Self Publishing Interview with Dave Chesson

About this video

Dale interviews Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur about SEO and keyword research for books. Chesson says he follows the 80/20 rule rather than trying to be everywhere, works with two full-time team members, and publishes only about two articles a month on Kindlepreneur, with one article taking eight months because he was testing results before publishing. He explains SEO as convincing a search engine your content should be shown, and notes Amazon is a search engine: he cites figures that the top Amazon result gets about 37 percent of clicks for a phrase, dropping to about 13 percent at number two and about 9 percent at number three. Keywords, he stresses, are not magic: real shoppers type specific phrases reflecting pain points and demographics in nonfiction, and setting, time period and tone in fiction, illustrated by the phrase ‘Victorian second-chance romance.’ Authors should do keyword research before writing, then align title, subtitle, description and cover with what that phrase actually means to the searcher. For ranking, he discusses the seven Kindle keyword slots plus words in the title, description and book content, but says purchases/downloads for a phrase are what mainly convince Amazon to rank a book at the top. He suggests asking about ten fans at launch to search the phrase on Amazon, find the book and buy it, while warning a book with weak packaging will sink again. He also describes incognito-mode click tests and mentions his free five-day AMS course. Asked passion or profit, he says profit was his means to his passion of being home with his kids after military travel.

Key takeaways

• Do keyword research before you write the book, not after: find the specific phrases shoppers type, then build the title, subtitle, description and cover to match what those searchers mean.
• Nonfiction keywords come from pain points, demographics, time periods and emotional states; fiction keywords come from setting, era and tone — broad one-word terms are typed by people who do not yet know what they want.
• Ranking number one on Amazon matters disproportionately: Chesson cites about 37 percent of clicks for the top result versus about 13 percent for number two and about 9 percent for number three.
• The seven Kindle keyword slots help Amazon index a book, but sales and downloads generated after searches for a phrase are what push it to the top — he suggests having about ten fans search, find and buy at launch.
• Publish less but test more: Kindlepreneur posts about two articles a month, and Chesson says one article took eight months because he collected results before publishing it.

Episode details: published January 2, 2018 · 34:38 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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