Show #14 Effective Author SEO & How To Use Discovery Sites With Vinny O'Hare

Author Platform Rocket: Self Publishing, Marketing & Advertising Advice For Authors

Today, Vinny from Awesome Gang shares some great SEO tips and tricks to optimize your website. Vinny shares his own experience building discovery sites and outlines everything he’s learned about SEO and building a site along the way. A big proponent of affiliate marketing, Vinny also gives listeners the ins and outs of affiliate links as it’s very easy to misuse these. Tune-in to discover the power of affiliate marketing, personalized newsletters and the online tools that will help you build your website and increase your search traffic TODAY!

• Vinny prefers going to the Affiliates summits and he uses SEO for marketing purposes rather than for paid ads
  • Even hosted a podcast on affiliate marketing and knows all the big players in the space
• Newsletters and SEO for your own websites are the most VALUABLE tools you can implement
• Has authored the book 25 Ways To Improve Your Website; suggests ways to optimize your website or blog
• Vinny points out some of the common mistakes that people make:
  • While Geocities has long been gone, authors still tend to paste information from one form to another without realizing that the information hasn’t been updated
  • Authors fail to change their Amazon links on their copy and paste forms; no need to have Amazon redirect
  • Amazon links that people submit contain unnecessary information such as search terms and the name of their browser
• A big proponent of ‘keeping it simple’, Vinny uses the Genesis Framework, WordPress and eleven40 Pro on all his websites
  • Another site to use is Microsoft FrontPage; can’t change it out before doing major damage to his SEO
  • WordPress is fluid and updates with pretty much everything
• Vinny shares how he started out in the world of SEO
  • Started using internet marketing way back in 1999 by building sites with great content that would rank highly in Google search results; a big proportion of these were affiliate sites
  • What not to do in SEO is way more important than what to do
  • Florida update by Google resulted in all scam sites being shut down and Vinny’s sites pushed to the top of search results
• The origins of Awesome Gang
  • Got prompted to build his own site when his book was rejected by a discovery site
  • Leveraged upon his extensive SEO knowledge; had 1,000 books submitted overnight
• Using affiliate links on a site is not a good idea; site tends to be pushed down lower in search results
• Vinny asks authors to fill out an interview that he attaches to his social media sites and newsletter; ranks higher in search results because of the targeted questions that he asks
• Going to Affiliate summits is a great way to INFLUENCE people
  • Leverage higher ranking websites to make money
  • Make affiliate money from Amazon by linking your website using your own affiliate code; OVERUSE of your affiliate code will lead to lower rank results
    • Amazon does not permit emailing of affiliate links; power hungry, they have put a cap on marketing options
    • Jonny sold 15K copies of a health and fitness book in a week back in 2012 by leveraging the power of affiliate links; had his account shutdown by Amazon
    • Amazon changed the terms of service midway into the campaign and the idea died down
  • A lot of book promotion sites using affiliate links in their newsletter had to shut down overnight
• Top TIPS and TRICKS to pull traffic and optimize your website:
  • Use a good platform
  • Switch to HTTPS from HTTP by getting a SSL certificate and securing your website
  • Rather than hosting your website on Weebly, use your own domain name by building your website through WordPress
  • Whenever you are putting out a post or sending out emails, use a personalized tone; avoid structuring content like a press release or a business newsletter
  • Go to Google Console and submit a sitemap
• Use the coupon code APR to avail a $5 discount on any of the following sites: Pretty-hot, Book Reader Magazine, Discount Book Man; avail a $10 discount by using the coupon code APR on Awesome Book Promotion
• Get featured in the newsletter and on the homepage for 3 to 4 days by paying $10

3 Key Points:

1. Caution needs to be exercised while using affiliate links in your promotional campaign; overusing will lead to your site ranking lower in search results.
2. Switch to HTTPS from HTTP by getting an SSL certificate.
3. Using a personalized tone in your newsletter and emails will lead to building relationships; AVOID using an overly professional tone.

Resources Mentioned:

• Pretty-hot, Book Reader Magazine, Discount Book Man, Awesome Book Promotion, Awesomegang – The Awesome Gang Family Sites
• Google Console – Build your sitemap
• WordPress – Build your own website
• Genesis Framework – Framework for Wordpress
• eleven40 Pro – Customize your website