Plus: a $10K/mo book with zero keywords, €46K on Pinterest, and ranking a business in 24 hours.

​If having trouble with any links, you can read the online version here​

Hey Guys,

Here's something that'll mess with your head. Google just published an official guide on how to rank in AI search. A 19-year SEO veteran read it, and his advice is to do the opposite of almost everything in it.

He's not being contrarian for clicks. He's saying the warnings buried in that guide are a map of what's quietly working right now, and the "best practices" up top are filler designed to keep you busy.

That tension runs through this whole edition. Official advice versus what actually moves the needle. Let's get into it.

TL;DR

BookVault launched a direct-to-reader storefront so authors can sell print books without a website (and keep 80-90%). Google's new AI search guide is mostly misdirection, and its warnings are the real playbook. One affiliate marketer breaks down the math on getting 1,000,000 clicks from AI video (spoiler: "free" traffic still costs ~$133/mo in tools). A 10-year SEO agency owner reacts to the viral "Claude ranked my business in 24 hours" video and flags exactly where it breaks in competitive markets. There's a Claude code skill build for programmatic Google indexing, a free keyword-gap tool for stealing competitor traffic, a $10K/mo KDP book built backwards from how everyone else does it, a €46,000 Pinterest ads breakdown, a NotebookLM-to-launch niche workflow, and the brand new June 2026 Google spam update with what to actually do about it.

➡️ Your Complete Implementation Guide

Not got time to watch the videos? Grab the resources (Summary, Insights & Checklist) for each video from this Google doc

👉 ​Access Your Complete Implementation Guide Here​

1. Sell Print Books Direct, Keep 90%, Build No Website

BookVault just turned every author into a direct-to-reader bookstore, and they handle the printing, shipping, and sales tax for you. The catch is one thing it won't do, and it might be a dealbreaker for advertisers.

What you'll discover:

• The exact cut: BookVault takes 10% of sales (rising to 20% if a buyer uses a promo code), plus a 5% print-cost reduction on platform sales, so you keep 80-90%.
• Why there's no way to capture reader email addresses at checkout right now (it's a GDPR problem the BookVault team confirmed they're stuck on) and no Facebook pixel yet either.
• When to skip this and use the Payhip + BookVault integration instead (hint: if you're running conversion ads).

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDs7rHcI9OU​

2. Read Google's AI Guide As A Confession, Not Instructions

Google finally put in writing how to rank in AI overviews. The genuinely useful part is the short list of things they're practically begging you not to do.

What you'll discover:

• Why building distinct pages for each real customer segment (wedding vs. corporate vs. memorial buyers, same product) works and why Google labels it "scaled content abuse" anyway.
• The Reddit truth: it's roughly 40% of all AI citations and ~21% of Google's own AI overview citations, and it's being gamed on purpose right now.
• What you can stop doing today: no llms.txt file, no markdown duplicates, no content chunking, and no special schema. Google says none of it helps them. (Microsoft's guide says the opposite, and he explains who to trust.)

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAuM75fsZYM​

3. The Real Math Behind "Free" AI Video Traffic

Everyone promises free traffic from short-form video. This one actually shows you the numbers, and they're sobering before they're exciting.

What you'll discover:

• The brutal conversion math: ~10,000 views gets you roughly 100 clicks at a 1% rate, so a million site clicks needs around 100 million views.
• The 3-tool stack he uses (Claude for scripts, Arc Ads to generate the talking-head video, and Sub Magic for captions and auto-scheduling) and the real cost: about $133/mo.
• The "scared parent" angle he runs for a $260-per-sale offer, plus how one video gets distributed across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram from a single upload.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI7Wb7R-89g​

4. What if "Claude Ranked My Business In 24 Hours" Video Got Wrong

A viral clip claims Claude Code built a website and ranked a diesel mechanic in the top 3, making thousands in a day. A 10-year local SEO agency owner agrees it worked, then shows you exactly why it won't in a real market.

What you'll discover:

• Why "diesel mechanic Charlotte" ranked easily (very low competition) and why the same playbook gets buried in HVAC Dallas or plumber Gary, Indiana.
• The rank-grid problem: showing one ranking at one location proves nothing, and how proximity-based rank maps reveal where to actually build geo-relevance.
• The internal-linking mistake Claude makes by default (linking "relevant" pages) versus matching your Google Business Profile structure exactly, which is what AI systems actually read.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJocnwMngDA​

5. Build A Claude Code Skill That Indexes Google For You

Publishing content is only half the job. Getting Google to actually index it is the other half, and this builds a reusable Claude Code skill that handles it programmatically.

What you'll discover:

• The pay-as-you-go tool behind it (Speedy Index, no monthly subscription) and why its slower "gentle nudge" indexing tested better than forced immediate indexing.
• The exact build flow: feed Claude the API key and docs, run a live test on a real article, and then let skill-creator build the reusable skill.
• The practical limits (10,000 URLs per task) and how this slots into a larger Claude SEO autopilot with separate keyword-research and article-generation skills.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-OuuhS9V4A​

6. Steal The Keywords Your Competitors Already Rank For

The fastest content plan is the one your competitors already validated. This free tool shows you every keyword they rank for that you don't.

What you'll discover:

• How the free Keyword Gap Analysis tool works (50 ranking lookups and 500 keyword lookups per day, up to 2 competitors on the free tier).
• Why comparing entire websites beats specific URLs, and why the keywords both competitors rank for sit at the top of the table for a reason.
• How to layer on volume, CPC, competition score, and 12-month trend data, then filter and export the gaps worth targeting.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7fLgTAgSt8​

7. The $10K/Mo Book Built Completely Backwards

One book, three years, money every month, zero ads, and not a single keyword in the title. The whole method is the reverse of what everyone teaches, and the order is the entire point.

What you'll discover:

• Why do you start with a real problem and a real person (then validate on Reddit and with the "Would they pay $15-20 to fix this?" test) before you ever touch a keyword tool.
• How to pick a format from the problem (his bestseller became an activity book, not a psychology lecture) and write a title that opens a curiosity gap with the subtitle carrying the keywords.
• The interactive HTML tool trick: build a free tool with Claude, publish it via Canva, and use it to collect emails (he says ~99% opt in), then sell the high-ticket offer where Amazon takes zero cut.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuuEaz2cvs​

8. €46,000 On Pinterest With A Product That Isn't Even "Wow"

A simple product nobody would call exciting pulled €46,000 at a 6.6 ROAS on Pinterest. The edge was a platform almost nobody runs ads on properly.

What you'll discover:

• The blue-ocean move: take a proven product from Meta or TikTok and bring it to Pinterest, where CPMs are cheap and competition is thin (and see how Pinterest Trends + Trend Track help you find it).
• The setup that matters: conversion and catalog sales campaigns only, optimize for checkout, never mix interest and keyword targeting in one campaign, and use 2:3 (1000x1500px) creatives.
• Why the learning phase will burn money for 3-10 days, why you need real branded boards for social proof, and how horizontal-plus-vertical scaling differs from other platforms.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFF5ltMQoUA​

9. Validate A Trending Niche With NotebookLM, Then Launch It

Most niche advice tells you to brainstorm and pick something tiny. This flips it: find what's trending right now, validate the demand, then stand up a real business around it.

What you'll discover:

• The research stack: load NotebookLM with recent high-view YouTube videos and blog posts (filtered to "this month"), then plug that notebook straight into Gemini's deep research as a custom brain.
• How the deep-research pass surfaces genuine sub-niches (gravel gardening, foodscaping, and pet-centric landscaping) with validated, rising business models behind them.
• The launch half with buildi.ai: a content site, a quiz funnel that captures leads to your CRM, course and coaching pages, and a 7-day AI-personalized email sequence built from each lead's quiz answers.

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRI4mrhZcU0​

10. The June 2026 Google Spam Update Just Dropped: Here's Your Move

Google shipped the June 2026 spam update on June 24th, and yes, even great sites get crushed sometimes. Here's what it targets and the calm, specific plan if your traffic moves.

What you'll discover:

• What SpamBrain (Google's AI spam system) actually hunts: scaled content, site reputation, parasite SEO, expired domains, dodgy links, and thin content.
• Why "AI wrote it" is not the problem (Google says how content is made doesn't matter, only whether it's helpful and adds information gain).
• The recovery protocol: check Search Console impressions around June 24th, confirm the timing, read the spam policies honestly, then wait a couple of weeks before changing anything (recovery can take months, so don't panic-edit).

🎥 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HivTm9cZ4no​

If one of these is worth 20 minutes of your day, make it Video 2 or Video 4. Both pull back the curtain on what's really driving AI and local rankings right now, and both will save you from wasting effort on tactics that look productive and do nothing.

Pick one. Watch it. Do something with it today.

Talk soon,

- Tony

P.S. Two of these have hard deadlines. The Pinterest live training (Video 8) runs Tuesday June 23rd with no replay, so if you're reading this in time, register before it airs. And the June 2026 spam update (Video 10) is rolling out right now, so check your Search Console impressions around June 24th before you assume anything's wrong.