff in the proper order.

Why I’m Selling on Gumroad

As I mentioned previously, I took the weekend to draw icon type things to be painted on wooden blocks for Halloween decor.

I have 12 of them and I’m making a PDF with properly sized images for painting on 2x4s and 4x4s, which are the scrap wood sizes I’ll be featuring in my videos.

I want to sell that downloadable on Heartwood Art, but since it’s so seasonal, I really don’t want to pay a monthly fee for a store, like Shopify, or even put it on Etsy, which has more fees and removes listings if they are not selling, or so I’ve heard.

Plus, I want to use a different payment processor, as my PayPal account is hooked to BlogAid as the parent company for all of my courses on BlogAid and eCreators Hub.

So, I’m going with Gumroad. There is no monthly fee as they just take a cut when something sells. 

And then Stripe will take their little processing bit, and I’ll have no monthly fees on it either.

Plus, Gumroad is easy to integrate with Stripe and WordPress.

Have you thought about setting up a seasonal downloadable to sell?

Would you like a course on how to make the PDF in Google Drive and how to set up Gumroad?

Just reply if you got this post in an email and let me know.

FYI, the Shopify for Digital Downloads course is temporarily unavailable because Shopify is revising their code and interfaces every day, and the updates to the course are just too frequent to be profitable right now. I may bring it back once they get things settled.

Analytics Tips

Do Not Use the New GA4 Tool

Google has created a new open-source tool that integrates Gemini with GA4.

DO NOT USE THIS TOOL!!!!!!!!

Right now, Google has no access to your GA4 or GSC data.

The minute you put it in Gemini, or any AI tool, you have exposed your private data to be trained on by the AI.

Right now the new tool is only available on GitHub, so you have to be a bit of tech to integrate it anyway.

And I hope that slows folks down from using it until we can get the word out about loss of privacy.

Where to Get Better Analytics

If you want an easy way to see your GA4 traffic, get my EZ Metrix report.

You can see WAY more useful info at a glance.

And you can see deep answers to what’s working and what’s not on your site in just a click or two – no kidding!!!!

You can even see traffic from AI Search.

The report runs on LookerStudio, which is free and made by Google. And it uses free connectors to GA4, GSC, and YouTube, also made by Google.

The whole thing is private and secure.

And you own the report – no monthly fees.

Hosting Tips

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for using them to support the free and helpful info you get on BlogAid.

Sites On Apache Went Down

Have you seen advertisements for $3 a month hosting? 

They use Apache servers, which are the slowest servers on the planet.

And they are usually not configured well either.

You’ll find them at A2 Hosting, Bluehost, Hostgater, GoDaddy, and more.

Well, over the weekend, cPanel made a change that took down all Apache servers if the sites were connected to Cloudflare.

The issue was an ill-configured setting on the SSL certificate handler.

Cloudflare requires all sites to have a Full (strict) setting for the SSL certificate, and Apache was not properly configured for that when cPanel made an update to their SNI.

Why My Clients Were Not Hit

I am so glad we are at Iridium Hosting!!!

The cPanel servers at Iridium are on Litespeed, not Apache. That’s also why they are way faster too. And I guarantee that they are properly configured!!!

I’m so glad my clients already updated to Full strict SSL at Cloudflare last year.

That’s the power of being my client and getting audits and updates twice a year. We stay ahead of issues and avoid downtime.

Get Real Help for Your Site

Get an audit.

Combine an audit with a migration to superior hosting and save on both.

Get peace of mind with your site.

AI Tips

The Hidden Dangers of Vibe Coding

AI is for way more than questions, content, and images.

It’s pretty good at science stuff, including math and coding now too.

But, keep in mind that what looks miraculous to us is just the insane speed of a computer.

While a few things in science are somewhat evergreen – like math formulas, there is nothing evergreen about coding languages.

And that is the primary danger of using an AI to code.

It’s using old code to create the app and old code to check the security.

But that doesn’t seem to be a big concern for non-techs who want to create an app.

And that’s what is fueling the new Vibe Coding craze.

See my post on Substack for The Hidden Dangers of Vibe Coding for the dark side of all of this, and what you need to check with any app or plugin you think about downloading or using for yourself, and especially for your site.