[throwawaynerdy]

I don't know if any of that is true. I'm a free information guy and author and despite having a million users of my website, I'm not even profitable.

It's not some clickbait garbage either. It's been front page HN numerous times.

What should I be doing? I have a paid book as an option. But everyone Google searches "free book", it was so bad I ended up making my own free link for SEO reasons.

[moron4hire]

Go to book fairs and industry events for the genre of book you are writing. My wife writes sci-fi novels and is an officer in a large writers' club (I think it's one of the oldest ok the country). Pretty much all of the members talk about how they really only make sales on their own at in-person events, even the ones with traditional publishers. My wife mainly manages to cover her costs with the sales, though we don't really go out of our way to go to really big events and have yet to do any sci-fi conventions. She sees a few sales on Amazon, but the peaks are usually right after we've been to a book fair.