Walking into the crowded hotel lobby, I scanned the clusters of people for a familiar face. That situation was already overwhelming, but now imagine my usually introverted mind reeling at the prospect of starting a conversation with a complete stranger. But, that wouldn’t have to happen if only I found one person I knew. And, bingo! There he was, Dan Norton. Now, rather than go into the gory details of who Dan is or how we know each other, I’ll just say he and I share quite a few mutual loves. One of our shared interests is pro wrestling.

Naturally, as I’m walking up to Dan, I see he’s talking to a mutual acquaintance, Andru Edwards. Oddly enough, Andru and I have crossed paths many times, and each time we share a common love – pro wrestling. See where this is going yet? Andru and I are both former pro wrestlers. He’d trained on the east coast, whereas I trained in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. But, it’s that bond the two of us share that makes for easy conversation and ways for us to catch up with each other.

At a previous conference where we’d run into each other, I discovered he was trained by one of my all-time favorites. So, when I approached the two, I was elated to discover they were talking about our shared love – pro wrestling. I promise this is going somewhere, just stay with me.

“Hey, Dan, did you know that Andru is a trained pro wrestler?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t,” Dan responded.

The three of us chatted like excited children. We’d shared favorite matches, favorite wrestlers, locker room etiquette, and the whole she-bang. Now and then, folks would wander by us and tune in to our conversation. Another fellow video creator, Mike Vardy, popped into the conversation at one point to share he had a tattoo tribute to his favorite wrestler.

And, though people would briefly visit our small group of wrestling enthusiasts, the four of us stayed. Some people would come to listen in and chime in their favorite parts of the sport. Others would hear a bit about what we were talking about and just move on.

The shared interest and theme of the conversation was pro wrestling. Now, this book isn’t so much about pro wrestling at all. In fact, that’ll probably be the last you hear of it. It’s more about the concept of a conversation or shared interest. That’s where keywords lie. I’d imagine had we all not had that shared interest, this would be a bit more stilted and hard to convey. But, we shared this love for pro wrestling, a pre-determined sport that has a niche audience. We would’ve been limited to the two or three of us had no one had an interest. But, we had a few people who were very much interested or mildly intrigued by what we were talking about.

When people tuned into the conversation, they heard the general theme and the specific word or derivative of “wrestle.” That’s what kept people coming. And, that’s how keywords function in the online ethos. A keyword is a beacon shining from the lighthouse guiding ships away from rocky terrain and onto safer shores. Keywords are the shared interests people have and the way for people to identify with other people. Without keywords, online users would be forced to mindlessly scroll through websites, trying to find what they’re looking for.

Sure, every blind squirrel gets a nut. However, without keywords, we’d be lost and forced to figure things out on our own. With keywords, you significantly increase your likelihood of finding precisely what you’re looking for.

That’s what we did in that crowded lobby that night. The three of us had a shared interest. We spoke about what we loved. We didn’t have to think about “profitable” ways to express ourselves, or what was the best way to call a wrestling move. We just talked about it. When people gathered around us, they knew what the conversation was about and if it was of any interest to them.

As you go through this book, you’re going to discover more basic concepts that’ll help you see an overview of the business of keywords. We’ll also dive deeper into more advanced concepts. Even if you were to put this book down now, I’m confident if you follow this advice you’ll get pretty far:

Describe your book in a few words. Don’t worry about profitability. Don’t worry about trying to gather an audience. Don’t worry about saying the right thing or the wrong thing. Just say it. The rest will fall into place.

I know many would-be experts will be quick to correct me. These are the same folks who feel you shouldn’t follow your passion. They’d rather have you grind it out and hope for the best. However, I’m going to be real with you. You aren’t writing and publishing books for a machine. You’re writing and publishing books for people. Real people. Once you get past the whole part of trying to game the system or trick Amazon into doing your bidding, you’ll discover that people buy books. Algorithms and search engines don’t buy books.

But, if you want to increase your odds for success, it’s sometimes best to know what to say, how to say it, when you should say it, and where you should say it. That way, you open your circle of influence and welcome more like-minded people. That’s what it’s about. Grow your circle of friends. Welcome more people into the conversation. And, nurture those relationships. That’s when you’ll see your audience grow exponentially as the days, weeks, months, and years go on.

I encourage you to read on and take notes as you go. You may have to go back and reread some sections. Lord knows it took me over 6 years to even get this basic understanding of how keywords function on the Amazon marketplace. I don’t imagine a short book will get you the same knowledge as I have, but I’ll point you in the right direction. By the end of this book, you’ll have all the information to select the ideal keywords for publishing your books on Amazon by way of Kindle Direct Publishing. Read on!