Awesome and glad to hear it 🙂

haha…this post came about because after reading some articles that were out there, I realized that many authors hadn’t stratified the two and kept crossing the streams. Figured I’d take a moment and go through them both 😉

Absolutely and no problem. I hope you like it – yeah Carol is super awesome and it was an honor to write for her.

I hear you. I think I’m gearing up to start a new book within a month or two and I’ll be getting kdp rocket. I saw your guest post at Carol Tice’s site. You’re kiling it man. Thanks for providing great agenda free info.

Yeah, and that’s usually what happens. However, I strongly believe that book marketing research (keyword research is a part of that) should be the first step before deciding to write a book. Knowing that information before you get going is powerful through all facets of the writing/publishing process.

I guess I did focus on category rank with my first book, probably for vanity reasons! The orange banner high is definitely real. I want to incorporate a keyword focused strategy next time around. I honestly I just kind of threw them together as an afterthought.

i had been using the free key words app on the scientific seller site but the added value of KDP Rocket is it gives an estimate of how many searches for a given keyword so I know how competitive my ads will be. Great stuff! Will keep in touch with results.

Holy crap…I didn’t even think about that! I mean…yeesh, it would be perfect for that sort of research. Ha! Let me know how that goes. I’m going to get to work as well. Glad you’re liking it! With respect to Category rank affecting Keyword rank….sort of. If you have a high category rank, then that means you have a high ABSR. ABSR plays into your keyword ranking.

Also, now I see why KDP Rocket (which I’m enjoying-thanks RSP podcast) is all about the key words. I had been wondering why KDP Rocket didn’t include any tools for researching categories but now it makes sense.

p.s. I’m dabbling in Amazon ads this week (which of course ranks for keyword searches) so I’ll put the “Rocket” to the test with optimizing my ads for search rank 🙂

Hi Andras! Glad to hear it. I’ve used that tactic with Keywords before. After building enough momentum, I’ve changed mine to then target more competitive, but juicer keywords. In truth, it’s been a mixed bag of success. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Working with many authors, I’ve heard similar stories as well, to include authors with books that didn’t have sales changed their keyword and breathed new life into them. As for Categories, so long as your not trying to target a category up the chain,then you’re good. What I mean is, say for example you’re targeting Sci Fi Military. The chain would be “eBooks> Science Fiction & Fantasy >Science Fiction > Military”. So your category would be Military. But to target “Science Fiction” would be a waste because if you’re #1 in “Military” your book may also be #1 in Science Fiction….as in, you’re competing with all categories ‘up the chain’ already. I hope that helps.