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How can you get your books surfaced when readers ask an AI what to read next? What are the hallmarks of authors and businesses that last more than a decade in the indie author industry? Ricardo Fayet gives his marketing tips after more than a decade at Reedsy. In the intro, Expanding Your Book's IP through Merchandising [Wish I'd Known Then]; Guide to writers conferences [Kindlepreneur]; Rick Rubin and Stephen Pressfield on resistance and the muse [Tetragrammaton]; Pulitzer Prize winners disclose AI usage [Nieman Lab]; My new rebuilt fiction site JFPenn.com. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Ricardo Fayet is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Reedsy, a marketplace for writers to find vetted freelancers, author training courses, and lots more. He's also the author of How to Market a Book and Amazon Ads for Authors. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How AI search actually finds and ranks the books it recommends Why keywords and search volume are disappearing as marketing metrics Building an internet footprint so your book is worth recommending Why Claude leans on Goodreads while ChatGPT and Gemini lean on Reddit Product is more important than marketing, and how to find your comp titles Passion, business sense and resilience in the authors who last You can find Ricardo at Reedsy.com. Transcript of the interview with Ricardo Fayet Jo: Ricardo Fayet is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Reedsy, a marketplace for writers to find vetted freelancers, author training courses, and lots more. He's also the author of How to Market a Book and Amazon Ads for Authors. So welcome back to the show, Ricardo. Ricardo: Thank you, Jo. It's been a while. Jo: It has been a while. As we were saying, it's been a decade, which is crazy, because you and I see each other at events and things. For anyone who doesn't know you— Tell us a bit more about you, where you're from, and also, what is Reedsy these days and how have things changed? Ricardo: Yes, sure. I think I'm hard to dissociate from Reedsy because my only background really is Reedsy. We started Reedsy right after business school for most of the founders. There are four founders, and I'm one of them. We've been going since 2014, so it's been 12 years. We started around the same time, and you started even earlier than we did, but we've had the chance to meet at quite a few conferences since. I think the main thing we're still known for is our marketplace. Since the very beginning, Reedsy is a curated marketplace where authors can come in and look for editors, cover designers, marketers, ghostwriters, literary translators, author website designers, pretty much any freelancer you would ever need to hire throughout your writing career. That's how we started. That's our main source of revenue and our main business. Since then, as you mentioned, we've also added courses, live events, so we've got a membership under Reedsy Learning. The main thing we're proud of right now is our writing tool, Reedsy Studio, because we've been pouring a lot of engineering talent into it over the past five, six years, and I think it's a really cool writing tool that is 90% free. It also does the formatting, so it's a good alternative to Vellum or Atticus for those who haven't purchased those tools. So there's a lot of things that Reedsy does at this point, which always makes it hard for me to describe what we do. Jo: But you generally serve writers. That's probably the crux of it. Ricardo: Exactly, yes. We're mostly at the production stage. The thing we say is we help authors make beautiful books, right? That's a little bit the tagline that applies to 90% of what we do, though we also help a little bit with the marketing side of things. Jo: And then just tell people where your accent is from. Ricardo: So I'm half French, half Italian from my parents, and I was born in Spain. So depending on my mood and the moment, it might be anywhere from French, Italian, Spanish. It's anyone's guess, really, at this point. Jo: Yes, exactly. You've been part of the indie author ecosystem, as you said, since 2014. You're often at the author conferences, and you stay abreast of everything that's going on. So what are the biggest changes you've seen in the industry since you started out? Like you said, you guys came from business school. You chose to come into the industry at a particular point, and yet things have changed. So what do you think are the biggest changes, and how have you seen authors adapt? Ricardo: It's crazy, the amount of things that happened in the past 10 years. Obviously we came into the industry as a result of Amazon launching Kindle Direct Publishing, and then the Kindle Store becoming one of the number one places where people buy books. That's what enabled self-publishing in the first place as an industry, and obviously we wouldn't exist without self-publishing being a thing. But then I think probably one of the biggest changes that happened was the introduction of Kindle Unlimited and various other subscription models. Perhaps as a response to that, afterwards, I would say direct sales is the other massive change that happened in the industry. The ability for authors to sell direct to their readers via their websites, or running Kickstarters, or basically the ability to reach your customers directly. Now, obviously, artificial intelligence is probably the biggest change of them all, not just in publishing, across every industry, but of course it's going to affect publishing very strongly, or it has already started making big waves. So I would say those are the three main changes that we've seen happening in the industry. Jo: Just interestingly, given that you're French, Italian, Spanish, European— Has the pace of change been the same in mainland Europe? Because you and I have also met up at European conferences, but I just get the sense that each individual European country, the UK included, as I include the UK in Europe, goes at a different speed. Ricardo: No, they definitely do. Our market at Reedsy is all in English. We only have an English website, and I would say 70% of our market is US, then 15% UK, and then Australia, New Zealand, et cetera. We do have clients in continental Europe, but they're mostly going to be American or British expats. A lot of retired people who write books and use Reedsy services. I think the main reason for that is that self-publishing as an industry hasn't really grown in Spain, France, Italy the way that it's grown in the US and the UK, probably because these are countries where book buying habits are a lot more traditional. So all my friends from high school and university in France, they all buy books, they all buy paper books. They all buy from bookstores. They don't really buy from Amazon that much. They love the smell of paper, all these sorts of things. So obviously that makes it harder for indie authors in those countries because they cannot place their books in the places where people buy them, which is traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores, or at least it's much harder. So there is an indie movement in those countries, but it's much smaller. I would say Germany is maybe the exception in Europe, where I've seen more and more full-time indie authors, but I don't think it's a market that's comparable even to the UK. Jo: Interesting. Okay, so let's go to marketing, because you love marketing, you have a newsletter about it, and you have a book, How to Market a Book, same title as mine, and we've found each other in our Also Boughts over the years. You have, however, updated yours several times. 2025 was your last update. Mine was 2016, so yours is definitely the most up-to-date one. So what are your thoughts on how authors can reach readers now? And let's split this into two. Let's start with some tips for new authors who just have maybe one book and are really just starting out. Ricardo: Yes, first of all, sorry for stealing your title. Jo: Oh, you know, it's never been a problem. Ricardo: We were trying to come up with something… I know, I know, I know. But still, we wanted something more original, and then we realised that for SEO purposes, that's the title we should really go for. The good thing is, if you search “how to market a book” on pretty much any retailer, you're going to find your book or mine in any order really, but those are going to be the top two books to this day, thankfully, so I'm good with that. I think in terms of marketing tips for new authors who have just the one book, I'd say, despite all the changes in the industry, the basics of marketing still stay the same. One of my big mantras when it comes to marketing is that product is more important than marketing. So having a great book is going to be more important, in my opinion, than being a great marketer. Having a great product. By that, I generally don't talk about literary value or prose or anything like that, just because I'm not a book critic. I'm not an editor. My opinion on whether a book is good or not is worth zero. From a marketing standpoint, for me, a good book is one that resonates with its intended audience. So the first step for newer authors is to basically figure out who they wrote this book for, right? Have an idea of who their target market is. A great way to do that, without entering into marketing jargon like proto-personas and stuff like that, is to think in terms of comp titles, comparable titles. I think that's probably the base of any marketing, whether traditional publishing houses or indie authors, to think, “Okay, which other books out there are similar to mine?” If your book is completely unique, you have, I would say, 99.9% chance of not selling, because your market doesn't exist, and 0.01% chance of creating your own market and completely dominating it, right? So being unique is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would say 99% of the time, it is. Obviously being unique within an existing niche, within an existing market, that's completely different, but you need to work on some comparable titles. So I would say that's where I would start, and that's one of the things that AI is great at. If you even just plug in your book into an AI chat that has enough context, if you're comfortable doing that of course, or if you plug in a synopsis, like a long synopsis, you can basically ask the AI chats, “Okay, what would be some comp titles?” Either you'll have heard of those books, and you'll think, “Okay, they're good comps,” or you may not have heard of them, in which case I would really recommend buying them and reading them and seeing whether they're comps or not. I think that's where marketing starts. Jo: Yes, and we might come back to that for book discoverability. Well, let's just talk about it now, because I now pretty much use Claude for discovering books as well. I just find that the Amazon search, for nonfiction it works really well, right? As you said, if you want to learn how to market a book, you just search “how to market a book”, and our books are very well titled for that. But for fiction, it's so difficult to find new books and comp titles, especially if you don't write in a clear genre, which I don't. I know lots of people do. So we're writing cross-genre. So in terms of book discoverability, I know you've been looking into SEO for books and all of that. What are your thoughts on how authors can more effectively have their books surfaced if people are using the AIs for finding books? Ricardo: That's a very big topic. That's one of my favourite topics right now. That's what I talk about in my marketing newsletter, and I want to start a Substack on the topic as well, because I think it is the future of book discoverability. As you say, search on Amazon isn't great, and if it's not great on Amazon, you don't even want to imagine on Google Play, Kobo, all these sorts of places, right? If you search on Kobo or Apple Books or Google Play for witch cozy mysteries, the top 10 books are going to have exactly “witch cozy mystery” in the title or the subtitle or the series title, right? Jo: Yes. Ricardo: Search is very simple on those sites, so it's very easy to game, but it's terrible as an experience for readers. So I do think that a big part of search is going to move to AI, and now you have Rufus within Amazon itself that appears as a chatbot and encourages you to talk with it, to ask for recommendations. In the beginning Rufus was really terrible, but now I recommend authors play with it. In general, I recommend when it comes to AI discoverability that authors play with all the AI search tools. So it's going to be Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Rufus within Amazon. Just like we talked about comp titles, right, ask for something like, “What would you recommend for fans of this book? Which other books would you recommend?” Or if you're looking for something specific that describes your book, what books would you recommend on… I think one of your examples was fiction around masonry or something like that, right? Jo: I always say, for example, if you ask for action adventure thrillers on pretty much anywhere, you're going to get 20 books by male authors. For those of us who are female authors, but also who have female main characters, you can then be far more granular. That's just not something that necessarily works on Amazon. So, action adventure thrillers with female protagonists written by female indie authors, which is very specific. That will work in AI, whereas that definitely won't work on Amazon. Ricardo: Exactly. So one of the great things about AI search, and terrible things at the same time, is that the concept of keyword is lost, right? So we title our books How to Market a Book because the keyword that people would search for is “how to market a book”, or “book marketing for authors”. Those were the two keywords that had the biggest search volume if we looked at Google Keyword Planner, or any search tools that give you keyword volume. When it comes to AI search, since it's conversational, and it's very personalised, and it can go as niche as you want, keywords are going to disappear, and search volume as a metric is going to disappear. The search you just told me about, maybe there are 10 people who are going to run it exactly. Most people are going to run variations of that. Since you can go as granular as you want, it's going to be very long phrases, very long sentences. So the whole concept of keywords, search volume, SEO, is going to disappear in favour of what some people call GEO, generative engine optimisation, AIO, AI optimisation, AI search optimisation. There's a bunch of names for it, but it is a different discipline. It still works on the basis of Google SEO because what most of these search engines will do is they're going to search the internet, right? They've been trained on a lot of information, but not all of that information is current. Most of these models have been trained on documents and web pages before 2021. That's why when you used the very early versions of ChatGPT, and you asked it about current events or current books, it didn't find it. It didn't have that information. Now all these models have the ability to search the web, and they do that really effectively. So the first thing they're going to do if you run a search like that is they're going to run dozens of different searches on Google or a similar search engine. Action thriller books with female protagonists. Action thriller books with female protagonists by indie authors. Action thriller books by indie authors. They're going to create what I call a corpus, so a massive document of information with candidates, books that probably meet those criteria that they have found through regular web searches. Then they're going to go through all those books and determine which are the most relevant to recommend, and they'll return with that. Then they'll usually have a verification layer as well, which is, okay, I have these five books that I want to recommend to this user, but I just want to make sure first that they are written by indie authors, that they do have a female protagonist, et cetera. And if I'm not able to verify that, I'll flag it in my answer to them. So there are these three layers. Web search, then ranking of the book candidates, and finally a verification layer, and then they serve you the answer. Obviously, that's really powerful. If that's the way that search is headed, which I firmly believe, then we as authors need to learn how to get our books in there. Jo: Yes. It's so interesting, and I do this all the time. Really niche stuff, like a thriller about anatomical Venuses, which are these models from anatomy museums and stuff like that, with an edge of the supernatural. What is brilliant is that you can find the books that come up. I actually got one that I read and reviewed, and it was fantastic. So I love the more granular thing, but we're really in the very long tail now, right? It feels like you can write a very nuanced book, and it will be surfaced, but only by a few people. So do we have to write our books and then try to not even retrofit them in the way that we used to? We used to try and figure out the seven keywords and all of that kind of thing, and now I almost feel like we just get to be grownups, where you just get to write the book and put it out there, and these things are more intelligent than the search terms. Ricardo: Yes, absolutely. I think in terms of the variety of books that are going to be read and discovered, that's amazing. A little bit like the whole indie publishing movement was amazing, because if you remove the traditional publishing gatekeepers, then suddenly zombie books aren't dead anymore. Zombies are alive again. They've… Jo: Come to life. Ricardo: They've come alive, and so you get a bunch of zombie books again. It's not a small niche audience. It's actually a pretty big niche audience that loves zombie books, and suddenly they have those to consume. This is a little bit similar on a much, much bigger and more granular scale, because anyone can find exactly the kind of book that they're looking for, with the tropes they want, with the type of characters they want, with the type of author they want, and you can basically use any kind of filter. So for discoverability on the side of the reader, that's great. For the authors, it doesn't mean that you can just write whatever you want and then rest, and readers will find them. Because your books still need to have generated a certain internet footprint and a certain review footprint in order to become interesting or recommendable to AI search engines, right? Unless you're the only book that an AI search engine can recommend for that specific search, and yours was very specific, so it might have been the only one. If there are other candidates, the AI search engines are pretty smart. They're going to recommend the candidates that have more reviews, better reviews, or are more famous, that have more, when I talk about internet footprint, more pages talking about them on the internet. That's for me the big finding I've seen. The more pages you have on the internet talking about your book, so that could be book review sites, that could be Goodreads lists, Listopia lists, anywhere on the internet where your book is mentioned, that creates a footprint for it. The more footprints, the more famous your book looks to AI search engines, and so the more worthy of recommendations it is to them. Jo: Yes, and this is one reason why I now ask people, especially when you sell direct, or say you have a Kickstarter and you want reviews, I ask people if they can review on Goodreads. Obviously Goodreads is owned by Amazon, but it is far more searchable by the bots than Amazon is. I sometimes find that Amazon gets blocked. Or Amazon blocks some of the bots, let's put it that way. They might change over time. They own 15% of Anthropic or something. But Goodreads I feel like does get indexed, and I'm not willing to engage on Reddit. I know Reddit is another popular one. Just be very clear on social media, because some people think, oh, I just need loads of influencers to talk about my book, and that will impact the AIs. But I find that social media just almost isn't even there. Ricardo: It depends on which social media. For me, Reddit is a social medium, right? It's a very weird one, but it's obviously the number one social medium used by AI search engines, and it's pretty dodgy stuff with lots of conflicts of interest, because Google has a paid partnership with Reddit. I think Sam Altman has shares in Reddit. So both OpenAI and Google Gemini heavily rely on Reddit for their AI answers, right? If you ask anything from ChatGPT or Gemini, I'd say there are very high chances that in the sources and the citations of the answer, you're going to find Reddit, right? That goes for books as well. Every time you ask for book recommendations, Reddit is going to be big for those two AI search engines. Claude, it's a little bit different. They do have a little bit of a relationship with Reddit, but I don't think it's as big. I found that Claude relies heavily on Goodreads, not Reddit. To me, Goodreads is another social medium at the end of the day, right? It's not the kind of social medium we think of, like… Jo: It's not TikTok. Ricardo: It's not TikTok. TikTok is surfaced a little bit, but not that much. It might become more surfaced in the future, but right now what I've found is, it's really Reddit and Goodreads. Facebook, LinkedIn, but LinkedIn is big for nonfiction topics more than fiction, because there are just not a lot of fiction readers, sorry, talking about their favourite books on LinkedIn. They usually go to other places for that. Jo: Yes, it's really interesting. So obviously TikTok has its own BookTok thing, so some people are finding books on BookTok, and some people like me are finding books through asking Claude, and that's just my overwhelming feeling about the industry. We talked earlier about what's changed. When I started, so 2006, there wasn't even KDP, and then KDP arrives, then you came in 2014, and probably until maybe a few years after that, there was one way to self-publish. Then what's happened since is this kind of splintering. There are so many ways to self-publish. There are so many ways to reach readers. There are so many ways to market. So someone, for example, could sell direct on TikTok Shop, only market through TikTok, and you wouldn't even know that they existed over in another ecosystem, right? So do you feel like that's happened too, this total splintering? Ricardo: Absolutely. I think there are so many different ways in which you can reach your audience now and monetise it as well, that it's absolutely possible. We both know examples of authors who are only visible to their TikTok niche, right? I think the big difference is also monetisation, because earlier you also had different ways of becoming well-known. Like you had Facebook, you had potentially Twitter, back when it was Twitter. Various social media, word of mouth. But where people bought books was Amazon. So that was your monetisation. It was either selling your book on Amazon, or potentially getting KU reads after that when KU launched. Now you can sell on TikTok, you can sell direct, you can run Kickstarters, you can start a Patreon or Substack and make your money through there. There are pretty much infinite ways through which you can monetise your content as a creator. Most of those places will also have a discoverability engine built in, so you can not only sell through there and make money through there, but also grow an audience there. That's probably the biggest competition that Amazon has ever had to face, is this sort of splintering. For us authors and content creators in general, it's amazing, because it's a bunch of different opportunities. Jo: Yes, and I think probably that's circling back to marketing. As we've said, some things have changed, some things stay the same. Is the email list still the number one way to market, do you think, for authors who want a long-term career? Ricardo: I think so. It's just the one thing you really own that allows you to communicate with readers, right? Because even if you build a following on TikTok, TikTok can change. The things we said about Facebook 10 years ago, if you build your Facebook group, Facebook can change, and Facebook changed. Facebook destroyed the reach of pages, and now groups also aren't amazing, et cetera. So the same thing that happened to Facebook can happen to TikTok, can happen to any other social media. Substack is a bit of a hybrid because it is a newsletter, it is a mailing list, but it also has a discoverability engine built in. So I still wouldn't really go all in on Substack. The great advantage there is that you do own the emails, right? So you can move away from it at some point. For me, the email list is the one thing that you are completely in control of. Personally, the main thing I check is my emails every day. I spend more time in my inbox than anywhere else, and I think that's probably the case for most people. So I do think, despite the influx of mails that readers are getting in their inbox, I still think it's one of the most important marketing tools for authors. Jo: Yes, and I still remember when I started my list in December 2008, and I still have people on the list who've been with me that whole time, and have moved email list services several times as well. So I think that's important too. The care of that list too is so important. One of the things that I am annoyed about with Substack, I don't have a Substack, but when I follow some people's, it's always constantly trying to get you to sign up to other people's lists, trying to subscribe you to this or that or the other. I'm like, “That's so annoying.” Now I've found on all these email services they're trying to pair you with other creators and cross-promote and all of this. So it feels like even the email list is becoming a difficult place unless you really protect it. So just protecting your list, I think, and remembering that those are people. Those are people who've bought your books, or people who read your emails. Like people listening to this, these are humans. Sure, some bot might be looking at the transcript, but humans listening to this are individual humans with individual email lists. We tend to forget that, don't we, as you get a bigger list. You think about it as a big number, whereas it's still individual people. Ricardo: Yes, it becomes a number, it becomes metrics, the open rate, the click rate, and all that. But the great thing about email is that you get replies in your inbox. There you remember that they're actual human beings who write you back. I think for readers, the ability to write back to an author and get a response is just amazing, right? If you write to your favourite author and they write back to you, that's the best feeling ever as a reader. So I think email is still one of the best ways to turn your readers into fans and into super fans of your brand, by just interacting with them and answering them. Because yes, you can answer comments on TikTok, Facebook, and all those places, but it doesn't feel the same as an author answering you in your inbox, I feel. So you do get that ability to create a real connection with readers directly through email. Jo: Yes, and I think that trust and the reputation is so important. Just in terms of seeing the authors that you've seen over the years, like I said, you've been going to a lot of the author conferences. You know a lot of the authors in the industry. A lot of people will know you from events. But you've also seen authors come and go, and you've seen vendors come and go. Both of us have seen people arrive, and we'd be like, “Oh, yes, I wonder how long they're going to last.” Then some people do and some people don't. So what are some of the elements that you've noticed about the businesses that last more than a decade? Ricardo: I think they need to solve a genuine problem, or offer a genuinely better solution than one that already exists. I see a lot of businesses come in and they do what another vendor already does, without doing it necessarily better. Those businesses tend to disappear, or linger there, but you don't really hear about them again. When they solve a real need… I still remember when BookFunnel came out, and they've since become massive with one very, very basic thing, which is, “We will take care of delivering your ebook files to readers.” That's how they started, and that's how they became massive. To me at the time, I was like, “That seems like a very small problem,” because I can just email an ebook file. I didn't realise that it was so complicated for a lot of readers to upload files to their Kindle or other devices, and that having a service that takes care of that for you is just massively helpful. I realised that when I published my books, actually. So businesses that solve even micro or apparently very small problems, but they really solve them effectively, they stay. Others that surf on trends, they tend to disappear when the trend disappears. When there's a new marketing trend, and that trend stops working, then those businesses tend to go. Jo: Yes, and what about the authors who last? Because let's face it, most of us don't solve a problem in a different way. Maybe you could say we solve your entertainment problem in a different version to your last book. What about the authors who last long term? What have you noticed about them? Ricardo: Two things. So the first one… Maybe three things. First one is passion. I always say to people who are looking to start self-publishing, I always say that publishing in general is probably one of the worst ways to make money. It's awful. You can pick up any other occupation and it's probably going to be easier to make money. So writers who make a career do it because they need to write, because they have a passion for writing. So a lot of people who come into the industry thinking, “I've heard about all these self-publishing success stories. Surely I can write a book and I can market it. It's not that hard. So that's going to be a great way to make quick bucks,” those generally don't last, because they don't have that genuine passion. The first hurdle they're going to face—and there's going to be a bunch of them along the way—they're going to quit. The second thing is business sense, or business education, the basics of business, right? Thinking in terms of marketing, thinking in terms of who's my reader, unit economics. If I'm selling my books at $3.99, I shouldn't be spending a ton of money. If I just have one book at $3.99, I cannot afford to pay $5 on ads to generate a sale. So those kinds of basic economics or business knowledge, I think, if not a requirement, it's a massive plus. The third thing is resilience. The industry has changed a lot, as you mentioned. There are a bunch of ways now to reach an audience. There are a bunch of ways to make money. It can also be distracting, because you go to one of these conferences and you go back thinking, “Oh, I've got to create my own website, sell direct. I've got to launch my Substack. I have to use Claude Code for my ads,” and three more things, “and I have to set up my TikTok Shop and do TikTok Lives to sell books,” right? Jo: All of those by next week. That's why we go to the conference. Ricardo: Exactly. All those by next week, right? And during that one week after the conference, you have the energy to start implementing all those things, but afterwards you lose that energy and you go back to, “I just want to quit.” So you need to have some sort of resilience, and the business sense of, “Okay, I'm going to try this for the next six months, and I'm going to stick to it, and I'm going to see whether it works or not. And if it doesn't work, I'm not just going to despair. I'm going to try something else.” That goes for marketing tactics, but also goes for books. Most authors I know who make a living writing, they didn't get there with their first book or even their first series. A lot of times I see authors who write a couple of series, and those series do okay. They sell a little bit, but not much, and it doesn't afford them to quit their day job. Then suddenly, based on what they've learned with those first two series and what they've learned potentially going to conferences or listening to podcasts like this, et cetera, they write a third series that's a hit. That's a hit, and that's instantly much easier to market, and that's when they can afford to go full time and write full time, because they've found that sort of product market fit. And product market fit for me is the main thing for marketing in general and for authors in particular. Until you find that, everything is really difficult from a marketing perspective. But finding it usually requires writing more than one book and more than one series, because you're rarely going to get the big lottery ticket on the first try. Jo: Or ever. I think it's really important. I've never had a breakout book, but I've made good money every year. I think, and Hugh Howey said this, that the real story of self-publishing is not the people who make seven figures a year, it's the people who can go on a holiday once a year, or the people who can just put a bit towards their mortgage or whatever. So you may never have a breakout series. I think that's really important, too. Ricardo: That's true. Jo: That's true. You can just keep writing and make all right money and be what we call in the mid-list. Ricardo: Yes, but you've got to keep going. You've got to have that resilience to keep going, probably because it's your passion. Exactly. You're not chasing that seven figure series. You're writing because you need to write. Jo: Yes, and you can't stop, and you get the bug. I think when you're writing that first book, I'm not sure if people understand that you either get the bug or you don't, I think. You've written a couple of books now. Do you think you have the bug, or is it more about the business? Ricardo: I don't have the bug. I definitely don't have the bug. I would've kept writing otherwise. Jo: You're a technologist, right? Ricardo: Yes. I'm more of a technologist, more of a marketer. To write my first book, How to Market a Book, I actually had to write newsletters, because that I can manage, right? One newsletter a week. Now I don't even manage that. I send it once every two weeks when I can even manage that pace. But back then I did one newsletter a week, and that's how I wrote my first book. I then put all these newsletters together, and that was before the age of AI, so I couldn't just dump all that into ChatGPT and tell it, “Create me a book based on that.” I had to do it myself. Jo: Oh, terrible. Ricardo: Terrible, I know. The days when we had to work. No, but that was a really good experiment. The second book, Amazon Ads for Authors, I actually wrote it from scratch, and I didn't love the experience. I loved the finished product, I'm very proud of it, but I didn't enjoy the experience of writing it. Amazon Ads is not the most exciting topic in the world. Even for people like me, who actually enjoy Amazon Ads, it's not super exciting to write about. The fact of having to write that whole book from scratch, I didn't love the experience. So now I do want to write a third book at some point, but I think it'll probably be in the format of the first one. Like, when I finish my series of newsletters on AI search and AI discoverability, I might do a booklet or something around it, but we'll have to see. It's not my favourite thing. It's a good thing I don't need to. Good thing I'm not an author, basically. Jo: No, but I think that's really great to recognise. You actually have written books that support your business, and that is very common for nonfiction writers. That's completely normal for nonfiction authors. So I think that's another important thing for people to recognise, is that the reasons we write are different, the reasons we market are different, and we all have different approaches. As we wind up, and obviously you talked a bit there about how easy it is to generate books with AI, and that is probably one of the biggest things that people are worried about. Now, those of us like you and I have been talking about AI at conferences and things for years now. Neither of us are afraid of it, I think basically because both of us use it, and we're technologists, so we just get on with it. There is so much fear in the community. There's so much negativity. You mentioned Substack, and now they've integrated Pangram, which is renowned for false positives around what is written with AI, and so people are very worried. If we look forward and we look at the next decade, this is not going away. This is going to change a lot of things. So how should authors be thinking about AI, do you think, if they want to prepare for the next decade? Ricardo: I think they need to play around with it, because you and I know that until you actually use it, you don't realise what it's capable of. We've both had these moments of “Oh my God, I'm going to be out of a job,” or “Oh my God, this is incredible,” the kind of things it's able to do. You also realise by using it the things it's not great at, or the things it can be good at but needing a lot of human input. There are courses out there, there are books, there are a lot of things, but for me, the most important thing is to start playing around with it. So you can pick one specific topic to play around with. Either something that you've been meaning to get into for years and haven't done, or something that really annoys you. Looking at the results of your Facebook ads, for example. If you run Facebook ads in the first place, and when you log into your Meta dashboard you cannot make sense of it, take screenshots or download the data, feed it to an AI chat, and talk with it. One of my biggest tips when talking to AI chats is asking them questions rather than asking them for things to do. Because if you just feed it your advertising data and you tell it, “Tell me what I should do,” the chat has no context about what your ads are about, what your goal is, et cetera, et cetera. If you feed it just a screenshot and you say, “Here are my ads. I would like you to help me make sense of them. What do you need to know from me in order to help me with this?” Then it's going to start asking you questions. “Okay, what are you advertising?” They're books. “Okay, what kind of books? Where are you selling? Are your ads going straight to Amazon or retailers, or are they going to your website? If you sell direct, okay, are these conversion ads?” Et cetera, et cetera. So you build that context, and they can help you with it. So that's just one example, but I would pick one thing that you want to test AI with, with zero expectations. Don't expect that by the end of the week you'll have a full system for understanding your Meta ads thanks to AI. You might get to that or you might not, but at least you'll play with it and you'll understand its capabilities, and have a sort of understanding of how it works and how you can potentially use it for other things. I think that's the best way to adapt, because once you play with it, you start thinking. You're walking the dog and you're just thinking, “Ha, I could maybe use it for this thing or that other thing,” and that's how you progressively become more familiar with it. I think there are a lot of worries around AI, but as you say, it's there to stay. So far, I think I was looking at data this morning, and the unemployment rate in the US has stayed stable ever since ChatGPT was introduced two years ago. So there are a lot of narratives out there around how it's going to replace humans, it's going to replace jobs, et cetera, which it might do. I'm not great at predictions usually, but so far it hasn't. What it will definitely do, however, is completely change the way we work. Obviously AI was one of our big reckonings at Reedsy, because we run a marketplace. Our main business model is the marketplace, where authors come in and look for editors, for marketers, for cover designers, for translators, and some of these domains and services are being transformed by AI, right? AI translations are massive right now. We haven't really seen a decline at all on the Reedsy marketplace, but we're prepared for it. It might very well happen, but what we think is happening, or is going to happen, is professionals using AI tools to provide a better output or a faster output or a cheaper output, or all three of these things. So for example, we now have literary translators who say they're open to editing AI translations, right? So you can come in, you can have your book translated with AI, whichever tool or method you choose for that. Then if you want a set of human eyes on it, you can hire a literary translator who's open to working on an AI-translated manuscript, and that's obviously going to be much, much cheaper than paying 10 cents per word from scratch for a literary translator. I'm not necessarily recommending you completely bypass literary translators, or that you go this way, but you have options, right? You have options for different sets of budgets. I think all these human editors, narrators, translators, designers, et cetera, they're not going to disappear, but they might have to reinvent the way they work in the future. Jo: As we all are doing. As you say, for me mostly it's the business side, getting Claude to help me with business stuff. Like even bookkeeping. There are bills that we've all been paying for years that we can now maybe reduce, and reducing costs as well as increasing profit is obviously good business sense. So, interesting times. But just as we wrap up, what are you excited about in what's coming? How do you see Reedsy shaping up in the next decade? What is coming for you and Reedsy? Ricardo: We're really excited about the decade to come, because obviously 10 years for a startup is a long time. I think most startups after 10 years, the founders are gone. Jo: Yes. Ricardo: Or they've exited or they've sold or whatever. We've stayed, we're the same founders, and we're still as excited because I think we have new products, right? We're working on new things. As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Reedsy Studio, our writing tool, is probably one of the things we're most excited about, because first, it's getting adopted very fast. It has startup-like growth that we hadn't seen for other products in a long time, and it has very cool technology built in. We probably have a team of 10, 15 engineers now working full time on it and adding a lot of things. So we've added templates for plotting your book, with relationships within different characters and places and magic systems and things like that. We've added writing goals and writing statistics. We still have the free exports. One very cool thing we've added is real time collaboration. So just like Google Docs, you can write in real time with a co-author, or you can get an editor to work in there live with track changes. So you could have an editor working on chapter one while you're writing chapter three, for example. That kind of thing. It's really powerful technology, and that's one of the things we're really excited about for the future. A business, just like authors, we've got to reinvent ourselves. We've got to find ways to keep things exciting and keep motivated, and that is definitely one of them. When adoption goes along with it, then that's obviously super satisfying. Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and Reedsy online? Ricardo: So Reedsy you can find at reedsy.com, R-E-E-D-S-Y.com. And there you'll find the whole suite of tools and services. For me, you can find me mostly by email, as I mentioned. That's the one place I check consistently every day, and my email address is ricardo@reedsy.com. So again, R-E-E-D-S-Y.com and ricardo@reedsy.com. You can email me any questions you have about this episode, about AI book discoverability, about marketing, about Reedsy. I always try to answer every email I get, because I think when we started Reedsy, I really appreciated people like you, and some other agents and editors and authors we contacted who were influential in the industry, who actually answered us and took the time to do that. So now I try to answer every email I get, because I feel like we've been very lucky in the beginning to have those people answering our emails, so we should do the same. Jo: Oh, well, thanks so much for your time, Ricardo. That was great. Ricardo: Thank you, Jo. Thanks for having me again.The post Book Marketing, AI Book Discoverability, And Resilience, With Ricardo Fayet first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Are you trying to help your small business be more visible online so it can grow? Let me walk you through how small business SEO can help you grow. If you want to increase your online presence, grow your visibility, leads, and customers, this will help. Listen in today and find out.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Small Business SEO - What is a title tag, and do I need one? If you're working on SEO for your small business and aren't sure what matters and what doesn't, this week's episode will help you. I'll break down what title tags are, how you write them, what they look like on Google, who they're technically for, and more so you know what to do. Once you've written your title tag, the next thing to work on will be your meta description. You can find out more about that here - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/what-is-a-meta-description Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Answer engine optimization, AEO, Generative engine optimization, GEO, search engine optimization, SEO... what the heck does it all mean? What is answer engine optimization, and how does it relate to SEO? Do you need to do both for your small business? Have you found yourself wondering about small business SEO and AEO? Join me in today's episode to find out what it all means, and most importantly, what to do for your business. Links mentioned - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/the-3-pillars-of-seohttps://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/why-you-don%E2%80%99t-have-to-be-techie-to-do-seo Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Getting discovered isn't just about publishing more episodes. On today's special, Empowered Podcasting LIVE!, myself, Jason Cercone and Rich Perry are joined by Julia Levine, the Podcast Teacher and break down 'podcast SEO', which helps the right listeners find your show instead of chasing them across social media...Episode Highlights:[00:00] Why Podcast SEO Matters[04:07] Julia's Podcasting Journey[06:47] Podcast SEO vs. Google SEO[11:58] Interview Shows and Keyword Strategy[14:57] Solo Episodes and Scripting Tips[19:47] The Three-Step Podcast SEO Framework[25:31] Show Notes Hooks and Common Mistakes[34:32] Show Notes SEO Basics[41:01] How Individual Episodes Rank in Search[43:36] Julia's Conference JourneyLinks & Resources:Join us at Empowered Podcasting August 21-23:https://empoweredpodcasting.com (20% off with code: EPCMARC20)Connect with Julia Levine:https://thepodcastteacher.com/Connect with Jason Cercone:https://www.bombtrackmedia.com/Connect with Rich Perry:https://richperry.com/Feature Your Podcast on the Podcasting Morning Show:https://PodcastingMorningShow.com/spotlightThe Podcasting Morning Show:⁠⁠www.podcastingmorningshow.com⁠⁠Ways to Watch or Listen:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.podcastingmorningshow.com/joinus/Meet the PMS Cast and Crew:⁠⁠https://podcastingmorningshow.com/people⁠⁠Join The Empowered Podcasting Facebook Group:⁠⁠www.facebook.com/groups/empoweredpodcasting⁠⁠⁠Book A Free Call With Marc:https://calendly.com/ironickmedia/freestrategycallApplication To Submit Your Show For Evaluation:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcastingmorningshow.com/eval⁠⁠Powered by⁠⁠⁠ ⁠iRonickMedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠ContentCreatorsAccountant.com⁠⁠Send in your mailbag questions:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.podcastingmorningshow.com/contact/⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠marc@ironickmedia.com⁠Want to be a guest on The Podcasting Morning Show? Send me a message on PodMatch, here:https://podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1729879899384520035bad21b

Are you working on small business SEO and wondering if Substack might also be a good marketing channel for your business? If so, you're not alone. A lot of my students and clients are finding they love Substack. I wanted to take a bit to explain what you want to think through strategically if you're looking at building out a Substack. It can help or hurt your business depending on how you set it up and what you do with your website and blog content.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Is SEO important to your online business? You may be wondering if you're better off with SEO, AEO, GEO, Ads, social media, or something else. Find out how and where SEO fits into your small business marketing plan. I'm here to help you understand how to grow and market your business.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Most service-based solopreneurs think they have a keyword problem. According to SEO and AI search specialist Julia Bocchese, what they actually have is a clarity problem.In this episode, Julia breaks down how wedding photographers, interior designers, brand designers, and other creative business owners can get discovered through AI search platforms like ChatGPT, traditional Google SEO, and Pinterest—without burning out or paying thousands for tools.She also shares how she accidentally built her business while studying Viking history in grad school (yes, really).What you'll learn:Why "clear is kind" applies to your website, not just your relationshipsThe difference between how Google ranks individual pages vs. how AI search reads your entire siteWhy ChatGPT pulls from Reddit, reviews, and podcasts, not just your homepageThe "top third of the page" rule that changes how you should write blog posts and FAQsWhy AI search favors small, specific businesses over big competitorsHow to treat Pinterest as a search engine (not social media) and rank pins on Google tooAffordable keyword tools under $20/month (Key Search, Ubersuggest)The one visibility fix to prioritize in the next 30 daysGuest: Julia Bocchese, founder of Julie Renee Consulting, specializes in SEO and AI search optimization for service-based and creative businesses.Connect with Julia:Website: JulieReneeConsulting.comInstagram: @juliereneeconsultingLinkedIn: Julia BoccheseFavorite success quote: "Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind." — Brené BrownLoved this episode? Leave a 5-star review, subscribe on your favorite platform, and share with a fellow solopreneur.

Small business SEO topic - this week, it's SEO copywriting. What's the difference between copywriting and SEO copywriting, and is one more important to your business than the other? How do you know what to focus on when you're creating content to make sure that it's able to be found by the right people when they're searching online - that, my friend, is at the heart of SEO copywriting. Listen in today and learn. Other episodes mentioned in this week's episode: What are Title Tags and do they matter to your small business, and how to create a content calendar?  https://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/what-is-a-title-tag https://www.etchedmarketing.com/blog/how-to-create-a-content-calendar Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

This week, we covered the post-Google core update volatility that hit some folks hard. An updated zero click study shows Google Search is sending less and less traffic to the open web. Apple announced the all new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI. Bing gave searchers...

The Broke Agent discusses how real estate agents can stop losing leads by fixing their poorly optimized Instagram bios. Learn the exact structure needed to answer who you are, where you work, and why local consumers should follow you. He also shares tactical tips on optimizing your profile for Google SEO and setting up strategic pinned posts.The Broke Agent YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thebrokeagent

In this episode, we dive into the shift happening in online search and how e-commerce brands can stay visible as search engines become more conversational.  Lucas Tieleman, Co-Founder of Optiversal, shares how his platform helps brands improve visibility across AI search and shopping tools through better product data.  He also reveals strategies for optimizing product feeds, using AI to automatically generate high-performing use-case landing pages, and getting ready for holiday shopping spikes.  Topics discussed in this episode:  How conversational AI is changing search.   What gaps make brands invisible to AI.How natural search queries differ now. What attributes to add to product feeds.How editorial content builds search context.What an automated data audit reveals.How AI builds high-volume landing pages.Why click rates drop while impressions rise.What rising ad cost per click signals.Why structured data wins holiday sales. Links & ResourcesWebsite: https://www.optiversal.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-nieberding/Get access to more free resources by visiting the show notes at https://tinyurl.com/hb2matcyI'd love your feedback. Tap the the link to send me a text.______________________________________________________LOVE THE SHOW? HERE ARE THE NEXT STEPS!Follow the podcast to get every bonus episode. Tap follow now and don't miss out!   Rate & Review: Help others discover the show by rating the show on Apple Podcasts at https://tinyurl.com/ecb-apple-podcasts   Join our Free Newsletter: https://newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com/   Support The Show On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EcommerceCoffeeBreak   Partner with us: https://ecommercecoffeebreak.com/partner-with-us/

“Google does not scan Apple Podcasts. Google does not crawl Spotify. Google does not read your podcast show notes inside those platforms.”In this episode, I break down one of the biggest misunderstandings in podcasting: podcast SEO. A lot of people online tell you to optimise your episode titles, show notes, and descriptions so Google can find your podcast. But that is not really how Google works.What I want you to understand in this episode is the difference between Google SEO and podcast app discovery. They are both useful, but they are not the same thing. Google reads websites. Spotify and Apple Podcasts read what is inside their own platforms. So if you want Google to send people to your podcast, you need blog posts on your own website for every episode. 5 Key TakeawaysPodcast SEO advice is often incompleteGoogle needs web pagesEvery episode should become a blog postGoogle traffic is high-intent trafficPodcast app optimisation still mattersChapters00:00 – The podcast SEO myth03:00 – Why Google does not read podcast apps the way people think07:00 – The real SEO play: blog posts on your website14:00 – How to structure a podcast blog post18:00 – Podcast app optimisationSend us Fan MailEmail me (niall@sevenmillionbikes.com) or contact me on Seven Million Bikes Podcasts Facebook or Instagram to book your free Podcast Audit!Thanks to James Mastroianni from The Wrong Side Of Hollywood for the endorsement! Need a stunning new logo for your brand? Or maybe a short animation?Whatever you need, you can find it on Fiverr.I've been using Fiverr for years for everything from ordering YouTube thumbnails, translation services, keyword research, writing SEO articles to Canva designs and more!

Google has made a couple of big announcements recently, and they could impact your small business SEO strategy. Let's chat about what's happening, what they're changing, and what they're saying you need to do to remain visible online. First up, Google released its first official guidance on AI optimization. They've also said you don't need to say AEO or GEO; in their eyes, it's all just SEO. You can read their official guidance here - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guideSecond, they're changing the search experience, and most queries will be answered by AI, not via a list of links on the search results page like we're used to. Finally, what does this mean for your small business? It means you need to make sure you're doing SEO, you've adjusted your content strategy to focus on what they call non-commodity content, and you're following SEO best practices to keep your business visible in this new online search experience. If you're already in Simple SEO Content or working with me 1:1, you're fine, everything we're doing is correct and is in alignment with the new guidance. If you're still trying to do this on your own, now is the time to start working together. Join me in Simple SEO Content or work with me one-on-one, and I'll guide you through what you need to do to remain visible so you can generate leads and make money.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Are you creating content for SEO? Do you find yourself wondering how to create great content for your readers and make sure it's SEO-friendly so that people can find it wherever they search? If so, you're not alone! Let's talk about how to create great content that's both SEO-friendly and something your audience wants to read. I think there's a big misunderstanding sometimes when it comes to SEO content development. Let's talk about what matters most to your business.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Tune into expert AI and marketing strategies designed for entrepreneurs and brands striving to become indispensable with Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS. Explore technical SEO, AI marketing techniques, and actionable tactics to boost your visibility and revenue. This episode offers real-world advice to help you master digital marketing and grow your social business online and offline.Favour discusses the essential steps every business owner and brand builder should take to ensure their website and content are recognized, trusted, and indexed by Google. Topics span from domain acquisition and technical setup to organic SEO strategies and evaluating digital visibility. Focusing on the importance of foundational elements like DNS records, consistent quality content, and leveraging free Google tools, Favour makes the case for building a strong organic presence before running ads, ensuring long-term growth and authority online.Who Is This For?Entrepreneurs and small business owners Marketing professionals Website owners and bloggers Anyone aiming to improve online visibility and brand authorityIndividuals seeking long-term digital growth through SEOKey Moments & TimestampsSetting the Stage: Importance of Google for brand recognition and longevity online [00:00:04]The Brand/Google Question: Do you have a brand, and does Google know it? [00:00:36]Domain as Digital Identity: The role of domains for branding, using dovid.com as an example [00:02:05]Identifying Website Issues: Live advice and examples about email deliverability, domain authentication, and DNS health [00:10:33]Google's Free Tools: How to check if your site is indexed using site:domain.com and Google's experimental "learn-about" feature [00:19:37]Organic SEO Before Ads: Why you shouldn't run ads before building organic foundations [00:38:00]Technical Foundations: Importance of DNS, MX records, sitemaps, and technical configuration for trust/visibility [00:27:26]EEAT: Google's acronym – Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust [00:46:58]Content Longevity vs. Social: Focus on blogs and evergreen content vs. ephemeral social posts [00:51:43]DIY Check: Step-by-step guide to see if you're indexed (site colon search) [00:54:07], [00:55:52]Action Wrap-Up: How to connect, get audits, and next steps [00:57:11], [01:00:13]SEO SummaryBrand = Domain: Your digital “home” is your domain; it's the anchor for all brand activities.Google Recognition: Being online is not enough—Google must be able to identify, trust, and index your content.Technical Health: Essential to configure DNS, email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), sitemaps, robots.txt, and page speed.Organic First: Build trust and visibility via organic SEO efforts before investing in paid ads for better ROI and lower cost-per-click.Content Quality: Content must have structure, value, and meet EEAT standards. Consistent publishing and context matter.Indexing Check: Use site:yourdomain.com and Google's “learn-about” experiment to see how visible your pages are.SEO Tools: Google Search Console, nslookup, and DNS health tools are critical for monitoring visibility and deliverability.Top FAQsHow do I check if Google knows my brand?Search site:yourdomain.com on Google to see indexed pages.What is the Learn About experiment?A Google tool (learning.google.com/experiments/learn-about/signup) to see what Google knows about your brand.Why do I need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?These email authentications improve deliverability and trust.Should I run ads before optimizing SEO?No—establish organic foundations first to save money and increase effectiveness.What makes content rank well?High-quality, structured, relevant content that demonstrates EEAT (experience, expertise, authority, trust).Action StepsCheck your brand's index status with site:yourdomain.com on Google.Set up or update DNS, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.Connect your site to Google Search Console and submit a sitemap.Audit and improve page speed, structure, and content quality.Start a blog and focus on evergreen, helpful content answering audience questions.Use the Google “learn-about” experiment to gauge your brand's digital presence.Build organic authority before launching paid ad campaigns. Consistently monitor, update, and scale your SEO and brand foundation.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Do you find yourself wondering if Claude or ChatGPT (or another AI tool) can either teach you how to do SEO or just do it for you? If so, you're not alone. I get the appeal. I really do. I recently tested out both Claude and ChatGPT to see if they could either teach me SEO or do SEO on a website and have it work. Listen in to see what I found out and learn what AI can help you with and what it's limitations are when it comes to SEO.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

The way homeowners search for HVAC, plumbing, and home service companies is changing fast. And most contractors are completely unprepared for it.   In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett sits down with Phil Risher from Phlash Consulting to discuss the massive shift from traditional Google SEO to AI-powered search and what it means for home service businesses.   Phil explains why AI search is changing how customers find contractors, why conversational search matters more than keywords, and how tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews are disrupting traditional marketing strategies.   What You Will Learn in This Episode   Why old-school SEO is no longer enough How AI search actually works Why Google is moving toward "agentic search" and booking How to optimize your website for AI visibility Why pricing pages and online scheduling matter more than ever How contractors should use call transcripts to create content Why AI-generated "slop content" can hurt your rankings How local backlinks and authority still matter What contractors should be doing right now to stay ahead   If you want your company to stay visible in the next generation of search, this episode is a must-listen.   Timestamps 00:00 Impact of AI on search queries 06:14 Shift in local search habits 09:00 Navigating AI for presentations 12:38 Debating the relevance of SEO 16:13 Using AI for customer insights 18:58 Importance of local backlinks 20:58 Building partner referral networks 24:15 Optimizing for AI search ranking 27:51 Importance of online recognition 32:29 Creating a searchable business database 33:34 Initial struggles with Notebook LM 39:10 Comparing Google and LLM relationships 42:35 Measuring AI visibility metrics 44:37 Navigating the AI search landscape 46:21 Dealing with AI memory glitches   Follow the Host and Guest Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Phil Risher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philrisher/   Connect with Us LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/service-business-mastery TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@servicebusinessmastery Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/servicebusinessmasterypodcast Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/servicebusinessmasterypodcast   This episode is kindly powered by: UpFrog: upfrog.com  MarketStorm is an AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/  Get Your 14-Day Free Trial with CallRail!: https://www.callrail.com/sbmpod CompanyCam: https://companycam.com/  Breezy: $500 toward Breezy + we'll show you exactly how many jobs you're missing right now. Book a demo here: https://calendly.com/shaun-breezy/30min?month=2026-04  PhoneTAP: Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo

Are you trying to do SEO on your own and wondering if what you're doing is working? Find out how to tell if your SEO strategy is working in this week's episode. I'll walk you through what to check to see if everything is working as it should be, so you can be visible, generate traffic, and most importantly, leads for your business. SEO is a great channel for small business owners if you do it the right way. Let me teach you how to do SEO on your website.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

How are businesses getting leads from Google, Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and other search engines? Find out what other businesses are doing and what you need to do so you can start showing up more often and getting leads and new clients from AI-based search. SEO for small businesses can help you expand your reach, boost your visibility, and drive more traffic which brings more people into your world.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Send us Fan MailAre you still relying on Google alone to get found? Wondering why your website traffic is shifting—but your leads aren't? Or why your marketing feels like it's working… but you can't quite track it anymore?If this episode resonates with you, make sure to follow Imperfect Marketing so you don't miss future conversations that break down what's actually working right now.SEO hasn't disappeared—but it has evolved in a big way. In this episode, Kendra talks with Wes Towers about the shift from traditional search engine optimization to what he calls “search everywhere optimization.” Today's buyers aren't just Googling—they're using AI tools, voice search, and multiple platforms to find answers, often before they ever visit your website. That shift means the old playbook—keywords, rankings, and traffic reports—doesn't tell the full story anymore. Instead, it's about building quality content, simplifying your message, and creating trust signals that validate your business when someone is ready to buy. From reviews to website clarity to consistent visibility, this episode breaks down how to stay relevant and competitive in a noisy, fast-changing digital world. This episode will show you: • How SEO is evolving in the age of AI and multi-platform search • A smarter approach to creating content that actually gets found • The role of trust signals (like reviews) in driving conversions • Why simplifying your website can increase leads • How consistency and personality impact your marketing resultsIf you stop chasing rankings and start focusing on clarity, trust, and consistency, you'll create a marketing strategy that not only gets you found—but gets you chosen

Do you want to learn how businesses get found on ChatGPT? They're getting leads and making sales, but how does it all work? Find out how to be more visible on ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, Claude, or other AI-based search so you can show up in the results and get found by the right people.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS breaks down the relationship between SEO and PPC advertising. He explains that while PPC provides short-term visibility and acts as a catalyst for brand awareness, SEO builds the long-term foundation that makes ads more cost-effective. Favour emphasizes that these two strategies should not be siloed; instead, they must work together. By ranking organically for specific keywords, businesses can lower their ad spend for those same keywords. The conversation also touches on the importance of content pillars, Google Search Console, and the value of organizing your digital assets to prevent overwhelm.Who is this for?Business owners, digital marketers, and entrepreneurs looking to understand the differences and synergies between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. It's highly valuable for anyone wanting to build a sustainable, long-term marketing strategy while leveraging short-term wins through paid ads.Key Moments & Timestamps01:42 — The Core Difference: Understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimization) vs. SEM/PPC (Search Engine Marketing).03:34 — Short-Term vs. Long-Term: Why PPC is for short-term wins and SEO is for long-term sustainability.06:00 — The Synergy: How ranking organically for a keyword lowers the cost of bidding on that same keyword in ads.11:10 — Cross-Platform Strategy: Connecting your website to Google Search Console and Pinterest to build domain authority.32:47 — Tracking Success: Using Google Alerts and Search Console to track brand mentions and backlinks.107:41 — Final Takeaway: Organize your content pillars and don't feel overwhelmed by the technical aspects of SEO.FAQsQ: Should I focus on SEO or PPC first?A: You should focus on SEO first to build a strong foundation. PPC is a catalyst that drives immediate traffic, but if your website isn't optimized organically, you will end up paying higher costs per click over time.Q: How long does it take for ads to mature?A: Depending on the platform, it typically takes 7 to 28 days for an ad campaign to exit the learning phase and mature based on the target audience.Q: How do SEO and ads work together?A: When you rank organically for a specific keyword (e.g., "real estate planning") on your website, Google recognizes your authority. When you run ads for that same keyword, your cost per click is often lower because the destination link is highly relevant and authoritative.Action StepsBuild Your Foundation: Ensure your website is connected to Google Search Console so search engines can index your pages.Align Your Keywords: Use the same keywords in your organic content (URLs, titles) that you plan to bid on in your PPC campaigns.Set Up Alerts: Use Google Alerts to track when your brand or business is mentioned online to monitor your growing authority.Organize Content Pillars: Structure your website content into clear pillars and clusters to make it easier for both users and search engines to navigate.Book a Consultation: Reach out to Favour at info@playinc.online or favour@playinc.online to hire his SEO agency and streamline your digital marketing strategy.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS and guest speakers (including Celese Williams and Rocki) discuss the problem-to-solution framework of converting traffic into revenue. Favour explains that traffic must first be intentionally created by planting "seeds" (content) across the web and nurturing them over time.He shares a real-life example of a client who returned after three years because of consistent, long-term marketing efforts. The conversation also highlights the importance of creating "easy buttons" to reduce friction in the buying process and the resurgence of community-based marketing (like Skool and Patreon) as a reliable revenue driver.Who is this for?Business owners, digital marketers, and entrepreneurs looking to turn their website visitors into paying customers. It's highly valuable for anyone wanting to understand the mechanics of traffic generation, the importance of planting "content seeds" for long-term SEO, and how to optimize the customer journey for higher conversions.Key Moments & Timestamps01:43 — The Traffic Prerequisite: Why you must intentionally create traffic before you can convert it.03:26 — Quality over Quantity: The "sandcastle" analogy for building valuable, structured traffic.05:50 — Planting Seeds: Why articles and SEO content are like seeds that can yield recurring traffic for years.08:23 — Building Authority: How consistent messaging turns you into the go-to solution when a customer is finally ready to buy.11:08 — Real-Life Case Study: A client who paid an invoice and returned for a 12-week marketing sprint after three years of nurturing.14:26 — The Power of CTAs: How well-designed calls-to-action can increase conversions by 38% to over 160%.16:10 — Guest Insight (Celeste): Why consumers want the easiest path to purchase and how to create "easy buttons" in your business.17:46 — Guest Insight (Rocky): The resurgence of community-based marketing (Skool, Patreon, Facebook groups) and the growing, yet controversial, impact of AI-generated ads.FAQsQ: How do I create traffic in the first place?A: Traffic is created by consistently publishing valuable content (seeds) on your website and distributing those links across platforms like Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, and YouTube to build an interconnected web of authority.Q: How long does it take for SEO content to generate revenue?A: SEO is a long-term strategy. You should give your content pillars at least 24 months to build capacity. However, the content you publish today can continue to drive traffic and revenue for years to come.Q: What is the easiest way to increase conversions on my website?A: Reduce friction. Create "easy buttons" by minimizing the number of steps, forms, or questions a customer has to navigate before making a purchase or booking a service.Action StepsPlant Your Seeds: Commit to a 24-month content strategy where you consistently publish and update articles on your website.Distribute Your Links: Share your website links across multiple platforms (Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube) to create an interconnected web of traffic sources.Audit Your CTAs: Review your website's calls-to-action. Ensure they are clear, compelling, and strategically placed to maximize click-through rates.Create "Easy Buttons": Simplify your booking or checkout process. Remove unnecessary questions or steps that might cause a potential customer to abandon the process.Build a Community: Consider launching a community group (via Skool, Patreon, or Facebook) to nurture your audience and build long-term trust.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS and guest speakers (including Celeste and Jason) discuss the mechanics of getting discovered on Pinterest. Favour explains that Pinterest is a visual search engine powered by an algorithm called "Pixie," which prioritizes relevance, uniqueness, and content quality. He shares actionable strategies for connecting your website's RSS feed to automatically generate pins, using colors (hex codes) to influence search results, and expanding keyword lists using broad, exact, and phrase match types.The conversation highlights Pinterest's long lifespan for content, noting that pins from years ago can still drive significant traffic today.Who is this for?Business owners, digital marketers, and content creators looking to leverage Pinterest as a visual search engine. It's highly valuable for anyone wanting to understand Pinterest's algorithm (Pixie), how to optimize pins for discoverability, and how to use Pinterest to drive long-term, recurring traffic to their website.SummaryFavour Obasi-ike and guest speakers (including Celese Williams and Jason) discuss the mechanics of getting discovered on Pinterest. Favour explains that Pinterest is a visual search engine powered by an algorithm called "Pixie," which prioritizes relevance, uniqueness, and content quality. He shares actionable strategies for connecting your website's RSS feed to automatically generate pins, using colors (hex codes) to influence search results, and expanding keyword lists using broad, exact, and phrase match types. The conversation highlights Pinterest's long lifespan for content, noting that pins from years ago can still drive significant traffic today.Key Moments & Timestamps01:20 — Meet Pixie: Introduction to Pinterest's algorithm and the key elements of discoverability.02:50 — Automation Hack: How to connect your website's RSS feed to a Pinterest Business account to auto-generate pins.04:45 — The Four Elements of Discoverability: Relevance, uniqueness, content quality, and engagement.06:06 — The Power of Color: How hex codes and background colors (e.g., purple) influence what ads and related pins show up next to your content.08:01 — The Psychology of "Saves": Why the number of saves is the strongest indicator of value on Pinterest.10:08 — Keyword Expansion Strategy: How to turn 25 broad keywords into 75+ keywords using quotation marks and brackets.15:38 — Content Syndication: Connecting Instagram to Pinterest to create multiple traffic pathways for a single piece of content.18:27 — Guest Insight (Celeste): Why Pinterest is an underutilized goldmine for product-based businesses and artists.19:22 — The Lifespan of a Pin: Why Pinterest content lives forever and how updating old articles can trigger a resurgence in traffic.FAQsQ: What is Pinterest's algorithm called and what does it look for?A: Pinterest's algorithm is called "Pixie." It looks for relevance (keywords, titles, descriptions), uniqueness (trends, colors), and content quality (image dimensions, mobile optimization).Q: How can I automatically create pins from my website?A: Create a free Pinterest Business account, go to your settings, and connect your website's RSS feed. When you publish an article with images, Pinterest will automatically pull those images and create pins linking back to your site.Q: How do I find the right keywords for Pinterest?A: Start with broad keywords related to your niche. Then, expand your list by adding quotation marks (phrase match) and brackets (exact match) to those same keywords. You can also use trends.pinterest.com to see what's currently popular.Action StepsSwitch to a Business Account: If you haven't already, convert your Pinterest profile to a free Business account to access analytics and website integration.Connect Your RSS Feed: Link your website to Pinterest so your blog images automatically generate pins.Optimize for Color: Be intentional about the colors and hex codes in your images, as Pinterest's visual search groups similar colors together.Expand Your Keywords: Take a list of 25 broad keywords and create variations using quotation marks and brackets to capture different search intents.Update Old Content: Refresh old articles on your website to trigger a resurgence of traffic from existing pins on Pinterest.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

In this episode of the GaryVee Audio Experience, I talk about the massive technological shift happening right now: the rise of AI. I encourage you to put in the 100 hours of homework required to understand how AI agents will soon be making decisions for your customers. I also discuss why the "Interest Graph" has replaced social media and why your current Google SEO strategy is about to become as irrelevant as the Yellow Pages.You'll learn about:The Ultimate Funnel: Building a Personal BrandWhy Video Proof is Dying in the Next 10 YearsHow to Scale Content to 4,000 Posts a Day Using AIThe B2B Opportunity on LinkedIn Right Now

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS and guest speakers (including Celese Williams and Darren Shaw) discuss the mechanics of getting discovered on Google. Favour emphasizes that discovery starts with a strong technical foundation; specifically, connecting your website to Google Search Console and submitting a sitemap. He shares a case study of a client who grew from under 20,000 to nearly 300,000 organic impressions in six months. The conversation also covers the importance of prioritizing your website over social media profiles, understanding search intent, and leveraging local SEO (like zip codes) to rank faster in less saturated markets.Who is this for?Business owners, digital marketers, and content creators looking to improve their organic search visibility. It's highly valuable for anyone wanting to understand the technical foundations of SEO, the importance of Google Search Console, and how to structure a website to rank higher and drive long-term traffic.Key Moments & Timestamps01:30 — The Search Loop: How people search, find, click, and save information on Google.03:14 — SEO Foundations: Why discovery is heavily based on keyword research, search intent, and semantics.04:30 — Case Study: Growing a client's organic impressions from 19.1K to 298K in six months.05:49 — The Role of Google Search Console: Why your website must be indexed and have a sitemap to be discovered.07:25 — Guest Insight (Celeste): The power of "niche-ing down" and finding low-hanging fruit in keyword research.10:19 — Guest Insight (Darren): The psychology of language and understanding the mind of your target audience.19:59 — Social Media vs. Websites: Why TikTok is technically a website (registered in 1996) and how it connects to search.21:54 — The Red Flag: Why your website should always rank higher than your social media profiles on Google.25:44 — The Golden Rule: "The only way you can be on Google is by being on Google Search Console."29:27 — Local SEO: The importance of including your zip code or postal code on your website for localized ranking.FAQsQ: What is the first step to getting discovered on Google?A: The absolute first step is connecting your website to Google Search Console and submitting a sitemap. Without this, Google's bots cannot crawl, index, or discover your content.Q: How long does it take to rank on Google?A: It depends on the competition and density of your market. Generally, it takes 6 to 24 months for broader terms, but highly specific, localized keywords (e.g., "Easter bunny rentals in Portland") can rank in a matter of hours or days.Q: Should I link my social media profiles on my website?A: Yes, but be careful. If your social media profiles rank higher than your website on Google, it's a red flag. Your website should always be the primary "head" or asset, with social media acting as secondary channels.Action StepsConnect to Google Search Console: Ensure your website is verified as a property on Google Search Console and submit an updated sitemap.Niche Down Your Keywords: Identify "low-hanging fruit" or highly specific keywords in your industry that have lower competition.Optimize for Local Search: Add your specific location, zip code, or postal code to your website's URLs and content to capture local search traffic.Audit Your Links: Check your website's footer to ensure social media links are opening in new tabs and not draining your primary domain authority.Understand Your Audience: Use precise language that matches the psychological intent and search habits of your target audience.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS discusses the critical importance of bots and search engines for business discovery. He emphasizes that getting discovered starts with building trust through secure domains, consistent links, and structured content. Favour explains the difference between traditional search engines (Google, Bing) and AI search engines (ChatGPT, Claude), noting that while Google remains dominant, AI platforms are rapidly changing how consumers find information. using bot fetches.The conversation highlights the necessity of configuring websites correctly (e.g., HTTPS, WWW redirects) and the enduring value of backlinks and reviews. Favour also touches on the psychology of consumer behavior, explaining how different types of content and even background music can influence purchasing decisions.Who is this for?Business owners, entrepreneurs, and content creators looking to improve their online visibility. It's highly valuable for anyone wanting to understand the technical foundations of SEO, how to build trust with search engines, and how to adapt to the rise of AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.Key Moments & Timestamps00:00 - Intro: Why search engines are your best friends online.01:06 - Favour's background: Helping businesses with strategic technical SEO setups.02:50 - Building trust online: The foundation of discovery through links, tags, and community.05:31 - The importance of internally linking your website to external features.08:08 - Technical SEO basics: Securing your domain, enabling domain privacy, and using HTTPS.21:57 - Why content structure matters more than just the content itself for search engine discovery.29:38 - Real-world example: How a missing "www" configuration prevented a client's website from loading.01:00:32 - The rise of AI search: How ChatGPT and Claude are changing consumer search behavior.01:02:49 - Why backlinks are not dead: AI platforms still pull recommendations from directories like Yelp and MapQuest.01:52:48 - The psychology of marketing: How music tempo (BPM) affects consumer focus and purchasing decisions.FAQsQ: What is the first step to getting discovered on search engines?A: The foundational step is building trust. This starts with securing your website (HTTPS), ensuring your domain privacy and lock are active, and consistently linking your content.Q: Are backlinks still important with the rise of AI search engines?A: Yes. AI platforms like ChatGPT still rely on citations and backlinks from established directories (like Yelp or even MapQuest) to formulate their recommendations.Q: What is the difference between search engines and social media?A: Search engines are intent-driven (fetching, crawling, indexing based on queries), whereas social media is more about immediate engagement. You must document your social media features on your website to connect the two for search engines.Action StepsSecure Your Domain: Verify that your website uses HTTPS and that your domain privacy and lock settings are correctly configured.Check Your Redirects: Ensure that both the "www" and non-"www" versions of your domain correctly lead to your active website without error messages.Document Your Features: If your brand is featured on a podcast, magazine, or social media, create a post on your website linking back to that feature to build semantic trust.Research AI Recommendations: Ask AI platforms (like ChatGPT or Perplexity) for recommendations in your industry to see who is ranking and where the AI is pulling its data from.Optimize for Intent: Structure your website content clearly so that search engine bots can easily crawl, index, and understand the value you provide.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Google still matters—big time—but winning there is no longer enough. Buyers now discover, compare, and decide across Google, AI answers, social feeds, maps, videos, and reviews. In 267 – Fractured Search, Ian Cantle, Ken Tucker, Paul Barthel, and Jeff Stec break down how search has expanded—and exactly how small businesses can adapt to be found, trusted, and chosen in this new reality.

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS dives into Podcast Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and discovery. He explains that getting discovered and getting ranked are two different processes requiring a strong technical foundation. Favour outlines the nine key areas where a podcast must resonate sonically and structurally, emphasizing optimized titles, descriptions, file names, and high-quality cover art (3000x3000 pixels). He also discusses RSS feed distribution, maintaining a consistent publishing cadence, and choosing the right podcast format (solo, interview, co-host, etc.).The session concludes with an interactive Q&A, encouraging creators to build a timeless content library.Who is this for?Podcasters, business owners, content creators, and digital marketers looking to maximize their podcast's visibility and reach. It's valuable for understanding the technical aspects of Podcast SEO, getting discovered and ranked across directories, and structuring shows for long-term growth and PR.Key Moments & Timestamps00:00 - Intro: The power of Podcast SEO for discovery, business growth, and PR.00:59 - Importance of RSS feed distribution and submitting to multiple destination websites.03:33 - Using Cast Feed Validator to check the health of your podcast's RSS feed.04:36 - The difference between getting discovered (visibility) and getting ranked (positioning).05:12 - Key SEO elements: Podcast title, description, author name, episode details, and file names.05:34 - Technical requirement: Podcast cover art must be 3000x3000 pixels for maximum visibility.08:21 - Importance of publishing cadence (every 8 to 12 days) to consistently refresh your feed.20:00 - The 9 places your podcast must resonate sonically and structurally.24:35 - Title optimization: Keeping titles between 50 to 60 characters to avoid truncation.01:13:40 - The 5 podcast formats: Solo, interview, co-host, round table, and faceless/theme content.FAQsQ: What is the difference between getting discovered and getting ranked?A: Discovery means your podcast is visible and accessible to a maximum number of people across platforms. Ranking refers to your podcast's specific position within search results based on its SEO structure and relevance.Q: How long should my podcast title and description be?A: Your podcast title should ideally be between 50 to 60 characters (including spaces) to prevent truncation on mobile devices. Your description can be much longer, typically 4,000 to 6,000 characters, allowing for rich keyword integration.Q: What size should my podcast cover art be?A: For maximum visibility and compliance with major directories, your podcast cover art should be exactly 3000 by 3000 pixels.Q: How often should I publish new podcast episodes?A: Favour recommends a publishing cadence of every 8 to 12 days. This consistency helps refresh your RSS feed regularly and keeps your audience engaged.Action StepsValidate Your Feed: Use castfeedvalidator.com to check the health and structure of your podcast's RSS feed.Optimize Your Metadata: Ensure your podcast title (50-60 characters) and description (up to 4,000 characters) clearly explain your content and include relevant keywords.Update Cover Art: Check your podcast image dimensions and update them to 3000x3000 pixels if they are currently smaller.Establish a Cadence: Commit to a consistent publishing schedule, ideally releasing a new episode every 8 to 12 days.Book a Discovery Call: Reach out to Favour Obasi-ike via his booking link for a complimentary 30-minute SEO discovery call.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS breaks down push (outbound) vs. pull (inbound) marketing. Pull marketing (social media, SEO, content) attracts audiences long-term via consumer-driven engagement. Push marketing actively promotes products for immediate sales but can backfire if poorly targeted. Using interactive examples (e.g., sending gardening tool emails to a Pinterest list), Favour highlights the need to understand audience pain points. He also covers data ownership (first-party vs. third-party) and shares a client success story of scaling to 1M monthly Pinterest views.Who is this for?Business owners, entrepreneurs, digital marketers, and content creators looking to understand inbound (pull) vs. outbound (push) marketing. It's valuable for building long-term brand loyalty, optimizing social media and SEO, and targeting audiences effectively without being spammy.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS discusses the critical differences between "fat" (bloated) and "lean" (optimized) websites. He explains how large file sizes, unoptimized images, and poor technical setups negatively impact search engine rankings and user experience. Favour emphasizes technical SEO, structured data, and webpage indexing, providing actionable advice on compressing assets, improving site speed, and preparing websites for future search engine updates. The conversation highlights the value of consistent content creation and building a strong technical foundation for long-term business success.Who is this for?Business owners, web developers, digital marketers, and SEO professionals looking to optimize their websites for better search engine indexing, faster load times, and improved user experience. It's valuable for understanding technical web performance, managing page bloat, optimizing images, and implementing structured data for long-term growth.Key Moments & Timestamps00:00 - Introduction: Fat vs. Lean websites, technical SEO, and webpage indexing.02:08 - Impact of large images and web bloat on site speed and rankings.05:35 - Defining a lean website and benefits of compressing files (e.g., compressor.io).07:21 - Checking website health and page sizes using Siteliner and GTmetrix.09:38 - Historical context: Median mobile homepage file size increased from 845 KB in 2015 to 2.3 MB in 2025.29:08 - Importance of legible fonts and responsive design for users and search bots.31:34 - Utilizing structured data and Schema.org to enhance technical SEO.50:50 - Jason's feedback on Favour's consistency and the value of qualitative feedback.01:00:50 - Timeline for SEO results (3-12 months for initial impact, 6-24 months for realistic growth).01:05:29 - Final summary: Building lean websites with crucial semantics for future-proofing (2026+).FAQsQ: What is the difference between a fat and a lean website?A: A fat website has excessive bloat (large images, heavy code), slowing load times and hurting SEO. A lean website uses compressed assets and efficient code, resulting in faster load times, better UX, and improved indexing.Q: How can I check if my website is fat or lean?A: Use Siteliner.com to check page sizes and identify thick/thin pages. GTmetrix.com helps analyze loading speed and performance grade.Q: Does compressing images ruin their quality?A: Not necessarily. It depends on lossless vs. lossy compression. Tools like compressor.io reduce file sizes while maintaining acceptable visual quality.Q: How long does it take to see results from technical SEO improvements?A: Generally, 3 to 12 months for initial results, but expect 6 to 24 months for more realistic and substantial long-term growth.Action StepsAudit Your Website: Use Siteliner and GTmetrix to evaluate page sizes, load speeds, and site health.Compress Assets: Identify large files and use compressor.io to reduce size without sacrificing quality.Implement Structured Data: Visit schema.org to apply structured data mapping to help search engines understand your content.Optimize for Mobile & Accessibility: Ensure body text is at least 16px and scales up to 200% without breaking layout.Book a Consultation: Reach out to Favour Obasi-ike at info@playinc.online or via his booking link for a personalized website audit and SEO strategy or visit Favour's quick link here.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Technical SEO delivers 117% ROI in as little as 6 months — compared to 16% for basic content SEO over 15 months. Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS breaks down what that means in real dollars and real client results.WHO IS THIS FORSmall business owners are wondering why their website isn't showing up on Google. Entrepreneurs paying for ads who want to know if SEO is a smarter long-term investment. Marketing professionals who need data-backed ROI benchmarks. E-commerce owners planning a 12–24 month organic growth strategy. Content creators who want to extend the shelf life of every piece they publish. Local business owners — local SEO delivers 750%+ ROI, the highest of any SEO category.TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Room opens; framing question repeated as attendees join: "What is the ROI of technical SEO?"10:00 — The Mario Kart analogy: Instagram = 72-hour boost, Pinterest = 5 months, website = 24 months12:00 — Live Glimpse research: "SEO for small businesses" costs $44.40/click in Google Ads17:00 — The 16% ROI / 15-month benchmark introduced20:00 — On-page vs. technical SEO defined; the relationship foundation analogy34:00 — Client case study: 30M-page site grows from 1.5M → 3.3M indexed pages after structural fixes40:52 — Technical SEO ROI: 117% in as little as 6 months45:40 — HTTP vs. HTTPS: why HTTP is "easily hackable"52:00 — ROI by category: basic 16%, technical 117%, e-commerce 2–5x, local 750%+59:12 — Celese Williams on Semrush and data-driven content strategy61:32 — Hayden: the Glossary Method — hidden keywords at 40x lower cost70:05 — HTML = the letter; HTTPS = the postal service74:00 — Closing: your website as a place of rest, connection, and long-term impactMEMORABLE QUOTES"Technical SEO is about 117%. And when you have a fundamental strategy, that 15 months could drop to six months." — Favour [40:59]"HTTP is easily hackable. Definitely get your HTTPS more than anything." — Favour [45:40]"You can't depend on social media to sustain a brand. It's going to enhance your brand, but it's not going to replace it." — Favour [51:14]"CEOs and bosses make data-driven decisions." — Celese [59:37]"The glossary method is the most powerful way — you can buy hidden keywords with thousands of views at 40 times less than the main broad topic." — Hidden [61:32]"Give yourself 6–24 months to see results. By year three, four, five, you'll be happy you built something sturdy." — Favour [71:38]Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Michele DeFilippo is the founder and driving force behind 1106 Design, a full-service book publishing company based in Phoenix, Arizona. With more than 50 years of experience in the book publishing industry — spanning traditional publishing, the rise of indie publishing, and the self-publishing revolution catalyzed by Amazon — Michele is one of the most respected voices in author services today.She founded 1106 Design in 2001 after the publishing industry was disrupted by technology, with a singular mission: to help independent authors publish professionally, keep 100% of their rights and royalties, and produce books that compete on equal footing with traditionally published titles. Her company provides a complete "manuscript to market" solution, including editorial evaluations, copyediting, custom book cover design, interior typesetting, eBook conversion, audiobook production, author websites, and publishing support.Michele is also the author of Publish Like the Pros: A Brief Guide to Quality Self-Publishing, an 88-page guide available as a free download at 1106design.com. She has been featured across numerous podcasts, YouTube channels, and industry publications, and contributes regularly to IngramSpark's blog on self-publishing best practices.Schedule a call with Michele today >>WHO IS THIS FOR?Aspiring authors who want to publish without giving up their rights. Self-publishing authors who suspect they're leaving royalty money on the table. Business owners, coaches, and consultants who want a book as a credibility tool. Anyone pitched a "bestseller package" who wants to know if it's legitimate. Podcasters and content creators exploring long-form publishing as a brand extension.Episode SummaryIn this interview on the We Don't PLAY!™ podcast, Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS sits down with Michele DeFilippo to unpack one of the most misunderstood and financially consequential decisions an author can make: who to trust with your book. Over 22 minutes, Michele delivers a masterclass on the difference between traditional publishers, hybrid publishers, and true service providers — and why that distinction can mean the difference between earning $0.90 per book sold versus $6–$8.The conversation covers the full publishing landscape: how self-publishing emerged alongside Amazon, why so many "publishers" are actually double-dipping on author revenue, how to use KDP and IngramSpark to distribute without a middleman, what makes a book cover convert (and why it matters more than most authors realize), the truth about Amazon "bestseller" badges, the art of professional typesetting, and how to set realistic expectations before publishing.Michele closes with a transparent overview of how 1106 Design works, what authors should prepare before reaching out, and why the best way to make money with a book is often not through retail sales at all.TIMESTAMPS[00:00] — Intro: Michele DeFilippo, founder of 1106 Design, 50 years in publishing[03:20] — Publisher vs. service provider: the distinction that determines your royalties[06:12] — The hybrid publisher double-dip: earning $0.90/book instead of $6–$8[09:11] — KDP and IngramSpark: the two platforms every self-publishing author must know[10:01] — "Pump and dump" publishing: the automated book trap[11:00] — Book covers as the #1 conversion driver: the job interview analogy[12:48] — A/B testing covers the right way: "liking vs. buying"[14:34] — The Amazon bestseller badge: how it's manufactured in 45 minutes[17:08] — Professional typesetting vs. basic formatting: why it matters[20:49] — Using a book as a business development tool, not a retail productMEMORABLE QUOTES"If you have no investment in my book, what entitles you to any portion of my profits?" — Michele [06:45]"There's retail sales, and then there's making money with your book another way — and that other way is usually better." — Michele [20:49]"The question isn't which cover do you like. It's which cover would you spend money on." — Michele [12:48]"A book that earns $2,000 in royalties but generates $50,000 in consulting revenue is not a modest success. It's a high-ROI asset." — Favour [21:10]"Typesetting is working on every line, every word, every paragraph — it's not just formatting." — Michele [17:08]FAQsWhat is the difference between a publisher and a service provider?A publisher acquires your rights and pays a royalty. A service provider charges once and steps away — you keep 100% of all future revenue.What makes hybrid publishers problematic?They charge upfront fees and also take a cut of every book sold — reducing per-book earnings from $6–$8 down to $0.90 on a $19.99 title.Which platforms should every author use?KDP for Amazon and IngramSpark for bookstores and libraries. Both have royalty calculators so you know exactly what you'll earn.Are Amazon bestseller badges legitimate?Most are manufactured in 45 minutes by selecting a low-competition subcategory. A genuine Nielsen bestseller is an entirely different credential.How do authors actually make money with a book?Treat it as a business development tool. Speaking fees and consulting revenue typically far exceed retail royalty income.GLOSSARYService Provider — Charges a one-time fee; takes no ongoing royalties. The author retains 100% of rights and revenue.Hybrid Publisher — Charges upfront fees and also takes a percentage of sales. Double-dips on author revenue.KDP — Amazon's self-publishing platform for print-on-demand paperbacks and Kindle ebooks.IngramSpark — Distributes to independent bookstores, libraries, and international retailers.Typesetting — Professional design of a book's interior: fonts, spacing, margins, and chapter breaks.Print-on-Demand — Books printed individually as orders are placed. No inventory risk.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Season 12 Finale: What's Happening Next Season and More with Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS