#I got a bunch of free stuff but I did actually pay for this sweatshirt bc the guy working the event had one and he looked cute in it

[airstripyaks]

Went to a pop up for poppi in the city and got this neat sweatshirt

[tyrannosaurusrexdale]

MY UNCLE AND I JOINED A GYM TOGETHER

A few weeks ago, my uncle emailed me to tell me that he had won a one month pass for him and a friend to a gym located not far from my apartment, and he asked me if I wanted to use it. Yeah, I said, that would be kinda cool. I had been thinking about joining a gym for a little while now, after I'd gained a bunch of weight over the holidays, and had started eating way more fast food for dinner after my oven broke and I didn't want to pay to get it fixed. We made plans to meet there on the weekend. I realized that the gym was actually 45 minutes away from where my uncle lived, which didn't seem convenient for him. I meant to ask him about that, but I ended up forgetting to do it.

The woman at the front desk was someone I'd gone to high school with, though I didn't realize it at first. She'd become a personal trainer and gotten super fit, so she looked a little bit different.

I went into the locker room with my uncle. I had to change out of my street clothes and into my gym stuff, and I wondered if my uncle was going to take off all his clothes to change, and if it would be weird if my uncle and I saw each other nude. Turns out my uncle just needed to take his sweatshirt and he was good to go. Though underneath he was wearing a stained white t-shirt and his sweatpants were really ratty. It was kind of a cool fashionable crowd, but I guess it didn't bother him.

He asked me what kind of workout I wanted to do, and I told him I was going to focus on cardio, because I was trying to drop a few pounds. I hopped on the treadmill and he headed over to the free weights. After a few minutes of running I wondered - did my uncle know any exercises? He kept wandering around assessing the weights but didn't seem to pick any up. I guess I'd never considered that he might have never done this before. I considered jumping off the treadmill to ask him what he wanted to do but I was in a groove and figured it could wait. Eventually my uncle came over to the treadmill next to me and started doing a slow uphill walk. It seemed like a good exercise for him until after a few minutes he started panting really heavily. Horrible noises were coming out of his joints and his pacing seemed really strange. I was a little bit worried but he went for about 15 minutes and seemed fine by the end. I finished my run and we high fived and it made a bit of a sound.

I didn't bring a towel so I went to the front desk to ask for one. The guy working told me that towels were for Premium Elite members, and I told him I thought I was. He gave me a towel but as he was checking the computer he realized that I was just a contest winner. I didn't offer to give the towel back. The girl I went to high school with looked over from her computer and gave me a weird look. Maybe it was a big deal after all but I figured it was just a towel.

He told me he had thought about inviting his friend John to join the gym with him, but he said that John was getting a divorce, and wasn't easy to hang out with lately, and that's why he asked me.

I figured it might be good for him to do some easy weightlifting exercises. We did some really basic ones, like curls, and the shoulder press. But once we got through those, he didn't seem to have any urgency to do anything else. I was doing a few different things, and asked if he wanted to try what I was doing, but each time he said no, and he just sort of milled about in the area. People kept asking him to move out of the way and one serious bodybuilder guy looked really irritated with my uncle. He wandered over to the weights and had trouble picking up a heavy one and turned around really suddenly and bumped into a very muscular woman doing shoulder exercises. He looked a little embarrassed and quickly retreated to the water cooler nearby. I had a few more things left to do but I got the sense my uncle wanted to get out of there, so my gym visit with my uncle was over.

On the way out I said goodbye to my friend from high school, but she didn't look up from her phone and the front desk, so maybe she was angry at me after all. Not sure I will try to reconnect with her after all. We walked across the parking lot to a juice bar and we both got smoothies. I was ready to get out of there, and I was thinking of what I would say if he offered me a ride home or asked if I wanted to grab a beer or something. But it turns out he didn't offer me a ride home at all, which felt a little strange. I walked back to my place and ate a few chocolate chip cookies before I fell asleep on the couch in my gym clothes.

[atlafan]

Maybe for a non brits blurb you could write something about getting to know Harry and like going from friends to something more with him? I feel like it’s overlooked but i know I would be flipping out given his dating history and general aura of power. He just seems low key intimidating to date if that makes sense.

a/n: this was me laughing when I read this. We love a good friends to lovers fic baby!! This is gonna have some nice cliches to keep us warm on this cold ass February evening. Okay this ended up being way longer than I thought. (fluff and a wee bit of smut towards the end.)

Getting Social

You had hit the jackpot. Social media was your passion, and after having low paying job after low paying job, a friend of yours in the PR world had connected you with Jeff. Harry Styles barely used his social media anymore, and when he did, his fans went into a frenzy, like over a simple tweet of the word “DO”. There was no deeper meaning to this, other than that he was half asleep trying to tweet something entirely different. 

Jeff wanted to hire someone to handle Harry’s social media full time. Someone to post coherent thoughts and photos for him. His fans really missed having this more personal reactions. Instagram was a little easier to run, as Jeff had given you an array of photos, and a schedule. But tweets were typically on the fly thoughts. When you interviewed for the position, you didn’t think you’d ever actually meet Harry. 

After you were hired, you were called for a meeting with Jeff and Harry. You were extremely nervous to meet the star. You weren’t a crazed fan or anything, you just knew he could come off as extremely intense. It was the way his brows would furrow that made you the most nervous. However, you pulled it together, and shook his hand politely when he entered the room. You were dressed in a red blouse, and long black pencil skirt. You wanted to look as professional as possible. 

“Y/N, we’re so happy to have you on the team. Your work speaks for itself.” Jeff says. 

“Thanks, I’m happy to be here.”

“Nice to meet you.” Harry says.

“You as well.” You smile, he smiles back. 

“We just wanted to go over how all of this would work. You said you were fine with traveling?”

“Yes, no problem with that. I’m not tied down to anything here. Family lives hours from here anyways.” You shrug. Jeff and Harry look at each other, then back to you.

“No significant other?” Harry asks. 

“Not at this time, no.”

“Well, that’ll definitely makes things easier.” Jeff says. “We’ve tried to hire for this position before, but the traveling can get to be a lot when you have someone waiting for you, or even a family of your own.”

“I love traveling, so it’s really no problem.”

“Great.” Jeff continues. “We loved your thoughts on the tweets, and you were absolutely right. Instagram can be a much more planned out endeavor, but Twitter is really about quick thoughts.”

“I was also thinking we could post more on his story?” The two furrow their eyebrows at you. “I know location privacy is very important, so we could turn all of his location info off. We could also post like after he’s in a particular place. We could share fan photos too..just so they know he still cares. We could do like fan photo Fridays. Just an idea.” The two look at each other again, then back at you. 

“S’not a terrible idea.” Harry says. “And feel free to address me directly, Jeff doesn’t make all the decisions, love.” You blink at him, and nod. “I guess as long as I knew my location wouldn’t be compromised we could do a little more of that. How do we tackle the tweets?”

“Well, I was thinking I could just go on and retweet more? Maybe even just liking more stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to do with promotion? Your Twitter looks so robotic, it’s no fun.” You say bluntly. “Social media is supposed to be fun. I know everything you say gets all turned around, but some natural responses would be good. I mean, and sorry if this is awkward, but look at what Niall’s been doing to promote his album.”

You pull up Niall Horan’s twitter on your phone, and show Jeff and Harry. After a few moments of scrolling and smirks, they hand the phone back to you. 

“As you can see, he’s having fun with it. Whether it’s really him or not, everything feels genuine, and that’s what you’re lacking, Harry, sorry to say. You may not think these things matter, but when you look at the demographic of people who follow you, I assure you, it matters.” You were proud of yourself for essentially proving your worth. 

“Oh, I like her. I think this is going to work out well.” Harry says. 

//

Things started off with you and Harry meeting on Friday mornings so you both could choose the fan photos you would share on his Instagram story. You wanted to make sure he liked the way the way he looked. Then you would have him write down any thoughts he may have had during the week that would make sense to tweet. You would use those throughout the following week to tweet out for him. Not all of them made the cut, but the fans were responding positively see him back online more. 

Harry wanted you around more. The two of you got along pretty well, and you actually had more in common than you would’ve thought. You were slowly starting to become part of his circle of friends. 

One night, a bunch of you were hanging out at his home in Malibu. It was raining out, but it didn’t put a damper on the fun. Everyone was hanging out in the kitchen when you got there. You were wearing a pair of jean shorts, white tennis shoes, and a cropped sweatshirt. You had slowly started dressing more casually the more you realized everyone else did. 

“Hey, you made it!” Harry said, giving you a hug. Your sweatshirt was soaked from the rain.

“Hit a spot of traffic. People drive like idiots in this weather.”

“Want one of my sweatshirts to wear?” Harry’s eyes grow wide when he sees your nipples peak through the material, then coughs. You cross your arms over your chest.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. A.C. is a little strong in here, don’t ya think?”

“It got warm where we were all sittin’. I can, turn it down. Come upstairs with me so you can pick somethin’ out.” 

“Um, I think you can handle that on your own.” You smell the deliciousness from the kitchen. “I’m starving.” You walk by him, and greet everyone. 

Harry returns shortly with a small towel and a new sweatshirt. 

“Towel’s for your hair.” He smiles.

“Thanks Harry.” You give his shoulder a squeeze before you head into the bathroom to change. The sweatshirt he gave you was rather large and black. It completely covered down past your shorts, not that your shorts were very long to begin with. 

Harry admires you as you walk by him.

“Think you could’ve given me a bigger sweatshirt, this one’s not big enough.” You nudge him. He sticks his tongue out at you. “You guys feel like moving to the living room for a movie?”

Everyone agrees with you. You knew none of you would pay attention to a movie, but it was something to do. People were getting set up on the couches, some opting for the floor. There was one large recliner left. You and Harry looked at, at each other, then back to the chair. You both raced over and sat down at the time time. 

“Would you please move your big butt, I was here first.” You say playfully. 

“Oh, I have a big butt?”

“A proper bubble butt!” You giggle. “Now move.”

“There’s room for the both of us.” He says with a smile.

“Not unless you wanna sit on my lap there’s not.” Harry shifts and sits on your lap. “Get off! You’re crushing me!”

“Quit overrating, I’m as light as a feather.” He jokes. 

“Harry!” You whine. 

“Fine.” He gets off of you. “Wanna sit on my lap?”

“Not particularly.” You say sitting sideways in the chair. “But thanks for giving up the space for me. You’re such a good little host.” You say with a slight sarcasm to your tone. He rolls his eyes at you. 

“Can I get anyone anythin’ from the kitchen? Doin’ a drink run.” 

Harry takes drink orders from his friends, and heads into the kitchen. You’re talking with one of the girls when Mitch comes over to you. 

“Hey, Y/N?”

“Sup, Mitch?” You smile at your friend. 

“Got a sec? Something I wanna talk to you about.”

“Sure!”

You get up and follow him down the hall. No one pays the two of you attention.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, um, this is sort of awkward, but he’s really trying.”

“Who’s trying?”

“Harry.”

“What’s he trying to do?”

“Flirt with you. He likes you, obviously.”

“That’s flirting? We act like that with each other all the time. We’re just friends, Mitch.” 

“But...he likes you.”

“Has he told you?”

“Not in so many words. Haven’t you noticed he hasn’t been hooking up with randoms as often?” You roll your eyes. 

Part of being Harry’s social media rep meant having to make sure his little rendezvous went unnoticed. It wasn’t like he was a sex addict or anything, but he definitely got it when he wanted it. 

“I hadn’t really noticed. I try not to pay too much to his personal affairs.” 

“So, you wouldn’t even give him a chance?”

“How often does this happen? A new girl is added to the friend group, and then what? He starts hooking up with them, and then it ends? Isn’t that the situation with like half of the girls in there?” Mitch sighs. “Exactly. I’m not getting mixed up with all that.” 

The two of you go back into the living room, Harry had taken your sit. You stand in front of him with your hands on your hips. He thought you looked incredibly cute in the oversized sweatshirt. 

“Can I help you?”

“You took my seat.”

“Technically, it’s my seat love. I own it.” You roll your eyes at him. “Lap’s still open though.” He grins at you. 

“I’ll pass.” You turn around and sit on the floor in front of him. 

You all decide on a movie, a romantic comedy at Harry’s request. You end up leaning back against his chair, and Harry’s legs were at either side of you. He started absentmindedly playing with your hair. You let out a soft sigh at his touch, and leaned your head back further. You would never say no to someone playing with your hair. He loved your hair too. It was long, brown (with blonde highlights that you had done every six weeks on the dot) , and it always smelled like apples. You close your eyes as his fingers continue, and you feel yourself drift off slightly. He looks over at Mitch, who gives him a thumbs up. Everyone in the room knew he had a thing for you. 

You were woken up by the sound of everyone laughing at some scene. You sat up, and moved to lay on your stomach. Harry frowned at the loss of contact from you. After the movie, everyone agreed it was late, and due to the never ending rain, it would be a good idea to get going. 

Harry hated going from a full house of people to no one. But everyone had their own lives, it couldn’t be about him all the time. 

“Hey, do you know where my sweatshirt ended up?” 

“I threw it in the dryer for a bit, one sec.” Harry left and came back with your sweatshirt. 

“Thanks!” You hugged the material to your face. “Nice and warm.” You turned around to take his sweatshirt off, revealing just a cropped tank top, and then quickly put yours back on. You tossed his back to him. “Thanks again for the loaner.”

“Any time. Glad you could make it out tonight.” He smiled at you. 

“Same here.” He stepped forward to hug you, but you stepped back, making his face fall. “Well, goodnight Harry.” 

“Um...goodnight.” 

//

A few weeks passed and you started picking up on more of Harry’s flirty behavior that Mitch had told you about. You found yourself always being placed next to him on flights, dinners, and wherever else he needed you to be. Your one year work anniversary was coming up, and he wanted to do something special for you. In your weekly Friday meeting, he brought it up.

“Can you believe you’ve been with me for almost a year?” You squinted at his phrasing. 

“It’s been great being part of your team, Harry. Best job I’ve ever had.”

“I’m really glad we’re, um, friends too. Everyone loves you.”

“Nice of you to say.” You say, looking at your laptop. 

“I was thinkin’...I’d like to celebrate our, your anniversary.” You turn to face him, and raise an eyebrow. 

“What exactly were you thinking?” 

“How ‘bout a holiday? Go away somewhere tropical for a bit.”

“Seems like a bit much for just a work anniversary.”

“Also an excuse to get away and relax. Been sorta stressed lately, love.”

“So, you wanna use me working for you for a year as an excuse for a vacation?”

“Don’t say it like that. You don’t work for me, you work with me.” You smirk at him. “There’s that smile.” 

“Oh stop it. Look, I’ll think about it, okay? Can we get to the work that this meeting is for now?”

“Yes.” He hands you the piece of paper with the notes for some tweets. 

“Why does this one have a star next to it?”

“Because I found that thought to be particularly funny, and I’ve noticed that sometimes the things I think are funny don’t always make the cut, so I wanted to make sure that made it.”

“You know, you are allowed to tweet things yourself. You don’t have to wait for me.” You laugh looking at his note. “This is pretty funny.” 

“Thank you, I was pretty proud of that one.” 

//

You agreed to a five day getaway to Aruba with Harry. You didn’t think much of it when it was just the two of you from your gang on the plane. You figured they were catching a different flight. 

Harry was very sweet at the airport. He carried all of your luggage, rented a car for the two of you, and drove you to the condo you’d be staying in for the next few days. 

“S’not a big place. It’s part of a timeshare association. I’m actually renting it from a friend.”

“Oh that’s fine. It’s probably bigger than all my apartments.”

“You know, you could just stay with me when we’re in Malibu. My house has so much space, it doesn’t make sense for you to pay for two different places.”

“I’m not living with you, Harry.” You squeeze his arm. “But I appreciate it.” 

You get to the condo pretty quickly, and Harry takes your bags to the room after checking in. You already loved it here. It was humid, but there was a breeze, and zero paps. Harry unlocked the door. You didn’t question that it was only one room, you figured there would be a few bedrooms for everyone to stay in. The cool air hit you as you both walked in, giving some relief from the humidity. 

As you walked around to explore, you got extremely confused and angry.

“Harry.” 

“Yeah?”

“Why does this place only have one actual bedroom?”

“I told you it wasn’t huge.”

“Where is everyone supposed to fit?”

“What do you mean everyone?”

“Um, our friends?”

“None of them had anniversaries. This trip is just for the two of us, thought that was clear.” He shrugs, wheeling both bags of luggage into the bedroom. You snatch yours from his hand. “What?”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Harry! Don’t you see what’s wrong with this picture?” You gesture to the space. “I am not staying along with you here for an entire week.”

“S’not a week, it’s five days.”

“Don’t be fresh with me.”

“You sound like my mother.” He smirks. “Would ya relax.”

“No! Where the fuck am I supposed to sleep?” He gives you a confused look, and looks at the large bed in the bedroom.

“Love, it’s a king size bed.” You start laughing out of exasperation.

“You are crazy if you think I’m sleeping in the same bed as you.”

“It’s a huge bed, we won’t even be touchin’.” You scoff. “What?”

“What do I look like an idiot? I know how you are.”

“Excuse me?” Not wanting to start an even bigger fight, you decided to let it go.

“Never mind.” You walk over to the couch in the living room, and take the pillows off. You sigh with relief. “Oh thank god.”

“What?”

“It’s a pull out. I can sleep out here, and I’ll use the hall bath.”

“Shower’s in the bedroom.” You glare at him.

“Guess we’ll have to take turns, won’t we.” 

“Would ya stop bein’ a baby? We’re two adults aren’t we? No way you’ll last five nights on that thing.”

He was right. You weren’t a great sleeper when it came to traveling. An actual mattress would be much more comfortable. 

“Jesus, I really hate you right now. You’ve backed me into a corner.” You wheel your luggage into the bedroom, and angrily unpack your things. 

You calm down a bit when you see how beautiful the bathroom is. There was a huge tub, and a giant walk in shower. You could already see yourself relaxing in a giant bubble bath. 

“Nice, isn’t it?” Harry brushes past you to put his toiletries away. “We need to go to the grocery store to pick out what we want for snacks and stuff. There’s food on site, but none of it’s complimentary. I figured we could do the breakfast buffet a couple times, but we might want stuff here for ourselves. We’ll eat out most dinners.”

“Alright, sounds good. When we get back can we go down to the pool, I need to cool off.”

“You bet.”

Harry was fun to grocery shop with. He pushed the cart while you picked out things you liked to eat. He agreed with just about everything you picked out. He paid for everything. Groceries were more expensive in Aruba. You worked together to put everything away. 

Harry changed into his little yellow swim shorts and a white t-shirt while you changed into your bathing suit. It was a simple high waisted black bikini. You took the straps off the top so you wouldn’t have tan lines. You threw on a large t-shirt as a cover up, and slid on your flip flops.

“Ready?” He asks.

“Yup. What do we do for towels?”

“They’re down by the pool.” He smiles. 

You both get a couple towels, and put them on your chairs. Harry was smart to remember to bring down some sunscreen. You took your shirt off, and laid it on the back of the chair. Harry’s eyes went wide looking at you. He had never seen you in such little clothing. You bend over in front of him to put your hair up in a messy bun. When you look at him he quickly looks away. 

“Would you mind putting some sunscreen on my back?” You ask him.

“Um, sure.” He swallows hard, and squirts some in his hands. He rubs his hands together to warm it up, and he massages it into your shoulders and upper back. 

“Can you get the bit of my lower back too?”

“Mhm.”

“And make sure to get under the top, I’ve been burned there before, no fun.” 

You hold the front of your top up while Harry nervously rubs sunscreen underneath the back.

“Kay, all set.” 

“Thanks.” You snatch the bottle from him, and lather the rest of yourself up. He takes his shirt off while you do this. “Turn around.”

“I’m gonna lay on m’back.”

“Still need to get those shoulders, and the back of your neck.” 

Harry turns around, and bends his knees a bit so you can reach his shoulders easily. You rub all over his back, and give him a little slap when you’re done. 

You put your headphones and listen to some music while Harry reads from his book. You had thoroughly calmed down from earlier. You drift and snooze for a little over an hour. You stand up and stretch once you’re awake. Harry watches you, peering up from his book. 

“Gonna go for a swim.” You say to him, and he nods. 

You slowly get into the heated pool, and it feels amazing. You loved swimming more than most things. Harry watches you spin around in the water, and loved the giant smile on your face. You were careful not to get your hair wet. 

“Harry, come in with me, the water feels great.” 

“Alright.”

Harry gets up and joins you in the water. The pool, and area, you were in was smaller than where the other pool was. There was mostly older people around you that didn’t know or care who Harry was. He ducked his head under the water, and pushed his hair back when he came back up. 

It’s not that you weren’t attracted to Harry. You thought he was extremely handsome. You just knew how he was. He didn’t have the best track record with the people he dated. You enjoyed being his friend so much, you didn’t want hooking up to complicate things. You also didn’t want to risk doing anything that could lose you your job. You loved what you did every day. How many people could say that?

“It’s a nice suit, by the way.” He says, leaning against the edge of the pool.

“Oh, thanks.” You blush. “I got it at that boutique last time we were in New York.” 

“You have great taste in clothes. Don’t know if I’ve ever told ya that.” 

“Says the fashion icon himself.” You look away, then back at him. “What do you feel like doing for dinner tonight?”

“Gettin hungry, love?”

“Yeah.” 

“Well, we could stay in tonight. I don’t know if I feel like putting proper dinner clothes on.”

“Me either, we bought plenty of food. Oh! We could have pancakes tonight.”

“Brilliant idea.”

After a little more time in the pool, you both dry off, and go back to your room. You both hang out in your bathing suits for a bit while you get all the things to make pancakes. You decide to change into a pair of jean shorts, feeling uncomfy in your bathing suit bottoms. You leave the top on though. 

You and Harry giggle as you flip the the pancakes, and scarf them down. 

“Feel like seein’ if there’s a movie on? We could watch it in bed.” He says. You squint at him, still annoyed about your sleeping situation. You sigh. 

“Sure, just let me change into my jammies.” 

You take out a a pair of shirts and a t-shirt. You change in the bathroom, then wash your face and brush your teeth. You take your hair out of it’s bun. Harry had changed into a pair of boxers, and was laying on the bed with one of his arms tucked behind his head, the remote in the other hand. You cross your arms over your chest, not wanting him to see you’re not wearing a bra. You had seen Harry in nothing but his boxers plenty of times, so you didn’t feel uncomfortable. 

You climb onto the large bed, and set as far away form him as possible. 

“So, what are we watching?”

“Think we’ll be watchin’ this marathon of Chopped. Nothin’ else good is on.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll probably fall asleep soon anyways.” You lean over and turn your bedside table lamp off, and get under the covers. 

“You’re awfully far away.” 

“Don’t start with me.”

“Are you really that uncomfortable with this?”

“It’s not that I’m uncomfortable, this is just all very presumptuous of you that I’d be okay with sharing a room with you. Let alone a bed.” You keep your eyes on the TV. “Ted, get out of the fucking way! Jesus, I hate when he goes to talk to them, and then he distracts them.” Harry chuckles at how invested you get with the show. 

“Oi, look at this one going for the ice cream maker, real fucking original.”

“She’s lucky she didn’t chopped from the last round with that sorry excuse for a risotto.” You both laugh. 

Harry gets up to do his nightly routine, and turns his light off after getting back into bed.

“Ready for me to turn it off?”

“Sure.” 

He fell asleep pretty quickly, as you lay there staring at the ceiling. How could he be so calm about all of this. You secretly wondered if he would try to cuddle with you. But at the end of the Harry was a gentleman. You finally fell asleep, but not for long. 

“Mornin’.” Harry saying coming into the kitchen with a blanket wrapped around him. 

“Hey.” You say eating some cereal.

“You sleep alright?”

“Meh.” You say. He frowns. “Wasn’t cause of you though. I never sleep good the first night I go somewhere.” 

The two of you spend the day at the each, enjoying the beautiful sand and warm water. Harry picked you up and threw you in a couple times. You managed to grab onto him and dunk him a few times yourself. The whole day was fulled with laughter. 

That night for dinner her took you to a club that had live music. You wore your hair down and wore a blue sundress. Harry wore a shirt that was mostly open and a pair of shorts. He stands and extends a hand out to you.

“What?” 

“Let’s dance.” Harry never danced, he was truly on vacation mode. You had a few drinks in you, so you shrugged your shoulders and took his hands. 

It was simple, fast paced dancing at first, but his hands never left yours. The band started to play a slower song. You both nervously smiled at each other. Harry’s hands went to your hips, and yours went on his shoulders. You two sink into the dance as he pulls you closer to him, leaning your head on his chest. He hums into your ear and goosebumps raise on your skin. 

When you get back to the room later you struggle to unzip your dress while you’re in the bathroom. You crack the door. 

“Harry.” You whine. 

“Yeah, love?”

“Can you please help me?” He practically jumps from the bed. He opens the door wider. Your chest was flushed from the alcohol. His skin was already golden brown from the two days of sun. 

“Turn around.” He says. You turn and move your hair. He unzips your dress for your as you cross your arms over your chest. You weren’t wearing a bra with your dress since it had one built in. 

You turn to face him, your cheeks rosy. 

“Need help with anythin’ else?” He asks, not breaking eye contact.

“Like what?” He shrugs his shoulders. His hand cups your cheek, you close your eyes and lean into his touch. 

“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?” You open your eyes and shake your head no. “Well, you are. You’re so beautiful. I’ve thought so since we met.”

“Oh, stop it.” You push him out of the bathroom, and close the door. Your dress falls to your feet. You change into a pair of shorts and a tank top. You walk out arms crossed over your chest. He’s sitting on the edge of your bed. 

“You don’t have to keep doin’ that, I know what boobs look like.”

“You don’t need to know what my boobs look like.” You say standing in front of him.

“Why not?”

“Because we’re friends.” He scoffs. “Not to mention I fucking work for you, Harry.”

“So?”

“So?! Okay great, so let’s just fuck and then you’ll get what you want, and then you can fire me like nothing ever happened!” He stands up and gets in your face, but you step back.

“Is that really what you think of me? After all this time we’ve known each other.”

“Harry, I have seen so many people leave your hotel room over this last year, I’m exhausted just looking at you.”

“I haven’t hooked up with anyone in a while.”

“You want a fucking award?”

“Why are you so god damn stubborn? You have to like me too, you just have to.”

“Why, because you’re Harry Styles?”

“No, because you know better than anyone else. I like you, a lot. I think we should be together. It wouldn’t effect your job in the slightest.” 

“This was your plan the whole time wasn’t it? Get me alone on a romantic vacation, show me this side of yourself so I’ll agree to being with you.” He doesn’t say anything. “That’s what I thought. You’re always doing sneaky shit like this. How hard would it to have been to just talk to me about how you were feeling? I’m not the sweep me off my feet kind of girl. You know what’s really sexy? Proper fucking communication.”

“Alright! I like you! I like you so much, and I have for a while. I think you’re incredibly brilliant, and yeah I do wanna fuck you. I wanna give you a proper fucking shag, you know you’re fucking gorgeous.”

“I’m not a model, you like to date models.”

“I’ve dated like one model, and that just happened to be her job.”

“Yeah, and you made an entire album about how much you loved fucking her. Kind of hard to compete with that, Harry.” You huff.

“What, are you jealous?”

“Not in the slightest.” 

“Do you care about any of the other things I just said?”

“Mm, so romantic, you screaming that you wanna fuck me.” You say sarcastically. 

“You don’t want to fuck me? You don’t want to even consider being with me?” His eyes were tired and sad. 

“If we do this, there’s no going back, and it scares the shit out of me. What if I lose you? That would literally kill me.” 

“You couldn’t lose me.” He wraps his arms around you and presses you to his chest. “I want you around me all the time, can’t you see that?” He lets go to take your face in his hands. 

You weren’t sure if it was the alcohol, or the adrenaline from the argument, but what you did next took you both by surprise. It had been a while since you were intimate with someone, so you may have gotten a little too excited. 

You pushed Harry, hard, so he falls on his back on his bed. You get right up on his lap straddling him. He sits himself up to look at you. 

“You really want this? With me?” You ask.

“More than you could ever know.” 

You lace your fingers through his hair and crash your lips to his. It felt so good it practically burned, your tongues finding each other in seconds. His hands go to your ass right away and he squeezes you with his large hands. 

It felt like your clothes came off immediately, and you found your self on your back, with your legs over his shoulders. The rumors were true, he loved eating out. Every lick and flick of his tongue was done with suck expertise, it astounded you. Every groan he let out against you fucking sent you, and you found yourself moaning out his name as you came undone on his tongue.

“So sweet.” He says bringing his head up, licking his swollen lips. “I’ve wanted to know for so long what you tasted like. I’ve thought about it so many times.”

“Really?”

“More than I’d like to admit.” 

He hovers over you, and rubs tip against your clit, making you both moan.

“Do you have condoms with you?” 

“Um...I think so.”

“Okay, go put one on.”

“You’re not on birth control?”

“I am.” He blinks at you. “Harry, no offense, but you’ve been with a lot of people, and until you get tested, I’m not letting that thing inside me without a condom.” 

He pretends to be offended, but gets off the bed to rummage for a condom. He slides it on once he finds it, and gets back on the bed. 

He slowly slides inside you as you grip his shoulders. He was big, maybe even a little too big. He stays inside you for a moment, giving you some time to get used to him. He starts to move slowly as you wrap your legs around his waist.

“You don’t have to be gentle with me.” You say into his ear. “I can take it.”

“You want it hard, baby?”

“Yes, please.” 

Harry pulls out of you almost the way, then slams inside you. You arch of the bed a little. 

“Do it again.” He smirks, and does as you say. 

He fucks you like this for the majority of the time. You tighten around him, and grind against him, coming very close to another release. 

“Fuck, Harry.” Your head goes back into the pillow as you come again. You tighten yourself around. “Want you to come too.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, please come for me Harry.” 

He quickens his motions, and they become sloppy. He moans out your name as he fills the condom, and collapses on top of you. You run your hands through his hair. He slowly pulls out of you and hiss at the loss of him. He gets up to dispose of the condom, then joins you once again. 

Harry pulls you onto his sweaty chest to hold you. 

“How was that, love?”

“Your dick is huge.” You both start giggling. “But in all seriousness, it was great.” You kiss him on the cheek. “It had, uh, been a while for me.”

“Same here, didn’t think I was gonna last as long as I did. You felt incredible.” You nuzzle into him. 

“What happens now?”

“Well, we have three days left here, then it’s back to reality. I’d love to take you on a real date when we get back to California. I could cook for you at home. You know, see where it all goes.” 

“Or I could just start calling you my boyfriend, and skip all that crap.” He looks down at you. 

“Works for me.” 

“Great. So, um, how many condoms did you bring with you?”

“Why, ready for a second round?”

You move to get on top of him, straddling his hips. 

“You said you’ve thought about this before. I wanna fulfill every fantasy you’ve had.” Harry swallows hard. Amazed that he get to see this side of you. 

//

You spent the next three days in and out of the room. You tried to enjoy the sun and warm water, but you both found yourselves wanting to just be alone and explore each other’s bodies. It was the most passionate sex you’ve ever had. 

You loved what you did every day. How many people got to say that? 

[ahtohallan-calling]

chapter 12 of it’s always ourselves we find is here!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11

[kristanna / m / modern au / coworkers & enemies to lovers ;) ]

all good w greg? 

.

No. Guess what was wrong with the printer?

.

out of ink?

.

Unplugged.

.

omg i feel like i shouldn’t laugh but i am

.

Well, then it turns out he had six different viruses on his work issued laptop.

.

no shit? that’s worse than hans

are you gonna make it to the dinner? I’ll save you a seat

liss told me it’s just a bunch of subs and chips and stuff but i mean it’s free

.

Don’t think I will. I’m sorry :/. Haven’t even showered.

.

don’t be sorry! i’ll just sneak some out and we can eat together in the room 😊

can’t have you starving to death

.

And suddenly, the bubbling, hot tide of irritation that had been rising in him since the moment Greg had first interrupted them on the beach was all washed away.

“So,” Greg said, squinting, “where did all my toolbars go?”

Kristoff chuckled and clapped the older man on the shoulder. “Good one, buddy.”

“No, seriously.”

“I’ll cut you a deal. Either you promise me never to click on a pop-up porn ad again, or I’ll tell Harry exactly how many pop-up porn ads you clicked on while using your work computer.”

The other man paled at that. “How can you tell?”

Kristoff winked and tapped a finger against his temple. “Call it intuition. Have a good one, Greg.”

It was for the best that the lobby and hallways were uncrowded as he made his way back upstairs to the hotel room, because not only did he still smell sort of seaweed-y, but he was paying next to no attention to where he was going. Every part of him felt charged somehow, like the air between a burst of lightning and the clap of thunder, but in the best way; he kept pulling his phone out to check it, to remind himself that this was real, that Anna actually returned his feelings, that she was choosing to be with him tonight.

Tonight-- and maybe beyond that, if this streak of luck continued. 

To his relief, she still wasn’t back in the room by the time he got there; he wanted nothing more than to hold her again the way he had in the water, but he also knew that there was definitely still some sand where it did not belong and that his chances of finally getting to kiss her were severely lowered if he didn’t hurry up and rinse off the saltwater that still felt like it was clinging to every inch of him.

He was just rinsing the last of the suds from his skin when he heard the door to the room open and Anna calling for him.

“In here,” he called back. 

“Hurry up before your food gets cold.”

He chuckled. “It’s sandwiches. It’s supposed to be cold.”

“Yeah, but you had to stop and think about it for a second, didn’t you?”

“Did not,” he said as he switched off the water and reached for his towel.

“Definitely did,” came the cheerful reply. “But seriously, hurry up, slowpoke. I’m fucking starving.”

When he emerged, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt as he ran a hand through his still-damp hair, she was just coming back in from the balcony, her teeth chattering. “Hey, Kris,” she said, and without further preamble she wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled her face against his shoulder.

“Hey, yourself,” he said, one hand instinctively flying up to cradle the back of her head as the other pressed against her back, pulling her closer to his chest.

Anna sighed happily and nuzzled her cheek against him. “Sorry, is this okay? It’s just kind of chilly now that it’s dark out.”

“‘Course,” he mumbled, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “But I’ve got a sweatshirt you can borrow. I’d hold you all night, but that’d make eating difficult, huh?”

She peered up at him, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Would you really?”

He swallowed hard. “Ah, shit, Anna. I-- it’s one thing when I tell you stuff like that on accident, but on purpose…”

So fast he didn’t have time to react, she brushed a kiss against the underside of his jaw and whispered, “You’re sweet, you know that?”

Speechless, he only nodded and headed over to his suitcase. “Here,” he said, pulling out a worn, navy blue sweatshirt and offering it to her. “It’s kinda old, but it’s pretty warm.”

Anna wriggled quickly into it, and for the second time that day his heart stuttered in his chest at the sight of her wearing his clothes. The sweatshirt was even bigger on her than his button down had been; it hung nearly to her knees. She giggled as she held up her hands to examine just how far past her fingertips the sleeves of the sweatshirt dangled. “At this rate, you’re going to go home with an empty suitcase.”

Kristoff didn’t reply, too overcome with the sudden thought of this is the night you’re going to kiss her. Of course he had tried to earlier when they were interrupted, and he just might have even before that in the elevator if only they’d had another ten seconds or so, but now seeing her so delighted to be wearing something else of his, the way her eyes had sparkled when he’d offered, the fact that she’d snuck him his dinner up here so they could enjoy it together underneath the starlight with nothing but the sound of the waves to disturb them--

Tonight, he thought, a shiver of wonder racing through him.

“Kris?”

He blinked, startled from his reverie, and looked down to see a look of concern crossing Anna’s face. “Are you alright?” she asked, looking suddenly nervous. “You were just-- staring at me.”

“Yeah, it’s just-- just-- yeah,” he said lamely, and to his surprise, her cheeks turned rosy. 

“Well, anyway,” she said, a little shy as she tugged the sleeves up enough that her hands were free, “I, uh, I put the food out on the table out on the balcony. I got you a Dr. Pepper, that’s your favorite, right?”

He nodded, once again too overwhelmed for words, and reached down to tangle his fingers with hers.

They ate in near silence, exchanging shy glances across the little table between bites of their sandwiches. He wanted to ask her more about everything, not just about the sudden miracle that had sprung up between them but about her, about what she liked to do on weeknights and where she went to elementary school and how she ended up working at an office supply company that, some days, seemed to run purely on nepotism and scotch tape.

And it occurred to him, suddenly, as he watched Anna settle further back in her chair, letting the sleeves fall back down to cover her fingers, that he knew the answers, that they’d been gleaned one at a time over the fourteen months they’d worked together; that she liked to go hiking with her sister or read at home with her cat on her lap; that she’d grown up in Illinois and been homeschooled until high school; and that she’d gone to Auburn and followed her sister further east. 

And god, even just realizing that he’d already known it all, that he’d known it and known that he felt this way about her for so long, was enough for him to again feel that rising certainty that he was going to kiss her tonight-- well, certainty and panic.

Anna, for her part, appeared to be more focused on the night sky than on the way he was dying a slow and painful death right there on the balcony. “I wish we could see the stars like this closer to the city,” she said softly, the evening breeze fluttering through the ends of her hair. 

“You can,” Kristoff blurted out. “I can from my yard.” 

She turned to look at him, her eyes softer than she’d ever seen them. “Can I come see them sometime?”

“You don’t even have to ask,” he breathed, hoping she understood how earnestly he meant it, and that that went for anything she asked of him; it was hers, all she might want of all he had.

He thought for a minute that the moment might be then, from the way her lips parted slightly and the way she leaned forward, but then something lit up in her expression, and she was on her feet. “Oh! I forgot we have dessert!”

He raised his eyebrows at that; it was very unlike Anna to forget anything sweet. He listened to her rustling around through her bag for a moment as he drew in a deep breath, trying as best he could to steady his nerves. 

“Aha!” she said triumphantly, pulling out the bag of M&Ms he’d bought for her the day before and waving them in the air. 

“Well, how about that,” Kristoff said, trying to contain his amusement. 

She grinned, already tearing the bag open. “You want some? Hold out your hand.”

“Nah, that’s okay,” he said, and as she shrugged and popped a handful into her mouth, he added airily, “I got them for you.”

She froze, one hand halfway back down from her mouth, the other slowly losing its grip on the bag. He could have sworn he could pinpoint the moment it had clicked for her— something about the way her eyes were suddenly so bright it made his chest ache. 

“Well, don’t mind me, go on and eat them,” he said mischievously. “I spent good money on those.”

She set the bag down with a decisive tap and finally remembered to swallow. “It was you?” she whispered. “The whole time?”

If he was being honest, he suddenly felt a little off balance himself. He barely managed a nod as she drew closer to him; he let his knees pull further apart so that she could stand between them as she leaned down to set her fingertips against his jaw. They were trembling, just barely.

“I can’t believe it,” Anna said, her voice barely audible. 

“Can’t believe what?”

A soft smile crept over her features. “How something so obvious was right in front of my eyes, and I never even noticed.”

His heart was beginning to pound. “I— I think I missed a couple things, too,” he murmured as she leaned down, and then suddenly— finally— they were kissing, her lips earnest and still candy-sweet against his. He set his hands on her waist to try and pull her closer she went easily, settling herself on his lap. 

“Anna,” he whispered, and felt her smile against him, and god, it was even better than his dreams. 

---

It had been difficult, at first, to fall asleep when she’d kept giggling. “What?” Kristoff had asked, confused, as they faced each other across the mattress, still keeping their distance though they hadn’t bothered with setting up any semblance of a barrier.

“It’s just that a couple of days ago I thought you hated me, and then we just kissed for the first time tonight, and now we’re sharing a bed and it’s just-- it’s just sort of crazy, isn’t it?”

“That’s one word for it.”

She’d raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “What word would you choose?”

He’d thought for a moment before saying, “Lucky,” his voice so serious it made something in her chest flutter.

And she’d bitten her lip and scooted across the midpoint of the mattress and shyly settled a hand on his chest like she had the night before, and he’d gone a step further and slid an arm around her shoulders to pull her even closer, and then they’d kissed again until Anna pulled back and whispered, “Is it okay if we just do this?”

“What do you mean just this?”

“Just-- kissing. Even though we’re sharing a bed? I just-- I don’t want to…”

“Rush things?” he’d finished for her, and she’d nodded, too shy to meet his gaze.

“Me either,” he had whispered then as she nestled her face against his chest, letting the steady beat of his heart calm her nerves until she slid into a deep, dreamless sleep.

At some point in the night, though, a sudden sense of loss dragged her from slumber, leaving her blinking, disoriented, in the pitch dark room.

“Kristoff?” she asked, reaching blindly for him before her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

He was sitting up on the edge of the bed, slumping forward with his head in his hands. Anna sat up, rubbing at her eyes. “Kris, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”

She glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand, squinting at the red digits in the darkness. “It’s after two.”

“Believe me, I know.”

He sounded so dejected that she didn’t even have to think it through before her mind was made up. She pushed the covers back and crawled over to sit behind him. After taking a moment to steel herself, she slid her arms around his waist and buried her face in the crook of his neck, inhaling the warm, woodsy smell of his shower gel that still lingered on his skin.

“Hey,” he murmured, lowering a hand to press it over hers where it rested on his stomach.

“Hey, yourself,” she replied, nuzzling her nose just above the collar of his t-shirt. “Wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“No.”

“Will you anyway? Please?”

“Nosy.”

“Grumpy.”

“Hey, I was pretty cheerful today,” he contended, and a soft laugh escaped her.

“You were. It was really nice.”

He squeezed her hand at that, and she smiled, wondering if he could feel it against his skin. For several long moments neither of them moved, not daring to speak a word that might brush up too harshly against this tenuous, newborn tranquility between them, and then Kristoff sighed. “You’re not going to go back to bed, are you?”

“Nope. Not til I know you’re okay.”

“I don’t want you to worry.”

“Too late for that.”

Kristoff chuckled. “You’re too stubborn for your own good, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told. By you, mostly.”

He lowered both of his hands now, settling them in his lap, before turning as best he could to look at her over his shoulder, his dark eyes glossed with moonlight. “I’ve never told anyone this.”

“You can trust me,” Anna replied. “But you don’t have to.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile. “I know. It’s just...it’s kind of a long story.”

She shifted to sit behind him, turning so she could lean against his broad back and rest her cheek against the soft fabric of his worn shirt. “I’ve got all night.”

He sighed heavily enough that she rose and fell with him. “I just...if this changes how you think about me--”

“It won’t,” she said decisively. 

“It might,” he pressed on. “So I just...I’m sorry if it does.”

“Kristoff, quit worrying and just tell me.”

He sighed again. “I just...I really need this presentation to go well tomorrow. I can’t get fired.”

Anna frowned. “Why is that a big secret? I don’t want to get fired either.”

“No, it’s-- it’s different. I can’t get fired, Anna, I...I need this job to help take care of my family. And if I lose this one, I don’t think I could find another.”

“Of course you could! You’re super smart and good at all your-- your computery things, and--”

“I don’t have a degree. I barely even finished high school.”

She was glad he couldn’t see the shock she was sure was evident on her face. “But you’re the head of IT.”

“I know, believe me, and I-- I know there’s no way in hell I’d get a job like this again. Shit, I’d be lucky to get anything full time. But my mom and dad, they’re retired, and they don’t have a lot of savings because they spent it on all of us.”

“All of...who?”

Kristoff groaned; she felt his back shift as he raised a hand to run it through his hair. “I-- fuck. I guess I better tell you my whole shitty life story, huh?”

She turned and pressed a kiss against the nape of his neck. “Only if you want me to.”

He was quiet for a long moment then, but she waited patiently like she always did for him when it really mattered, knowing that, unlike her, he preferred to gather his thoughts in advance before diving in headfirst. Her eyelids were beginning to droop when at last he began to speak, his voice tight.

“I was a foster kid for a long time, til I was about to turn nine. And my folks took me in-- they took in, shit, I don’t even know how many of us over the years, but me and my sister were the only ones who stayed. And they were good to me like no one else had ever been, and when they finally adopted me-- shit, it was the best day of my life. But I...I was just so angry sometimes, not at them but just at the whole world, you know?”

She nodded, too overcome to speak, and after a moment he sighed and went on. “And so I just...I fucked around in school, spent more time in suspension than out, fell in with a bunch of other guys who did the same dumb shit. And then one day, I got arrested, and Pop told me that was it. He made me get back into therapy, made me sit at the kitchen table and do all my homework while he watched, wouldn’t let me leave the house unless he or Ma was with me. And I was furious, and then that burned out, and I was just bored as hell, and so I started messing around with computers, trying to figure out how they worked. At first it was so I could figure out how to fuck more shit up at school, but then I got serious about it.”

He paused then, shifting a little to look back at her. “I’m rambling, I know. You can tell me to shut up and go back to bed if you--”

“No,” Anna said fiercely. “I want to know. And I think you need to talk about it for your own sake.”

He was quiet for a moment, just taking stock of her expression, before nodding slowly. “Maybe I do.”

She settled against his back again. “So keep going.”

He chuckled at that, and she couldn’t help but smile at the feeling of his back rumbling against her. “Bossy.”

“Grumpy. Stop trying to distract me.”

“I...okay, okay, fine. Anyway, I graduated by the skin of my teeth, but I had no clue what to do with myself. Pop, uh, he was a handyman, and he got called up to the office building-- our office building, I mean-- and so I just went with him to kill time. And one day Mr. Westergaard-- as in the old dude-- he was there, and he was really pissed off about something with his laptop, and so I offered to fix it, and I did. And he just kinda looked at me and said, ‘well, shit, son, the IT guy I got now told me to just buy a new one’, and he hired me on the spot. And I just...I worked my way up from there, you know? And because he gave me a chance, I turned my life around, and now I can take care of my parents and my sister, and if I lose this…I don’t know if anyone else would hire me.”

Something dawned on Anna then, and she leaned around his shoulder to get a look at his face. “So Hans…”

“He knows, yeah. So does Harry. Nobody else, though. So that’s why he holds it all over my head, knows I can’t do shit about it.”

“Fucking rat bastard,” they said in unison, and after a moment of surprise they both laughed. 

Anna reached over to squeeze his hand. “Maybe...maybe now if people saw the experience you have…”

“Maybe’s not good enough, not when they need me. I gotta at least help them get through til Maggie graduates, and she’s got another year of high school after this one.”

She moved then to set beside him, tugging at his arm until he raised it and let her slip underneath it. He dropped it over her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I know that’s a lot to unload on you, Anna, I don’t blame you if--”

“Oh, shut up, Bjorgman, this doesn’t change jack shit. Except that now I think I like you even more.”

“What, really? Former fuckup, that’s your type?”

“No. But it means a lot to me that you told me all that.”

He was quiet then, his thumb rubbing slowly up and down against her shoulder. She was still wearing his sweatshirt-- he was crazy if he ever thought he was getting it back. She nestled closer against his side, wrapping her arms around his sturdy waist. “I’m here for you, Kristoff,” she said softly. “Anytime you need to talk about shit like this. It’s not gonna change how I-- how I feel about you. And tomorrow-- don’t even worry, okay? I’m gonna make sure the presentation is the best fucking presentation this company has ever seen.”

“I don’t know, last year’s presentation on solar panels is a tough one to beat…” he said half-heartedly.

“I mean it,” she said softly. “Fuck Hans. Tomorrow is going to be great. But first, we gotta get some sleep. You can’t just sit up all night worrying it’ll go badly, because then that’s exactly what will happen.”

“I know, I know, it’s just...I don’t know. I was just... I was thinking about all this shit, and then about you, and how I finally got to kiss you, and--”

“Finally?”

“Ah, shit, this is another one of those things you’re gonna want me to say, and you only know about it ‘cause I let it slip, and--”

“Finally for me too,” she interrupted. “But you kinda already gave it away when you confessed about the M&Ms. I got the first pack of those less than a month in.”

“...yeah.”

She leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek, but before she could, he turned and caught her lips with his own. She sighed against him, letting one hand rest on his chest as his arm tightened around her.

When they broke apart, he rested his forehead against hers. “How am I supposed to sleep when it means missing out on more of that, huh?”

“Cut you a deal, if you don’t get your ass back under the covers right now, I’ll never kiss you again.”

She didn’t think she’d ever seen him move so quickly.

[canaryatlaw]

okay okay, here we are. today was pretty good overall. thankfully I was able to fall asleep last night and actually slept in a good bit this morning, which was nice. when I did get up, I went downstairs and pulled out the dough for the scones I made last night, and got those going in the oven. by the time they were cooled down enough to eat mostly everyone was downstairs so we had the scones and they were very good, everyone was super impressed with them which was nice lol. having freshly grated nutmeg and fresh rosemary definitely makes a big difference. so that was a hit and I think will probably become a tradition to start. we moved on to doing presents then. I wasn’t really sure what to expect this year about presents but I didn’t want to get my hopes up or anything which was probably a good idea, but I did get some cool stuff. my older brother got me the Marvel encyclopedia (this is what happens when I say just get me something superhero themed, lol) and a book about Wonder Woman. He also got me a masterclass subscription with a bunch of different videos and courses you can take which looks like some very interesting stuff. my younger brother got me some random novel that looked fairly interesting (I don’t know why everyone suddenly leaned towards getting me books this year when it’s been a while since I sat down and actually read a real book and not fanfiction?). my sister got me some skin care stuff, and a nice candle and lotion from bath and body works that were both winter candy apple scented which is my favorite of their Christmas themed scents and the candle I had from last year was almost burned up, so that was nice. My mom got me a shirt from Marshall’s with little gold pieces around the collar and on the shoulders which is pretty. she also got me a body wash and lotion set and there was something else in the bag with it but it’s escaping my memory at the moment. my brothers were both very happy with the flannel sweatshirts I got them (they came wrapped in plastic with a tag on the inside that said they were $99 when I definitely did not pay that much money for them lol so I said that wasn’t accurate. my sister was very pleased with the Prada bucket hat I obtained for her, and was happy I managed to get an actual Prada bag for it to come in and seems convinced that my brother (who got her a purse and thing that actually match the hat quite well) actually bought them from Prada (and was like “lol I feel bad” like sweetie I love you dearly but I’m not going to spend $450 on a fucking bucket hat for you, that’s just insane). my mom really liked the big cast iron pan my brother and I got her since her other one died over thanksgiving. once my uncle arrived he unwrapped his present from me which was a book about stamps, which he loves, and he was delighted with that (later in the day he asked if I wanted him to leave me his stamp collection and I was like ?? I guess if nobody else wants them?? which they won’t lol but I guess we’ll see). we did breakfast afterwards and then from that point forward I spent up until dinner in the kitchen cooking things. both the pear tart (gluten free, for my mom) and the creme brulee pie I made required crusts to be baked separately and then cooled and then for the contents to go in and bake again, so it was quite a bit of a process with both of them, but I was very pleased with how they turned out. when it was getting closer to dinner time I worked on the brie in puff pastry with cranberries which was very good as well as mac and cheese, a new recipe I wanted to try that got rave reviews with everyone, so everything turned out quite well and I was pleased. after dinner everyone kind of moped around for a bit, and then I took initiative and figured out how to get Wonder Woman ‘84 playing on the tv and started watching that. We’d pause mid-way through for some dessert which was nice and lowkey, then back to the movie. the first WW is legit my favorite movie, so this one had a high bar to make it up to, and unfortunately it was just kind of meh and I mean it was a good story I suppose but it didn’t have the same meaning and emotions the first one did, so that was kind of disappointing. after it finished I stayed downstairs for a little while on my laptop until the battery died, then went upstairs and started getting ready for bed, and now I’m here, and it’s almost 3 am, so I am going to go to bed now. Goodnight my loves. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas. 

[aahsokaatano]

ITALY????

Y’all I spent one whole week in Italy in 2017 and it was one of the most bizarre fucking weeks of my life

let’s break it down from the beginning

[under a read more for length]

So, fall of 2017 I was studying abroad in London. One of the classes I was taking was specifically for study abroad students, designed to get us engaging in the culture of London or whatever i dont really remember the class itself but my god do i remember the people i met in it

two in particular were these girls, also American. We shall call them Molly and Ally. They had quickly made friends with each other, and after one of the class trips into London, i was friendly with them as well. The “reading week” or fall break was coming up, and they mentioned that they were going to Italy and asked if I wanted to go. I had booked a short tour to Dover, but thought “oh my god Italy???? Fuck yes!” and so I bought my plane tickets then asked them where they had booked hotel rooms so that I could add myself to their itinerary

“Oh,” Molly said, “we haven’t, don’t worry about it”

Me, a seasoned traveler “?????? uh”

I bugged them about this for at LEAST a week and finally, about THREE DAYS from when we were supposed to leave, I just went ahead and booked an assortment of hostels and airbnbs for us in all the cities they wanted to go to and told them to pay me back later

they actually admitted afterwards that that had been a smart move on my part which like????? no SHIT its a smart move to have a plan where you’re gonna sleep every night while in a foreign country. god.

So, lets go through this day by day

Day 1 - London to Milan

we flew from London to Milan in the evening, getting there pretty late at night. and it was only once we were actually IN Italy that I learned that 1) none of us spoke Italian and 2) despite having grown up in two areas with large Hispanic populations, neither Molly or Ally spoke a lick of Spanish, which is close enough to Italian that you can kind of limp through a conversation of one if you know the other.

so, somehow, I ended up being our Italian translator for the week, armed with nothing but a translator website, a handful of Italian music terms, and the ability to roll my r’s fairly well for a white person. Literally, i figured out where the bus stop was outside of the airport because I saw the word “fermata” painted on the pavement and I knew that meant “long pause” in sheet music terms so I hazarded a guess it meant stop or similar in regular Italian

(sidenote I almost got in a fight with some random Italian dude on the bus because Molly was going on about how excited she was to try the pizza and I told her it wasn’t going to be the same because “the pizza you’re used to is an American invention” and he turned around and started going on about the tradition of pizza in Italy and I was like I just mean that American pizza is different from real Italian pizza i did not mean to offend i’m sorry!!!!!! anyways)

the bus dropped us in a square in the middle of Milan and we got out and i’m lookin at my airbnb app trying to figure out where we need to go and i said “okay we need to get a cab” and Molly and Ally are arguing about something and this RANDOM ASS DUDE walks up to us and is like “you need taxi?” and i said yes to he leads us back to his REGULAR ASS CAR, NOT A TAXI and tells us to get in, and for some unknown fucking reason I do and Molly and Ally follow me and shut up real fast because this is sketchy as fuck but the guy did take us to the airbnb without murdering us so thats a win i guess

The airbnb by the way was more like a mini hostel - it was this apartment where pretty much every room except the bathroom had been converted into a bedroom and so probably not entirely legal but whatever. whatever. 

Day 2 - Milan to Venice

i woke up early the next morning and went to take a shower at the bathroom at the end of the hall and found out that the lights didn’t work. Whatever, I’m mostly blind without my glasses anyways so i just showered in the dark, no biggie

we had an early bus to catch from Milan to Venice, so we headed out to the bus station. I’ll be honest, I do not remember how we got there. I think we walked, because I ended up with a coffee at some point so I probably got it from some cafe on the way? But idk. I was so tired.

We get on the bus, I found two empty seats far away from Molly and Ally, and immediately stretched out and fell asleep.

Ally woke me a little later and said “c’mon, we’re here!”

I was confused as all hell because it had not been nearly long enough for us to get all the way to Venice, but I got off the bus and was greeted by Molly stretching her arms out and proclaiming “Welcome to Venice!” underneath a sign that said we were at the Verona bus station.

They did not believe me when I said Verona and Venice were two different places. “Venice has canals, Verona is where Romeo & Juliet is set. There are no canals in R&J, they’re two different places!” I literally had to pull out my phone, go to google maps, and zoom out until they could see that Venice was still several hours away before they believed me.

The bus driver almost didn’t let us back on but I was able to show him on the tickets that our end destination was, in fact, Venice.

Venice itself was pretty neat. We got to go on a gondola ride and I ate an entire pizza by myself at dinner lmao.

Day 3 - Venice to Florence

we took a train from Venice to Florence the next morning, and that’s when I discovered that Italian train stations have lovely little cafes with AMAZING coffee and really good pastries. The other two didn’t drink coffee but like, their loss. it was fantastic. 

Florence was great, we found a little shop that sold really yummy gelato for only 1 Euro a scoop - Geletaria La Carraia. If you ever end up in Florence, definitely check it out!

We wandered around for a while, took a lot of pictures. There was some famous church that was undergoing some renovations, but as we walked up to it Molly gasped and said “I’ve climbed that in Assassin’s Creed!” which was pretty funny. 

We went to a museum that had made a bunch of models of some of Leonardo DaVinci’s inventions. We went to an art museum and stumbled across Michaelangelo’s David on accident, so that was the big “wtf” moment of the day. Also that night Molly decided to buy a bottle of wine to take home to a friend of her’s back in America, but realized after buying it that her backpack wasn’t big enough to cart it around for the rest of the week so I ended up carrying an entire fucking bottle of wine for the rest of the trip because I was the only one smart enough to bring a proper backpacking backpack and not just my school bag.

Also the hostel we were in had actual skeleton keys for their rooms and actual goddamn keyholes that one could clearly see through so i left the key in the lock all night AND hung my sweatshirt from the door handle so that no one could peek in at us

Day 4 - Florence to Pisa

once again, I woke up early, went into the bathroom attached to our room (the hostel had had a cancellation and so we ended up in a private room instead of a dorm style) and discovered that the lights didn’t work so I had a second shower in the dark

we took another train from Florence to Pisa, and there we ran into our only bit of bad weather

What’s the big draw in Pisa? The Leaning Tower, right?

What was the only day it rained, non-fucking-stop, the entire time we were in Italy? THE DAY WE WERE IN PISA

I got so soaked that I actually bought a new sweatshirt because the one I was wearing was DRIPPING

anyways, after we had taken several dumb touristy pictures and grabbed an early dinner at a nearby restaurant, we decided to head over to the room I had booked. The cheapest place I could find was a tiny cabin at a campground nearby. According to the map on my phone, it was a short walk away.

A solid hour later, we finally trudged up to the main office of the campground, shivering and soaked, and got the keys to our cabin. We set our stuff down, and Ally and Molly decided to go back out to the grocery store we had passed coming in. I waved them off and went to take a shower in the bathroom with fully functioning lights! hooray!

Day 5 - Pisa to Rome

another morning, another train station with excellent coffee. We got into Rome and, at this point, we were all so tired from travelling that I was finally able to take charge. up until this point, Molly had been railroading us, even sort of bullying Ally in the process, but now she was exhausted and I, through a combination of practice in functioning while dead on my feet, lots of travel experience, and Mom Friend Instincts, took the reins. We got to Rome and I said “we’re going to the church with the big hole in the roof (its a thing, look it up) and then we’re going to eat.... at this place around the corner and then we’re going to to go our hostel and check in”

they didn’t argue, and that’s a true testament to how fucking tired the two of them were, especially Molly, because she would argue about anything and everything given half a chance. We also went to the military museum that day, mostly because it was free and also air conditioned

(also while looking through my pictures of this trip i just discovered that i still have the picture i took of the Rome hostel FAQ page that had by the front desk, which i now remember i did because it had the wifi password on it and we weren’t in our room for 30 seconds before one of the other two asked what the wifi password was so, once again, i show that i am a very good traveler/travelling buddy)

Day 6 - Rome

so we had the next full day in Rome, and we got up early to get in line for the Vatican. I wanted to be there by 7am, Molly was like “it doesn’t even open until 9!” and we compromised at 8 and it was STILL an enormous line so i was like “see? this is why i wanted to get here early”

Oh, but before we went to the Vatican, i took a shower. IN. THE. DARK. BECAUSE ALL OF ITALY EXCEPT FOR PISA DECIDED THAT I DIDN’T DESERVE TO HAVE A SHOWER WHERE I DIDN’T HAVE TO FUMBLE AROUND BLINDLY LIKE AN ASSHOLE

ALSO on the way to the Vatican, I asked if the two of them had their passports. Ally said yes. Molly said yes, why?

And I had to then explain to Molly, a 20 year old RELIGIOUS STUDIES MAJOR, who was RAISED CATHOLIC and who had FAMILY IN THE CLERGY, that the Vatican, THE CENTER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, is it’s own country. 

she, again, did not believe me until i pulled it up on google for her

turned out that we didn’t need our passports stamped to enter the Vatican but still! still!!!!!

so it turned out that whatever day we were there on, the Sistine Chapel isn’t open that day, so we just walked through the cathedral and then headed out to the Colosseum and the ruins of the Senate behind it, both of which were very cool

Day 7 - Rome to Milan to London

we got up even EARLIER on our last day, I took another shower in the dark, and we rushed over to the Vatican, speedwalked through most of the museum, and finally got into the Sistine Chapel, which was absolutely breathtaking. Then we hauled ass back to the train station to catch our train back to Milan.

At this point in the trip, I was so fucking done with the two of them, but especially Molly. Ally was sweet and naive, but she was also willing to listen to new information. Molly was just a stubborn ass with a mean streak a mile wide and I was COMPLETELY done associating with her.

Luckily, since I had booked my flights separately, while we had flown into Milan on the same plane, I had a completely different flight back to London - to a different airport, even. They were going back to London City, but I was heading to London Gatwick. Both planes were set to depart around the same time, from two gates that were next to each other though, so i couldn’t really escape them until - uh oh! My flight was delayed. 

Molly and Ally were fretting about it but i was like “it’s fine. it’s fine. I’ve been flying since i was literally 3 months old and I s o m e h o w know more Italian AND Spanish than the two of you combined, even though I would never say that I speak EITHER of those languages. Just go.”

The flight ended up being delayed like 5 hours due to mechanical issues. They finally just got another plane for us, and we finally took off from Milan. When we went over Paris, the captain, obviously feeling bad about the delay, made sure to tilt the plane in both directions so that everyone could see the Eiffel Tower lit up, it was really neat.

We finally got back to London at literally like 230 in the morning. The busses and some of the trains weren’t even running at that point - certainly not all the way out to the fancy little liberal arts college I was going to. I went up to some security guard at the airport and said “just tell me how close I can get to the University of Roehampton on the trains” and he told me to take the train to Black Friars so I got out there and there was a bus, but it was like 40 minutes out. It’s now pass 3am, I am exhausted after a long, weird week in Italy, I texted my dad and he said “just get an Uber i’ll pay for it”

The Uber driver was very nice and as soon as I got in he said “you look really cold! do you want the heat on?” i could have fucking kissed him. he was super nice. actually made sure that I was still texting my dad (i had mentioned it when I got in because I almost dropped my bag while trying to text and maneuver at the same time) every few minutes. offered to let me take and send a picture of him to my dad. otherwise didn’t really speak and just let the music play. I tipped him literally whatever was in my pocket at that time, i don’t remember how much it was, but it was at least 20% and probably more. Really great guy. 

Random London Uber driver from 2017, you remain the best Uber driver and I love you

i finally crawled into my shitty little dorm bed at about 4am, exhausted and utterly bewildered by the past week

honestly??? I’m still bewildered by my week in Italy.

wtf even happened in all that mess.

[7dys]

roomies?

hey again im a dummy sorry

I literally could NOT think of a title im sorry here's a good ole roommate au though

request: HHhHhHhh u write so well I'm crying :(( jshsd can I get a roommate!au with jae from day6 ? with a possible fluff at the end ? eye emoji ? sjdshd tysm !! -anon

word count: 5137 she's a doozy

a/n: I must have gotten this request like... a year and a half ago at least anon if you’re seeing this I apologize but I've finally done it!!! hope u all enjoy the workings of my crackhead brain

right-o lets get to it

okay so when you moved out of your dorms after graduation you weren’t expecting it to be this God Damn Expensive

on top of buying groceries and affording your tiny ass one bedroom a girlie was struggling

so !! you decided to look into finding a roommate

obviously not to move in with you…. there’s only one bedroom okay

but like searching for an open spot with someone

you found a few that seemed nice but were all wayyyyyyy too far from your job like you would be losing money paying so much in transportation

finally you stumbled across the most cursed roommate flyer ever

but it was in a super convenient location !! so you read it anyways

it was written in GREEN and PURPLE comic sans and there were multiple pictures of chickens and cheesy memes randomly placed around the text in the middle

which by the way was a list of 7 bullet points that said this:

1:my name is jae

2:i am broke

3:i have an extra room waiting for /YOU/

4:i am in a band and will write a song about you if that’s what it takes

5:i am unreasonably good at untangling headphones and i will untangle things for you

6:i have a pet cat and if you don’t like that walk away from this flyer immediately

7:please

and then at the bottom was an octopus who’s 8 legs had his contact information on it and they were cut so you could just pull off a slip

if you were an ordinary person you would not have taken one

lucky us !!!! you’re just crazy

and you take one of the god damn octopus legs

you are understandably the only person who has taken one so far

you giggle to yourself at your own SHEER STUPIDITY and then send a text to the number

you: hi !! i saw ur ad abt looking for a roommate and i’m interested! my name is y/n and i’m still in college so u don’t have to worry about me being like . crazy im just stressed

chicken guy??: oh my god really it’s been a month since i put up that poster!! also mood

you: you put up …. only one poster …… and it was that ……

chicken guy??: it worked for u didn’t it

you: . touché

chicken guy??: anyways you can come by later today and check it out if you’d like? i swear i’m not crazy either but feel free to bring a friend if you’re worried for safety reasons or whatever

you: nah i prefer to live life on The Edge plus none of my friends would be helpful in a life threatening situation

chicken guy??: i don’t know u but i’m already worried for u pls get here soon

hehehe u liked this guy

he was funny if anything

and you tended to find all the weirdos of society and befriend them so it was safe to assume he was no different than your usual crowd

true to your word you go to the address he sent you alone later that afternoon and cheerily knock on the door

while you wait for him to answer you survey the outside

it’s honestly ….. kind of a cluttered mess but in a cute way

like some sort of kleptomaniac crow somehow got an apartment and displayed all of the strange things it found

except it’s all music related

there is a jar that is filled to the BRIM with guitar picks.

who needs that many guitar picks

“me, i do”

you squeak and turn around and go

“??????”

and the tall thin man in the door just nods

“i knew what you were thinking”

“...that’s fair”

and then he seems to remember what exactly is going on and extends one long fingered hand for a shake

“hi! you must be y/n :)) i’m jae”

you take his hand …. that shits warm

how long have you been outside that your hand is so cold when you touch him you SHIVER

he’s like oh my god come in please you’re shivering jesus christ

and you just smile and tell him it’s nice to meet him !!! what a positive polly

you come in and are pleasantly surprised that the inside has just as much personality as the poster !!

and thankfully less green and purple and ….. comic sans

you are immediately greeted by the largest tabby cat you’ve ever seen

“ah that’s my big boy mister crackers”

“his name … is mister crackers”

“....yes”

“love it. tell me more”

he smiles so BIG and WIDE when you say that you think you’re looking at the sun

as he explains more things about the apartment and points at things here and there you half listen and half just. watch him

you didn’t know what to expect from that as but it’s fair to say you lucked out as far as possible roommates go

he was tall and had shiny dark hair and glasses that made his cute little eyes even littler

and he was in a BAND that is so cool

plus he’s like …. pretty or smth

smh FOCUS

you’re gnna have to share a bathroom with him which is … scary but you looked in there and it looks clean at least

also there’s some candles in there

……. he definitely takes candlelit baths like a widow just returning from her rich husbands funeral after he left her everything in the will

king

he seems nice and funny and you appear to have a similar sense of humor …. you’re in

you’re about to tell him you’ll think about it so that you don’t come off as too excited

but then change your mind and jump up and down and tell him you’re IN and you’ll help cover the rent and cook sometimes and bake him cookies and

he stops you after cookies with a hand over your mouth

“you are perfect. please move in immediately”

you smile under his hand and hope he can’t feel your cheeks getting absolutely BLAZING hot

(he 100% can)

((and he thinks it’s really CUTE))

you grab the hand that’s over your mouth and give it a shake and tell him in a southern accent that it’s a deal pardner and he SNORTS

it was cute

you move in as quickly as possible and his band mates come over to help you move everything !!

you’re high key embarrassed to let all these literally gorgeous men into your tiny little apartment and touch all your stuff

but after talking to each of them for like 5 seconds you quickly see they’re all a bunch of nerds and you would trust them with your life

wonpil loses his MIND when he sees your little plushy collection on your bed he thinks you’re the cutest person on the whole planet

he tells jae that’s he’s the luckiest man on earth when he thinks you’re not listening

you ARE though and you stop what you’re doing to give him a big ol hug and tell him he’s an angel

sungjin disapproves of how you’ve been living and asks if you’ve been eating enough and then turns on jae with a finger like U BETTER FEED HER

brian is so intimidatingly beautiful you can’t look him in the eye until you’re all eating ramen and you watch him choke to near death and then immediately go make himself another cup

relatable

dowoon looked lost and you immediately took him under your wing and you’ve been babying him ever since

you made jae take the box full of your plates and mugs and such bc it was too heavy for your Little Angel

“please y/n i am literally the strongest of all of us let me carry things. jae is going to keel over and die”

“nonsense !!! you’re a growing boy you need rest”

“please i literally punched a HOLE in a WALL on ACCIDENT and jae has a grass allergy i promise i will be fine”

regardless of the absolute struggle it was to coordinate everyone and get all your stuff to jae’s you are FINALLY moved in

your room is obviously not the master but you weren’t gonna be like Sorry Jae I Need The Master Bedroom Move Out Xoxo

it’s cute and you brought your own furniture and some posters and decor that you had all over your old apartment

basically you just condensed it all into one room

and the boys gave you a housewarming present and it was just a picture of them performing with you badly photoshopped next to jae playing the triangle

it wasn’t even framed they just taped it to the wall

typical

after all the moving in the boys leave you and jae to settle in but the moving was TIRING so

you’re already asleep on the couch

……….typical

jae just shakes his head and covers you with one of his large sweatshirts because for some reason he only owns one blanket and it’s on his bed and he doesn’t know where yours are

he’s literally HELPLESS

you wake up with a dry mouth at 3 in the morning and smile at jaes sweater barely covering your curled up body

you hold it up and it says “i like ugly” in tiny font .

this boy is perfect

you put it on and climb in your actual bed and decide to make him breakfast tomorrow for being such an angel

you set an ALARM that’s commitment if i’ve ever seen it

you make him pancakes and and coffee and when he comes out wearing a sweatshirt similar to the one you’re wearing and the rattiest sweatpants you’ve ever seen he doesn’t even notice anything at first

nd then he rubs his eyes and just stares

“y/n i’m gonna cry i haven’t had breakfast since 2008”

you laugh and launch yourself at him because he’s That cute

“you’re so cute thank you for letting me be your roommate !!!!”

he ruffles your hair and then sets his chin on top of your head

“thanks for breakfast, sunshine. even if this is also as early as i’ve been awake since 2008”

you pinch his side at that and then go to serve him a heaping pile of pancakes bc he’s skinny and he needs it

“alright noodle eat up!!”

“did you just call me noodle?”

“yes, look at yourself”

“.. that’s fair”

you guys chat over breakfast and thank GOD it’s a sunday and neither of you have shit to do

other than laundry

you force yourself not to mom him when he just puts it all in one machine and sets it on cold and leaves .

it hurts tho

instead of being productive while you wait you have multiple staring contests

jae keeps accusing you of saying he blinked when he didn’t

“i didn’t blink my eyes just look like that !!!! they are small and asian are you racist or something??”

“shut UP i won >:((((“

after the laundry is done you go your separate ways and jae heads out to band practice and it’s your very first time …

alone in your own apartment

naturally you take off your pants and dance around for at least 10 minutes

you didn’t even realize that since your roommate is a dude you can’t just ….. not wear pants

a travesty !!!

honestly let him try to stop you from going braless though. let him try.

you laze around and try to get caught up on your favorite shows and organize your room and then it gets late and you decide you’re going to make a MEAL for dinner

like a WHOLE . MEAL.

we’re going all out

you tie your hair up and put on your cooking sweater which is just a disgusting old sweatshirt covered with stains that hangs almost to the middle of your thighs

everyone needs one

next step is MUSIC because if you cook without it you just feel sad

we’re pulling out the oldies mix that’s right

i’m talking ELO, reo speedwagon, the doobie brothers we’re getting DOWN !!!!!

perhaps we’ll sprinkle some queen in there in honor of the movie that just came out

regardless you’re head banging while you chop vegetables

extremely unsafe but entirely necessary

jae comes home in the middle of your dramatic rendition of bohemian rhapsody where you attempt to sing every single part including the operatic harmonies

you are literally on your knees singing dramatically when the door opens and he comes out of the foyer to see YOU on the FLOOR wearing NO PANTS and singing QUEEN

you may just be ……. the most perfect woman he’s ever met in his life

he joins you because what the fuck else is he supposed to do

he comes in on the high GALILEO and then air guitars THE FUCK out of the next part while you literally thrash

i’m telling you it was one of the most taxing things you’ve ever done

you finish out the song and then fist bump for respect

“something smells good but also something smells burning”

and you scream because OH NO THE GARLIC BREAD

((it’s not even that burnt jae is just weird about smells …… grass allergy headass))

after the fake crisis is averted you finish up and the both of you FEAST while watching cheesy christmas movies and booing at love

you’re both . that bitter huh

also want to note that at some point you discreetly put sleep shorts on so you could pretend you hadn’t been pantless and possibly flashing your day of the week underwear to your roommate of like 36 hours

and when you’re literally seconds away from sleep jae boops you on the nose

like . kinda hard

“hey go to sleep this couch is not comfortable i promise”

“shut up you’re BONEY everything is uncomfortable for you”

“okay now you’re just being mean get your ass in bed”

“sorryyy :((((“

“yea yea go away weirdo”

you tell him goodnight and hug him extra tight in apology and he pats your head so like. all is forgiven hehe

that night when you flop in bed and wrap yourself around one of your pillows you’re pretty damn pleased with your roommate choice

time skip you and jae have almost 0 boundaries other than the necessary ones that keep you Platonic Friends and not Married Couple

which is basically just any affection beyond hugs nd the occasional snuggle

you heard me

the boys are in your apartment . all the time

literally all the time

and wonpil drunk cries to your stuffed animals about never finding love

PLEASE someone save him please

nights like those you and jae go full parent mode because everyone’s drunk so sungjin can’t do it himself

he’s too busy literally breakdancing in your living room

he moved the coffee table out of the way and everything

after everyone is put in beds (dowoon gets to deal with wonpil‘s cry snuggling … sorry)

you and jae always collapse on the couch actually exhausted because you both have weak cardiovascular health and you just carried four full grown men

you end up leaned up against each other for support and then sagging until one of you falls over onto their back and the other just follows

it varies which one of you ends up the big spoon and it’s so CUTE when you do

you think jae pushes you over a little because he likes it too but he would rather die than admit he likes being snuggled so

you’ll fall over onto your back and jae will pretend to be surprised but then wriggle up your body until he’s half on top of you and half on the side with his head resting just under your chin

his hair is FLUFFY and it TICKLES you so you have to move it so you can sleep !

that’s what you tell yourself when you comb his hair down with your fingers

you pretend not to hear him sigh and feel it against the skin of your neck

you also pretend he hasn’t wrapped both arms around your rib cage like a vice and is not letting go anytime soon

cutie :(

he tucks his forehead into your neck and you physically feel his whole body relax and wow . so this is what peace is like

of course it lasts for 5 whole seconds before wonpil let’s out an actual wail and dowoon is urgently whispering shut the fuck up PLEASE SHUT UP

jae snorts against your neck and gives a minute shake of his head, splaying his hand across your ribs and tugging you farther into his hold

first of all. that ticKLES and it takes every shred of self control not to squirm

second: at this point he’s practically trying to fuse your bodies together really you cannot physically get closer than you are

you’re absolutely enjoying it though so you wrap your arms around him and settle in with one leg flopped over his and a blanket you pulled off the floor haphazardly thrown over the two of you

he’s such a SNUGGLE BUG you can barely believe it

he just loves to pretend he’s some angsty lonely dude who plays guitar and SKATEBOARDS like the giant cliche he is

when actually he is a Big Baby

he texts you to calculate the tip for him whenever he’s out to eat with the boys because he “swore off math in 2014”

he asks you if his outfits are okay nd he always looks like an old man but you still tell him it’s good

you think so at least <33

you can read each other so well it’s scary

you’ll walk in the living room and jae will be like NOPE i’m leaving

and you’re like what :(((((((

and he’s like i just KNOW you’re about to yell about random shit we both personally have no control over and it gives me ~anxiety~

“okay well i was just gonna say that global warming is a real proble-“

“LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU”

(he thinks global warming is real he just. doesn’t want to talk abt it bc he knows you will Never Shut Up once you start)

you hand him coffee on his way out in the mornings when you know he has a long day ahead and he pats you on the head in thanks every time

jae cooks for you too !!! we love equality

he sticks to pretty simple stuff but he was living alone for a while so he had to know at least a little so he could like. survive

and believe it or not the both of you are not always sunshine and daffodils

when you’re upset he always knows and makes sure to be there if you need anything but basically just leave you alone

he has a tendency to misread the situation and think it’s still cool for him to joke around but you are Actually Angry

and it’s gotten him into lots of trouble so instead he is supportive from afar and does his best to be not offensive

when he’s upset he’s usually super mopey and writes sad song lyrics all day

you forcefully drag him out of his room to make sure he eats and do your best to cheer him up by whatever means necessary

you’ve embarrassed yourself just to hear that laugh of his

the one where he opens his mouth really wide and gasps a little and his eyes squeeze shut

……… fuckin cute

anyways you guys are just dating already but don’t even realize

until one of your coworkers asks you to come out after work and you say no

and it’d be Friendly and Normal if you did it because you promised jae you would cook that night

or you had made plans with him or something

but you were just uncomfortable doing any of that kind of stuff with some Not Jae guy

and after that your eyes are ~wide open~ sister

you find yourself giggling a little too long when he jokes around with you

you can’t help it okay his presence is like a RUSH of serotonin

and imagining yourself doing couple things with jae

turning your usual dinner outings into dates in your head where he holds your hand as he drives and sits next to you in the booth so he can sling a long arm around your shoulders

you let yourself become the slightest bit more affectionate

tucking yourself under his chin every night before you split to your separate rooms

tugging on his hand to get his attention and then playing with his long fingers

you know he notices because god damn how could he not notice ??

he has literally bad vision but he can read the signs

This Ain’t His First Rodeo

he is hesitant to become involved with someone he depends on so much

the age old dilemma of wanting someone but then being afraid to lose them because of it

he wouldn’t admit it but you were quite literally the light of his life

he had been so lonely in his apartment before, living off of instant ramen simply because he didn’t want to cook anything and holing up in his room writing about loneliness and being lost

then you showed up with your bright eyes and took every weird quirk of his in stride and nagged him about eating better and washing his clothes “properly”

(he thinks when you say “properly” you just mean your own way but that’s besides the point)

he even liked when you would take his glasses and wear them and do terrible impressions of him because you looked so CUTE in them

he thinks you’d look cute in all of his belongings but again

are the both of you ready to cross that line?

of course u are lol what else am i supposed to write about

fourth wall break: over

okay so wonpil keeps coming over when he knows jae is gone to try to convince you that the two of you are in love and should get married and have little mini jaes and whatnot

you inform him that he’s CRAZY and that jae thinks of you as a roommate and friend and that’s IT

and as much as you want to think you’re denying wonpil because you’re embarrassed you’re starting to actually believe it

he’s never shown any sort of real interest in you that is out of the realm of Friendly Roommates

and yeah sometimes you guys snuggle but wonpil is literally wrapped around your right arm at this very second so . not valid

wonpil is basically BEGGING at this point for you to see what he sees

which is jae actually being sickeningly in love with you

even if you did believe him at all …. that’s an exaggeration and you both know it

“y/n he’s writing a SONG. about YOU. that boy love loves you. big time”

“people write songs for their friends all the time”

“not jae !! he’s never written a song that hasn’t been about love or loss, you choose which one you’ll be”

“oh shit that was deep”

“i know right? can you believe i came up with that on the spot? wig.”

and then you smack him for being a fckin twitter stan and continue with your argument

jae walks in just as it starts to get physical

wonpil is latched onto your leg as you squirm and wiggle around trying to throw the LEECH off your leg

jae detaches him with a well placed finger between his ribs that makes him squeal Very Loudly and let go

unfortunately you had been leaning all your weight to one side to counteract wonpil and when he let go you went careening sideways

jae just barely grabbed your wrist and yanked you back up

and then you stumbled into him and he stumbles and you both almost fall before getting your shit together

you’re standing pressed together with his feet spread apart so that you’re a little bit closer to his height as you latch onto his shoulders for balance

one of his arms slides around your middle to hold you against him while he used the other to make sure his guitar case doesn’t just fall off his shoulder

wonpil is on the ground holding his rib cage and fake crying when jae goes

“enough wonpil i could hear you yelling like a block away what is going on here???”

you peep out a nothing !!! at the same time wonpil yells

“i’m trying to convince y/n of TRUE LOVE that’s what”

“oh …. y/n is in love?”

“y/n is in DENIAL”

you plead with him to stop please wonpil

and he is relentlessly ranting about how you refuse to “see the light” and how happy you could be

jae sees that this is actually upsetting you from your flushed cheeks and furrowed eyebrows and the way you clutch the hem of his sweatshirt

“alright that’s enough. wonpil go home you lovesick fool”

wonpil trudges out and gives you a sneaky kiss on the cheek

jae has to hold you back when you lunge after him

after you’ve calmed down he slowly slides his arm from being wrapped around your middle to just barely brushing your back

you didn’t mean to get so worked up but like . wonpil is good at that okay

and he was basically going to out you to jae ????:??:!:?:$,&3!:8;

that’s a stressful event

you feel your breathing even out and you sigh in frustration

“i’m sorry y/n, he does that sometimes :/“

“it’s fine it was just . a lot”

“yeah”

you stand in silence for a good minute when jae drops his hand from your back and ducks his chin

“was he…. telling the truth?”

and you want to die because wonpil wasn’t even there and you’re still getting outed !!!!

“which part?”

“the part where you’re in love with someone”

“i wouldn’t say ….. love”

“oh”

and this is just painful so you take a deep breath and just

“okay listen i really really get it if you don’t return the feelings and it’s fine i just … please don’t kick me out i really love living here and all your band members coming over and i even love wonpil !!!! even though he’s a little crazy !!! and i love your fat cat mr.crackers and dancing around to old green day and watching shitty romance movies just to make fun of them and i just don’t want this to end!! we can forget it ever happened and i swear i’ll just. get over it or something and i-“

“okay don’t get too hasty about forgetting it i haven’t even said anything yet”

you stare at him wide eyed

“i’m sorry . what.”

“i can’t believe it took wonpil bodily attacking you for you to say that”

and then he drops his guitar with a thud and steps into your space to slide a warm hand around the nape of your neck

he pulls you closer and stops when your noses brush

“is this okay?” he whispers

“why are you whispering?” you whisper back

“shut up” he breathes right back

he smiles and then tugs you forward and tilts his head down to plant his lips on yours

he’s soft and tentative and pulls away after just a few seconds to press kisses to your cheeks and the tip of your nose

“if it’s worth anything i like you too,”

“are you kidding me that’s worth EVERYTHING ???”

and then you pounce on him and bury your face into the dip of his shoulder because you can’t reach his neck

damn skyscraper

he stumbles at first but then smiles down at your flushed face absolutely squished against his bony chest

he thinks it’s cute though and cranes his neck down to lay his cheek across the top of your head and loop his arms around you

dating jae is even better than you thought it would be !!!

wonpil wasn’t lying when he said jae was writing a song for you and when he plays it for you and sings so sweetly you cry your fckin eyes out

and he’s laughing and pulling you in to situate you on his lap with his guitar long forgotten leaning against the couch and asking you when you became such a softie

you look up at him with tears in your eyelashes and love in your eyes and he positively melts

he kisses your forehead and ruffles your hair and calls you kid like he didn’t just profess his undying love for you through song like the cliche he is

the two of you spend the whole night wrapped up in each other, expressing all the affection you’d missed out on in the last few weeks

you hadn’t realized how…. touchy jae is until now

he can barely function without his good morning kiss

“y/n i am a weak, weak man pls give me a kiss or else i won’t make it through the day,”

..you also hadn’t realized he was this dramatic lmao

the boys supremely unsurprised when they burst into your apartment to find you straddling jae with your fingers in his hair

i’m telling you they don’t even PAUSE in their steps they just look at you and acknowledge it

and then brian just …. takes a seat next to you guys and is like

“are y’all done i wanna watch this redbox movie and return it tonight before i gotta pay for another day”

you’re both cherry red in the face and untangle yourselves in astonishment at his casual tone

dowoon is rummaging around in your fridge and calls out from the kitchen that the two of you were the most obvious people on the planet and that the rest of the band was in the same boat as wonpil they just weren’t absolute psychos

wonpil: this is true but i resent that

all of you settle back into a comfortable dynamic

you’re super happy that your relationship with jae didn’t make anything weird

it probably helped that the very first night that jae mentioned in passing that you were cute and the band had never let it go since

it also probably helped when wonpil pointed out your actual literal heart eyes the first time you saw jae

……………. they were just waiting for it to happen tbh

anyways

nowadays you spend your mornings parting ways with a kiss and your evenings snuggled up together on the couch exchanging eskimo kisses and sweet nothings and you couldn’t be happier

<3

[inyournightmares97]

Antipathy, part six

In which Park Jinyoung, a possibly murderous cat hybrid, makes you question everything you thought you knew about yourself.

Warnings: Possible strong language and hybrid!Jinyoung. Light steam. 

Word Count: 3.1k

part one  part two  part three  part four  part five  part seven  part eight  part nine

You leaned back against the sofa, feeling slightly drowsy.

Jinyoung had already fallen asleep with his head in your lap. You had never imagined that he could be so cuddly but his cheek was pressed against your knees, one arm wrapped around your legs as he slept soundly. He seemed to be sleeping a lot today, and you suddenly wondered if he’d been getting enough sleep for the past couple of days. It probably hadn’t been easy to adjust to a new place.

You were running out of cartoons to watch and the afternoon was getting on, when you phone suddenly rang. Jinyoung stirred slightly at the sound of your ringtone but you answered quickly, gently patting his head to put him back to sleep.

“Hello?” you answered.

“Hey! What are you up to?” Nari asked cheerfully.

You shrugged lightly. “Nothing, I’m lazing around and watching television. Is your boyfriend still working Saturday nights?”

Nari pouted. “Excuse me. I don’t only call you when my boyfriend is busy-“

“Yes, you do.”

“Okay, maybe I do. It’s not like you have anything better to do, right? Let’s go get drinks, there’s a new bar that opened up near my place and they’re giving out free drinks for ladies. That means no sleazy guys hitting on us and trying to buy us drinks, we can just get drunk and release our stress! Doesn’t it sound amazing?” she gushed. Nari had an eerily accurate sense for knowing exactly when you needed to release stress. To be honest, drinks sounded good. You had been bottling a lot of stuff inside and releasing it with drinks seemed fun.

“Just the two of us?” you clarified.

“Why, do you want to bring someone?”

You glanced down at the hybrid sleeping in your lap. Jinyoung’s breathing was soft and steady, his warm breath tickling your legs as he snuggled closer to you. Part of you didn’t want to get up, because it meant he would let you go. You couldn’t exactly bring Jinyoung to the bar because most drinking establishments didn’t allow hybrids. Alcohol affected them more strongly than humans, and nobody wanted to deal with hybrid bar fights. They got extremely ugly and usually involved bloodshed.

You bit your lip and sighed into the phone.

“Never mind. I’ll meet you at your apartment in like, two hours?”

“One hour. They stop serving free drinks after a while and I’m too broke to pay for my own.”

You hung up, and tossed the phone onto the sofa. Then you looked down at Jinyoung. You let your fingers run through his soft hair once more, before patting his shoulder and leaning down to whisper into his ear. “Jinyoung? Hey, Jinyoung. I need you to wake up…”

He opened his eyes sleepily and looked up at you. Jinyoung’s cheeks flushed pink when he realized how tightly he had been holding onto your legs and he moved away quickly, rubbing his eyes. You grinned and smiled down at him, patting his head. “Did you sleep well? Sorry I had to wake you up. I’m heading out to meet Nari…”

Jinyoung sat up and blinked at you. “Oh, okay.”

You noticed his ears droop slightly as you stood up and went into your bedroom, grabbing your towel to take a quick shower. Nari always got really dressed up when the two of you went out drinking so you had to put in a little effort in order to not look underdressed beside her. But there was hardly any time to get dressed up and you knew Nari would be furious if you were late. She took drinking outings without her boyfriend very seriously.

“Jinyoung! Can you help me?” you called out, desperately.

Jinyoung trudged into your room, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of you in a very pretty top and heels. He’d only ever seen you dressed in sweatshirts and jeans, and you noticed his gaze flicker from your head to your toes briefly before landing on your face. Jinyoung gaped at you for a few moments, before nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

“You… you look nice,” he mumbled.

You smiled, noticing how his cheeks had turned slightly pink. Was he usually this shy? Jinyoung’s nervous gaze was making you feel a little flustered and you didn’t have the time. Besides, he was a hybrid, he couldn’t possibly be attracted to you! You plugged in your hairdryer at your dressing table and held the machine out in his direction. “Can you help me dry my hair? I need to do my makeup and Nari’s going to be furious if I’m late. She’s probably calling me already.”

Jinyoung nodded, reaching out to take the device from your hands. You turned to face the mirror and began dabbing foundation onto your skin, while Jinyoung hesitantly lifted the hairdryer up to face your damp hair. You could see his hesitant expression through the mirror and blinked.

“Jinyoung?”

He flushed red. “Uh, I don’t… I don’t know how to do this.”

“Just point it at my hair, it’s not that hard. You can’t really do it wrong or anything,” you replied dismissively. You were focusing on spreading the foundation on your skin and you still needed to do your eyes and lips. Jinyoung bit his lip and pointed the hair dryer at your hair. He was surprisingly gentle, using his hands to softly move the damp locks aside as he blow dried them. You found yourself smiling when you noticed him in the mirror and saw how focused he was on doing such a simple thing.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back, so you should probably just order takeout for dinner?” you told him as you carefully applied mascara to your eyelashes. “Is that okay?”

Jinyoung didn’t take his eyes off your hair, gently moving one section aside to blow dry the rest. He was biting his plump lips as he concentrated. “Huh? Yeah, okay.”

“Which lip gloss do you like better? The sparkly one or the dark one?” you demanded, holding up two tubes. Jinyoung stared at them for a long moment, his eyes flickering nervously from your lips to the tubes, and then back to your lips again. His fingers stilled in your hair. “T-the sparkly one?”

“Good call,” you muttered, opening the bottle and swiping the brush across your lips. You looked yourself over in the mirror and then glanced up to meet Jinyoung’s eyes. “My hair seems dry enough, right? Thanks so much for helping me out, you’re a sweetheart.”

Jinyoung lowered the hair dryer, looking slightly disappointed. “Uh, that’s fine-“

“I’m going to run,” you replied, leaping out of your chair and grabbing the purse that was lying on the bed. You smoothed down your clothes and hair, before smiling at Jinyoung, who was still gaping at you silently. “I’m heading out. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

He nodded silently, watching you hurry out of the apartment.

--

You and Nari had a bunch of cocktails at the bar, while you both drunkenly whined about your lives. She talked about how her boyfriend was always working and never seemed to have time for her anymore, while you complained about your Economics professor and how you were probably going to fail the class that you had been working so hard for. It had been a while since the two of you had talked things out (albeit the conversation might have flowed better if you were more sober), and it felt nice.

“How are things with Jinyoung? Do you still hate me for making you take care of him?” Nari wondered.

You bit your lip and smiled at the thought of Jinyoung. “He’s okay, I think.”

“I knew if anyone could crack his shell, it would be you. He had the same look in his eyes when I picked him up from the shelter that you had when I first met you. You know that look? That I want somebody to love me but I’m too afraid to ask or expect it from someone look? Poor Jinyoung’s been carted around a bunch of different shelters and adoptive homes in the past couple of months, nobody ever seems to love him enough. I felt like you could do it.”

You stared at her, brain slightly fuzzy. “Wait.”

“What?” Nari asked lightly.

“You told me you just wanted me to take him in for a week! You never said anything about wanting somebody to love me and all that shit!” you cried, pointing at her. Your mouth dropped open. You’d never imagined that Nari could be so sneaky and her happy giggle gave her intentions away. “You’re a horrible person!”

“No, I’m not. Hybrids can make you really happy if you let them. And I knew you would never adopt one on your own, so…”

“So you adopted one for me and forced me to take him in?”

Nari pouted. “Are you mad? Please don’t be mad! I swear I wasn’t just trying to shove any hybrid on you, I just got this feeling when I looked at Jinyoung, he reminded me so much of you! Do you know how difficult it was to make friends with you? You come off as pretty mean and closed off at first too, you know? So you should give Jinyoung a chance. Hybrids are really loyal once they get attached to their owners and they provide great emotional support.”

You looked down at your drink with a pout. “Jinyoung is kind of cute and sweet once you get to know him…”

Nari beamed. “I knew it!”

“So you’re not actually looking for a new owner for him?”

“Look. Here’s the thing. It’s only been three days. Give it some time, at least wait until the one week is up. If you seriously still want me to find him a new home then I will. But I’m pretty sure you’ll want to keep Jinyoung around before long. How does that sound?”

“Fair,” you admitted.

“Excellent! Let’s have another round of drinks to celebrate! We’re doing tequila shots this time, so grab those lemon slices, baby!”

--

It was almost 3 am when the doorbell to your apartment rang.

Jinyoung had been pacing the living room nervously for over two hours, his entire body tense as he waited for you to come home. True, you hadn’t said what time you would be back but how was he supposed to sleep when he had no idea where you were? He’d been debating waiting for longer or going out to look for you himself when the doorbell rang. He practically ran towards it, yanking it open and hoping to see you.

Jackson was standing in the corridor, half-carrying you. Your arm was thrown over the dog hybrid’s shoulder and he was propping you up as you stood unsteadily on your feet. You let out a happy, drunken giggle at the sight of Jinyoung and beamed at him.

“Jinyoung-ie!” you chirped happily, stretching your arms out in his direction. It made you stumble and Jackson had to hurriedly tighten his grip on you so that you didn’t fall to the floor. You were completely ignorant of how the dog hybrid was struggling to hold you steady because you were too happy to see Jinyoung’s adorable face. Wasn’t he cute? Has he always been this cute? He had such adorable pouty lips that you just wanted to kiss them. “Fancy seeing you here, Jinyoung-ie! Why aren’t you smiling? Aren’t you happy to see me?” you slurred cheerfully.

You expected Jinyoung to say something in return. What you didn’t expect was for Jinyoung’s eyes to narrow dangerously. He reached across the doorway and grabbed your arm, pulling you tightly towards him. You squealed as you lost your balance and immediately collided with Jinyoung’s hard chest. Jackson’s grip on you disappeared and after one slightly dizzying moment, you found yourself leaning on Jinyoung instead, one of his arms around your waist as he held you against him. You took a deep breath and inhaled his scent; he smelled like soap and something distinctly Jinyoung-like.

“Hey, careful!” Jackson cried, shocked when Jinyoung practically ripped you out of his arms. “She’s really drunk-“

“I can see that, get your dirty hands off her,” Jinyoung hissed angrily. You were shocked at the anger in his voice and you placed a hand on his shoulder clumsily, noticing that his entire body was trembling. Your cheek was pressed to his chest and you could almost hear an angry growl rumbling under the surface. “Don’t ever touch her again, I don’t want to see you anywhere near her,” Jinyoung snapped.

Jackson backed off, shocked. “Okay, relax, I was just bringing her home-“

Jinyoung hissed, and you looked up at him, pouting. “Hey, Jackson was just trying to help-“

“No, he’s not allowed to touch you-“

“He was being nice! Don’t be mad at Jackson, I asked him to bring me home because I was too drunk to walk here alone from Nari’s!” you whined, looking up at Jinyoung. Your view from below was kind of awkward since you were mainly staring at the underside of his chin, but you could tell that Jinyoung was still glaring furiously at Jackson. His ears were stiff and he looked ready to attack Jackson at a moment’s notice.

“Get out,” Jinyoung told Jackson firmly.

You poked Jinyoung in the chest. “No! Bad kitty! Don’t kick him out, be nice!”

“He’s leaving. Bye.” Jinyoung held you steady with one arm while he slammed the door shut in Jackson’s face. You gaped at the door in shock but there was nothing you could do. Jinyoung leaned down and gently lifted you up in his arms, carrying you into your bedroom. You wrapped your arms around his neck and stared at him, looking at the way his lips were pressed together tightly and his eyes were still narrowed. Jinyoung set you down on the bed and you collapsed against the pillows in an ungraceful lump.

“Are you mad at me?” you whined.

“Stay put.”

Jinyoung disappeared and you sank back against the pillows, feeling the room spin. Those tequila shots had been a bad, bad idea because now your stomach was churning and you couldn’t really think straight. Jinyoung returned a few moments later with a glass of cold water and shoved it into your hands.

“Drink,” he told you firmly.

You accepted the glass obediently, taking a long drink from it as Jinyoung moved down to the end of the bed and began taking your heels off your feet. You sighed happily and wiggled your toes as he removed the painful footwear and tossed it aside. Jinyoung then came over to take the glass out of your hands and set it on your bedside table.

“You should go to sleep,” he told you, before leaning closer to you. His frown deepened and he scrunched up his nose as he looked into your unfocused eyes. “God, you stink.”

You flushed, embarrassed. “Sorry, I probably smell like alcohol-“

“No, you smell like Jackson. It’s disgusting.”

Jinyoung placed his hand on your cheek and leaned closer. You stared at him blankly, your mind too muddled to comprehend what he was doing. Was he wiping something off your cheek? Instead, Jinyoung placed his nose at the crook of your neck and took a long, deep sniff. His lips brushed the skin at your collarbone as he spoke, and your entire body went stiff. “I can’t stand it. I need to get that smell off of you,” he whispered.

You could feel your throat tightening. “I could shower-“

“No.”

Jinyoung placed his lips over yours. You barely saw it coming, but Jinyoung’s lips were soft and warm and passionate. You could feel the desperation and the possessiveness as he leaned forward and half-lay across your bed, pulling you into his arms. Jinyoung smelled amazing; his gentle scent of soap and laundry detergent and hints of vanilla made you feel more light-headed than ever. He caressed your lips with his for a few moments, letting you melt into his arms.

You had never kissed anyone quite like this before. It felt so different, so desperate and when Jinyoung’s tongue slipped past your open lips, you gasped against his mouth. He could taste the alcohol on your tongue and he slid his fingers into your hair. You could feel Jinyoung’s hot hands roaming your body. One of them explored your back, roaming your shoulders and then moving down to brush the top of your ass, as though he wanted to touch and claim every part of you.

“Jinyoung,” you moaned against his lips. You couldn’t take it. Your body was trembling under his touch and his lips were making your head spin like crazy. He pulled away from you for a brief moment, his fingers releasing your hair and coming forward to softly brush strands out of your face.

“Shh, I’m not done yet,” he whispered hoarsely. “I can still smell him on you.”

You whimpered as his lips came down on yours again. They were slightly slower this time and you could feel a gentle purring coming from Jinyoung’s chest as he explored your mouth with his tongue. Jinyoung’s breathing was getting heavier and you could feel his warm breath on your face every time he pulled away and then leaned down to kiss you again. You weren’t sure whether it was thirty seconds or ten minutes; your senses were completely on fire. Finally, Jinyoung pulled away and stared down at you.

“Gone,” he whispered softly.

You stared up at him, eyes wide and head spinning. “Jackson’s scent?” you wondered weakly.

“Yes. It’s gone. You’re all mine now,” he purred gently, craning his neck up to kiss your forehead. You stared at him with wide eyes. What was happening? Had Jinyoung just kissed you senseless or were you dreaming all of this? Your heartbeat was thudding and you watched in silence as Jinyoung slowly extracted himself from you and got off the bed. “You should sleep, you’re still very drunk.”

You nodded. “Uh…”

“Good night,” Jinyoung whispered, his cheeks flushing red as he looked down at you, your eyes wide and your lips swollen from the kiss. You looked adorable and he could feel his heart swell, watching at you lying so innocently under him. “I should go,”

“Okay,” you whispered dazedly as Jinyoung stepped away from you, backing away to your bedroom door. He hit the light switch on the wall and then stepped out, leaving you alone in the darkness to process what had just taken place.

--

A/N: Well hello there, folks, hope you’re all doing great! This part was a load of fun to write and marks the descent of cute cuddly kitty Jinyoung to possessive angry feline JInyoung, lmao. Hope you all enjoyed it, let me know your thoughts!

[look-at-the-soul]

Hi! It's gossip girl 🥰 That super wired with your blog! I saw some of your others posts to the tumble staff and I hope it gets fixed soon! I think tumblr is just broken to the max sometimes and takes the wrong things away:/

My Sunday was good! I actually went to like and Airshow today and got to see some really cool planes with my friends! The Thunderbirds were there and they can do some cool stuff! The only down side was I forgot sunscreen and I burn quicker than rubbing alcohol on a candle😂 But hey if I wanted to be Two Face /Harvey Dent for Halloween I wouldn't have to worry about getting red face paint😂😂 But it was a cool show and we spend most of the day there! I hope your Sunday went well🥰 How'd the walk go with the puppy?!!🥰🥰

Yes! She is a very good sister even though we are polar opposites personality wise we never really had any big fights😂 Other than when she "Borrows" my clothes and forgets to give them back😂😂 She really is great though!! I've probably also done similar stuff to her and my mom too though😂 I'll borrow a sweatshirt from my mom and eventually she'll get it back😂

Lol it's totally fine how long it takes you to reply! I don't mind🥰 It's kinda fun because I think if it like a surprise and the waiting is part of the fun!❤️ And ohh no no no! Tumble doesn't need any more ideas except maybe for a bid to get rid of a few😂

And I absolutely agree with you on the autocorrect and like writing things that don't makes sense (even if it was like unintentional)!

I haven't lost any of my stories but there have been a few close calls with papers and then one event where word totally screwed me over on a final project and wouldn't let me save a 30is page final group project (it had like pictures and charts ) and it wouldn't let me reopen any of the old entries or send it to someone else as a word doc🥲 I could only save it as a PDF but then you can't go into word again and edit a pdf (or it wouldn't let me without paying a bunch to convert it) But my teacher was great and helped me get it back because she did have a program bough already to convert it and another on of my team members was able to find his old copy too! I'm so it worked out in the end but it was pretty stressful at the time😂

And I haven't heard that saying for the weather but I think I love it😂🥰 It fits me well to because I usually like having a bag full of random things possibly (but not usually) needed😂

College is going pretty well! I've been pretty busy with work and trying to get ready for tests (I have one the day after Halloween and one the day after that🥲😂) But overall it's pretty good! How's your work (or college?/both? i actually am not sure if you're in it🫣, I can't remember if you've mentioned being in college) but basically how's life for you been going?! I hope it's been treating you well!!!

Thanks for the love!! Sending some your way too💕💕

I’m finally free!!! As you may have noticed ☺️ Tumblr said it was a mistake (😒), but let’s focus on the good part I got my main tumblr back, so now I think most of the accounts banned is because of this. Thank you for your kind messages during that time! 💝

Oh wow! That sounds like something super exciting to see! Hope you enjoyed it a lot! Oh no!! I’m a sunscreen freak now and I won’t leave the house without it, hope you got some aloe Vera for that sunburn (but after dressing up as Two face for Halloween) 😝 it went good! Pups are the best ♥️

And now I feel terrible because I think I’m keeping you for long periods of time waiting, but I hope in the mean time you got a bunch of nice things to do so you can share them later on here 🤗 haha who are you trying to get rid of? 😂 🤔

Yeah like sorry! Like, I didn’t mean to say that oops 🤭

Oh you can turn a pdf into a word again, just look for a tutorial, and I’m sure there must be some options to make it for free, but I’m glad your teacher and friend were able to help you! Phew 😮‍💨 saved by the bell!… you know I was pretty new to my current job and I had this massive archive full of formulas and tables and such, and the one who was my boss back then comes to the file and starts moving things and he crashed the excel-> freeze-> lost file. I couldn’t get it back 😨🥺 I had to re-start from the last one I saved, so now I’m extra cautious with the files (and of course my stories) and I’m always saving and I actually have like version 12, final version etc 😂

If you could only see my Mary Poppins bag 😅😆 I recently turned one of those empty cosmetics bags they sell with a bunch of goodies, into my “if I ever need…” so I have this mini hair brush, pills, sunscreen, like most of the mini products for travels, hoping that one day someone might need and I will say hang on, got it! 😂

How did the test go?????? Hope you got a good grade! Work is good, thanks! Haha no college for me, I suffered of a lot of stress during my college days I swore I would take some time out (and it’s been a loooong time since I graduated, probably it would be a good time for a master or something. I had plans to go to study somewhere else right before the pandemic started, luckily I didn’t make any move on that back then. But in general it’s been good 😊 finally Friday I can have some rest, need to do a lot of stuff around and write write write.

Hope you have a nice weekend! 🥰💖

Lots of love and good vibes back to you xx

[daynamartinez22]

Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 330

Click on the video above to watch Episode 330 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Right about now. All right. Welcome, everybody to Hump Day Hangouts, Episode 330. Today is the 10th of March 2021. We got almost everyone here, maybe her nominal show up here in a couple of minutes. We got a couple of announcements today some things we want to go over and then we are going to get into the questions but want to say hi, real quick. Get everyone. See how they’re doing. If you’re watching, by the way, go ahead and let us know how you’re doing. If you’re watching live, you can pop that right on the page. Say hello. Let us know what’s going on. So I’ll just go down my list here. I see Chris is first. So Chris, how are you doing today? Good. Glad to be here. Super excited.

Yeah, can’t complain. Whereas getting actually spring is almost here. Like is where it’s being really good here.

So I can’t wait to actually gonna lift the lockdowns at some point, hopefully. And it’s all outside time. Very nice. All right. Marco, how about you How you doing today? Let me see. Let me see. Let me see.

I started going off into that fake background, that fake co story comes back. It’s impossible for it to be this nice. 365. But you’ve seen it tight. It’s been actually March, February, we came to this house in February of last year, just before we got locked out. And you guys have seen it live for 52 weeks. It is what it is, man. It’s beautiful. I keep telling people, it’s the price I pay for the life I live, this is what I choose. This is not where I have to be. This is where I choose to be. If you want that moment if you want that. It’s called the POFU position of Fuck you. We do POFU Live, where we go in and we have a bunch of experts giving presentations, then there’s me giving you my mindset and not that I’m calling myself an expert. I just, it’s what I do. For both, we’ll try to get you in the right mindset so that you go and do the things that you need to do. And that you have to do. In order to be able to do the things that you want to do is funny how that works out. First, you have to do and you need to do. And then you can do whatever you want. Because you’re in that position where you can decide whatever it is that’s best for your life. So just fantastic. And we were just talking about how it is that we’re going to do it. And that’s coming.

Not only is that coming but I’ll just tease it a little bit Syndication Academy. Syndication Academy is in the can, the videos are recorded. We have 300 website updates to go through or over 300 there’s a couple of them that the syndication Academy, I don’t know what to say she’s just a fantastic director, we’ll just call her the instructor, the syndication Academy, instructor, the person who’s going to be guiding the person who’s going to be giving you support in Facebook to be in there daily, supporting the group. It’s an overhaul, it’s a complete overhaul, it’s a complete, completely different idea. The concept stays the same, you have to expand your entity, expand that footprint. let Google know everything that belongs to your entity, make it known, make it better hook it up altogether, so that the power flows the way that it’s supposed to. syndication Academy is fantastic.

Our trainer, instructor, she’s fantastic. She will be up to giving you webinar updates every month, he’ll come up to three websites.

And again, she’ll be in the Facebook group, I think it’s going to totally rock, and you guys for you guys wondering because somebody did ask me. Well, if you guys do it in syndication, Academy networks, and MGYB. Well, then why should I buy Syndication Academy? Well, I just said that we will be having 300 Well, looking through 300 websites to see how they can be manipulated, manipulated, and added into the syndication networks that we built. Our VA is It’ll take a while for them to catch up. And if we do offer the service we can offer everything that we will be adding to syndication Academy, we always had what’s most important what we think you must have, as far as that footprint goes as far as that entity, but there are others and we’re going to have fantastic opportunities like when we came across.

Now, it’s slipping my mind, but, oh boy, when we added all of the weekend and all the drive stacks, all of the folders and pro trees. Yeah, yeah. came across that and it was fantastic. And there wasn’t originally in it. It was a webinar update. And that became part of the syndication networks, or part of the ad ID, and yeah. I mean, it’s just a fantastic website. So all of those will be coming. There’s plenty of other website websites out there. So as a matter of fact, I was telling you guys yesterday one of the ones that already in the can, is a fantastic website. So fantastic semantic hub. And it’s just a really novel way to approach SEO. Yeah. Bradley coined that will be with us. She’s fantastic again and so I’m really really looking forward to working with her on expanding and making syndication Academy way better than what it is and it’s fantastic already.

Oh, Stan, I got nothing to add on to that I wanted to make sure we touched on it, it’s coming up and I just put on the Early Access opt-in so if you want to be first to be notified, there’s definitely going to be something special for people who are on the early access list. So if you’re pumped about Syndication Academy you just want to find out more you’re thinking hey this may be for me maybe for my client’s good way to make money a way to get more exposure better rankings more traffic all that hop the early access list. If you’re not watching this live and you’re checking it out on YouTube just go to semantic mastery comm slash each D questions and you can find the link there and get that all taken care of.

Let’s see as I go through here realize we haven’t said hello to Mr. Johnny come lately also known as her non How’s it going, buddy? I’m good, man. I’m banging on the door. And it’s rainy and cold outside and you guys won’t let me in, dripping wet on the outside looking in. Yeah, man. Come on. Let me in. I’m good, man. I’m happy to be here. Outstanding. Last but not least Bradley, how you doing? I’m good, man. Happy to be here. It’s freaking warm. All of a sudden, Virginia. And it’s like 70 degrees, almost 70 degrees outside. It’s crazy. It’s like, you know, three days ago, it was cold. And I had sweatshirts on and space heaters up here. And now it’s like,

oh, that time of year, man spring is around the corner. And I’m happy about it. That’s things get really busy for my tree. Contractors come springtime and stay that way all the way through fall. So I’m looking forward to this season for sure. Nice. Nice, nice. Well, Bradley, we had a cool conversation all of us did with somebody yesterday. So you mentioned the cold email mastery course that you went through. And you mentioned that on Hump Day hangouts last week, and we ended up hooking up with Daniel, yesterday and talking to him. So you might tell people a little bit about what we might end up what they might see from you and him. Yeah, we so I mentioned a really good cold email course that I picked up about, I don’t know, maybe three weeks ago now. And it was really good, and it’s inexpensive. There’s a ton of value for what you pay for it. And I’m not gonna mention it now, because we’re going to talk about it when with Daniel, I’m going to jump on a call with a video call with Daniel over the next two weeks or so. And he’s going to go through his methods that he teaches in the training and how to specifically apply it because he does email marketing for all kinds of stuff.

But he’s going to talk about how to apply his methods specifically for prospecting for clients, for consultants in for agencies. And so I think that’s going to be really valuable. It’s not going to be a live webinar, he and I are going to jump on and just him and I are going to banter back and forth. And he’ll go through some demonstrations that are all be recorded. And then we’re going to present that to you guys. Again, I picked it up for myself and I was blown away by I thought it was really, really good. Let’s put it that way. And so Adam reached out to him and got it set up. And we had a meeting with him yesterday. And he’s stoked in real cool guys a lot like Marco and that he’s not politically correct when it comes to speech and it’s great. I love that kind of instruction. And so it’s real punchy, real to the point no fluff and all that. And so I’m looking forward to having a video call with him that we can bring to you guys. For those of you that are looking to generate more clients for your business. It’s a really good strategy.

Awesome. Yeah. And I’ll just say for those of you who are listening, and again, if you’re not live, you can leave this on the replay on YouTube, if you guys have any questions about cold emailing. So b2b is what this is, right? You’re not just emailing people, you’re emailing references as an agency. If you’ve got any questions, pop them in there, you know, and if we can, we’ll work those in and get those answered, because he’s got a lot of background in that. I know Bradley. I mean, most of us, I think, have at least some experience, but Daniel certainly got a lot so that you know, just a quick met note for internal processes, we might want to post in our groups, a little survey about questions about cold email, prospecting, post them here and we can incorporate that into the video call I do within Yeah, that’s a good idea. Yeah, Bradley, just let me know when you’re gonna when you guys set up the call, and I’ll do that a couple of days before. So. Real quick. Before we jump into questions, just want to say to everyone if you’re new to SM and MGYB, I know we get new people. We see that a lot of people commenting and we love it. We know there are more people out there who just watched and that’s cool too. But if you’re wondering where to get started

The best place to you’ll hear us talking about stuff like the SEO shield and syndication networks and all this other stuff. But go to the SEO shield, comm grab that it free training, find out how you can shield your site, don’t worry about algorithm updates. And you’ll find out a little bit more about what we’re talking about why this stuff makes sense how it works, and then where you can get it. So as Marco mentioned, you can go get this stuff done for you, if you want, that’s great, go to mgyb.co, if you want to more, maybe understand the nuts and bolts or build your own team and start building this stuff out, then, of course, you know, we have the training available as well. Beyond that, if you want to find out more about getting repeatable SEO results, you can grab the battle plan of battle plan dot semantic mastery com. If you’re looking at an agency or you’re a consultant, and you want to grow and become an agency to x, your agency comm is the place to be, and then last but not least, if you’re ready to grow your digital marketing business, or for some people, they’re brick and mortar and they want to expand the online side, the mastermind is the place for you. You can find out more about that at mastermind dot semantic mastery.com. And with that, I think we should dive into the questions unless you guys got anything else.

No excited about the Syndication Academy launch. I’m going to be spending some time this upcoming weekend going through a lot of the training that SEO is recorded, you know, to provide some feedback and stuff and it’s gonna be pretty, I’m pretty excited about it. Because, you know, it’s been a few years since we’ve updated it. And this has been completely redone as Marco said, with just a ton of sites that we’re going to be expanding the foot, you know, entity footprint with. So as he’s going to be doing a training on each one of those sites, and that’ll be the monthly updates, or maybe even bi-weekly updates, depending on what we decide, because of the sheer number of sites that we have to expand upon. probably end up doing bi-weekly webinars in the Facebook group for that. So anyway, just looking forward to that, guys, if you have any questions about it, let us know. Otherwise, let’s get into questions.

Let’s do it.

got quite a few.

I think this is the newest one. We still don’t have the dates and times on here. Let me see. It should be right after I commented I think Jared Yeah, it was one Conrad is just before that. I don’t think we got to his.

Does All Of The MGYB Services Work For Non-English Sites?

Yeah, we did. Actually, you bounce. Okay. You had a call? Yeah. You had a call come in? And I answered that. But I was looking for you to reply to that one. Anyways, I said that we don’t do anything in non-English, but from what I understand applying non-English or English drive stacks to non-English sites will still benefit. Is that correct?

That was the question. I mean, yeah, Hernan and I worked on a Swedish website. Also, what we did is we actually went and had the team do it in English. And then the guy who was working as he translated it into Norwegian or Swedish, whatever it was.

So I mean, it works perfectly well. If you take the time to go then to then go in and target your language might not even have to, because what we’re looking for is relevance, the AI should be able to make the connection that is basically the same.

So yeah, I mean, the answer to that is, I don’t see why you can’t get the MGYB services, we don’t do it in your language, we will do it in English, and it’s up to you to go in. For example, syndication network, it’s up to you to go in and translate the profile, but it won’t take that long for the descriptions and everything else.

So that would be my suggestion, you go in and or you hire someone better yet, go into Upwork or something like that, and hire a translator to translate everything so you don’t have to, you can go concentrate and focus on something else.

There you go.

What Are Your Thoughts On AI Content Like Marketmuse, Frase, And Menterprise?

Alright, so Gerrards up first, for this week. He says, what are your thoughts on AI content with stuff like market news res enterprise, etc? Is it fine to use our money site with some manual editing and manually added content? Yeah, I mean, I use phrase.io is the tool that I’ve been using?

And yeah, I mean, I would, for money site stuff, I wouldn’t just, you know, use the content that it pulls back or creates without manually editing it. Maybe for link-building stuff. You could but I wouldn’t do that on the money side. I would still manually edit stuff.

But yeah, I mean, it’s I think phrases are good too. I haven’t used any others. So I don’t know. But I do actually use sprays for some of my projects as well. So what about anybody else in length is a go-to because of the way that we can relate the entity, the way that we can work with the entity and focus and I’m not going to go in-depth in that because

That’s something that was presented in POFU live. And I’m not going to share it out of purple light, but the way that he focuses the entity, not only within links but another tool.

Man, I’m slipping today because I’m presenting all of the software that we use SEO surfer or surfer SEO. So the way that that those two are used in conjunction, you can even put phrases in there. And there’s quite a few other software as a service SaaS software that you can use and really, really getting great content. Now what you get is a, or what you should be getting is a template, if it’s for your money site. And then you would use that template to write your content, I wouldn’t use what you’re given directly, I would edit it and make sure that that is hyperfocus for the bot. That’s how we do use the content. That’s how the VA was trained to use the content.

So the follow-up to that was can this be used to automate curation for our blogs the way Bradley does it? Thanks a lot. Again, I wouldn’t, you know, yes, you can use it to help kind of like, you know, augment, or supplement the blog posting for curated content, because it will actually pull in content based upon a search query or a question.

And it will pull in the top results. And, you know, so yeah, you can use that to help with curating content. But I wouldn’t use it again, not for money. So I would I use that as like, automated content production. Right, I wouldn’t do it for that, not for money site, all of the content that I, you know, for my clients is manually curated by my bloggers. So we don’t use any automated fashion. Now. I mean, you can streamline and make manual curation a lot more efficient. For example, we started doing social posting for tree contractors. And so we’ve been developing out the Feedly account, feed the pro account with a ton of content, I’ve been paying my one of my bloggers by the hour to just find and collect good content that’s relevant in all different types of categories, specific to tree services and landscaping.

And it’s crazy because, like, Feedly, has what they call, I think it’s called Leonard, meet Leonard or something like that, anyway, it’s, it’s some sort of AI system that’s built into it. And so when you like, save content articles into a content board and Feedly, then you can go through and select, you know, certain pieces of content that are in that board and tell Leo to go find content like that in overtime, it’s machine learning, right? It trick, you can train the AI inside of Feedly to go out and find content that matches what you’ve trained the bot to do. And it’s really cool because it will auto-start automatically finding content and adding it to your content boards or your pool of available content that can be used for curating. And so we’d like in just the last three weeks have amassed quite a library of content that’s categorized in specific categories, like, you know, tree services, General tree services, spring tree services, summer tree services, autumn tree services, winter, you know, and so on, and so forth through various categories. And it’s great because it’s giving us like this, basically, almost unlimited. And once you train Leo to go out and find content, similar content, it’s basically unlimited content that you can use for curating. So it makes it a hell of a lot more efficient to curate manually, when all you got to do is click into a Feedly content board and find articles that you can use for support content, for supporting content for art for blog posts. So again, I don’t do anything automated, except for perhaps finding content. Everything else is done manually, but in a very efficient manner, which is what Content Kingpin is all about. It’s still the same processes we use, there’s just Feedly has improved drastically over the last couple of years, especially with the addition of AI machine learning. So, you know, those are some of the things that I would recommend.

And yes, you can curate content and focus it on the entity and focus on the entity also, it works really well in conjunction with the Content Kingpin, all of the software that we mentioned earlier.

What Is The Best Way To Build Lead Gen Properties?

Alright, so the next question says, looking to get into lead gen and I have a nice domain I found aimed at contractors nationally, what’s the best way to go about building lead gen properties? these days? Would you just get a GMB and do a mass page? Thanks, guys. I mean, if you didn’t get a GMB, it’s still in my opinion, the best way to do Legion.

Good luck with that. It’s very difficult to get GMBs right now.

It’s really hard to do much of anything with GMBs right now. I found as far as new ones are making edits and stuff Google’s real estate suspension happy. So I would be really careful. And good luck trying to get it. I mean, I hope you can, but I know it’s been difficult to get GMBs recently or last for the last few months. So what do you say, Marco? Well, the spammed listings are not only hard to get, but hard to keep are the key. Because when you get them, as soon as you start going and making changes, Google suspends it. And then they make you show paperwork they make you re-verify, which is the whole point. I mean, their whole point they want to know if you’re in legit.

And if you can’t re-verify you can’t show the paperwork, then you can’t get it back. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to try to recover something that you know, isn’t legitimate in the first place. makes absolutely no sense, however, are the method that you’ve always shown the Semantic Mastery way, which is going to peel box with street address still works really well. Those will sometimes get suspended. Yeah, even that, but it’s less likely to get suspended.

Oh, guys, I’m not gonna mention the companies. But be really careful when you’re using an API to publish content into your GMB to publish schedule content. Because some of those have a muddy IP. Google has tagged it with suspicious activity and it’s a really good way to get suspended. So be really careful what it is what you’re doing, what it is that you’re doing with those. To this day. The original training in local GMB process, add a manager Never Never again go back in as the owner, I stand by that. I’ve only had one, one GMB suspended with a manager. So out of all of this out of everything that we’ve been doing, the way that has worked for me, the original training in local GMB Pro, you add a manager and let the manager go in. And it’s like, well, I’m not gonna go through the whole training. But try not to make any changes once you’ve sent for the pin. Once you have that pin lie should never go in again, except for tempos, and add pictures. And that’s it. Never again do anything else no changes, because it will get suspended if you make major changes, especially the NAP category that attend any of those even slight changes. I once added a video to one of the VA added one I added a video. And it wasn’t even any it’s not anything major adding a video and they got suspended. But then again, it wasn’t something that was truly legit. It was, and as a matter of fact, the post office box was through with street address, but we recovered it, we were able to recover that. Wow. So just be really careful. Just be really careful what you do because Google is out for blood to right now. They’re suspending a whole bunch of them. And they’d rather suspend you and have you legitimize the GMB then to not suspend you and let you get away with an illegitimate or spam. GMB. That’s the way that they’re doing this right now.

Yeah, and you know, it’s interesting because I had a client or I have a client excuse me that when I plugged it into a GMB post scheduler through the API, it showed that there was like no physical address associated with the GMB and it was weird. And so, I actually reached out to GMB support and I was wondering why I was having such a hard time getting the GMB to move correctly or move like Porter respond to the things that I was doing to it like they normally do. And once I discovered that there was an incorrect back end, a physical location associated with it, or really not at all in one when I plugged in the API will show you and by the way, you can figure that out. Where the location is of a GMB by plugging it into something like right local as a geo grid search report tool now. So if you get the cid for service area business GMB URL and plug it in, it’ll show you the center point where it where it’s where Google thinks that the business is registered. And it’s interesting because this was like the way out in the middle of like, nowhere, it was weird. It was like, like in a park or some shit. Like seriously, like, like, some crazy big national park or something. There’s nothing there. No buildings ran. And so I’m wondering why it wouldn’t respond. And when I plugged in an API, that’s what revealed that to me. And that’s when I started like wrecking realizing that some GM bees don’t have on the back end and actual physical location tied or it’s incorrect for especially for service area businesses. So anyway, I contacted Google support. And they said, go ahead and change your like I got this reply back from Google support and said go ahead and add the GMB or the address even though it was a service area business. They said go ahead and add the address. But it’s likely going to end support told me this is likely going to trigger re-verification. And so I contacted the client and I said, this is what they replied. I say we go ahead, do it because the maps listings not responding the way that they should be. And I feel like we’re gonna constantly be fighting an uphill battle, they said, go ahead and do it. So I did it. And fortunately, in that case, because they have a physical location that was verifiable, all that was required, though, was the postcard, just use standard us mail verification. And within seven days or so we had the card verified, and it’s responding better, it’s still going to take a little bit of time, but it’s coming back. So if you can’t like well, Marga said, If you can’t reverify something, don’t even bother trying is really the point.

So the follow-up questions, would you just get GMB into the mass page? I don’t do mass page stuff, period. I just don’t I don’t like to do it. It’s not that it can’t work. It might work. But I’m not the person to ask her. I don’t know that we are maybe Marco can shed some insight on it. Land Solutions Network is a mass page built with WordPress like the front end was WordPress pages. Mass page builder, it’s there to the public. It’s there for people to spam to report. It gets the UCI to get leads to this day because I post them in the group whenever so one comes in, we’re in a place where I’m not working. I post one from Hawaii the other day, I posted another one from Arizona, there was some from Florida that I that Chris Pillman got Chris G got some.

So if you do it right, there’s a reason why mass-paid build can’t work. But it just requires a little bit more work than what people are willing to put in a kind of in air quotes to kind of legitimize to build.

Would The RSS Masher Cause Footprint Issues If You Use The Same Account That Has Adsense & Affiliate Codes?

Hector’s obviously I saw your old webinar about David Nelson’s RSS masher and eager to access it. Would it cost footprint issues though if I use the same AdSense or affiliate code for each site? Or set I get a separate account for each? I don’t know about AdSense? I just don’t say I don’t do anything like that. So I just don’t know. Does anybody here have an answer for him about that?

Okay.

Sorry, I can’t answer that. I just don’t know. Um, as far as AdSense, I don’t think affiliate code would cause a problem. I don’t know because again, I just don’t do affiliate stuff, guys. I haven’t even attempted affiliate marketing in two or three years other than occasionally we do a promotion for Semantic Mastery. I just do local stuff. So I suddenly he wants to use RSS masher, to push content into multiple websites. And in those multiple websites, he is going to use the same AdSense code from the same account. That’s what he’s asking, Oh, that looks like a really good way to lose your account. Well, there you go. So you have an answer. That’s what I was asking. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really it to me. That doesn’t seem like a very good idea. Yeah. And it’s not something that it does. I mean, it seems like the footprint is the AdSense code, Google picking that out?

And then you’d have a problem with Google suspended the account?

Yeah, I don’t know. There’s got to be I’m sure there’s some groups and Facebook and shit like that, that where people do a whole bunch of heavy AdSense stuff that would that would be what I suggest or even go to YouTube and do some searches, I’m sure you can find the answers you’re looking for this is probably just not the place for Hector. And it’s just not something that really any of us do. So that’s why we can’t answer that one.

What’s The Best Way To Monetize Autoblogs Safely?

He says, What’s the best way to monetize these auto blogs safely? Would it be good to buy phone-verified Gmail accounts and run them in isolated browsers for this purpose? Thanks for all the great SEO stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think that’s good practice anyway, I mean, for example, I’m still using a browser to the old desktop version.

It still works if you right-click and open system Chrome. That’s the only way that it works. But it works. And I got, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of profiles in there. And I don’t even change IPS, like it’s all just my IP, but it keeps the browsing sessions and gross ghost browsers want another one’s called session box. That’s one that I’m looking into. If I eventually switched from browser to eventually I will probably try the session box. I know ghost browsers. Good. We’ve talked about that a lot, a little bit more expensive, but I know it’s really good. So I think it’s best practice to do that anyway to keep sessions in browsers specific to accounts and that kind of stuff. But you know, so yeah, having different Gmail accounts associated with each one of those projects. I think it’s probably a pretty, pretty wise thing to do. You asked me. Does anybody want to comment on that? No, I totally agree. That’s that would be the same thing to do. Isolate each account. Yeah. So you don’t get tagged for any sort of footprint.

Is There A Way To Get A Virtual Office Address For A Service Business To Get Citations And GMB?

Okay, next one man in the SEO says, Hey, guys got a question about citations for a business that operates in different countries like the US and Canada. I would like to secure some citations from other countries but the business doesn’t have a physical office there as they are a service business. Is there a way to get a virtual office address so I can get citations? And potentially GMB if not a GMB citations would be plenty. Thanks for your help. Um, yeah, I mean, again, I think having a GMB is great.

For many reasons, if you could get a second location for it, like in the, you know, as you said, I guess we’re in Canada, for example, if you don’t have a physical office in Canada, physical office, excuse me, or location in Canada, but you would like to build citations there as well, then yeah, you can add a second location as long as, as we just mentioned, already today, many times, if you can get a verifiable address, that’s what I would recommend. It’s, you know, it would certainly help. And then you could have two sets of citations. I would tie that to a set separate that the second GMB, I would tie it to a location page specific for that second location. In other words, you don’t want if you’ve got to GMB, right, you don’t want both GMB is pointing to the same page, like the root domain or the homepage of the site.

Because that could cause some ambiguous ambiguity, right, some NAEP issues. So it would be because it’s going to be the same company name, right. And so as long as you have only one data point, and name, address, and phone number as the same or website URL, because it’s really four points, right, we always call it an NAP name, address, and phone number, but also includes the website address. So there are really four data points. And as long as you’re not, you’re not sharing more than one data point across those four, then you can do that. So in other words, if the company name is going to be the same, which it should be, unless you added a location modifier to the company name, which you can do, but if you want to keep the company the same in both locations, that’s fine. But then you should have a separate physical address, a separate phone number for each location, and a separate web page. So if you have a primary one, that the website URL is tied to the home or the route, you know, the homepage or the routing domain, that’s perfectly fine. But on the second location, you should have the website tied to a specific location page for that location. Does that make sense? So again, you want to only have one common data point across those for the name, address, phone number, and website, or else you can create any IP ambiguous ambiguity issues, which will cause both locations to not rank as well. That makes sense. Does anybody want to comment on that?

Yeah, I mean, you can get virtual office addresses all over the US that you can rent an office and have the postcard physically mailed that to that address. There are multiple ways to do that. I mean, there’s even a Craigslist that you can use for that. I mean, Craigslist. It’s worked for me in the past that I tried. Like, not too long ago, I tried one in New York City and got a dormant to get me a verified GMB. So you can still be done because you just have to be creative about how you go and get them to kind of legitimize what it is that you’re doing. And understand that if you lose it, it’s spam. There’s nothing you could do. Try it at first, you don’t succeed, try it again.

So that would be the only way I can think I would know nothing about Canada to know how the post office works there, whether you could get one there. But you could still get someone to verify a business for you. Or those virtual offices, man, virtual offices, they work really well. Yeah, Chris Genie was he provided me or I don’t have it to share with you guys. I’d have to go search for it. But there are virtual mailbox services now that, you know, you can register a physical location, right, so to speak, and they’ll receive the mail and scan it and send you an email with the images of the mail. So you might want to try I’ve never tried that. To be honest with you. I’ve never tried it. So I don’t know if that would work or not. But you know, it’s worth a shot, right? So you might want to consider that.

Can We Take The URLs From AWS For The Images And Build Tiered Web 2.0s To Pass Juice To The Money Site?

Right, next is Phineas and Ferb. Okay. Hey, so I’m wondering if we are using AWS or another cloud provider like Microsoft, for CDN? Can we take URLs from AWS and all our images and build tiered web 2.0s to them to pass us to the money site? Or could this cause a penalty? Curious to get your opinions? You know, that’s an old tactic. Jimmy Kelly talked about that way back in I think 2000. And what was it 14 when I went to the certification, networking power certification, I think it was 2014? Anyways, he was talking about that way back then when we were doing domain authority stacking, RYS, which worked like freakin gangbusters back then it was crazy how good that worked. And that’s what we would do like subdomain manipulation and all kinds of stuff that we would do.

And that was one of the things that I remember was taught way, way back then, which was seven years ago now was taking the CDN URLs and using those like for images and files and all that and just hammering them with backlinks and pushing domain authority into the entity or the root domain at that point, we weren’t really talking about entity based SEO then. And it worked. I don’t know if that still would have much of an effect now, because I just don’t really do domain authority stalking anymore. We, we do our methods, which is about relevancy, and entity and art.

So I don’t know if that would work or not. What do you think Marco? Yeah, I don’t see why you wouldn’t. Because you’re building tiered web two dot O’s to pass link power through. So the tiered web $2 would absorb most of it. Or if you’re building it into the AWS or Microsoft, or whatever the CDN of choice is.

It would still absorb, like any of the negative.

But I mean, to me, nothing like Google, nothing works like Google. That’s why we’re in the belly of the beast, not Google doesn’t trust anything like it trust Google. So we’ll stay in there for as long as we can until we can’t, and then we’ll figure out something else. Yeah.

Hey, it’s worth a test. Yeah, sure. I mean, all of these people come, and they come with these ideas, these theories? And the standard answer is, try and see, the only way that you would know is if you try to see because if you have us, or you wait for us, in the heavy hitter club, of course, if you wait for us to try, we have a long list of things to try, because we’re already getting result. And so what we would have to do is put it on the list, because it isn’t necessary with what we’re doing right now the system that we have in place.

And how we do it, we get results time. And again, it’s a repeatable process that we’ve built, that works, period. So to build all of these different things, right now, it doesn’t make sense, because we don’t really need them. It’s nice to have them in the chamber in case something happens. And so we do have all of these other things that we could turn to if something happens, but right now, it just isn’t necessary and hasn’t been for me for quite a while. But going on six years now that we’ve been using our methods and our system and the way that we do things.

Does Your Selection Of The GMB Service Area Option Have Any effect On Geographical Search In The 3-Pack?

That’s right, so Gordon’s up what’s up, Gordon, it’s been a while he says, Hey, guys, I need your help. And two quick questions. Does the GMB service area you select in your GMB listing have any effect on the geographical search area that gets Google to show your listing in a three-pack it does to a degree.

You know, Google tightened its proximity filters. A shit year and a half ago now. Time flies, I guess it’s been a while. But it used to be that. Yeah, you could get your maps in the show in your designated service area. Relatively easy, right? If it wasn’t that difficult, especially for like, again, tree contractors typically have a very big service area, like multiple counties. And so I would list all that, right. And a lot of the times I could get for some of the GMBs that were really powered up really authoritative, they would rank three cities away, right? Like because it was, you know, might be in an adjacent county altogether, right. And it was crazy. Um, but that’ll kind of change. A year and a half ago now, maybe two years ago, whatever, whenever the proximity filters got a lot stricter or tighter, narrower, so to speak. And so now it’s a lot more difficult. Yes, it can still be done. But it takes a lot of effort. And time, cumulative effort, in other words, in order to get that to occur, and that’s what we teach it local GMB Pro. So, you know, it is possible, but it does take consistent, repeated effort in order to end in a very specific way in order to do that. So what I’m saying is, is you can put a large service area, right, and it might be relevant to that business, but Google is likely only going to show the maps listing for people that are in close proximity at the time that they search for that service, unless you can force it to, you know, Marco, I suppose, expand the centroid by doing the methods that we teach in local GMB Pro. But it’s difficult to do that. I mean, it’s not that it can’t be done. It certainly can. But it’s difficult to do that. So, you know, again, Google is going to really show the maps listing to people that are in close proximity when they’re searching, especially if there are other businesses, like if it’s a very obscure business, that there’s not a lot of other companies that provide that product or service, then yeah, you can get maps listing to appear from I mean, you know, 10s or hundreds of miles away even That’s true, but it’s very rare. If it’s a type of business that is common, then and there are multiple providers within you know, you know, there are multiple competitors, I should say, then it’s, then it’s likely that the Google My Business profile is not going to show up in adjacent towns because of the proximity filter, and that’s what I’ve been experiencing. So I typically now really just focus in on an immediate local area, at least initially, and once I start getting that to rank then we start targeting, you know, expanded areas through content marketing, GMB posts, and all that other stuff that we teach in the local GMB pro market. What do you say? activity, relevance, trust, and authority, right? The more trusted and authoritative you become, the more that the centroid will expand. How you do that is in local GMB Pro, there has to be a reason why Google will display you to someone that further away than that they should be. There has to be a reason for that proximity factor not to kick in. We did that with the DC plumber, right? It’s a case study in RYS Academy Reloaded.

But it works perfectly well here where we built such massive trust and authority into that, that it became the keyword for the niche. And so because it has that trust and authority, it gets displayed to people outside of what you would expect the radius to be from the Business Center, the way that we did it. As I’ve said before, in New York City was a bike messenger server, the way that we did it in LA is Uber drivers. And I’m not gonna say how it was done, I’m just telling you, that’s what we used to just create massive trust and authority to relate, like, create relevance between where we wanted Google, to display to people to give us impressions, to put our results in front of people to get us in the map pack in front of people. And then I mean, if you’re there one to one or two, sometimes three people start clicking on it. And then that reinforces the trust and authority that Google is giving us and creates even more. The whole process for that it’s a local GMB Pro. I won’t get into it here.

Yeah, and I’m testing. You know, I’ve talked about many, many times over the last year and a half, two years here on Hump Day hangouts about click-through spam bots, and not using them. And I’ve just been using paid traffic from Google. But I, I have started testing, Michael bows, his Viper tools recently, because he’s been getting a lot of good results from people that I know in the space. And so I’ve actually just recently started testing with that. And that’s something that I’m hoping I don’t have any results yet, but I’m hoping that I can get similar results to some of the people that I’ve chatted with about it. And that could be something I mean, you could do paid traffic, which is what I’ve been doing but you know, you can specify like certain clicks to come to for within a certain geographic area, right? From a topically relevant audience or an audience that would be relevant to you know, what you’re sending them to, and that that works to, to kind of help with that stuff, too. So I’m actually testing the tool right now. As I said, Michael’s tool doesn’t have any results to share yet but I’m hoping that it works well. And if it does, I will let you guys know for sure.

Can You Create Massive Direct Backlinks Without Using Buffer Sites?

Alright, the next question was do you have to be careful when creating direct backlinks to GMB listings as you do when doing direct backlinks to the websites, or can you create massive direct backlinks without using a very small number of buffer web 2.0 sites as tier one layer, maybe even a tier two-layer and what parts of the GMB listing should be targeted with backlinks to get the most SEO bang for the buck? Thank you very much. We hope as usual as always greatly appreciated. That seems almost like a consultation question Gordon. It gets very intricate on how things we try not to do in Hump Day hangouts is don’t discuss the How is what people pay us a whole lot of money for who can tell you what we do but that this is kind of getting into how isn’t it? I don’t know unless you want to answer because I’m not. Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t have any problem running backlinks directly to GMB stuff for tier-one entity acids period. I don’t like to run direct backlinks to the money site. But to tier-one entity assets, we did I hammer everything.

That’s my answer. Do you want to comment on that? Anyone? You can hammer that as far as I’m gonna go. Okay. And that’s what I do Gordon distances short answer. All tier-one entity assets. I don’t game. Yep. Just Hey.

And that’s why we do what we do with the SEO SEO guy. That’s why it’s called the SEO shield. Right? It’s the SEO firewall, it shields the money site. So you can do all that really nasty, off-page SEO stuff to your shield, not to the money site. But that’s the whole point. Right?

So we keep the money site procedures. The first place they’re gonna go look is the money site. Yeah, the only thing I run directly to the money site besides syndication posts, like syndication network backlinks or press releases.

And that’s pretty much it, you know, occasionally I’ll buy some guest post links.

From a really good provider. They’re expensive, though. But even then, it’s only very, very specific circumstances. Other than that, I just use the same methods that we teach. So I do absolutely nothing to the benefit, sometimes a precedent, a precedent, but I’ll usually run press releases elsewhere to one.

How Does The Google Bot Understand The Schema Through The Tag Manager If There’s No Placement In The HTML?

So BB is up with a list of questions as usual. What’s up, bb, he says, Hey, guys, you said there is a way to the schema to add schema, I guess, through the Google Tag Manager. But how the G bot understands the page that there’s no placement in the HTML, it’ll render it. So it’s a script, right, the container will display the scripts within the container in Google Tag Manager. Now, Google even says in their help files, that that is not the preferred way to display JSON LD structured data on a website, doing it through Tag Manager is not the preferred way, as per Google’s own help files or documentation. However, it still works. And there are certain circumstances where that’s the only way you can do it. So for example, I have a website, one of my sites that has a website theme that there’s no way to add code to the home page. It’s really weird. It’s the home page is like built into the theme. And there’s no, there’s just no way to add code to the home page other than through Google Tag Manager. Or if I were to hack the JSON LD directly into the theme files, which I don’t like to do. So in that case, I just added the structure data organization schema, in that case, to the container code, and Google Tag Manager, and yes, it will render. Now if you go to a view page source, all you’re going to see is the GTM Tag Manager, excuse me, the container code, the Google Tag Manager container, but that’s all you’re going to see. But when you do a structured data testing tool test on the homepage, it will render the JSON LD code on the site. So you can actually see it in Google, excuse me, the structured data testing tool. So yes, again, it’s not the preferred method, if you can add the structured data directly to the code of the site using SEO ultimate Pro, which is what I use mostly, sometimes use as a header and footer plugin. Sometimes themes will have the ability to add code to specific pages or sitewide, globally. So you can add it there, although I recommend only adding, you know, like organization schema to the homepage or whatever, just as per best practices. So but you know, in those cases where you can’t Google Tag Manager is a viable alternative, even if Google says it isn’t because it still reads and recognizes the code. And he comments on that.

No, I mean, that that’s a perfect answer because that’s exactly what it is Google, it will render on the website as everything renders as HTML eventually, right. All it is all the Google tag manager does is it sets up a JavaScript call between Google servers and your server to render the HTML. That’s all it is.

Did Your Site’s Bounce Rate Increase After The Passage Index Update?

Question number two, did the bounce rate increase in your site after the passage index update? Don’t know, haven’t looked at it. It’s not a metric that I’m typically Chase.

So I don’t know I can’t answer that. Anybody have? No, I haven’t seen any changes. So and my metric is called my metric is form fields. My metric is what’s going on in that box? Any thoughts or takeaways on the new update? No, I honestly don’t have any sorry. Usually, I don’t even know about updates until somebody like you brings it to our attention. So and I mean that I don’t stay plugged in all that shit. I don’t I just look, if I start seeing some significant fluctuations in my own properties, or plant properties, then I go in and start digging into it. But if I don’t see any major fluctuations, why bother? I’ve got other things to work on. Do you know what I mean? So I honestly, I can’t give you an answer to that. I don’t have any opinion on it.

Or for the new update that will come out in May for speed testing? No, I mean, it’s Google PageSpeed. has been, people have said, it’s been a metric for a long time, but I really haven’t seen that. It’s, but it’s good for user experience. Right. So what I’m saying is PageSpeed for an SEO metric, a ranking metric is not something that I’ve seen it really have much of an effect on.

Even though people have been saying that for years, I really haven’t seen that in my own experience. But for user experience, it absolutely makes a difference. Especially on mobile, like if it was if a page loads really slow on mobile like people get irritated in the back out and go somewhere else. And so that’s really important, I think.

But as far as like what I know, I did read someone that I guess it was the experience update or whatever they’re calling it, where it’s, it��s, it covers a number of things. PageSpeed being one of them. You know, I really don’t have a prediction on that, because I just don’t know, we’ll see what happens when it comes. Any comments on that? The whole point of entity-based worry-less SEO is that to worry about those things. And again, I’ll go back to just measuring the metrics that matter, which is the four are the form fields, steady, and are the phone call steady. And it’s the clients’ bottom line increasing that, that my job is not to worry about bounce rate or anything else like that. Unless I see a problem with any of the metrics that really matter, then I’m gonna go and see if anything has happened to affect that. And then I’m on it. But by the time I’m on that, I’m past the period, where everyone’s panicked and everyone has gone and done whatever they could to try to affect the garden themselves in trouble, maybe even sandbox, I’m going to be past all that. I’m going to be passed that point. So I’m going to let the dust settle. And then I’m going to go in and I’m going to start checking, I’m going to look at the data and see what it was that happened. And why. And then I’m gonna go into fixing it. I haven’t needed to do that literally in Oh, I did just recently, but it will it had nothing to do with the core update. But I did have to recently go in and fix something and it can’t my back, everything comes right back. And what we continue seeing since Google started announcing updates until now, when we’ve been applying these methods is Google doesn’t update, and our shit gets even better, it gets stronger. If we hit more traffic, we get better results for our clients, our clients. Sometimes, it’s 10x, sometimes going from 8k a month to 80k. Going I don’t know from 100 to 150k. I mean, those kinds of results going from seven, 8 million to nearly 30 million a month. Those are the results that we’re talking about. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t care about Google. And I’m gonna stand by what I have said all along that the art of art the art of activity, relevance, trust, and authority trumps everything on the web.

What’s The Best Way To Merge Two GMBs Quickly?

Sweet. So Dee Dee is up he says, What’s up, he says brown new. He’s a mastermind member and has been for like, many years, I think since the beginning. So anyway, he says a proud new user of go I level through semantic mastery today. Thanks for all the info Bradley, you’re welcome to and great, great tool.

Let me know when you want me to cover more stuff in the mastermind about it because in fact, I’ve got I’ve been building an app in high level for my contract as my three contractors that I’m going to be selling as a SAS software, the software is a service, right. And it’s great because it’s a low barrier to entry, low cost. But super, a super valuable tool that they can use to help them get more leads from their existing web assets, manage those leads through automated conversations. And then and through like a pipeline a lead pipeline inside high level and then also solicit reviews and basically build up the reviews. So it helps us retain reputation. And it’s a really cool app, and I’ve just finished well I’m not 100% done with it, I’m gonna I’m meeting with my one of my first three contractors is going to be beta testing it for me, either on Friday or Saturday, I’m still waiting on a reply back. But this week, and so next week, it will be in use by a tree contractor so that I can start working out the bugs and stuff. But that’s going to be one of my leading products where my new agency is that app because it’s only I’m only charging $200 a month I level says you should charge 300 a month, but I’m doing it for a specific reason. Anyways. And I think it’s gonna be a really, really good tool to get my foot in the door at a low cost with contractors, right? So anyway, let me know if you want me to cover more of that in the mastermind, I’m happy to do so and I’m in fact, next Thursday when I have my next mastermind webinar.

My tree contractor who’s going to be beta testing it for me and working with me to work out the bugs, you know, he will have about a week’s worth of use out of it. So I’ll have some pretty good experiences to share with you on that point. By the way, guys, if you’re curious, go to semantic mastery comm slash high level. It’s an outstanding platform. It’s an automation platform for agencies essentially. And it’s a really, really powerful tool. There’s a hell of a learning curve, there is no question, but it’s worth putting the time and effort into learning because it can really help you to grow your business I’m using it for right now primarily prospecting for my own business and I mean it’s just great to set up all these things. Automations that just run like clockwork day in and day out to fill your pipeline full of leads. And it’s just, it’s crazy. I’ve only been running it for three weeks now. And I’ve got, you know, 6760 to 70. Some leads in my pipeline are in various stages of communication, but it’s crazy guys. It’s a really, really, really good tool. And I’m doing a ton of I’m going to be doing I’m developing training right now, that will become the semantic mastery mastermind training, like a 90 day or a 12-week program. And the high level is an integral part of that. So if anybody’s interested in that, go check out semantic mastery comm slash high level, it’s a 14-day free trial, that is our affiliate link, but then come join the mastermind because I’m hoping by, you know, the third quarter of this year, to have the training that I’m going to be rolling out to the mastermind available and ready. And once that is launched, we’re going to kind of restructure how you can even join the mastermind, the cost everything. So if any of that interests you now would probably be a good time to get in. So you’re grandfathered. Anyways, following up on that. He says I have a client that needs a merge of GMB accounts. I’ve been trying to get this done by Google for the last four months with no luck. I keep filling out the GMB form they provide and I don’t get any response Yeah, it’s weird I’m so hit or miss with Google support. Sometimes they’re really responsive like they were with that client that I just mentioned.

We contacted them about adding a physical location to a service area business they were actually really responsive in that case, but in other cases, I go three weeks without getting a reply back so I understand your frustration he says this is a legit business that moved and we do not have access to the previous listing as another company did it. Is there any other method to try to get this done that you know of? Okay, here’s one thing d I would suggest because you’re in the mastermind is post this as like asking for help in the mastermind within describing the issue. Because we there’s a lot of local Google Local Guides in our mastermind, myself included lane Clayton, Greg Greenberg, there’s a bunch of them in there that, you know, in the past, when we’ve had similar weird issues occur, we get high-level local guides to go in and suggest that it’s and after a handful of that those occur, then oftentimes the attics will the edits will go through. So let’s start a discussion in the mastermind. That’s what it’s for anyways, D and C, see, you know, we put all our heads together, we ought to be able to come up with something to help you or at least give you some additional ideas. That’s what the mastermind is for any comments on that guys? Yeah, ask Marco anything mastermind is tomorrow. Right? So just come in and ask that question. Because I do have some suggestions for you on what would work for this because someone just went through this and it was a nightmare. And the way that you’re trying to do it just filling out the form, not gonna work. They are not going to respond to that at all ever takes you’d never get anything when you fill out that form. And they don’t tell you what we’ll call you. Right right back. Never call. You never get any response and never get any emails. And I’ll give this in public.

You’re not the one that should be doing this. That GMB if it’s legit has an owner with all the documentation. That should be the person, not you. The owner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. documentation should be the one that’s initiating all of the contacts. But let’s talk tomorrow. Let’s talk tomorrow. So I can talk to you in-depth on how to how to get through this. Yeah, there you go. And that’s good advice.

You know, from the primary owner’s account, if you contact support, you might get a response. So that owner, not the manager, not never the manager.

Alright, the last question, which is great and by the way, hey, Jordan, yo, yo, yo, you pretty people. I don’t know who you’re talking to join. But

Is Local Viking Good For GMB Postings?

anyways, this last question says is local biking, okay to use for GMB posting? Or is it one to be aware of, alright? I talked about this for the last couple of months, I switched to local Viking about two months ago. But, you know, according to some crazy shit that happened last week, apparently,

I have canceled my subscription. And I’m just not going to use it anymore. I’m concerned about the API connection being a flag. I’m not saying whether it is or not, I don’t know. But I have revoked local Viking access to my GM bees. And I’m not going to continue to use it. And it’s just because it’s better safe than sorry. And I’d rather be overly cautious. And I’m afraid that that might be a flag because of some of the issues that had happened a week ago. And it wasn’t just them. There were a couple of others as well.

And so I’ve literally revoked access. There’s only one app that I’m using right now for posting to GMB. That does in it, that’s all it does. It doesn’t, it doesn’t connect in any other way other than to allow for posting and it’s called fan booster fan booster calm. There are some limitations with that app though. So and I’m only testing that across like three locations right now. All my other locations are going to be manually posted to for right now by my VA logging into as a manager to those GMB locations one at a time and posting manually, which sucks, but it is what it is. And right now I’m afraid to use any of these like SEO-based GMB posts schedulers, a social media-based post scheduler, I think is different because it’s not scrutinized the same way that the SEO tools are by Google. At least that’s my assumption. It’s logical. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But fan booster is a social media posting app. That’s the one that I’m testing with right now. And that is pretty cool. There are some limitations. But there are also some really cool benefits to that. So I mean, I’ll share more information about that when I have it. But again, just to be 100% transparent, I have canceled my subscription to local biking and it sucks because I just worked it into my processes for my team. And I had to cancel it right after we got really good at using it. Fucking canceled it. But it is what it is Welcome to the world of online marketing, right? So any comments on that, before we wrap it up, my motto is always to protect what’s making you money. always protect the better to be safe than sorry. Some of those APIs were tagged for suspicious activity. I’m not gonna say which one.

Which ones it was more than one, they were just getting heavily spam that was being used for purposes other than posting. And so I mean, it is what it is, every time that I’m gonna put myself and spammers get hold of something. It gets muddy to get dirty, Google starts looking in. And their job is simply we’re gonna get rid of it. So we’ll just knock it all out. Yeah, we just knock it all out. We don’t care. They’d rather do that. Then take a chance of letting the spammers continue spamming. That’s the same thing that they’re doing with GMB period. Prove that if it gets suspended, prove that it’s real. Yeah, that that’s it. They don’t care. They don’t care if it was real to start with. prove that it’s real. That’s it.

Yeah, and I want to thank you, Marco, again, for bringing that to my attention last week, because, like I immediately went in and revoked access and fortunately, knock on wood. I still got my assets. So anyway, thanks, guys. We’ll see y'all next time.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 330 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 330

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The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Right about now. All right. Welcome, everybody to Hump Day Hangouts, Episode 330. Today is the 10th of March 2021. We got almost everyone here, maybe her nominal show up here in a couple of minutes. We got a couple of announcements today some things we want to go over and then we are going to get into the questions but want to say hi, real quick. Get everyone. See how they’re doing. If you’re watching, by the way, go ahead and let us know how you’re doing. If you’re watching live, you can pop that right on the page. Say hello. Let us know what’s going on. So I’ll just go down my list here. I see Chris is first. So Chris, how are you doing today? Good. Glad to be here. Super excited.

Yeah, can’t complain. Whereas getting actually spring is almost here. Like is where it’s being really good here.

So I can’t wait to actually gonna lift the lockdowns at some point, hopefully. And it’s all outside time. Very nice. All right. Marco, how about you How you doing today? Let me see. Let me see. Let me see.

I started going off into that fake background, that fake co story comes back. It’s impossible for it to be this nice. 365. But you’ve seen it tight. It’s been actually March, February, we came to this house in February of last year, just before we got locked out. And you guys have seen it live for 52 weeks. It is what it is, man. It’s beautiful. I keep telling people, it’s the price I pay for the life I live, this is what I choose. This is not where I have to be. This is where I choose to be. If you want that moment if you want that. It’s called the POFU position of Fuck you. We do POFU Live, where we go in and we have a bunch of experts giving presentations, then there’s me giving you my mindset and not that I’m calling myself an expert. I just, it’s what I do. For both, we’ll try to get you in the right mindset so that you go and do the things that you need to do. And that you have to do. In order to be able to do the things that you want to do is funny how that works out. First, you have to do and you need to do. And then you can do whatever you want. Because you’re in that position where you can decide whatever it is that’s best for your life. So just fantastic. And we were just talking about how it is that we’re going to do it. And that’s coming.

Not only is that coming but I’ll just tease it a little bit Syndication Academy. Syndication Academy is in the can, the videos are recorded. We have 300 website updates to go through or over 300 there’s a couple of them that the syndication Academy, I don’t know what to say she’s just a fantastic director, we’ll just call her the instructor, the syndication Academy, instructor, the person who’s going to be guiding the person who’s going to be giving you support in Facebook to be in there daily, supporting the group. It’s an overhaul, it’s a complete overhaul, it’s a complete, completely different idea. The concept stays the same, you have to expand your entity, expand that footprint. let Google know everything that belongs to your entity, make it known, make it better hook it up altogether, so that the power flows the way that it’s supposed to. syndication Academy is fantastic.

Our trainer, instructor, she’s fantastic. She will be up to giving you webinar updates every month, he’ll come up to three websites.

And again, she’ll be in the Facebook group, I think it’s going to totally rock, and you guys for you guys wondering because somebody did ask me. Well, if you guys do it in syndication, Academy networks, and MGYB. Well, then why should I buy Syndication Academy? Well, I just said that we will be having 300 Well, looking through 300 websites to see how they can be manipulated, manipulated, and added into the syndication networks that we built. Our VA is It’ll take a while for them to catch up. And if we do offer the service we can offer everything that we will be adding to syndication Academy, we always had what’s most important what we think you must have, as far as that footprint goes as far as that entity, but there are others and we’re going to have fantastic opportunities like when we came across.

Now, it’s slipping my mind, but, oh boy, when we added all of the weekend and all the drive stacks, all of the folders and pro trees. Yeah, yeah. came across that and it was fantastic. And there wasn’t originally in it. It was a webinar update. And that became part of the syndication networks, or part of the ad ID, and yeah. I mean, it’s just a fantastic website. So all of those will be coming. There’s plenty of other website websites out there. So as a matter of fact, I was telling you guys yesterday one of the ones that already in the can, is a fantastic website. So fantastic semantic hub. And it’s just a really novel way to approach SEO. Yeah. Bradley coined that will be with us. She’s fantastic again and so I’m really really looking forward to working with her on expanding and making syndication Academy way better than what it is and it’s fantastic already.

Oh, Stan, I got nothing to add on to that I wanted to make sure we touched on it, it’s coming up and I just put on the Early Access opt-in so if you want to be first to be notified, there’s definitely going to be something special for people who are on the early access list. So if you’re pumped about Syndication Academy you just want to find out more you’re thinking hey this may be for me maybe for my client’s good way to make money a way to get more exposure better rankings more traffic all that hop the early access list. If you’re not watching this live and you’re checking it out on YouTube just go to semantic mastery comm slash each D questions and you can find the link there and get that all taken care of.

Let’s see as I go through here realize we haven’t said hello to Mr. Johnny come lately also known as her non How’s it going, buddy? I’m good, man. I’m banging on the door. And it’s rainy and cold outside and you guys won’t let me in, dripping wet on the outside looking in. Yeah, man. Come on. Let me in. I’m good, man. I’m happy to be here. Outstanding. Last but not least Bradley, how you doing? I’m good, man. Happy to be here. It’s freaking warm. All of a sudden, Virginia. And it’s like 70 degrees, almost 70 degrees outside. It’s crazy. It’s like, you know, three days ago, it was cold. And I had sweatshirts on and space heaters up here. And now it’s like,

oh, that time of year, man spring is around the corner. And I’m happy about it. That’s things get really busy for my tree. Contractors come springtime and stay that way all the way through fall. So I’m looking forward to this season for sure. Nice. Nice, nice. Well, Bradley, we had a cool conversation all of us did with somebody yesterday. So you mentioned the cold email mastery course that you went through. And you mentioned that on Hump Day hangouts last week, and we ended up hooking up with Daniel, yesterday and talking to him. So you might tell people a little bit about what we might end up what they might see from you and him. Yeah, we so I mentioned a really good cold email course that I picked up about, I don’t know, maybe three weeks ago now. And it was really good, and it’s inexpensive. There’s a ton of value for what you pay for it. And I’m not gonna mention it now, because we’re going to talk about it when with Daniel, I’m going to jump on a call with a video call with Daniel over the next two weeks or so. And he’s going to go through his methods that he teaches in the training and how to specifically apply it because he does email marketing for all kinds of stuff.

But he’s going to talk about how to apply his methods specifically for prospecting for clients, for consultants in for agencies. And so I think that’s going to be really valuable. It’s not going to be a live webinar, he and I are going to jump on and just him and I are going to banter back and forth. And he’ll go through some demonstrations that are all be recorded. And then we’re going to present that to you guys. Again, I picked it up for myself and I was blown away by I thought it was really, really good. Let’s put it that way. And so Adam reached out to him and got it set up. And we had a meeting with him yesterday. And he’s stoked in real cool guys a lot like Marco and that he’s not politically correct when it comes to speech and it’s great. I love that kind of instruction. And so it’s real punchy, real to the point no fluff and all that. And so I’m looking forward to having a video call with him that we can bring to you guys. For those of you that are looking to generate more clients for your business. It’s a really good strategy.

Awesome. Yeah. And I’ll just say for those of you who are listening, and again, if you’re not live, you can leave this on the replay on YouTube, if you guys have any questions about cold emailing. So b2b is what this is, right? You’re not just emailing people, you’re emailing references as an agency. If you’ve got any questions, pop them in there, you know, and if we can, we’ll work those in and get those answered, because he’s got a lot of background in that. I know Bradley. I mean, most of us, I think, have at least some experience, but Daniel certainly got a lot so that you know, just a quick met note for internal processes, we might want to post in our groups, a little survey about questions about cold email, prospecting, post them here and we can incorporate that into the video call I do within Yeah, that’s a good idea. Yeah, Bradley, just let me know when you’re gonna when you guys set up the call, and I’ll do that a couple of days before. So. Real quick. Before we jump into questions, just want to say to everyone if you’re new to SM and MGYB, I know we get new people. We see that a lot of people commenting and we love it. We know there are more people out there who just watched and that’s cool too. But if you’re wondering where to get started

The best place to you’ll hear us talking about stuff like the SEO shield and syndication networks and all this other stuff. But go to the SEO shield, comm grab that it free training, find out how you can shield your site, don’t worry about algorithm updates. And you’ll find out a little bit more about what we’re talking about why this stuff makes sense how it works, and then where you can get it. So as Marco mentioned, you can go get this stuff done for you, if you want, that’s great, go to mgyb.co, if you want to more, maybe understand the nuts and bolts or build your own team and start building this stuff out, then, of course, you know, we have the training available as well. Beyond that, if you want to find out more about getting repeatable SEO results, you can grab the battle plan of battle plan dot semantic mastery com. If you’re looking at an agency or you’re a consultant, and you want to grow and become an agency to x, your agency comm is the place to be, and then last but not least, if you’re ready to grow your digital marketing business, or for some people, they’re brick and mortar and they want to expand the online side, the mastermind is the place for you. You can find out more about that at mastermind dot semantic mastery.com. And with that, I think we should dive into the questions unless you guys got anything else.

No excited about the Syndication Academy launch. I’m going to be spending some time this upcoming weekend going through a lot of the training that SEO is recorded, you know, to provide some feedback and stuff and it’s gonna be pretty, I’m pretty excited about it. Because, you know, it’s been a few years since we’ve updated it. And this has been completely redone as Marco said, with just a ton of sites that we’re going to be expanding the foot, you know, entity footprint with. So as he’s going to be doing a training on each one of those sites, and that’ll be the monthly updates, or maybe even bi-weekly updates, depending on what we decide, because of the sheer number of sites that we have to expand upon. probably end up doing bi-weekly webinars in the Facebook group for that. So anyway, just looking forward to that, guys, if you have any questions about it, let us know. Otherwise, let’s get into questions.

Let’s do it.

got quite a few.

I think this is the newest one. We still don’t have the dates and times on here. Let me see. It should be right after I commented I think Jared Yeah, it was one Conrad is just before that. I don’t think we got to his.

Does All Of The MGYB Services Work For Non-English Sites?

Yeah, we did. Actually, you bounce. Okay. You had a call? Yeah. You had a call come in? And I answered that. But I was looking for you to reply to that one. Anyways, I said that we don’t do anything in non-English, but from what I understand applying non-English or English drive stacks to non-English sites will still benefit. Is that correct?

That was the question. I mean, yeah, Hernan and I worked on a Swedish website. Also, what we did is we actually went and had the team do it in English. And then the guy who was working as he translated it into Norwegian or Swedish, whatever it was.

So I mean, it works perfectly well. If you take the time to go then to then go in and target your language might not even have to, because what we’re looking for is relevance, the AI should be able to make the connection that is basically the same.

So yeah, I mean, the answer to that is, I don’t see why you can’t get the MGYB services, we don’t do it in your language, we will do it in English, and it’s up to you to go in. For example, syndication network, it’s up to you to go in and translate the profile, but it won’t take that long for the descriptions and everything else.

So that would be my suggestion, you go in and or you hire someone better yet, go into Upwork or something like that, and hire a translator to translate everything so you don’t have to, you can go concentrate and focus on something else.

There you go.

What Are Your Thoughts On AI Content Like Marketmuse, Frase, And Menterprise?

Alright, so Gerrards up first, for this week. He says, what are your thoughts on AI content with stuff like market news res enterprise, etc? Is it fine to use our money site with some manual editing and manually added content? Yeah, I mean, I use phrase.io is the tool that I’ve been using?

And yeah, I mean, I would, for money site stuff, I wouldn’t just, you know, use the content that it pulls back or creates without manually editing it. Maybe for link-building stuff. You could but I wouldn’t do that on the money side. I would still manually edit stuff.

But yeah, I mean, it’s I think phrases are good too. I haven’t used any others. So I don’t know. But I do actually use sprays for some of my projects as well. So what about anybody else in length is a go-to because of the way that we can relate the entity, the way that we can work with the entity and focus and I’m not going to go in-depth in that because

That’s something that was presented in POFU live. And I’m not going to share it out of purple light, but the way that he focuses the entity, not only within links but another tool.

Man, I’m slipping today because I’m presenting all of the software that we use SEO surfer or surfer SEO. So the way that that those two are used in conjunction, you can even put phrases in there. And there’s quite a few other software as a service SaaS software that you can use and really, really getting great content. Now what you get is a, or what you should be getting is a template, if it’s for your money site. And then you would use that template to write your content, I wouldn’t use what you’re given directly, I would edit it and make sure that that is hyperfocus for the bot. That’s how we do use the content. That’s how the VA was trained to use the content.

So the follow-up to that was can this be used to automate curation for our blogs the way Bradley does it? Thanks a lot. Again, I wouldn’t, you know, yes, you can use it to help kind of like, you know, augment, or supplement the blog posting for curated content, because it will actually pull in content based upon a search query or a question.

And it will pull in the top results. And, you know, so yeah, you can use that to help with curating content. But I wouldn’t use it again, not for money. So I would I use that as like, automated content production. Right, I wouldn’t do it for that, not for money site, all of the content that I, you know, for my clients is manually curated by my bloggers. So we don’t use any automated fashion. Now. I mean, you can streamline and make manual curation a lot more efficient. For example, we started doing social posting for tree contractors. And so we’ve been developing out the Feedly account, feed the pro account with a ton of content, I’ve been paying my one of my bloggers by the hour to just find and collect good content that’s relevant in all different types of categories, specific to tree services and landscaping.

And it’s crazy because, like, Feedly, has what they call, I think it’s called Leonard, meet Leonard or something like that, anyway, it’s, it’s some sort of AI system that’s built into it. And so when you like, save content articles into a content board and Feedly, then you can go through and select, you know, certain pieces of content that are in that board and tell Leo to go find content like that in overtime, it’s machine learning, right? It trick, you can train the AI inside of Feedly to go out and find content that matches what you’ve trained the bot to do. And it’s really cool because it will auto-start automatically finding content and adding it to your content boards or your pool of available content that can be used for curating. And so we’d like in just the last three weeks have amassed quite a library of content that’s categorized in specific categories, like, you know, tree services, General tree services, spring tree services, summer tree services, autumn tree services, winter, you know, and so on, and so forth through various categories. And it’s great because it’s giving us like this, basically, almost unlimited. And once you train Leo to go out and find content, similar content, it’s basically unlimited content that you can use for curating. So it makes it a hell of a lot more efficient to curate manually, when all you got to do is click into a Feedly content board and find articles that you can use for support content, for supporting content for art for blog posts. So again, I don’t do anything automated, except for perhaps finding content. Everything else is done manually, but in a very efficient manner, which is what Content Kingpin is all about. It’s still the same processes we use, there’s just Feedly has improved drastically over the last couple of years, especially with the addition of AI machine learning. So, you know, those are some of the things that I would recommend.

And yes, you can curate content and focus it on the entity and focus on the entity also, it works really well in conjunction with the Content Kingpin, all of the software that we mentioned earlier.

What Is The Best Way To Build Lead Gen Properties?

Alright, so the next question says, looking to get into lead gen and I have a nice domain I found aimed at contractors nationally, what’s the best way to go about building lead gen properties? these days? Would you just get a GMB and do a mass page? Thanks, guys. I mean, if you didn’t get a GMB, it’s still in my opinion, the best way to do Legion.

Good luck with that. It’s very difficult to get GMBs right now.

It’s really hard to do much of anything with GMBs right now. I found as far as new ones are making edits and stuff Google’s real estate suspension happy. So I would be really careful. And good luck trying to get it. I mean, I hope you can, but I know it’s been difficult to get GMBs recently or last for the last few months. So what do you say, Marco? Well, the spammed listings are not only hard to get, but hard to keep are the key. Because when you get them, as soon as you start going and making changes, Google suspends it. And then they make you show paperwork they make you re-verify, which is the whole point. I mean, their whole point they want to know if you’re in legit.

And if you can’t re-verify you can’t show the paperwork, then you can’t get it back. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to try to recover something that you know, isn’t legitimate in the first place. makes absolutely no sense, however, are the method that you’ve always shown the Semantic Mastery way, which is going to peel box with street address still works really well. Those will sometimes get suspended. Yeah, even that, but it’s less likely to get suspended.

Oh, guys, I’m not gonna mention the companies. But be really careful when you’re using an API to publish content into your GMB to publish schedule content. Because some of those have a muddy IP. Google has tagged it with suspicious activity and it’s a really good way to get suspended. So be really careful what it is what you’re doing, what it is that you’re doing with those. To this day. The original training in local GMB process, add a manager Never Never again go back in as the owner, I stand by that. I’ve only had one, one GMB suspended with a manager. So out of all of this out of everything that we’ve been doing, the way that has worked for me, the original training in local GMB Pro, you add a manager and let the manager go in. And it’s like, well, I’m not gonna go through the whole training. But try not to make any changes once you’ve sent for the pin. Once you have that pin lie should never go in again, except for tempos, and add pictures. And that’s it. Never again do anything else no changes, because it will get suspended if you make major changes, especially the NAP category that attend any of those even slight changes. I once added a video to one of the VA added one I added a video. And it wasn’t even any it’s not anything major adding a video and they got suspended. But then again, it wasn’t something that was truly legit. It was, and as a matter of fact, the post office box was through with street address, but we recovered it, we were able to recover that. Wow. So just be really careful. Just be really careful what you do because Google is out for blood to right now. They’re suspending a whole bunch of them. And they’d rather suspend you and have you legitimize the GMB then to not suspend you and let you get away with an illegitimate or spam. GMB. That’s the way that they’re doing this right now.

Yeah, and you know, it’s interesting because I had a client or I have a client excuse me that when I plugged it into a GMB post scheduler through the API, it showed that there was like no physical address associated with the GMB and it was weird. And so, I actually reached out to GMB support and I was wondering why I was having such a hard time getting the GMB to move correctly or move like Porter respond to the things that I was doing to it like they normally do. And once I discovered that there was an incorrect back end, a physical location associated with it, or really not at all in one when I plugged in the API will show you and by the way, you can figure that out. Where the location is of a GMB by plugging it into something like right local as a geo grid search report tool now. So if you get the cid for service area business GMB URL and plug it in, it’ll show you the center point where it where it’s where Google thinks that the business is registered. And it’s interesting because this was like the way out in the middle of like, nowhere, it was weird. It was like, like in a park or some shit. Like seriously, like, like, some crazy big national park or something. There’s nothing there. No buildings ran. And so I’m wondering why it wouldn’t respond. And when I plugged in an API, that’s what revealed that to me. And that’s when I started like wrecking realizing that some GM bees don’t have on the back end and actual physical location tied or it’s incorrect for especially for service area businesses. So anyway, I contacted Google support. And they said, go ahead and change your like I got this reply back from Google support and said go ahead and add the GMB or the address even though it was a service area business. They said go ahead and add the address. But it’s likely going to end support told me this is likely going to trigger re-verification. And so I contacted the client and I said, this is what they replied. I say we go ahead, do it because the maps listings not responding the way that they should be. And I feel like we’re gonna constantly be fighting an uphill battle, they said, go ahead and do it. So I did it. And fortunately, in that case, because they have a physical location that was verifiable, all that was required, though, was the postcard, just use standard us mail verification. And within seven days or so we had the card verified, and it’s responding better, it’s still going to take a little bit of time, but it’s coming back. So if you can’t like well, Marga said, If you can’t reverify something, don’t even bother trying is really the point.

So the follow-up questions, would you just get GMB into the mass page? I don’t do mass page stuff, period. I just don’t I don’t like to do it. It’s not that it can’t work. It might work. But I’m not the person to ask her. I don’t know that we are maybe Marco can shed some insight on it. Land Solutions Network is a mass page built with WordPress like the front end was WordPress pages. Mass page builder, it’s there to the public. It’s there for people to spam to report. It gets the UCI to get leads to this day because I post them in the group whenever so one comes in, we’re in a place where I’m not working. I post one from Hawaii the other day, I posted another one from Arizona, there was some from Florida that I that Chris Pillman got Chris G got some.

So if you do it right, there’s a reason why mass-paid build can’t work. But it just requires a little bit more work than what people are willing to put in a kind of in air quotes to kind of legitimize to build.

Would The RSS Masher Cause Footprint Issues If You Use The Same Account That Has Adsense & Affiliate Codes?

Hector’s obviously I saw your old webinar about David Nelson’s RSS masher and eager to access it. Would it cost footprint issues though if I use the same AdSense or affiliate code for each site? Or set I get a separate account for each? I don’t know about AdSense? I just don’t say I don’t do anything like that. So I just don’t know. Does anybody here have an answer for him about that?

Okay.

Sorry, I can’t answer that. I just don’t know. Um, as far as AdSense, I don’t think affiliate code would cause a problem. I don’t know because again, I just don’t do affiliate stuff, guys. I haven’t even attempted affiliate marketing in two or three years other than occasionally we do a promotion for Semantic Mastery. I just do local stuff. So I suddenly he wants to use RSS masher, to push content into multiple websites. And in those multiple websites, he is going to use the same AdSense code from the same account. That’s what he’s asking, Oh, that looks like a really good way to lose your account. Well, there you go. So you have an answer. That’s what I was asking. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really it to me. That doesn’t seem like a very good idea. Yeah. And it’s not something that it does. I mean, it seems like the footprint is the AdSense code, Google picking that out?

And then you’d have a problem with Google suspended the account?

Yeah, I don’t know. There’s got to be I’m sure there’s some groups and Facebook and shit like that, that where people do a whole bunch of heavy AdSense stuff that would that would be what I suggest or even go to YouTube and do some searches, I’m sure you can find the answers you’re looking for this is probably just not the place for Hector. And it’s just not something that really any of us do. So that’s why we can’t answer that one.

What’s The Best Way To Monetize Autoblogs Safely?

He says, What’s the best way to monetize these auto blogs safely? Would it be good to buy phone-verified Gmail accounts and run them in isolated browsers for this purpose? Thanks for all the great SEO stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think that’s good practice anyway, I mean, for example, I’m still using a browser to the old desktop version.

It still works if you right-click and open system Chrome. That’s the only way that it works. But it works. And I got, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of profiles in there. And I don’t even change IPS, like it’s all just my IP, but it keeps the browsing sessions and gross ghost browsers want another one’s called session box. That’s one that I’m looking into. If I eventually switched from browser to eventually I will probably try the session box. I know ghost browsers. Good. We’ve talked about that a lot, a little bit more expensive, but I know it’s really good. So I think it’s best practice to do that anyway to keep sessions in browsers specific to accounts and that kind of stuff. But you know, so yeah, having different Gmail accounts associated with each one of those projects. I think it’s probably a pretty, pretty wise thing to do. You asked me. Does anybody want to comment on that? No, I totally agree. That’s that would be the same thing to do. Isolate each account. Yeah. So you don’t get tagged for any sort of footprint.

Is There A Way To Get A Virtual Office Address For A Service Business To Get Citations And GMB?

Okay, next one man in the SEO says, Hey, guys got a question about citations for a business that operates in different countries like the US and Canada. I would like to secure some citations from other countries but the business doesn’t have a physical office there as they are a service business. Is there a way to get a virtual office address so I can get citations? And potentially GMB if not a GMB citations would be plenty. Thanks for your help. Um, yeah, I mean, again, I think having a GMB is great.

For many reasons, if you could get a second location for it, like in the, you know, as you said, I guess we’re in Canada, for example, if you don’t have a physical office in Canada, physical office, excuse me, or location in Canada, but you would like to build citations there as well, then yeah, you can add a second location as long as, as we just mentioned, already today, many times, if you can get a verifiable address, that’s what I would recommend. It’s, you know, it would certainly help. And then you could have two sets of citations. I would tie that to a set separate that the second GMB, I would tie it to a location page specific for that second location. In other words, you don’t want if you’ve got to GMB, right, you don’t want both GMB is pointing to the same page, like the root domain or the homepage of the site.

Because that could cause some ambiguous ambiguity, right, some NAEP issues. So it would be because it’s going to be the same company name, right. And so as long as you have only one data point, and name, address, and phone number as the same or website URL, because it’s really four points, right, we always call it an NAP name, address, and phone number, but also includes the website address. So there are really four data points. And as long as you’re not, you’re not sharing more than one data point across those four, then you can do that. So in other words, if the company name is going to be the same, which it should be, unless you added a location modifier to the company name, which you can do, but if you want to keep the company the same in both locations, that’s fine. But then you should have a separate physical address, a separate phone number for each location, and a separate web page. So if you have a primary one, that the website URL is tied to the home or the route, you know, the homepage or the routing domain, that’s perfectly fine. But on the second location, you should have the website tied to a specific location page for that location. Does that make sense? So again, you want to only have one common data point across those for the name, address, phone number, and website, or else you can create any IP ambiguous ambiguity issues, which will cause both locations to not rank as well. That makes sense. Does anybody want to comment on that?

Yeah, I mean, you can get virtual office addresses all over the US that you can rent an office and have the postcard physically mailed that to that address. There are multiple ways to do that. I mean, there’s even a Craigslist that you can use for that. I mean, Craigslist. It’s worked for me in the past that I tried. Like, not too long ago, I tried one in New York City and got a dormant to get me a verified GMB. So you can still be done because you just have to be creative about how you go and get them to kind of legitimize what it is that you’re doing. And understand that if you lose it, it’s spam. There’s nothing you could do. Try it at first, you don’t succeed, try it again.

So that would be the only way I can think I would know nothing about Canada to know how the post office works there, whether you could get one there. But you could still get someone to verify a business for you. Or those virtual offices, man, virtual offices, they work really well. Yeah, Chris Genie was he provided me or I don’t have it to share with you guys. I’d have to go search for it. But there are virtual mailbox services now that, you know, you can register a physical location, right, so to speak, and they’ll receive the mail and scan it and send you an email with the images of the mail. So you might want to try I’ve never tried that. To be honest with you. I’ve never tried it. So I don’t know if that would work or not. But you know, it’s worth a shot, right? So you might want to consider that.

Can We Take The URLs From AWS For The Images And Build Tiered Web 2.0s To Pass Juice To The Money Site?

Right, next is Phineas and Ferb. Okay. Hey, so I’m wondering if we are using AWS or another cloud provider like Microsoft, for CDN? Can we take URLs from AWS and all our images and build tiered web 2.0s to them to pass us to the money site? Or could this cause a penalty? Curious to get your opinions? You know, that’s an old tactic. Jimmy Kelly talked about that way back in I think 2000. And what was it 14 when I went to the certification, networking power certification, I think it was 2014? Anyways, he was talking about that way back then when we were doing domain authority stacking, RYS, which worked like freakin gangbusters back then it was crazy how good that worked. And that’s what we would do like subdomain manipulation and all kinds of stuff that we would do.

And that was one of the things that I remember was taught way, way back then, which was seven years ago now was taking the CDN URLs and using those like for images and files and all that and just hammering them with backlinks and pushing domain authority into the entity or the root domain at that point, we weren’t really talking about entity based SEO then. And it worked. I don’t know if that still would have much of an effect now, because I just don’t really do domain authority stalking anymore. We, we do our methods, which is about relevancy, and entity and art.

So I don’t know if that would work or not. What do you think Marco? Yeah, I don’t see why you wouldn’t. Because you’re building tiered web two dot O’s to pass link power through. So the tiered web $2 would absorb most of it. Or if you’re building it into the AWS or Microsoft, or whatever the CDN of choice is.

It would still absorb, like any of the negative.

But I mean, to me, nothing like Google, nothing works like Google. That’s why we’re in the belly of the beast, not Google doesn’t trust anything like it trust Google. So we’ll stay in there for as long as we can until we can’t, and then we’ll figure out something else. Yeah.

Hey, it’s worth a test. Yeah, sure. I mean, all of these people come, and they come with these ideas, these theories? And the standard answer is, try and see, the only way that you would know is if you try to see because if you have us, or you wait for us, in the heavy hitter club, of course, if you wait for us to try, we have a long list of things to try, because we’re already getting result. And so what we would have to do is put it on the list, because it isn’t necessary with what we’re doing right now the system that we have in place.

And how we do it, we get results time. And again, it’s a repeatable process that we’ve built, that works, period. So to build all of these different things, right now, it doesn’t make sense, because we don’t really need them. It’s nice to have them in the chamber in case something happens. And so we do have all of these other things that we could turn to if something happens, but right now, it just isn’t necessary and hasn’t been for me for quite a while. But going on six years now that we’ve been using our methods and our system and the way that we do things.

Does Your Selection Of The GMB Service Area Option Have Any effect On Geographical Search In The 3-Pack?

That’s right, so Gordon’s up what’s up, Gordon, it’s been a while he says, Hey, guys, I need your help. And two quick questions. Does the GMB service area you select in your GMB listing have any effect on the geographical search area that gets Google to show your listing in a three-pack it does to a degree.

You know, Google tightened its proximity filters. A shit year and a half ago now. Time flies, I guess it’s been a while. But it used to be that. Yeah, you could get your maps in the show in your designated service area. Relatively easy, right? If it wasn’t that difficult, especially for like, again, tree contractors typically have a very big service area, like multiple counties. And so I would list all that, right. And a lot of the times I could get for some of the GMBs that were really powered up really authoritative, they would rank three cities away, right? Like because it was, you know, might be in an adjacent county altogether, right. And it was crazy. Um, but that’ll kind of change. A year and a half ago now, maybe two years ago, whatever, whenever the proximity filters got a lot stricter or tighter, narrower, so to speak. And so now it’s a lot more difficult. Yes, it can still be done. But it takes a lot of effort. And time, cumulative effort, in other words, in order to get that to occur, and that’s what we teach it local GMB Pro. So, you know, it is possible, but it does take consistent, repeated effort in order to end in a very specific way in order to do that. So what I’m saying is, is you can put a large service area, right, and it might be relevant to that business, but Google is likely only going to show the maps listing for people that are in close proximity at the time that they search for that service, unless you can force it to, you know, Marco, I suppose, expand the centroid by doing the methods that we teach in local GMB Pro. But it’s difficult to do that. I mean, it’s not that it can’t be done. It certainly can. But it’s difficult to do that. So, you know, again, Google is going to really show the maps listing to people that are in close proximity when they’re searching, especially if there are other businesses, like if it’s a very obscure business, that there’s not a lot of other companies that provide that product or service, then yeah, you can get maps listing to appear from I mean, you know, 10s or hundreds of miles away even That’s true, but it’s very rare. If it’s a type of business that is common, then and there are multiple providers within you know, you know, there are multiple competitors, I should say, then it’s, then it’s likely that the Google My Business profile is not going to show up in adjacent towns because of the proximity filter, and that’s what I’ve been experiencing. So I typically now really just focus in on an immediate local area, at least initially, and once I start getting that to rank then we start targeting, you know, expanded areas through content marketing, GMB posts, and all that other stuff that we teach in the local GMB pro market. What do you say? activity, relevance, trust, and authority, right? The more trusted and authoritative you become, the more that the centroid will expand. How you do that is in local GMB Pro, there has to be a reason why Google will display you to someone that further away than that they should be. There has to be a reason for that proximity factor not to kick in. We did that with the DC plumber, right? It’s a case study in RYS Academy Reloaded.

But it works perfectly well here where we built such massive trust and authority into that, that it became the keyword for the niche. And so because it has that trust and authority, it gets displayed to people outside of what you would expect the radius to be from the Business Center, the way that we did it. As I’ve said before, in New York City was a bike messenger server, the way that we did it in LA is Uber drivers. And I’m not gonna say how it was done, I’m just telling you, that’s what we used to just create massive trust and authority to relate, like, create relevance between where we wanted Google, to display to people to give us impressions, to put our results in front of people to get us in the map pack in front of people. And then I mean, if you’re there one to one or two, sometimes three people start clicking on it. And then that reinforces the trust and authority that Google is giving us and creates even more. The whole process for that it’s a local GMB Pro. I won’t get into it here.

Yeah, and I’m testing. You know, I’ve talked about many, many times over the last year and a half, two years here on Hump Day hangouts about click-through spam bots, and not using them. And I’ve just been using paid traffic from Google. But I, I have started testing, Michael bows, his Viper tools recently, because he’s been getting a lot of good results from people that I know in the space. And so I’ve actually just recently started testing with that. And that’s something that I’m hoping I don’t have any results yet, but I’m hoping that I can get similar results to some of the people that I’ve chatted with about it. And that could be something I mean, you could do paid traffic, which is what I’ve been doing but you know, you can specify like certain clicks to come to for within a certain geographic area, right? From a topically relevant audience or an audience that would be relevant to you know, what you’re sending them to, and that that works to, to kind of help with that stuff, too. So I’m actually testing the tool right now. As I said, Michael’s tool doesn’t have any results to share yet but I’m hoping that it works well. And if it does, I will let you guys know for sure.

Can You Create Massive Direct Backlinks Without Using Buffer Sites?

Alright, the next question was do you have to be careful when creating direct backlinks to GMB listings as you do when doing direct backlinks to the websites, or can you create massive direct backlinks without using a very small number of buffer web 2.0 sites as tier one layer, maybe even a tier two-layer and what parts of the GMB listing should be targeted with backlinks to get the most SEO bang for the buck? Thank you very much. We hope as usual as always greatly appreciated. That seems almost like a consultation question Gordon. It gets very intricate on how things we try not to do in Hump Day hangouts is don’t discuss the How is what people pay us a whole lot of money for who can tell you what we do but that this is kind of getting into how isn’t it? I don’t know unless you want to answer because I’m not. Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t have any problem running backlinks directly to GMB stuff for tier-one entity acids period. I don’t like to run direct backlinks to the money site. But to tier-one entity assets, we did I hammer everything.

That’s my answer. Do you want to comment on that? Anyone? You can hammer that as far as I’m gonna go. Okay. And that’s what I do Gordon distances short answer. All tier-one entity assets. I don’t game. Yep. Just Hey.

And that’s why we do what we do with the SEO SEO guy. That’s why it’s called the SEO shield. Right? It’s the SEO firewall, it shields the money site. So you can do all that really nasty, off-page SEO stuff to your shield, not to the money site. But that’s the whole point. Right?

So we keep the money site procedures. The first place they’re gonna go look is the money site. Yeah, the only thing I run directly to the money site besides syndication posts, like syndication network backlinks or press releases.

And that’s pretty much it, you know, occasionally I’ll buy some guest post links.

From a really good provider. They’re expensive, though. But even then, it’s only very, very specific circumstances. Other than that, I just use the same methods that we teach. So I do absolutely nothing to the benefit, sometimes a precedent, a precedent, but I’ll usually run press releases elsewhere to one.

How Does The Google Bot Understand The Schema Through The Tag Manager If There’s No Placement In The HTML?

So BB is up with a list of questions as usual. What’s up, bb, he says, Hey, guys, you said there is a way to the schema to add schema, I guess, through the Google Tag Manager. But how the G bot understands the page that there’s no placement in the HTML, it’ll render it. So it’s a script, right, the container will display the scripts within the container in Google Tag Manager. Now, Google even says in their help files, that that is not the preferred way to display JSON LD structured data on a website, doing it through Tag Manager is not the preferred way, as per Google’s own help files or documentation. However, it still works. And there are certain circumstances where that’s the only way you can do it. So for example, I have a website, one of my sites that has a website theme that there’s no way to add code to the home page. It’s really weird. It’s the home page is like built into the theme. And there’s no, there’s just no way to add code to the home page other than through Google Tag Manager. Or if I were to hack the JSON LD directly into the theme files, which I don’t like to do. So in that case, I just added the structure data organization schema, in that case, to the container code, and Google Tag Manager, and yes, it will render. Now if you go to a view page source, all you’re going to see is the GTM Tag Manager, excuse me, the container code, the Google Tag Manager container, but that’s all you’re going to see. But when you do a structured data testing tool test on the homepage, it will render the JSON LD code on the site. So you can actually see it in Google, excuse me, the structured data testing tool. So yes, again, it’s not the preferred method, if you can add the structured data directly to the code of the site using SEO ultimate Pro, which is what I use mostly, sometimes use as a header and footer plugin. Sometimes themes will have the ability to add code to specific pages or sitewide, globally. So you can add it there, although I recommend only adding, you know, like organization schema to the homepage or whatever, just as per best practices. So but you know, in those cases where you can’t Google Tag Manager is a viable alternative, even if Google says it isn’t because it still reads and recognizes the code. And he comments on that.

No, I mean, that that’s a perfect answer because that’s exactly what it is Google, it will render on the website as everything renders as HTML eventually, right. All it is all the Google tag manager does is it sets up a JavaScript call between Google servers and your server to render the HTML. That’s all it is.

Did Your Site’s Bounce Rate Increase After The Passage Index Update?

Question number two, did the bounce rate increase in your site after the passage index update? Don’t know, haven’t looked at it. It’s not a metric that I’m typically Chase.

So I don’t know I can’t answer that. Anybody have? No, I haven’t seen any changes. So and my metric is called my metric is form fields. My metric is what’s going on in that box? Any thoughts or takeaways on the new update? No, I honestly don’t have any sorry. Usually, I don’t even know about updates until somebody like you brings it to our attention. So and I mean that I don’t stay plugged in all that shit. I don’t I just look, if I start seeing some significant fluctuations in my own properties, or plant properties, then I go in and start digging into it. But if I don’t see any major fluctuations, why bother? I’ve got other things to work on. Do you know what I mean? So I honestly, I can’t give you an answer to that. I don’t have any opinion on it.

Or for the new update that will come out in May for speed testing? No, I mean, it’s Google PageSpeed. has been, people have said, it’s been a metric for a long time, but I really haven’t seen that. It’s, but it’s good for user experience. Right. So what I’m saying is PageSpeed for an SEO metric, a ranking metric is not something that I’ve seen it really have much of an effect on.

Even though people have been saying that for years, I really haven’t seen that in my own experience. But for user experience, it absolutely makes a difference. Especially on mobile, like if it was if a page loads really slow on mobile like people get irritated in the back out and go somewhere else. And so that’s really important, I think.

But as far as like what I know, I did read someone that I guess it was the experience update or whatever they’re calling it, where it’s, it’s, it covers a number of things. PageSpeed being one of them. You know, I really don’t have a prediction on that, because I just don’t know, we’ll see what happens when it comes. Any comments on that? The whole point of entity-based worry-less SEO is that to worry about those things. And again, I’ll go back to just measuring the metrics that matter, which is the four are the form fields, steady, and are the phone call steady. And it’s the clients’ bottom line increasing that, that my job is not to worry about bounce rate or anything else like that. Unless I see a problem with any of the metrics that really matter, then I’m gonna go and see if anything has happened to affect that. And then I’m on it. But by the time I’m on that, I’m past the period, where everyone’s panicked and everyone has gone and done whatever they could to try to affect the garden themselves in trouble, maybe even sandbox, I’m going to be past all that. I’m going to be passed that point. So I’m going to let the dust settle. And then I’m going to go in and I’m going to start checking, I’m going to look at the data and see what it was that happened. And why. And then I’m gonna go into fixing it. I haven’t needed to do that literally in Oh, I did just recently, but it will it had nothing to do with the core update. But I did have to recently go in and fix something and it can’t my back, everything comes right back. And what we continue seeing since Google started announcing updates until now, when we’ve been applying these methods is Google doesn’t update, and our shit gets even better, it gets stronger. If we hit more traffic, we get better results for our clients, our clients. Sometimes, it’s 10x, sometimes going from 8k a month to 80k. Going I don’t know from 100 to 150k. I mean, those kinds of results going from seven, 8 million to nearly 30 million a month. Those are the results that we’re talking about. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t care about Google. And I’m gonna stand by what I have said all along that the art of art the art of activity, relevance, trust, and authority trumps everything on the web.

What’s The Best Way To Merge Two GMBs Quickly?

Sweet. So Dee Dee is up he says, What’s up, he says brown new. He’s a mastermind member and has been for like, many years, I think since the beginning. So anyway, he says a proud new user of go I level through semantic mastery today. Thanks for all the info Bradley, you’re welcome to and great, great tool.

Let me know when you want me to cover more stuff in the mastermind about it because in fact, I’ve got I’ve been building an app in high level for my contract as my three contractors that I’m going to be selling as a SAS software, the software is a service, right. And it’s great because it’s a low barrier to entry, low cost. But super, a super valuable tool that they can use to help them get more leads from their existing web assets, manage those leads through automated conversations. And then and through like a pipeline a lead pipeline inside high level and then also solicit reviews and basically build up the reviews. So it helps us retain reputation. And it’s a really cool app, and I’ve just finished well I’m not 100% done with it, I’m gonna I’m meeting with my one of my first three contractors is going to be beta testing it for me, either on Friday or Saturday, I’m still waiting on a reply back. But this week, and so next week, it will be in use by a tree contractor so that I can start working out the bugs and stuff. But that’s going to be one of my leading products where my new agency is that app because it’s only I’m only charging $200 a month I level says you should charge 300 a month, but I’m doing it for a specific reason. Anyways. And I think it’s gonna be a really, really good tool to get my foot in the door at a low cost with contractors, right? So anyway, let me know if you want me to cover more of that in the mastermind, I’m happy to do so and I’m in fact, next Thursday when I have my next mastermind webinar.

My tree contractor who’s going to be beta testing it for me and working with me to work out the bugs, you know, he will have about a week’s worth of use out of it. So I’ll have some pretty good experiences to share with you on that point. By the way, guys, if you’re curious, go to semantic mastery comm slash high level. It’s an outstanding platform. It’s an automation platform for agencies essentially. And it’s a really, really powerful tool. There’s a hell of a learning curve, there is no question, but it’s worth putting the time and effort into learning because it can really help you to grow your business I’m using it for right now primarily prospecting for my own business and I mean it’s just great to set up all these things. Automations that just run like clockwork day in and day out to fill your pipeline full of leads. And it’s just, it’s crazy. I’ve only been running it for three weeks now. And I’ve got, you know, 6760 to 70. Some leads in my pipeline are in various stages of communication, but it’s crazy guys. It’s a really, really, really good tool. And I’m doing a ton of I’m going to be doing I’m developing training right now, that will become the semantic mastery mastermind training, like a 90 day or a 12-week program. And the high level is an integral part of that. So if anybody’s interested in that, go check out semantic mastery comm slash high level, it’s a 14-day free trial, that is our affiliate link, but then come join the mastermind because I’m hoping by, you know, the third quarter of this year, to have the training that I’m going to be rolling out to the mastermind available and ready. And once that is launched, we’re going to kind of restructure how you can even join the mastermind, the cost everything. So if any of that interests you now would probably be a good time to get in. So you’re grandfathered. Anyways, following up on that. He says I have a client that needs a merge of GMB accounts. I’ve been trying to get this done by Google for the last four months with no luck. I keep filling out the GMB form they provide and I don’t get any response Yeah, it’s weird I’m so hit or miss with Google support. Sometimes they’re really responsive like they were with that client that I just mentioned.

We contacted them about adding a physical location to a service area business they were actually really responsive in that case, but in other cases, I go three weeks without getting a reply back so I understand your frustration he says this is a legit business that moved and we do not have access to the previous listing as another company did it. Is there any other method to try to get this done that you know of? Okay, here’s one thing d I would suggest because you’re in the mastermind is post this as like asking for help in the mastermind within describing the issue. Because we there’s a lot of local Google Local Guides in our mastermind, myself included lane Clayton, Greg Greenberg, there’s a bunch of them in there that, you know, in the past, when we’ve had similar weird issues occur, we get high-level local guides to go in and suggest that it’s and after a handful of that those occur, then oftentimes the attics will the edits will go through. So let’s start a discussion in the mastermind. That’s what it’s for anyways, D and C, see, you know, we put all our heads together, we ought to be able to come up with something to help you or at least give you some additional ideas. That’s what the mastermind is for any comments on that guys? Yeah, ask Marco anything mastermind is tomorrow. Right? So just come in and ask that question. Because I do have some suggestions for you on what would work for this because someone just went through this and it was a nightmare. And the way that you’re trying to do it just filling out the form, not gonna work. They are not going to respond to that at all ever takes you’d never get anything when you fill out that form. And they don’t tell you what we’ll call you. Right right back. Never call. You never get any response and never get any emails. And I’ll give this in public.

You’re not the one that should be doing this. That GMB if it’s legit has an owner with all the documentation. That should be the person, not you. The owner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. documentation should be the one that’s initiating all of the contacts. But let’s talk tomorrow. Let’s talk tomorrow. So I can talk to you in-depth on how to how to get through this. Yeah, there you go. And that’s good advice.

You know, from the primary owner’s account, if you contact support, you might get a response. So that owner, not the manager, not never the manager.

Alright, the last question, which is great and by the way, hey, Jordan, yo, yo, yo, you pretty people. I don’t know who you’re talking to join. But

Is Local Viking Good For GMB Postings?

anyways, this last question says is local biking, okay to use for GMB posting? Or is it one to be aware of, alright? I talked about this for the last couple of months, I switched to local Viking about two months ago. But, you know, according to some crazy shit that happened last week, apparently,

I have canceled my subscription. And I’m just not going to use it anymore. I’m concerned about the API connection being a flag. I’m not saying whether it is or not, I don’t know. But I have revoked local Viking access to my GM bees. And I’m not going to continue to use it. And it’s just because it’s better safe than sorry. And I’d rather be overly cautious. And I’m afraid that that might be a flag because of some of the issues that had happened a week ago. And it wasn’t just them. There were a couple of others as well.

And so I’ve literally revoked access. There’s only one app that I’m using right now for posting to GMB. That does in it, that’s all it does. It doesn’t, it doesn’t connect in any other way other than to allow for posting and it’s called fan booster fan booster calm. There are some limitations with that app though. So and I’m only testing that across like three locations right now. All my other locations are going to be manually posted to for right now by my VA logging into as a manager to those GMB locations one at a time and posting manually, which sucks, but it is what it is. And right now I’m afraid to use any of these like SEO-based GMB posts schedulers, a social media-based post scheduler, I think is different because it’s not scrutinized the same way that the SEO tools are by Google. At least that’s my assumption. It’s logical. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But fan booster is a social media posting app. That’s the one that I’m testing with right now. And that is pretty cool. There are some limitations. But there are also some really cool benefits to that. So I mean, I’ll share more information about that when I have it. But again, just to be 100% transparent, I have canceled my subscription to local biking and it sucks because I just worked it into my processes for my team. And I had to cancel it right after we got really good at using it. Fucking canceled it. But it is what it is Welcome to the world of online marketing, right? So any comments on that, before we wrap it up, my motto is always to protect what’s making you money. always protect the better to be safe than sorry. Some of those APIs were tagged for suspicious activity. I’m not gonna say which one.

Which ones it was more than one, they were just getting heavily spam that was being used for purposes other than posting. And so I mean, it is what it is, every time that I’m gonna put myself and spammers get hold of something. It gets muddy to get dirty, Google starts looking in. And their job is simply we’re gonna get rid of it. So we’ll just knock it all out. Yeah, we just knock it all out. We don’t care. They’d rather do that. Then take a chance of letting the spammers continue spamming. That’s the same thing that they’re doing with GMB period. Prove that if it gets suspended, prove that it’s real. Yeah, that that’s it. They don’t care. They don’t care if it was real to start with. prove that it’s real. That’s it.

Yeah, and I want to thank you, Marco, again, for bringing that to my attention last week, because, like I immediately went in and revoked access and fortunately, knock on wood. I still got my assets. So anyway, thanks, guys. We’ll see y'all next time.

Source: Semantic Mastery Weekly SEO Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 330 published first on your-t1-blog-url

[raybansandcoffee]

In the Heat of Los Angeles - Chapter Nineteen: Daughters (John Mayer)

If you need to catch up on the first eighteen chapters find them here.

“Have you heard from Ty about how his date went?” Harry asked from the shower as I was putting my makeup on. We’d gotten up early this morning to go for a run in his neighborhood. He decided to lift when we got back while I took my shower.

“I haven’t.” I picked my phone up and saw nothing in our group chat so I clicked to call him.

“Hello,” Ty answered in a whisper.

“Hey, how did last night go?” I asked.

“Really well. But I can’t talk.”

“Come on Ty, we just want to hear how it went,” Harry yelled from behind me. I’d put the phone on speaker.

“I’ll text but I can’t talk. Umm…he’s still sleeping.”

“Yes!” Harry threw his arms up in the air in triumph.

“Shut up,” I called back to him. “Get off the phone. And send us a text. You know Kammi is getting pissy that she hasn’t heard anything yet either.”

“Fine. Bye.” I heard the beeps signaling the call had been disconnected.

“I win.”

“I know, babe. You win. You found Ty a man even if it was just for last night.”

“What do I get for winning?” he asked as he shut the shower off and reached for a towel.

“A cookie?”

“That’s not fun. But if it’s all I get, then I’ll take it.” He stepped out of the shower and kissed my shoulder. “What time is James coming over?”

“4:00 so that we can watch the game together. I’m sorry that I’m dominating your Sunday with my father and his girlfriend.”

“I’m actually excited about it since he didn’t try and murder me the last time he was in the house.”

“He’d hire a hitman, he wouldn’t do it himself. Too dirty.” Harry’s laugh filled the bathroom, echoing off of the tile and walls. “You laugh. I’m pretty sure my Uncle Mikey is secretly on payroll and makes things happen when we need them to.”

“Uncle Mikey?”

“Pops’ younger brother. He works out of our New York office but I’m not really sure what he does because he doesn’t have a ton of clients. Pops tells me that he heads up our security team but I’m not sure what that means. So I tell Uncle Mikey that he’s our muscle. I feel bad that I only got to see him for coffee when I was in New York and I didn’t get to see his wife or kids.”

“Do you have a big family on the Scarcello side?”

“Yeah, you think that my Mom and Dad’s family was big. Pops is the oldest of eight kids. Four boys and four girls. I’m the oldest grandchild and the only one from the oldest child so it makes me extra special, at least I claim it does.”

“I’m sure it does. Your Nonna and Papa are very proud of you. Nonna was so happy I called to get the love parm recipe. She promised she wouldn’t tell a soul that I was making it for you. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that it’s the magical love parm and that she’d know that meant I loved you. But she was so sweet about it. She even offered to give me a few other recipes.”

“Nonna is pretty funny.” I went into the closet and grabbed a pair of ripped up skinny jeans and pulled them on. “She called me and left a message the day after you made the love parm to ask me how the trip home went and how you were. It was a very thinly veiled attempt to figure out if her granddaughter was in love.”

“That’s cute.” I turned to look at Harry as he pulled his boxers on. “Do I need to wear anything special today for your father being here?”

“No? I’m gonna wear a Cubs shirt. It’s just dinner with Pops. He’ll probably be dressed a bit nicer but it’s not necessary.”

“Jeans and a t-shirt are okay?”

“Of course. Just be yourself.” He pulled on a pair of black jeans that had a few holes in them and a white t-shirt. “If you want to borrow a Cubs shirt or sweatshirt I’m sure you put some in here,” I said as I pulled on a loose fitting swing tank that was grey and white striped and with a distressed Cubs logo in the center.

“There are. Depending on the weather I might steal a sweatshirt. Thank you for the offer, love. Are you ready to go?”

“I am. Let’s head to the grocery store.” We went down to the garage and climbed into my Jeep. I’d yet to switch back to my Range Rover because Harry was enjoying the Jeep, he’d even made room in the garage so it could be parked inside so we could keep the top off. He drove while I read him the text messages from The Circus.

The Circus ES: Alright Tyberius. I need to know how last night was and why you rushed off of the phone with me this morning because ‘he’s still sleeping’? JJ: Did Ty have a sleepover last night? TK: I did. Nothing happened. We came back here for drinks at the bar in the building and then came upstairs for one last drink and I decided he shouldn’t drive so he stayed. NJ: And nothing happened? I find this hard to believe. TK: We made out for a while. He’s a really good kisser. And the first guy in a long time that I didn’t have awkward conversation with. I really like him. Thanks Harry. ES: H is driving. He says “Ya welcome mate. Jus wan you to be ’s ‘appy as I am.” He then told me to not try and type his accent out. Oops. KM: He’s driving? ES: Yes, to the grocery store. We are picking stuff up to cook Sunday dinner for Pops and Jessica. Pray for me people, I have to be nice to a girlfriend today. ER: I am too lazy to look for it so - praying hands emoji JJ: She’s currently reading the texts with one eye. She’s refusing to put her glasses on. Kammi, are you cooking breakfast? I can smell bacon. KM: Of course I am. ‘Throw some bacon on it!’ ER: We will be downstairs in a minute. TK: The weird thing is that four of you are basically together right now and texting each other about breakfast instead of paying attention to ME! KM: Sorry. ER: Sorry babes. JJ: Sorry, not sorry. Breakfast trumps everything. ES: So in an update to yesterday’s strangeness…H gave me a key. KM: What the hell? It took Nick six months to give me a key. You got one in like 6 hours. ES: Three weeks actually but time doesn’t matter. Right? Please say right? I don’t want to feel like H and I are going to screw ourselves over here. ER: You two are fine, perfect in fact. Did he make extra keys so I have one too? HS: I did not and she might have to give hers back now that I see that she did try to type my accent. I don’t actually sound like that. TK: Ya kinda do mate. ;) HS: You should be nice to me. You had a sleepover because of me. TK: I appreciate that so much. In fact we are about to head out to brunch, well we have to stop at his place so he can change clothes, then to West Hollywood for brunch. KM: Have fun! Let us know how it goes. ER: Good luck with dinner tonight E and H. Give us the lowdown on how it goes and E…don’t attack Jessica. HS: Thanks and I will make sure she doesn’t. Can’t be bailing my girl out of jail today.

“You are such a smartass. I do not sound like that when I talk.” “You kinda do though. I mean maybe not EXACTLY like that. But you definitely do not type out words the way they sound when you say them.”

“You’re lucky with texting you can make sure your filter is in check. The girl I know sometimes says things like ‘your accent is sexy’ or ‘you have a really nice ass’ in situations that are far from appropriate.”

“You like it.”

“I do, but you also like the way I talk, it's what makes my accent so sexy.”

“I mean, sorta.” We’d picked up everything we needed to make dinner and were in the wine and liquor section of the grocery store. I found the scotch Pops drank, two bottles of the red wine he loved, and two of the white wine I loved. I knew we had some of the rosé I drank at the house and Jessica had been drinking that in Malibu. It was going to be an expensive trip to the grocery store. We made our way to the aisle and I stood waiting for the total as Harry glanced through the magazines at the checkout.

“At least we look cute?” He mumbled as he showed me a tabloid with a photo of us in the bottom corner. I threw it on the belt and watched as the girl who was working the checkout looked at the magazine then up at Harry and I then back down at the magazine, repeating this same gesture a few times. She didn’t say anything as she moved it down to be put in bags. I wasn’t one to ever buy magazines with gossip about my clients but I also didn’t want to risk someone taking a picture of Harry and I in the grocery store reading an article about us. “You didn’t have to pay for the groceries,” he said as we emptied the cart into the Jeep.

“I had to stock up on booze for today, that’s expensive.”

“I noticed you bought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue for my house. That’s really expensive.”

“I know but you’ve moved me into your house. I need to have a bottle of Johnnie in the house in case Pops stops by. It’s just how it goes.”

“You also bought four bottles of wine.”

“Yup, depending on his mood we might need some of those.”

“And beer.”

“I’m watching baseball, that’s how that happens.”

“You spent a couple hundred dollars. I could’ve helped.”

“You’re fine. I’ve been living at your house for three weeks for free. Most boyfriends ask for rent before they ask which sink you want to use in the bathroom.”

“I don’t need your money.”

“I know you don’t and guess what? I don’t need yours either.” I started laughing while I did jazz hands at him. He laughed at me in return.

“Occasionally you will have to let me do things for you. Or you’re going to get the slightly cocky boyfriend back. You know the one that just does shit without asking.”

“I know all too well. And, I will occasionally let you do things for me. But that doesn’t have to include forking over a bunch of money for the booze that my father will drink. I’ve got this covered babe.” “Fine, but tomorrow for dinner with Ed if we go out, you and that black card need to just take a break.”

“If we go out with Ed I’m entertaining a client which means it’s a business expense.”

“If you have dinner with me it’s not a business expense.”

“Sometimes it is though and if it’s you attending a dinner with clients with me as my boyfriend, then it’s a business expense. I mean we don’t need to worry about this now but you need to know that if we are out with some of my clients or employees that we you cannot argue about me paying.”

“Okay, I’m just not used to it.”

“I know, but you can’t argue about it. And when we go out on dates, I will promise to not argue with you about paying.”

“Good. And about money towards my house, don’t worry about that. I like having you in the house, it’s not about the money you’ll spend to help me live there. Someday if we get a house together then we can worry about that. Until then you have the mortgage on your condo, you don’t need to also pay for my house. Especially considering you are going to have to pay more for your mortgage now that Kammi has moved out.”

“I will. I don't want Eliza or Ty to feel like they have to pay more towards the bills with Kammi gone. I mean I could find someone to move in to Kammi’s room but I’m sure she will stay there on occasion and I don't want to make her worry about it since I’m sure she’s chipping in with Nick and Joe’s house.”

“You’ve got responsibilities and I get that. So until someday in the future,” he hesitated for a second. “Like way out in the future, when…umm if we buy a house together or if you decided to sell your condo, until then you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Okay, but I can help too.” “I know that and I appreciate it.” He finished the drive back home and we took the groceries inside. He threw me the magazine and told me to sit down and read it. Before I even had a chance I got a text from Eliza.

Teigen from Gossip Gang is reporting on you and H again today. Thought you should know. And just so you don’t think I’ve started reading gossip sites I set up a news alert for anything mentioning you two together so we can catch it before Jimmy.

She attached the article to her text.

“Well, we appear to be a hot news item today. We are on Gossip Gang again too.”

“They were at least funny the last time. Start with that one. The Celeb Weekly scares me a bit.”

“Okay.”

Are Harry and Everlee already getting serious?

New couple, Harry Styles and Everlee Scarcello appear to be getting serious…fast. Harlee, as all of us here at Gossip Gang have been calling them, have been spotted all over both Los Angeles and Chicago over the last few weeks furthering speculation that this relationship is more than just business. As Gossip Gang reported previously, Styles signed a contract with Scarcello Mackin Entertainment to bring Scarcello on board as his new manager now that he’s going solo and venturing into acting but it also seems like their relationship is more than just business.

Styles flew to Chicago last weekend to meet Scarcello in her hometown to celebrate her younger brother, Jonathan’s 16th birthday with a party and a Cubs game complete with luxury suite, we aren’t jealous at all. A few lucky Cubs fans managed to catch photos of them not only enjoying the game but the chance to meet Scarcello’s ex-boyfriend, Chicago Cubs first baseman, Anthony Rizzo. The meeting appears to have gone well as Scarcello and Rizzo have maintained a close friendship and have been known to go back and forth on Twitter keeping their followers all laughing. In addition to a lot of family time Styles was also spotted tagging along while Scarcello visited her alma mater, Northwestern University, to speak to a group of seniors as they prepare for graduation. They also enjoyed a few romantic dinners at some of Chicago’s hottest restaurants, which all happen to be owned by Scarcello’s step-father, Marco Ferrera. One of those dinners was a double date Scarcello’s mother, Grace, and her step-father.

The jet setting couple headed back to Los Angeles on Wednesday via one of SME’s private planes, don’t we all wish we could fly private with Harry? Scarcello’s Instagram featured quite a few pictures from their visit and flight home. Once back in Los Angeles it appears that Styles stepped it up and played caretaker to Scarcello as well. They were seen visiting a neurologist’s office in Los Angeles on Friday. Anyone who follows Scarcello on social media knows she openly discusses her battle with chronic migraines, we don't wish Everlee a migraine but we’d love for her to report to us how wonderful of a nurse Harry is and if he wears a candy striper costume while taking care of her. Thankfully it appears the recovery was speedy as the couple was also spotted out on Saturday evening with The Late Late Show’s James Corden and Ben Winston along with their wives.

Hit me up on twitter, @Teigen_GG with your thoughts on #Harlee. It’s definitely no surprise that I love it!

“At least this Teigen appears to be supportive.”

“She’s nice. I’ve met her a handful of times. She’s a blogger that I typically will allow to cover some of my artists. I’m with you though, Celeb Weekly scares me.” He was almost done putting the groceries away now.

“Let’s go for it,” he replied. I flipped to the page and saw TONS of pictures of the two of us taken off of not only my social media but also my family and friends’ social media.

Harry Styles and New Manager: More Than a Business Relationship?

One Direction heartthrob, Harry Styles seems to be building more than just a business relationship with his new manager, Everlee Scarcello. Scarcello, Music Division President of Scarcello Mackin Entertainment, issued a press release a few weeks ago announcing that Styles had signed with the powerhouse agency. Shortly after the pair were spotted canoodling in a Malibu restaurant in the middle of lunch.

In the short time they’ve been together Scarcello and Styles have taken trips to Malibu for a weekend with Scarcello’s friends. The group included her business partner, Kameron Mackin, as well as Mackin’s boyfriend, Nick Jonas, his brother Joe, and their assistants. Scarcello quickly left town for New York but was met by Styles in Chicago for a trip to visit her mother, Grace Fazio Ferrera, and her family. The two were frequently spotted out and about in the Windy City enjoying gourmet restaurants, museums, and had time to catch a game at Wrigley Field before heading back to Los Angeles.

Friday morning Styles accompanied Scarcello to a neurologist’s office in Los Angeles. There Scarcello was treated for a migraine. According to an unnamed source at the doctor’s office Styles not only acted as chauffeur to Scarcello but he accompanied her to the treatment room and was ‘an incredible guy’ even holding her hand as she received IV medication for the pain and dehydration due to vomiting associated with her chronic condition. Our source says that he ‘wouldn’t leave her side and insisted upon staying for the treatment’ which was at least an hour and even asked if he could push the wheelchair she was required to use as she exited the facility. Later Friday, Scarcello’s  father, James Scarcello, stopped by Styles’ house. Her assistant, Eliza Richards, was also seen with a car full of clothing and what appeared to be Scarcello’s belongings. Is it possible that Harry and Everlee are already moving in together?

Celeb Weekly will keep you updated in the print and online versions of all the latest news about Harry Styles and all of your favorite celebrities.

“You might need to call your doctor’s office, love. The fact that someone is giving out your information is a bit unsettling for me.”

“Uh, yeah. I’m definitely not okay with that.” I picked up my phone and clicked to call Pops.

“Hey Evie,” he answered.

“Umm, I am going to tell you about this now and then tomorrow morning you and I need to meet with the legal team.”

“What about?” he asked, the concern in his voice evident.

“Celeb Weekly printed a story about Harry and I today. Someone in my neurologist’s office was an anonymous source and gave out information not only about my condition but my treatment while I was there Friday.”

“That’s not gonna fly. I’ll give Marty a call and tell him to put us on his schedule first thing tomorrow. Will you be in by 8:00?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably come in early for a work out tomorrow.”

“I’ll schedule it for 8:30 then, we can head to his office together. We will figure out what we need to do.”

“Thanks, Pops.”

“No thanks necessary. This is what I’d do for any of my employees but as your father, protecting you will always be my number one job. Don’t ever forget that.”

“Thanks Pops. I love you.”

“I love you too, Evie. I’ll see you at Harry’s at 4:00.” “See you then.” I hung up the phone.

“You and James are going to bring in a legal team?”

“Yeah, SME has some lawyers and because the article involves a doctor’s office leaking information about an SME employee to a tabloid, likely by purchasing the information. It’s private information of an employee. Our legal team would handle this for a client or one of our reps so with me it’s also important.”

“I hate to think that someone sold the story about your doctor’s visit. It was so painful to watch. The medication made you so sick, my heart was broken.”

“I’m okay now though. So let’s focus on the task at hand. Me teaching you how to make Sunday dinner.”

“Perfect.” I stood from the chair I was sitting in at the island and walked over to kiss Harry. I had my iPad sitting on the counter and opened up the app that I stored all of my recipes in. I read through it with Harry and had him get all of the spices and ingredients out so that we could put them on the counter. I went step-by-step with him to show him how Sunday dinner was made.

It made me so happy to be in the kitchen with him. I loved cooking, despite Mason always joking that I’d turned Hollywood and never set foot in a kitchen. When I was really little we did Sunday dinner with Nonna and Papa every week. At the time most of my aunts and uncles still lived within driving distance except for a few that left the city for college. Everyone who could be there was there every weekend. It was always a house full of people, even to this day. When Pops left Mom we kept going for a while to make sure that I was still part of this family tradition. As I got older she would tag along on occasion to see Nonna, Papa, and the whole Scarcello clan. Most kids of divorce had the every other weekend plan where they were passed between parents, with my Pops being in LA I spent weekends with my Nonna and Papa to give my Mom a free weekend. During those weekends Nonna taught me how to cook Sunday dinner and now I was passing it along to Harry.

“So your grandparents still do Sunday dinner every week?” Harry asked. We were sitting at the island and rolling meatballs together.

“They do. I probably should’ve taken you when we were home but with Jonny’s birthday and the game I knew I wouldn’t make it. We normally eat at like 3:00 or 4:00. I had called Nonna before hand, she told me to be with my brother.”

“I would’ve gone with you but your Nonna was right, Jonny’s birthday was more important. We can try to make it back to Chicago for another weekend soon and wait to fly out late Sunday or early Monday so we can go to dinner with your family.”

“That would be nice sometime but for now, we can just enjoy it here with my Pops. We have a lot of traveling coming up, we don’t need to throw a trip to Chicago in there. Maybe when you’re done in France.”

“Whatever you want.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Thanks for teaching me this. It’s been fun and it’s nice to just spend some time together.”

“I am glad you wanted to do this. It’s been a long time since I had Sunday dinner. When I first moved to Los Angeles Pops and I used to do it weekly but it’s a lot of work, especially for two people unless he had a girlfriend there. He finally got tired of all of the food for just us so we switched it up.”

“And you still do regular dinners?”

“We normally do. We haven’t lately, so thank you for suggesting this.” Now it was my turn to lean towards Harry and give him a kiss.

“If today goes well I’d be happy to do a family dinner with your Pops every week if I’m in town. I mean maybe not this much work for the four of us but we can do other things too.”

“That would be really nice.” Once the meatballs were done and in the sauce we settled onto the couch for a while.

“So I need to know more about baseball before your father gets here. I don’t want to sound stupid. What can we do to make me not sound stupid?”

“Watch some baseball?”

“Okay.” I grabbed the remote for Harry’s Apple TV and quickly logged into my MLB TV subscription and turned on yesterday’s Cubs game. I talked Harry through who the players were and what was going on in the game. By the end of the game he was able to guess who would come up to the plate to hit next.

“Okay, I have a way that we can cheat.”

“What’s that idea?”

“An Apple Watch and text messages.” He looked confused. “I’m a technology addict, you know that.”

“Yes, I do. But I don’t have an Apple Watch.”

“You played Apple Music Festival. They gave every artist a watch. I know this because I had clients play last year.”

“I didn’t keep mine. I gave it to Robin, he would actually use it.”

“Why am I not surprised?” He flipped me off. “It’s okay. I have three.”

“You have THREE?”

“It’s available in four colors.”

“You normally buy something in every color if you like it, so why only three?”

“I haven’t found a reason to rationalize needing the rose gold color yet?”

“Are all three here?”

“Actually, yes. I have a charging doc for them that I had specially made. I noticed it in my section of the closet upstairs. Eliza knows how I like options so she clearly put it away while I was passed out Friday.” He started to laugh that I’d noticed it and he hadn’t.

“I’ve only ever seen you wear the gold one though. Why would you buy the others?”

“Of course you’ve only seen the gold one. It’s the only one that’s been here. I’ve been to my own home twice in the last three weeks.” He laughed a little harder at that. “So, initially gold wasn’t available. And I had pre-ordered the silver one online, but as a gift to celebrate how long we’d been with the company the dads got the daughters and their assistants watches. Pops ordered me black because it’s 90% of my wardrobe. When the gold and rose gold came out I decided I really wanted the gold one, so I bought it for myself. And you’re right I wear it the most. I can easily sync one of them to your phone so that I can text you stuff and you can get it on your watch. Pops is used to me being on my phone so he wouldn’t suspect that I was being your digital Cyreno de Bergerac. I mean except that you’re trying to woo my father.”

“That could potentially work.”

“Which color do you want?”

“Too bad you hadn’t bought the pink one, I’d totally wear that.”

“I’m not in the least bit surprised by that. Somehow I found a weird boyfriend.” He turned to look at where I was laying on the couch with my feet in his lap. His face went from shocked to mischievous as he moved my feet from his lap and jumped towards me.

“Take it back,” he demanded as he started to tickle me. I couldn't stop laughing, not just because he was tickling me but because he was weird. Weird enough that his form of retaliation was a tickle attack.

“Fine, you’re not weird…you’re eccentric.” The tickling stopped but the glare got worse. “I mean you are weird but so am I and I love your kind of weird.”

“I love your kind of weird too. But your idea might actually work. Pick a color and I’ll wear it.” I hurried upstairs and grabbed the black one, it was the least obvious as to what it was. When I came down I downloaded everything I need and paired the watch before putting it on his wrist. He kept staring at it like it was going to bite him because he knew mine went off with alerts a lot.

The Circus ES: 🚨ALERT!🚨 Harry has an Apple Watch on today. KM: Did you buy him one? ES: Nope. But he’s evidently nervous that he won’t understand baseball enough to impress Jimmy so he's wearing the watch so I can sneak him information. NJ: Good idea for a quick fix, E. We should all go to a Dodgers game soon or just watch some Yankees games on TV. I can teach you about baseball and good baseball at that. The team your girl cheers for is currently in the midst of a 108 year dry spell. ES: YOU ARE DEAD TO ME NICK! DEAD. JJ: Ev, you know that by September every year you’re usually cursing the Cubs and threatening to give up being a fan of baseball. ES: This year is the year! NJ: It’s still early. ER: Joe, if you want to ever have sex again you should perhaps stop picking on Ev…you’re dating a Chicago girl now. JJ: Shit…sorry? HS: All of you are so funny but this watch is fucking weird. How do you all wear it? It won’t stop vibrating on my wrist when you all text me. KM: You get used to it. TK: It’s when it tells you to stand up and move that you’ll realize you hate it. Fuck you, Apple Watch. I like being lazy and watching hours of Netflix without moving. Don’t judge me. ES: The Apple Watch totally judges our Netflix binge days. PS I might need one of those soon. Season One of Grey’s this summer when I’m a free woman again? ER: Count me in! KM: I would come home for that. HS: She’s already planning life without me. To think I was trying to come up with sweet things to do so she wouldn’t miss me. I’m clearly chopped liver. NJ: You’ll get used to it. I have. If I’m on set or on the road it’s like my girlfriend turns back into the party animal she was before me. JJ: Nick you might need to teach Harry and I your coping mechanisms for feeling inadequate in comparison to carry out and all of them in E’s bed watching TV. NJ: I can handle that.

“It’s so weird to have it buzz against my wrist, especially considering all of you text so fast.”

“Kammi’s right, you’ll get used to it and then I’ll have to buy you one.”

“I want the pink one.”

“Okay, weirdo. So before Jimmy arrives I feel it’s time I tell you the list of producers that I’ve got lined up to meet with you. Eliza and Emma have coordinated with your schedule to make sure you’re able to meet with them.”

“Alright, who do you have?” I pulled the list up on my phone and handed it to him. “There’s a lot of names here.”

“I know. You’re poised to have the biggest solo debut of the year in whatever year your album actually comes out. I think some of them are prepared for you to come in with all of the songs you’ve written over the years and some of them are ready to sit down and help you craft a different sound if that’s what you want to do. You just need to meet with them and decide.”

“Do you come to these meetings?”

“I can if you’d like. Eliza made sure my calendar was free for all of them. I know a lot of them just from how long I’ve been in the industry so it wouldn’t be like you’re walking in blind. But some of them you know. Every producer or writer that ever worked with you in the band wants to be part of this if you’ll let them.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“Want my honest opinion?”

“Yeah,” he said. At that moment the gate buzzed. I glanced down at my watch to see it was 10 minutes to 4:00, of course Pops was early.

“I’ll let Pops and Jessica in.” I stood and checked to see it was them at the gate and buzzed it open before going to the front door and opening it, watching as my father’s Mercedes Benz G Wagon pulled up the driveway. Just as I suspected he was in a nice shirt and jeans, his casual look. Jessica was in a floral sundress and heels. I felt a little underdressed in my ripped jeans despite the fact that it was sort of my home I was welcoming them into. “Hey Pops,” I said giving him a hug and kissing his cheek.

“Hey kiddo. How are you feeling?”

“A lot better. I took it easy yesterday when The Circus came over to swim.”

“Good plan.”

“Hi Jessica,” I said as I hugged her. It was a slightly awkward hug but it was obvious I was trying to make this relationship work because I had to. “You look gorgeous in this dress.”

“Thank you. Those jeans are cute, where did you get them?” Small talk between women in LA somehow was always about clothing.

“A boutique back home in Chicago. We went shopping last weekend when we were in the city. Unfortunately I didn’t get to do much shopping in New York, the trip was too short and all work.”

“I love shopping in New York. James said we could go for a long weekend soon.”

“He loves New York.” I smiled politely.

“You do too, kiddo,” Pops replied. “How was New York?”

“Could’ve been better. The meetings went great, got a studio schedule worked out for the next quarter so I get the artists in that I need in.”

“Hey Harry,” Pops said as they shook hands.

“Hi James,” he responded before giving Jessica a small hug. “Hello Jessica.”

“Hi Harry.” She batted her eyelashes, I took a deep breath trying to contain the eye roll that was about to happen.

“What could’ve gone better?”

“Joe invited Drew out. They didn’t know how all of that relationship actually ended, which to say was poorly was an understatement. Drew brought out his girlfriend, who happens to be the person he cheated on me with.”

“The fact that you weren’t in an arrest report impresses me.”

“It did me as well, James. Eliza had me call as she got a bit out of hand, luckily we prevented her from getting too bad.”

“That’s a good thing. She’s got a bit of a temper on her,” Pops said. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Without even looking at Harry I reached to my right and punched him in the shoulder. “Fuck me. You need to stop that.”

“Blame Marco.” Pops was laughing. “He’s the one that thought she needed to learn how to defend herself. I knew she had enough of a mouth that there was no way someone would try to fight her for long.”

“You are lucky I love you, Pops or I’d punch you next.”

“You love him so you won’t punch him but love means nothing when it comes to punching me?” Harry was laughing while trying to make what appeared to be the worst angry face I’d ever seen.

“Your angry face is so intimidating.” He stuck his tongue out at me. “And eventually love might mean I stop punching you, but so far you are asking for it.”

“You two are funny together,” Jessica said. “It’s nice to see Ev…Everlee so happy.” Pops must’ve had a conversation with her about the whole Evie thing.

“Thank you,” I replied as I went to where Harry was standing, the shocked look finally melting off of his face and being replaced with a smile as I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him. “It’s nice to be happy. Okay, anyone need any snacks? I’ve got just about everything you could imagine wanting for a baseball game.”

“She’s not kidding. She bought more booze and beer for today than I feel like she did when we went to Malibu.”

“That’s not true. Ty and I bought a case of Rosé to leave at the house in Malibu. But you didn’t have any Johnnie Walker in your house. So I had to pick some of that up.”

“Funny, I also brought a bottle to you,” Pops said. “A gift to say thanks for making dinner.” He handed me a black bag and I pulled the bottle out.

“Well, now we have some extras. What would you both like to drink?” Harry asked.

“I’ll have a glass of Johnnie,” Pops replied.

“Do you have the Rosé from Malibu?” Jessica asked. I nodded and reached into the fridge to open the bottle that we had in there. I poured her a glass and handed it to her. I reached into the freezer and grabbed the bottle of Casamigos that was in there. I handed it to Harry and grabbed him a lime as well.

“Thanks, love.” We’d put an ice bucket out in anticipation of everyone arriving. I threw a couple of ice cubes into a glass and poured myself some Scotch. “Be careful. The doctor said that alcohol could trigger your migraine coming back more quickly than necessary.” He was speaking quietly so that only I could hear him. Pops and Jessica had sat down on the couch to watch the pregame coverage while I put some snacks in bowls.

“I’m okay babe. Thank you for worrying though.” He bent down to give me a soft kiss.

“I’m always going to worry.” Harry went and sat down in one of the oversized chairs in the living room near the open windows. I brought a few bowls of snacks into the living room before Harry pulled me into the chair next to him. Conversation was polite and pleasant during the first few innings of the game. I thought it might make Pops uncomfortable that Harry and I were sitting so close together but he didn’t appear to have any issues with it.

The Circus NJ: Harry you should mention that Rizzo just blew that play at first. JJ: Yeah, shit talk her ex-boyfriend. That’s totally a thing you should do. ER: No it isn’t. KM: Absolutely not. No. Don’t listen to these idiot brothers. NJ: Well, he did blow the play at first. JJ: Yup. ES: Shut up.

“So Harry, are you ready for all of the things that are ahead for you?” Pops asked as Harry took a handful of popcorn from the bowl I had in my lap.

“Yeah, I’m working on memorizing my lines, I think that’s what I’m most nervous about. I’ve never had to work at remembering that much dialogue. It’s not like learning song lyrics either because if I suddenly start singing them to the tune I put them to in my head I could ruin a shot.” I giggled a little. “But it will give me something to do while she’s at work. And I looked at my calendar today, Emma added a lot of meetings to it.”

“Time to meet with producers so when he’s done with France he can get to work on some music. I feel lucky that I get to be around and hear him goof around on the piano or guitar with some of the stuff that’s in his head. It’s time for other people to get to hear it too.”

“You’re writing?” Pops asked. “I’m always writing, I don’t know that anything I’m writing is intended to be for an album but I’m writing.”

“What I’ve managed to hear him singing around the house is great,” I said.

“Are you living here?” Jessica asked. “James and I read through the article you referenced when you called him this morning. It mentioned that Eliza moved some of your stuff in.” Harry froze mid-movement as he was putting a piece of popcorn in his mouth and I nearly choked on the beer I’d started to drink after the Scotch.

“Umm, not really,” I replied.

“How are you not really living somewhere?” She was relentless.

“It’s probably that she doesn’t want to tell her father that she’s living with a boyfriend,” Pops said. “Am I close?”

“Very close.” My laughter showed how uncomfortable I was. “We know that our time together is limited. He flies straight to France from Mexico and will be gone for several months filming a movie. We want to take the opportunity to spend as much time together as we can now.” “That makes sense.”

“I was also to the point that I was going to go mental at how her things mutate.” Pops started to laugh loudly. “First it was just bags of clothes she’d bring home from work. Then it was her suitcase from Chicago. It was taking up my entire closet so I felt it better to give her a portion of the closet and put the suitcase away.”

“She does do that. When she would come stay with me for the summer when she was a kid she’d ship clothing in addition to the two or three bags she’d end up with on a plane. She once tried to convince me she was going to drive so she could bring more. By the time she was 16 I got so tired of her room being a mess that I moved her into one of the guest houses. I think she still has clothes in the closet.” “I think I do still have clothes in the closet there. But I leave stuff there so when you spring a tennis match on me or horseback riding that I’m prepared.”

“Horseback riding?” Harry asked. “Pops has a lot of land and a really nice house. There’s a pool, tennis court, horse barn, and a huge trail through the canyon.”

“It’s a nice home,” Pops said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever bring myself to move. I mean it’s the house I raised my little girl in.”

“You better not move, I love your house.” I smiled at my father, this was going to turn out okay.

“You two should come over for dinner soon. You can see the house, Harry.”

“That would be very nice. Evie and I were talking about how your family does Sundays together as an entire family and that you two used to do that as well.”

“We did, it’s been a few months though. We’ve both been pretty busy. We should start doing that again, Evie. How about next Sunday you both come over to my house for dinner?”

“That sounds wonderful,” Harry replied.

“It does. Would you actually be cooking?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“You know better than that. Linda will make something. Just tell me what you want her to make and we can have dinner. You guys could come over early. You haven’t visited the horses in a while. And I think you won the last tennis match between us.”

“I did win the last match between us.”

“A Sunday at your place sounds like fun. I would really like that and I want in on this tennis action.”

“It sounds like a lot of fun. Everlee and I can lay by the pool while you two play tennis.”

“We could play doubles,” Harry suggested.

“That would be fantastic,” Pops agreed. “Though Jessica doesn’t play all that often.”

“I prefer the pool.”

“I do too sometimes.” Pops looked at me like I was crazy, he knew my competitive streak loved to play against him. I’d never done well with organized sports because I was too busy with music and dance growing up, but in the summers I was doing as much as I could. I’d learned to surf when I was young and always enjoyed playing tennis with my father. He’d tried to convince me to play in school but I just never did because I was focused on my other extracurriculars and work. Part of me regretted that now, I could’ve taken the time to be a kid when I was a kid. “But if given the opportunity to whoop my Pops’ ass in tennis, that is always my first choice.”

“I let you whoop my ass.”

“Nice try, Jimmy.” He glared at me when I used the name.

“So did you catch yesterday’s game?” he asked.

“We did,” Harry replied excitedly. “Arrieta pitched a great game and the home run that Rizzo hit in the sixth was incredible.”

“KB had a sweet play at third in the top of the 8th.”

“You met a few of them last weekend, right Harry?”

“I did. Evie introduced me to Kris and Anthony and a couple more.”

“I introduced him to Ross, Dex and J-Hey. I think it’s tricky for him to remember all of their names when if he listens to me talk I use nicknames and so do the boys. I think it was a struggle to understand our lingo.”

“I did struggle with that part. I tried to pay attention to what Evie and Jonny would talk about and I didn’t quite get it. Christopher offered me remedial baseball lessons, which sort of makes me feel a bit pathetic. He’s 8 and had to teach me about baseball. When football season rolls around I won’t feel as stupid around all of them.”

“I forgot to tell you, Pops. He’s a Packers fan.”

“Marco had to freak out about that.”

“He did. Dad is already planning when we can come back home and go to a game at Lambeau. He’s also claims we are going to come home and go to Soldier Field for the game. I think George is threatening to disown the entire family.”

“I could see that happening. George is very serious about his job and his love of the Bears. Eliza I’m sure is going to have a hard time with you dating a Packers fan now.”

“She’ll get over it,” Harry said. “I’m taking her to England in a few weeks and she’ll probably get a trip to England and France again this summer if I can convince you to let Evie sneak away from the office a couple of times to come visit me while I’m working.”

“I don’t know that you need to convince me. You need to convince her. She’s normally living in her office.”

“I’m going to try and teach her how to just live.” Harry smiled at me. “Sometimes I think she’s spent her whole life preparing to be an adult instead of enjoying life.”

“You’ve got her pegged. It might be good for her to live a little. But not too much. I need her in the office sometimes. It’s gotten a bit lonely up on the executive floor without her around the last two weeks.”

“He has been talking about how off the whole place feels without you Ev. Your Dad loves having you in the office.” I looked at Jessica strangely. My Dad?

“Her Dad is in Chicago,” Pops said. "She hasn’t called me Dad since she was three. Though I do miss having you around. We should do lunch tomorrow.”

“I’ve got the afternoon booked with Ed, he called last night and will be in town this week. We’ve got a bunch of projects to sift through. You should join us for lunch.”

“I’d like that a lot. I want to hear how his travels have gone.”

“Ed?” Jessica asked.

“Sheeran,” came the reply from Pops, Harry and me.

“He’s probably in the top five for Evie’s priorities for the coming year. Perhaps only topped by Harry in recent weeks,” Pops added.

“He’s going to enjoy taking back over the top spot,” Harry said. “He texted me after he called you last night. Pain in my ass.” Pops laughed.

“I don’t know how I managed to forget that he was one of the people who referred you to us. Are you joining us for lunch tomorrow?”

“No, Evie wanted it to be business focused. Told me that all three of us could do dinner. She’s been trying to teach me about this condition to our relationship where I can’t always pay for her meals when we go out.” Pops started to laugh. “Claims if it’s work related she gets to charge her corporate card.”

“She needs to. Those are a business expense. The rest of the times she fights you are just because she thinks women should have equal responsibility.”

“You like paying?” Jessica asked.

“I think that we are an equal partnership. And considering he’s been out of work for a while I probably make more than him right now.” Harry started to laugh.

“Yes, little old unemployed me.” I smiled at him as I put my head on his shoulder. “She definitely enjoys picking on me.”

“She’s really good at that,” Pops said. I shot a glance at him that made him laugh. “I forgot to ask how everything went at Northwestern?”

“Really well.”

“She did fantastic,” Harry added.

“You went with?” Pops asked.

“I did. She wanted to show me the campus and then we went to your Mother and Father’s house afterwards.”

“Oh, I heard about that. My Mother wouldn’t shut up about how wonderful Evie’s new boyfriend was. You impressed everyone, that isn’t an easy thing to do when it comes to Evie’s family.”

“The jury is still out on you, Pops.” He scrunched his face up a little bit.

“I should’ve apologized about that. Your Mother called me and told me I needed to.” I frowned, Mom promised that she would stay out of it. She was never good at letting my father and I work through our issues without any outside influences. “Harry, I like you a lot. You’re a talented young man and it’s obvious that you care a lot about Evie.”

“I do. I love her.” My eyes went wide. Yes, Mom knew. I’m sure Dad did too, hell after the time in Chicago I’m sure he knew Harry was planning to tell me he loved me before he actually did it. But to listen to him sit here and tell my father made me feel like I was going to throw up. He’d joked when I punched him earlier but it wasn’t a declaration of feeling about me that was for my father’s ears. “Your daughter is the most amazing woman I’ve ever known outside of my Mum and my sister.”

“She is amazing and she deserves to be happy. You’re clearly what she’s chosen for that. I want to see her happy so I apologize for my reaction to the news article when you were both in Chicago. Sometimes when it comes to my kid I react without giving myself time to think things through. This was one of those times.”

“It’s okay,” I blurted out. I’d never honestly expected that he was going to apologize to me.

“I appreciate the apology,” Harry said. “It was a difficult night for me to say the least. A bit unnerving to have something that is so new and yet still so important broadcasted for the world’s consumption. Especially knowing that even in Chicago we weren’t completely safe from the spying eyes of people with camera phones. There were photos of us with Marco running through the park and then there were some of us that Eliza showed me this week where we were with Christopher, Mason and Jonathan. It made me sick that her brothers’ privacy was taken from them because of me.”

“Just so you know Jonny texted me to say that all of the girls at school were talking to him because you were hanging out with him. He clearly didn’t have a problem with ending up on a gossip blog.” Pops laughed a little about the comment. It wasn’t surprising to anyone that knew Jonny that he would be excited about making a gossip blog.

“He texted me as well,” Harry added. “But it’s unsettling for me to think that I can’t take you and your family places without them potentially being used for a website to gain a click. I want them to have their privacy and for you to have yours. So James, when you suggested that Evie and I separate because it was going to be detrimental to her career, it was something I’d thought about. But not necessarily about her career. I knew that by being part of her life, even for the tiniest time period that a portion of her privacy would be taken from her for a long time and that she may never experience a time in her life when a news story wouldn’t have a mention of me. It’s something that is always at the back of my mind. I knew there was part of what you were saying that was right and that it would probably be better if we were apart.”

“Don’t allow yourself to think that,” Pops said. “You make her happy. I was wrong to jump to those conclusions about your relationship. And I apologize. I reacted very badly and reacted more like a boss that was disappointed in an employee’s behavior than a father that was fearful for his daughter’s privacy. But if there’s one thing I know about my Evie it’s that the opinions of other people don’t change the way she thinks.”

“Just your opinion.” My hand flew over my mouth. I didn’t mean for it to come out snarky and it did.

“Yes, just my opinion, until now. I gave what was a very poor opinion and you said no. You haven’t disagreed with me on something big in years. I was scared. I knew someday you’d find someone that would change your priorities, I just thought I had a few more years before they came along.”

“Evie reacted poorly when you spoke to her that night,” Harry said. “I didn’t like listening to the way she spoke to you. It was a side of her I hadn’t completely seen before and one I hope to not see again.”

“It’s not one that comes out often,” I replied. “But sometimes a harsh response from my father is worse than a fate of death. I idolize you Pops.”

“I know. I was out of line. I’m sorry.”

“I was as well and I’m sorry. Dad pointed out that when I’m mad at you I talk to you in a way that I'd never speak to him. That’s not fair of me.”

“We have a much different relationship than you do with your Dad. And you say you idolize me, but you know you idolize he and your Mom too.” I nodded. I did idolize them. I dreamed of someday having a relationship like theirs and I think I’d found the person who was for me what Marco was for my Mom.

“I am really sorry though.”

“I know you are kiddo. Your behavior was abnormal for you. You were feeling attacked and I know that if you’re in that situation it’s a defense mechanism, I don’t blame you for your reaction.”

“Thanks, Pops.” Harry hugged me tight to him and I felt him kiss the top of my head.

“I’m proud of you,” he whispered.

“Thanks,” I replied as I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heart beat.

“So Everlee, what will you do all summer with Harry gone?” Jessica asked.

“Work? It’s my normal operating status. I’ll just go back to working more since the house will be empty. I’ll also probably move back to my condo so I can spend more time with Ty and Eliza. I miss my roomies a little bit. But they all understand why I’m here. But we just lost Kammi as part of the roomie group so it’s a bit different, especially for Ty. I know that Eliza has stayed here a few nights because I was sick and she stayed with Joe last night.”

“They are dating?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah, it’s new,” I replied.

“Ty will be okay,” Harry added. “He seemed to have a good time on his date last night.”

“He met someone too? What’s she like?” Pops, Harry and I all had the same confused look wash across our faces.

“HE is a writer for The Late Late Show,” I answered. “Ty is gay.”

“A writer for Late Late, huh?” Pops questioned.

“Yeah, I invited my friend Eli over yesterday and introduced them. They hit it off pretty well and went to dinner last night. We had to stop at the condo to help Ty get ready.”

“Ty, the stylist, needed help?” Pops laughed a bit.

“He was nervous, so we stopped on our way out to dinner to help him. Which he took as an opportunity to make fun of my fashion choices.”

“He made fun of Harry for what he wore on our first date,” I said through giggles.

“Harry has a wonderful sense of style,” Jessica added. “What did you wear on your first date?”

“He wore this obnoxious Hawaiian print shirt that looks like something my Dad would wear on vacation to embarrass my Mom and I. I think the shirt was half unbuttoned so his tattoos were showing and his boobs were hanging out.” Pops and Harry both started to laugh at my description. “Oh and he made me go to Craig’s so of course we ran into people I knew.”

“Who?” Pops asked.

“Her sister, Rachel.”

“How is Rach?”

“Good. Pregnant. Making me feel like a slacker, like always.”

“Pregnant?”

“She was glowing already,” Harry said. “Evie showed me pictures of you two at her wedding. She looked very happy that you were both able to come. So did her mother.”

“Cyn was radiant that night,” Pops said.

“Cynthia is stunning, she always has been.” I was speaking the truth. Cynthia looked like a supermodel when she and Pops were married. I still remember her on their wedding day so vividly. Her incredibly dark brown hair was curled perfectly and the shiniest hair I’d ever seen in my life. Against her pale skin and a white dress she looked like an angel. I remember standing next to Pops, Uncle Mikey, and Cameron at the altar and it was almost as if you heard the people at the wedding gasp because she’d looked so beautiful. This was a woman I had grown used to seeing in her work clothes which were either suits if she was meeting clients or clothes that were covered in paint if she was working on a property. Cynthia built her company from the ground up, a lot of that when she was with my father. She pulled off the PTA Mom look most days but when she and Pops would be attending a premiere for one of his clients she looked like she would be the most beautiful woman on the red carpet that night when they left the house. I’ve always liked Cynthia, it was the ones that came after her that jaded me to the women in my father’s life. She had tried really hard to make us all a family. They’d dated for two years prior to getting married. She’d picked up her three girls and moved them into Pops’ house with us. Rachel was her oldest and a year younger than me. Two years younger than Rachel were the twins, Kourtney and Kayci, who never really liked me. I was an only child despite being the oldest of four when we were in the house together. I also had a father who treated my like a princess, Cynthia’s ex-husband wasn’t part of their lives anymore, which was part of why Rachel still loved my father the way she did. She told me when she was drunk at her bachelorette party that she had considered asking him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding but Cynthia was a bit worried about what the reaction from people would be, so instead she asked her grandfather to do it.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Jessica said.

“I don’t, technically. Rachel is Cynthia’s daughter. Cynthia being Pops’ ex-wife. Wife #2.”

“Oh, I didn’t even put that together.” Of course she didn’t. She also thought Ty was straight. I was pretty sure the only thing she paid attention to was the number of digits in my father’s bank account. Take a deep breath, Everlee. You got this. Be nice. Your father clearly cares about her, not sure why, but he does.

“Alright, who is ready for dinner,” I said smiling as I stood up. “I’ll go put the noodles on for pasta.” I headed to the kitchen and filled the pot with water. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“It smells delicious, kiddo. Nonna will be proud.” He took a spoon from the drawer and took a bite of the sauce. “Perfect. You haven’t lost your touch.” He kissed my temple. “Thank you for today. I know that some of this isn’t easy but you’re trying and I appreciate that.”

“You’re trying too, I appreciate it a lot.”

“Doesn’t take much. He’s a good kid and he didn’t have to tell me he loved you. I could tell by the way he looked at you. Marco and I have been analyzing some of this behavior since we both found out.”

“I can’t believe Mom told you to apologize. She promised me she’d stay out of it.”

“She did, for the most part. She caught Marco and I on the phone. Marco was actually the one who told me I was being an ass and I needed to stop because it was clear that if this kid was going to do one thing in life it would be to make you happy and to someday give me some grandbabies to love on.” I laughed. Dad had been the parent of my three that wanted a big family. He’d wanted to try for another kid after Christopher was born, Mom could barely handle the four of us. So now that I was settled into a career he had started in on the grandchildren thing because he always wanted babies around.

“We’ve talked and both want kids someday. Just don’t start in like Dad and ask for them now.”

“I need a couple more years to have you to myself. I’m not ready to share my little girl." I turned to hug him. “I love you, Evie.”

“I love you too, Pops.” I looked towards the living room to see Harry smiling at me.

The Circus NJ: How on Earth did they pull off that win? JJ: Trickery! It had to be trickery. KM: It was one helluva game. That’s for sure. ER: GO CUBS GO! GO CUBS GO! Hey Chicago what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today! JJ: I wish she would stop also singing that while she runs around the house. HS: Evie is singing it while dancing in the kitchen with James. KM: Dancing in the kitchen? Things must be going well. HS: They are. A bit awkward at times but going much better than either of us expected. Though Jessica evidently thought Ty liked women. TK: GROSS! Girls are gross. ER: We are not! KM: You have to be kidding me? She thought he liked women? She’s dumber than we all give her credit for isn’t she? HS: Sadly, I think she is. Evie hasn’t done anything too out of line though. But we are about to sit down to dinner. We will recap later.

“They text too much for me to ever own one of these watches,” Harry whispered as he was helping me put everything in plates to put on the table. We'd decided to eat on the patio. Pops was in love with the view from Harry’s. Now that the game was over we’d taken them on a full tour of the house. Pops even admitted that he could see why I’d moved in, he really liked the place.

“They do get kind of annoying. Just know that if I ever don’t reply to a text it’s probably because I’ve put everything on ‘Do Not Disturb’ so I don’t have to feel the watch vibrate every time they text me.”

“That makes sense.” He bent down and kissed me. “Today has been good.”

“It has. Now let’s eat. This girl is hungry for Sunday dinner.” We took the last of the food out to the table and got everyone served. I could tell Pops was really enjoying dinner. It had been a long time since I’d made meatballs for him and I knew it was the food that he missed most from home. The conversation was flowing easily. Jessica was trying to interject herself into the conversation but I sat back and enjoyed watching Pops and Harry talk. Neither of them allowed me to go very long without talking though, something that back in Chicago with my Mom and Dad I could easily pull off since our family was so big.

“So Evie you were going to tell me what you thought I should be doing for my first album when James and Jessica got here. Did you want to give me that opinion now?” Harry asked. I looked at him, fork mid-air and smiled. I put the pasta back down in the bowl and leaned back in my chair.

“She’s always got an opinion. Let’s hear it, Evie.” Pops smiled.

“I think that as much as all of the producers and writers that you worked with in One Direction are interested in working with you still that you don’t. Avoid it. Do something different. Make the album you always wished you could make but couldn’t because you had 3-4 bandmates and an army of producers telling you different. Don’t let a single one of that group into the studio with you. One Direction was good, great even sometimes. You were the biggest band on the planet. But Harry Styles, the defacto front man of One Direction, is not who YOU are. You are a guy who sings Fleetwood Mac in the shower. Who listened to The Rolling Stones the entire drive home from Malibu. Who I’ve discovered has some weird alt-country shit on his iPhone. You are a man who I listen to on the piano and guitar and you make brilliant noises come out of them both. Be you. Fuck your past. Don’t make the album the world expects you to make. Don’t make an album that will be great for pop radio. Don’t make an album that caters to One Direction fans. Make the album you want to make. Make the music you want to hear. Just be you.” Harry sat silent for a moment.

“She’s right. The world has a lot of expectation for what you should sound like. Don’t try to sound like those expectations. Make what makes you happy. Your core audience will get that and if you open up the eyes and ears of the rest of the world in the process, you’ll be fine,” Pops added.

“I didn't expect that from you,” Harry said. “I expected you to tell me to color between the lines.”

“Evie was never good at following rules,” Pops replied.

“I think you take the meetings as a courtesy. These people helped to build your career. But that you don’t do what is expected of you. Don’t burn bridges, but build new ones.”

“Build new ones?”

“Yes, build bridges to the producers who you enjoy listening to. The personalities you vibe with. The people who help you create the best music you can. And if in the end it’s an album that you are proud of and enjoy listening to, then that is all that matters. But if in the process you sell a few copies, even better. I won’t ever push you to do something just for album sales. This is about you being the most authentic version of yourself that you can be.”

“Alright then. Let’s do this, love.”

I've been waiting anxiously for this chapter to finally come. I knew that all it would take was one of their traditional family meals and some time together for James and Evie to work through things. And I've had this planned since I came up with the idea of their fight. This time for them to mend fences, to put their past behind them. Truly their problems aren't about Harry and we all know that. Her relationship with her father is a lot of the reason Evie is guarded. Sometimes the people you love leave. In the case of Evie and James, they can fix their problems and this day was the start of that. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I've also really enjoyed that Harry is part of the group text with The Circus. Their humor translates really easily for me to a text message conversation. They all know each other so well that they continue their banter into the messages which are fun for me to write. So expect a LOT more of that. I'm even considering doing a few extras on Tumblr that are just text messages between The Circus. Maybe go back and do what the texts were during Evie and Harry's first date, I can only imagine what that would've been like. I mean we know she somehow sent them a photo of the shirt he was wearing on their first date. What else did they talk about before Harry was privy to the information? If you have an interest in reading that then follow me on Tumblr because I'm sure it will be coming as a way to keep me writing and working on the next chapter. I love writing Evie and Harry. This story has been so much fun for me and I hope you're all still enjoying it. It's hard not to fear that because my updates aren't coming as rapidly as they used to, that I picked a controversial topic, in addition to other things, that I'm at risk of losing my audience. I hope that isn't the case, but if it is I understand. 12,000 word chapters take time to write, especially when you work two jobs and try to remain a decent family member and friend (I'm failing at that part...a lot). At the beginning the chapters were shorter but I'm inspired to write these longer, detailed chapters and I hope you're enjoying that and that you understand that I'm trying my best to crank these out as quickly as humanly possible. Possibly for the sequel I'll go back to chapters that are shorter. Yup, I said sequel. I'm starting to plan out how ITHOLA will end and where the sequel will take characters. I hope that you're all still excited to be along for the ride. I can't wait to hear what you thought of this chapter! Please, please, please let me know what you think. I can't improve what I'm doing if I don't know how my audience feels about what I'm writing. Thank you so much for sticking with me as I write this. You all mean the world to me. xx AM. Tumblr Twitter Instagram

[linhslife]

Value Village: GTA Reviews

1) Location: Scarborough / 3701 Lawrence Ave E #1 

Large location

Lots of space between aisles 

Limited parking space, but not a problem as it is not busy 

Cleanliness/Organization: 5/5 

Lots of space on racks for you to go through items 

No clothes hanging on top 

No clothes on the ground 

Quality: 2/5

Not good for those seeking high-end designers. I haven’t come across any high end pieces 

Mall brands such as Forever 21 and Victoria’s Secret are common here

Zara is scarce, Aritzia is non-existant at location 

Pricing: 1/5

When I started thrifting, I overpaid at this location for a couple items. One of them was a Roots sweater for $15.99. A good price for a Roots sweater but still too expensive for a thrift store.

Mall brands are expensive. Saw a Forever 21 cardigan for $10.99 

Thrift Potential: 2/5 

I always pick up Victoria Secret Pink sweaters here, which I haven’t seen any other locations. 

The Roots sweater I got here was also in pretty good condition. 

I’d say this is a pretty good location if you’re looking for mall brands.

Overall: 2/5

Overall, not a bad location. Value Village it’s self is pretty good (parking, size of building, cleanliness)

As for the items at this location, they’re not great if you’re looking to hunt designer items. If, however, you are looking for reasonably priced mall items, this may be worth checking out. 

2) Location: North York / 2776 Victoria Park Ave 

Small location, located in a dingy plaza 

Small space between aisles 

Cleanliness/Organization: 5/5

Lots of space on racks for you to go through items 

No clothes hanging on top 

No clothes on the ground

Quality: 3/5

Due to the small store, not a lot of items 

Didn't find much here and no single brand sticks out here, however, I had an extremely lucky run when I went and found a Theory shirt, a Babaton shirt that was still being sold at Aritzia for $95 (+1 for an in season find!)  and then a brand new without tags Brandy Melville long sleeve 

Pricing: 3/5 // Update: 2/5 

Average pricing for Value Village 

Nothing too extreme from what I saw, all my items were originally tagged $10.99 or less, and remember they were high/mid end (versus Scarborough’s $10.99 for a Forever 21 cardigan!) 

**Update** 

I paid $17.99 for a BNWT Wilfred cami. Normally I would never pay $17.99 for an item at VV but it was so beautiful that I couldn’t pass it up. On top of that the tag was $60 so asking $17 is reasonable. However, asking $17 when they got the item for free is a bit fucked up. Minus one star for ridiculous pricing. 

Thrift Potential: 3/5 // Update: 4/5 

Again, I had an extremely lucky run when I went. I didn’t see anything else too special at this location. Nevertheless, this is a very generous score because I’m taking my finds into account 

**Update** 

I revisited this location on October 10, 2017. It turns out my lucky first run wasn’t so lucky after all. This place is a nice gem. I found quite a few Aritzia items. Found a few brand name items as well such as a Micheal Kors shirt, a lot of BCBG or whatever that brand is. There’s also a lot of Guess items at this location. However, I am bumping up a star because there were a lot of items with tags on them! I picked up a beautiful Wilfred cami that was brand new with tags still attached 

Overall: 3/5 

I’ve only been to this location once, and my finds were very good so the sample size may not be that representative of the location.

I do think, however, that finding items may be more difficult due to the smaller size of the store

I’d recommend checking this location only in passing (solely because of the small size) 

3) Location: Victoria Park / 1525 Victoria Park Ave 

An extremely busy and small location, easily accessible 

Aisles are small, and the racks are hard to sift through (too many items and there are stuff at the top blocking you from “sifting” through them) 

Parking lot is small and weirdly designed

This location is known for having good pieces 

Cleanliness/Organization: 2/5

Busy location, so there’s an occasional top here and there 

Racks are too full to sift through 

Quality: 3/5

I know this location is known as one of the “best” in Toronto. Based on my two visits, it’s hard to tell but from my experience, I find that there isn't many store brands here. There’s a lot of really random brands. 

Spotted a Michael Kors duster jacker

Purchased a Wilfred Cardigan that was still being sold in stores (+1 for an in season find!) 

There’s a lot of Zara and J.Crew items at this location 

Pricing: 2/5 // Update: 1/5 

I overpaid ($15) for the Wilfred cardigan at this location. Again, $15 is not bad for a Wilfred Cardigan, but for Value Village, it’s quite pricey 

Higher end brands are priced higher

Mall brands are reasonable 

**Update**

I re-visited this location on October 10, 2017 and all I can say is that I left empty handed and every time I visit, it gets more and more disappointing. This store has absolutely notorious pricing. $30 for used shoes. Not even brand names. Anything Nine West/Call It Spring is an instant $30 price tag. I also went through dresses (found a Talula dress for $30) and they were all pretty expensive compared to other Value Villages. I ascertain that out of all the Value Villages I’ve been to around the GTA, this one has the highest mark-ups/prices. 

Thrift Potential: 4/5 // Update 3/5 

Since I’ve only been to this location twice, it’s hard to judge the thrift potential, but during my first visit, I spotted a Micheal Kors duster jacket

As mentioned previously, I also thrifted a Wilfred cardigan here. This cardigan is still being sold in stores for $95 (in season item!) 

An abundance of Zara/J.Crew items here 

**Update** 

I’m not sure if it’s because this location is so busy that it gets picked over, but there’s scarce Aritzia items here... or anything good for that matter. I’ve left empty handed 2/3 times I’ve been here. Disappointing. On top of that. I’m seeing a lot of old clothes. Like clothes from 2009-2011 old. I saw a few types of clothing here that resembled the ones I had then. Literally found an exact shirt I have in my closet at home. 

I’ve now visited this location three times, and 

Overall: 4/5 // Update: 3/5 

Strong contender as one of the best Value Villages in Toronto 

Worth checking out if you’re looking for Zara/J.Crew items 

Real hit or miss - requires digging. **Update** 

4) Location: Pickering / 609 Kingston Rd

Large location

Huge parking lot

Not a busy location

Lots of space between aisles 

Cleanliness/Organization: 3/5

Pretty clean, generally there are no items on top/bottom

Very easy to go through items 

A few misplaced items, few mistags here and there 

Quality: 4/5

A lot of Zara, Lord and Taylor, Ann Taylor, Tommy Hilf. items 

Also has a lot of store brands such as Forever 21, American Eagle  

Thrifted some very nice “Dynamite” (mall brand) pieces, as well as a brand new blouse from Jean Machine with tags 

Spotted a couple of Brandy Melville items 

Pricing: 4/5

This is one of the best Value Villages in the GTA in regards to pricing. 

Spotted a Forever 21 t-shirt for $1.99

Thrifted a Gap Sweatshirt for $2 (tagged price $3.99)

Thrifted an American Eagle shirt for $2 (tagged price $3.99) 

Thrifted an American Eagle plaid shirt for $7.99 

I took away a star because I bought a Vince Camuto blouse for $10.99

Thrift Potential: 3.5/5

I don’t think you’ll find any high end pieces at this location, but there are a lot of really great, basically new items at this location 

Overall: 4/5

Even though this location isn’t exactly in Toronto, it’s TOTALLY worth the drive! I love this location because there’s so many good quality items here. A lot of them are basically new! On top of that, the prices are amazing! This VV (for the most part) doesn’t hike prices on mall brands! $1.49 for a Forever 21 t-shirt? $3.99 for a shirt from American Eagle? Sold. 

5) Location: Markham / 7655 Markham Rd C-1 & C-2

Decently-sized location in a strip mall

Aisle space is good

Tons of parking available 

Not a busy location 

Cleanliness/Organization: 1/5

One of the messiest VV I’ve ever been to, each rack has at least 3 items overtop of it and one other item on the ground 

Sifting through racks is easy, but the employee who hung the item on didn’t do a good job, so when you’re shifting, stuff is constantly falling 

Lot of items partly on/off the hanger

Terribly mistagged items. Two of the items I bought were mistagged 

There’s a lot of stuff out of place, I found a lot of blouses with the t-shirts

Quality: 5/5

Spotted an Alexander McQueen t-shirt 

Spotted 2x TNA tanks, a bunch of Wilfred/Wilfred free tops, 1x Babaton shirt 

Carries a lot of Zara items, occasional Club Monaco, Garage

Pricing: 3.5/5  

Pricing wasn’t bad, average of a normal Value Village

Mark up was average but for the most part, the more popular brands (Aritzia/TNA/Wilfred) weren’t ridiculously overpriced as they are at some locations

$8.99 for a Garage cardigan (Remember, the Wilfred cardigan was $9.99!)

**Update** 

The pricing here is actually very good, and I think 3.5/5 is a good score to keep. During my visit on October 10th, I found a lot of great items for an extremely reasonable price

Spotted: 

- VS Pink Tank $1.49 

- Talula dress for $12.99 (compared to 1525 Victoria Park’s Talula dress for $30) 

- Wilfred romper for $12.xx

Thrifted: Wilfred dress for $6.99 

Although I found some pretty well priced items today, I did overpay (not at all, this a good price, but again, for VV, it’s a DONATED item)  for a pair of VS Pink leggings. They were $14.99, which is not bad for a pair of brand new leggings, but still pricey given the fact that it was a donated item. Therefore, the score for pricing stays the way it does. 

Thrift Potential: 5/5 

Spotted an extremely high-end brand, Alexander McQueen for $6.99! 

Most Aritzia items (Wilfred, Wilfred Free, Babaton, TNA) found in a Value Village

Thrifted a Wilfred cardigan basically brand new without tags  

Online retailers (Tobi, Fashion Nova)  found here

A lot of Ann Taylor, Lord and Taylor, Zara, Forever 21, Garage, Jacob items 

**Update** Aritzia items found here! 

Overall: 4.5/5 

This is one of the best Value Villages in Toronto **Update** Good finds, good prices! This place is awesome in my books! 

Tons of great finds **Update** For sure! Online retailers found here! Spotted Missguided today! 

I’d really recommend this location because of it’s large size, non-busy location, and the potential for some really good thrifts. If you can mind a little mess, this is a great little gem. The non-busy location allows for you to sift till your heart’s content! 

**Update** I visited this location on October 6, 2017. 

6) Location: Mississauga / Unsure of location, as they moved locations and Google Maps is wrong. It’s somewhere on Dundas east I believe. 

Disclaimer: It’s been almost a week since I visited the location and I don’t remember all the small details. 

Decently-sized location, recently new

Aisle space is good

Tons of parking available 

Busy location (but I’ve only been here once and it was on a Friday so it may not actually be busy)

Cleanliness/Organization: 5/5

Don’t really have much to say about this location

It’s pretty clean, nothing on the floor/hanging on racks 

Easy to sift through 

Quality: 2/5 

Items were okay quality 

Low score is because a lot of the items I pulled (especially the Aritzia ones) were piling, or in bad condition so I had to leave a lot of it behind

On the other hand, there were quite a few items that looked brand new or had tags on them. 

Pricing: 4/5  

Pricing wasn’t bad, average of a normal Value Village

Loved that this Value Village didn’t raise prices on Aritzia items. I paid $11.99 for a Wilfred Cardigan ($3 cheaper than the same cardigan I bought from the 1525 Victoria Park location). I also bought two Talula  camisoles/tanks for $5.99 each. From my experience, at other VV locations, these would be at least $7-9 

Spotted a VS Pink shirt for $2.49 

Thrift Potential: 5/5

I was wrong when I said the Markham location had the most Aritzia items throughout the GTA. I was wrong. THIS location has the most Aritzia item. Every other item I picked up was Babaton 

I spotted my first All Saints (high end designer) item here! 

Found a practically brand new VS Pink top for $4.99 

Overall: 4.5/5

This is one of the best Value Villages in Toronto, especially for Aritzia items and on top of that, this Value Village doesn’t ridiculously mark-up higher end items 

Even though this VV isn’t exactly in Toronto, it’s worth the drive! 

Great items, great pricing, new location.   

Summary

Most clean/Least Clean: Scarborough and North York/Markham

Highest Quality/Lowest Quality: Markham / Scarborough 

Best priced/Worst Priced: Pickering and Mississauga/ Scarborough and 1525 Victoria Park 

Best thrift potential/Worst thrift potential: Markham and Mississauga / Scarborough 

Overall, best VV/Worst VV village: Markham / Scarborough

[dantelaw21]

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 289

Click on the video above to watch Episode 289 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Welcome to Hump Day hangouts Episode 289 to one where Hernan looks continuously shocked for some reason.

Hi, how’s it going? Hernan Is everything okay. It’s great, man. I’m feeling like shit, but here we are. All right, good, good stuff. Well, keep going here. Like I said it’s Episode 289. Today’s the 27th of May 2020. I can see we got a lot of really good questions already today. But if you haven’t yet and you got a question, please put it on the page. First come first serve. And then I’m going to get into a few announcements. We’ve got some cool stuff that happened earlier this week. And then some last-minute announcements, things that we just found out about today that I want to touch on But first, let’s say hi to the guys real quick and see how everyone’s doing so

I’ll start to my top left here Bradley. How are you doing today?

Good. I’m good. I just edited the video description in YouTube because still had some stuff from the webinar we did yesterday. So anyway, but I’m good. Things are good. I’m back from taking a week off, and it sucked cuz I went away for a week camping and ATV riding, thinking that I was going to get away and get to enjoy it and it rained the entire week, all day every day and it was awful. It was fucking miserable. So I wish I would have stayed home and worked.

Yeah, man, speaking of weird weather that so I’m in the Bay Area. So we just hit 95 the last three days, which is like 34 Celsius. It’s just like, Okay, well guess I’ll go out in the morning, go for a walk and then come hunker in here, shut the blinds and turn the air just thinking. So that’s been my life for the past couple of days. So let’s head go with the happier weather report. Marco. How are you doing?

The sun’s out again. It’s the rainy season and he’s like the sun’s out. It’s rainy season man. Look, I live in paradise. All right, I can’t help that. Make some money. Right? First of all, go get the battle. You follow the Battle Plan.

make some money. Hire someone who will help you. Train, apply, and make money. lather, rinse, repeat. And then you can go find your own Fortress of Solitude where you can just watch the world go by and you don’t give up. Push your mouth but other than the outstanding weather

How are you doing marking things are going good. Things are good here man. Things are good. Yeah, I’m still like things are opening up a little bit here. Essential businesses and all that and all this other stuff, but I’m still self-parenting. I got three kids. They got to think about it and I’m not a spring chicken so that there’s another person that I had to think about right because I can go out or like one but I have to think about my family. Yeah. And what I might bring, bring home and closer to home to make somebody.

I knew personally died of this. It’s not as if it’s totally foreign to me like I don’t know anyone who is affected by this. I like what I do know. And so having it that cloth is not any longer six degrees of separation. it’s like I know and so no, it ain’t happening and we’re gonna see how this plays out and I’ll let everybody you guys can all go and enjoy yourselves you know to do whatever the hell you want and then let me know how that turns out and then I’ll decide after that second one what it is that we’re going to do but for now we’re cool we take it easy and that’s it, man. We did we just but my personal choice, right, my personal choice to do that. It’s not as if someone is forcing me to do it. I’m choosing that this is the best way for myself and my family. Enough. All right. Well, Hernan How about you man, things are like you’re moving into wintertime right? I always get

Yeah, it’s hot summer-like wait a second I was wearing a sweatshirt what hell’s going on? Yeah, actually actually all of you guys are well Marco Marco is like, you know, he’s in a good spot 20% but all of you guys are you know getting the nice season. I’m getting the shooting season. Yeah now so now but yeah man it’s good today was a good day.

Like warm-ish. But yeah, we’re getting into winter and all of that so see how that goes, could you? Oh, Chris How about yourself? Yeah, yeah can’t complain man sun’s out the sun is shining all day. I mean it’s dark right now and the best part of all Friday the gyms opening back up and stuff so things are really good standing. Well, I’m going to circle back around Bradley, you mentioned a webinar and I wanted to touch on that because we had Brian, a mastermind member, along with Bruno, and you all listening can get to know both of them better and see what Bradley has to say to about this go high-level system. And Bradley, you want to tell real quick, I’m gonna pop the link in where people can go and check out the replay. Do you want to tell them about the webinar a little bit?

Yeah, Brian, one of our mastermind members reached out and basically said that he was using a platform, an agency automation platform that consolidates a whole bunch of different services and such all under one roof. He reached out because he thought that it would fit really, really well with the 2xyoruagency training.

Because it does a lot of the stuff that I talked about in 2xyouragency about how to automate, delegate or eliminate because this platform consolidates a lot of services that you may have separate subscriptions for and I always call it duct taping them together using Zapier or some similar application. And basically these have integrated services that do all

All of the same things that many of these external services do that we put, you know, we connect via Zapier, and it’s all under one dashboard. And so it’s a lot more seamless. And there’s a lot of really cool features inside there, like one of the primary feature that was, is used to pitch this go high-level application or platform is what’s called database reactivation, which is a very easy way or a simple way for you to get your foot in the door as an agency owner with potential marketing clients because you can. So anyway, I can’t really go into depth right now about that, but it’s a really cool platform. I signed up my own agency on the agency level account level so that I can create a first of all, I’m gonna use it for my own agency, but second of all, so I could also create a case study for how I’m using it. I’ve got some really good ideas that I’m going to be sharing in that case study that I’m gonna be putting to the test and then sharing in the case study.

As well on how I’m using it and how to generate kind of exponential revenue growth from it, as opposed to just linear. And so anyway, I think it’s bad, it’s very valuable, I would encourage you guys to go check it out, it does come with a 14-day free trial. So once you see the webinar, you know, comes with some free or some, I think it’s free, or it’s like five bucks may be to pay for some of the training that Bruno had put together, what he calls the quick start training for that. And so you can get all of that. And your first 14 days determine if it’s for you or not, but I think once you see some of the potentials of this, it would be something if any of you are trying to grow. I think you should absolutely take a good hard look at it. Definitely. Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t do generally local stuff. But I check this out. And like I’ve been looking at it and I talked to Brian about all the details and like I was starting to be like maybe I could find a way to you just like no stop it. But like for anyone out there who’s dealing with especially local clients or can find the right use case

Yeah, just blew me away from the number of services and automation that’s packed into that suite of tools and how seamless that is, is pretty amazing. So definitely worth checking it out. Real quick to this one came up today. So we constantly get questions about GMB verifications, right? You know, hey, where can you guys do GMB verifications work in MGYB, when is it going to be available? I’m going to cut to the chase GMB verifications are available right now. As always, we cannot tell you how long that is going to be the case. So if you are doing lead gen if you’re needing a verification for some other reason, this would be a very good time to put your order in because not only can you order now what you couldn’t have yesterday, you can get a 15% discount today while we’ve got it opened up. Also, it comes with a 30-day guarantee. And it’s about I believe, 14 day turnaround time. So pretty quick. I’ll post all of that in the chatbox for those who are live. If you’re not just head to mgyb.co, and head to the store, you can look for GMB verifications there you can also get syndication networks, Rs drive stacks, SEO shield, link building all that sort of good stuff.

And circling back around. I wanted to touch on this real quick for those of you who are watching us for the first time, thank you very much whether you’re watching live or catching the replay on YouTube. If you want to go to the right place, head to semantic mastery comm slash HD questions every week, we asked you to limit your questions just to one. Unless you’re live, you can ask some more. You know, we get down there. We just want to make sure that everyone has a chance to ask their questions. So if you ask some questions, we may not get to all of them just before Warren. And then secondly, we encourage everyone to check out the battle plan and go to battle plan dot semantic mastery. If you want to get repeated repeatable SEO results that is for you. I’m not going to read the page to you you can go over there and check it out. But it is a fantastic tool that we recently just updated them released version four a month ago.

And then Bradley touched on this too if you’re an agency owner or a consultant that you want to get more clients, yes, you want to grow your revenue. Yes. And you want to scale your team, hopefully, yes. Then if you want to do that, head over 2xyouragency.com. There’s a ton of incredible training lets you crush it, whether you’re again, being a consultant, or if you want to build a true agency, and it doesn’t matter if that’s SEO, it’s other areas of digital marketing. It’s going to help you grow and make more money. That’s the bottom line.

All right, with that said, Guys, any other quick announcements before we dive into questions?

Good. All right. Let’s do it.

All right. Grab the screen.

You guys confirm when you see. See my screen.

Would You Recommend Ordering Another Drive Stack To A New Website Section Targeting Service Keywords In Different Locations?

So it looks like BB Now that might have been from last week. It looks like it was it will start with Bobby. Bobby says Hey guys, I got some questions. The first one was would you recommend ordering another drive stack to a completely new section of a website targeting a different service keyword in different locations on a large content site that would be perfect for the location sealed, am I right? Marco?

Yeah, that’s perfect for the extension. And it’s currently available and as a coupon sweep. So that’s what the drive stack expansion.

Yeah, we’re saying, Yeah, maybe if he already has the brand it because he’s saying another, right, a completely new section of the website. So we’re talking about the same website, money site. That’s how I’m seeing. I’m seeing something different.

He has a different service keyword, and a different location on a large content what so that’s, that’s just an inner page, I think what he’s describing the top of the silo. So you would aim the expansion on the current drive stack at that inner page, you’d get much more power going and extending that initial drive stack then you would be doing a completely different drive stack, g site. Sure, gotcha. Okay.

Would You Recommend RSS Masher To Drive Traffic To A Money Site And Lead Gen Assets?

The next question was  GMB.Thanks again, I’ve not used them for lead gen assets but I have in the past I haven’t built since the updated the new version of RSS master which is even better. But to create the kind of like Kwazii PBNs and when I say PBNs, they’re not like what we would traditionally think of a treat PBN, these are real sites to generate real traffic and that’s the differentiator, right? having real sites generate real traffic. With automated content posting to them right through all the RSS feeds that you splice together and RSS masher and all the really cool shit you can do. You can take a look at the most recent webinar we did with Damon Nelson, about the most current version of RSS masher and see some of the examples of the sites that he builds are 100% honest.

Major content sites using RSS masher. And they’re freaking beautiful sites. And he’s generating affiliate income and, you know, like AdSense income. And so such using those sites because they do generate traffic, they look beautiful. But from an SEO standpoint, I looked at it as like, hey, this could be really good to generate, you know, in related content type sites that could feed traffic back to a money site or a lead gen site or whatever. So, I mean, I think it’s certainly possible to use it for that I haven’t done it myself just to be honest because it’s not the strategy that I’ve been pursuing. I’ve wanted to in fact, I even talked about it with my partners here. I would love to have some time to play with that and set up some sights but I haven’t done it yet. I think Marco. Weren’t you guys gonna try playing with that a bit. I know it probably hasn’t been done but wasn’t that on the to-do list?

It is being done. What we are currently testing it and we won’t like there is anything. I’m not personally doing it but I got my mini mastermind, which is where all the evil takes place where we can go after everything. And there’s a couple of people in there who have a license. And then one of them is using our license as I gave her our license to go and try it out. So they got together. Three of the people in my seven-person mini mastermind got together. And what they’re doing is they’re sharing information on how to make make it work in the best way possible. And then they’re going to come back and report it to me and we’re either going to make it available through MGYB as a service, or I’m not sure how we’re going to offer that but there’s definitely something in the works with that RSS masher. It’s just you guys if you go get it just be prepared because there’s a high learning curve is that simple software that you’re just going to go and plug and play

You have to be prepared to go through the training to go through the process, gathering up the feeds making everything look right. And then you know that that’s when the magic happens and I can’t wait to blast that. Now get it, give it a companion g site and drive stack, expand it, and then blast it with link building and some embeds and see what happened. I can’t wait.

Yeah, it looks good. As I said, I wish I had more time to mess with it. Because I think there’s a lot of potentials there as well. So, so maybe next Wednesday, or the following Wednesday, we can give people a preview. But again, the first ones that’ll get a preview, it will be my mini mastermind, and then the semantic mastery mastermind, the heavy hitter club, and then we’ll go public with whatever we have. It’s still a few weeks away, it takes time. That’s all

Is It Possible To Get An Iframe For A Drive Folder?

so Frank’s up. He says it is it possible to get an iframe for a drive folder tried adding a link into iframe generator and it came back saying the page was blocked from being displayed? also. Well, first of all,

The first part of that is Yeah, you can use to be able to do that. But no, I haven’t tried since the updates recently. Marco, can you? Yeah. Not through the iframe January? That’s why I tell people to code their own code. Yeah, because you can’t do it that way. You have to separate the, I can’t go through the process that you have to get the folder ID to be able to iframe it. And what you have to insert in an iframe generator is the entire URL, and you can’t do it that way.

Okay.

Publish to the web would be a file setting in the drive used to say publish to the web, it would give you an embed code for the file or for the folder, but I think that has been taken away correct recently. Uh, no. I can check that right now. I mean, go on and let me take a folder that has nothing in it. And we’ll just move on while you’re looking that up.

Do You Have Any Link Building Services In MGYB For T1 Money Site?

He says also with MGYB, do you have any link building services that could be used for tier-one money site or only g sites? Yeah, that while the SEO shield can point back to your money site, right, which includes the drive stack files and folders as well as the G site. Also, press releases could be used for tier-one money site, right where your money site tier-one money site is. It’s redundant. That’s like the Department of redundancy department. You know what I mean? So, yeah, your money site, again, press releases and the SEO shield? Those are the two things that I would recommend. Am I missing something?

No, no, no, I don’t think so. And I can’t find it. I can’t find published on the web by the way. That’s what I thought had been removed since the recent update. But it used to be able to do it that way. So hopefully that was helpful.

What MGYB Service You Should Use To Rank For A City That Is Three Hours Away From The Dealership Location?

Mohammed’s up, it’s up mom and he says, Hey, guys, a client is asking me if I can rank his Volkswagen dealership for VW related keywords in a city. Three hours away from where the dealership actually is.

Actually, how would I go about this? I know I can get a GMB from MGYB for the New City and add a new city page to the money site. What else would I do?

Well, the problem that I see with that Mohammed is it’s a dealership right? So if you’re getting a GMB for a dealership which is a storefront business, right with the customers come to the business location, and you’ve got a spammed GMB listing, that’s three hours away from where the dealership actually exists, then, how is that going to play with potential car buyers? When they’re looking to go to a dealership in their local area and they’ve come to find out it’s a spam listing and instead they’ve got to go three hours away to buy a Volkswagen. To me, I don’t think that would be advisable for the reasons I just mentioned. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the question. Anybody else interprets this another way?

No, that’s the way I’m I’m reading it unless the dealer is opening up a dealership in that city in which case, you would need spam. GMB. Right. Correct. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I am not willing to drive three hours to go look at a car, like my dealer has to be closed by where I can just jump in the car. 1015 minutes, I’m there and look at the car and decide if I’m gonna buy it. Because I’ll be people. Yes. I mean, the idea behind it is correct. People are going to first look online to find a car that they liked, and they’re going to find the dealer, then they’re going to go visit the dealer to see the cart. Who’s going to drive? Did you talk that to this dealership owner, by the way, and ask him Who do you know that’s going to drive three hours to buy a car when they can buy one mic in the city? I don’t understand the thinking behind that. Not only that, but don’t you think it would piss a potential customer off if they were misled to believe that a dealership was in their local area just to come to find out that it’s three hours away? I mean, it’s not just that like if he was promoting like ranked a page organically for the city that is three hours away, and says, Hey, we sell cars. Were our dealerships over here and they’re honest about where it is. It’s very likely most people are going to drive three hours away anyways, but at least they weren’t being dishonest about it. Whereas having a GMB for a storefront business where a store doesn’t actually exist, that I think in my view would piss me off if I put driving directions and go show up at this place to find out that it’s it doesn’t exist, and then I got to drive three hours away to go where I intended. What about other car dealers dealerships? wouldn’t they be pissed if you’re faking? A GMB and I just totally am in the area. I don’t think VW corporate would be too happy with that with you faking GMB.  I don’t know how much trouble I mean, you can get into a whole lot of trouble behind that. talk to this guy. talk some sense and then

yeah, just find out what his intent is really. And maybe you already know it, Mohammed and it just wasn’t conveyed in that message.

Yeah, but yeah, I mean like I said if I was going to do anything it would be to try to just rank organically for that and just be honest about where the dealership is and why they should drive three hours away to purchase a car at that particular dealership.

SEO Shield Question

Alright, moving on uh, next question is Hello everyone recently I purchased an SEO shield and since I got some discount for link building, I also bought that so I placed the order for SEO shield and link building altogether. What I found out that instead of building the links to my properties, they pointed all the direct all directly to your money site. Okay, you can edit the URLs to build links to an M GI Bill, Why be disregarded that and build all the links to your money site? No continue can find that hard to believe okay. When I inquired from support about it, they said since you had provided the URL file, we built all the links around that. But they also said that they don’t recommend it. I’m a new user purchasing SEO shield first time and also not aware of the internal tech now technicalities excuse me of SEO SEO. So I provide all the information including the URL file because I thought it might be required to build the SEO shield since I bought the SEO, SEO, and link building. So I believe that SM support will follow the best practice since I’ve gone blindly trust SM for SEO related stuff. So my question is Why were the links built directly in the money site even when it is not recommended? No one will pay for the money to I’m not sure what he says.

Now, he says that the links can’t be removed. This website is my six months old hard work. I don’t want to degrade my website by any means. So what should I do now? Should I disavow the links pointing in the Excel sheet? Please suggest, okay, um, the first part of that. I’m not sure if you came to us cold and you don’t know anything about our methodology, then then I could understand where that confusion may have come from.

Perhaps we need to have that clearly explicitly outlined on this on the order page or the order submit Details page. In other words, if it’s not already, but

As far as what you know, we didn’t build all the links to your money site URL. If your money site URL was listed in your submitted URLs list, then some links will have been built to your money site URL. But in all of our training, we always suggest we actually won’t build links to your money site URL if we know that it’s in there. So I don’t know what to tell you on that other than and as far as disavowing Marco doesn’t ever recommend that I’ve done it in the past haven’t done it for years.

I don’t think Have you seen anything negative happen? We don’t suggest it, but I don’t know that it is going to cause any problems. Marco, what do you say about this? I say I have a really big problem with this guy. Right? Because this was sent to support at mg y v.co. And I heard from Deadia and he said, hey, look, you know what, what can we do it with this? What can we do for this person? So we’re looking to do the right thing. Here. Look, I can remove all I think I can remove all the links

But it’s gonna take a while I so we aren’t talking about it, he doesn’t even give support a chance to respond and let him know what the answers are. He comes here to a public forum to air the laundry. And I understand that. I mean, in no way Is this a recommended practice. But I mean, he submitted the URLs for us to build links to if you give us a spreadsheet, how are we to know that there’s a money site included in the spreadsheet? I mean, he’s assuming that we’re supposed to assume and look these, the logic behind this evades me because I just don’t see it, how we’re supposed to know that he’s submitting his money site from now on. And so now we know that we need to make sure that we tell people explicitly on the order form do not submit your money site URL. So thank you for that. But I don’t appreciate

This being aired on a public forum, where we’re taking care of when we’re looking to do what’s best for you and for your website. Not that anything bad has happened. Not that anything bad will happen. We don’t know yet what would happen, but it’s still in the discussion stage and he doesn’t even give it an opportunity comes publicly as Hey, you guys, I thought you were supposed to follow best practice practices and whatever else he says. And I just don’t appreciate it. Give us at least a chance to do the right thing. And then if there’s a problem, if there’s no resolution, then you come here and you speak to us publicly. I thought about writing to you by the way. Because I saw this, I saw the way he called it the ticket, come through and I know I’m supposed to stay away from customer service. But I thought about writing to him because I don’t see the logic. If he submits the URLs to build links. That’s what we’re going to build links to because the customer as always, right? So if you want links built to your money site, in spite of the fact that we don’t recommend it, and then we say, Don’t ever do it, we don’t do it. If you submit the URL, and it’s by mistake, and I’m not saying that you did it on purpose, if by mistake you included in my site, or you didn’t know, it’s going to get links built to it. Now, yeah, we are going to try to do the right thing. That’s all I can say. We were trying to do the right thing before, even after having come on a public forum, and then like hitting on my last nerve, we’re still going to help you out.

Yeah and I don’t know that it’s going to cause any problem. We just, we don’t build links, the types of links that we sell at MGB directly the money site, we always in all of our training suggest not to do that because that’s the whole reason for the SEO shield right is because and that’s why it’s named the SEO shield because it shields your money site, from all the external threats.

SEO and link building that you can do because link building to your money site can, doesn’t always but can create a problem. So it’s not a guarantee that you’re going to have problems because that happened, it might not cause any problems at all, we just don’t recommend it, we suggest not to do it, because there’s no need to because we push all the power to the SEO shield and use the SEO shield to launder basically clean any potential negative juice through Google properties and through high authority assets, that and push relevancy essentially, eventually to the money site. So again, we don’t know that it’s gonna cause a negative impact at all, we just don’t, we don’t test it. Because we don’t do that we always recommend building them directly to the SEO shield. Again, that’s the whole point of the SEO shield. So we have learned, we have now decided or just came to the realization that that needs to be very explicit on the order form, submit page, and that makes sense and we’ll make sure that we make that change and Marco and Dadea, our link builder, are going to do what they can for you. So hopefully that will suffice.

How Do You Use Press Release To Achieve Better Rankings?

Next question, SMS insurances total newbie here, I just ordered the press release. Not sure where to start. I’m clueless on what to do, and the advice would be great. This is awesome that you asked this question because I’m actually working on a little mini-course for press releases for people that want to order and not for SEOs. But for business owners. I mean, anybody can have access to it that they want, but it’s I’m doing a little mini-course for press releases.

For MGYB, in other words, a little mini-course on trying to teach a layman right or a business owner, somebody that’s not an SEO, how to get the most use in the best use the most traction from press releases that you order from MGYB. And I’ll have that done by next Tuesday for sure. Maybe even possibly will be available on by next Wednesday for people to go download as a Lead Magnet or whatever, we’ll see, I don’t know if I’m gonna have it ready by Tuesday. I don’t know if it’ll be ready on Wednesday for public consumption. That said, I can give you a brief rundown on it. Because I was actually working on that presentation earlier today. In fact, it’s over here. So I can show you that I’m not kidding, do it yourself press releases, leveraged PR marketing for your business. So this will be both a presentation as well as some of that stuff hasn’t been added yet. But it will be a presentation that will be available, as well as some videos. So it’ll be like a little mini training course, on how to get the best uses of press releases, and then what to do next as well. So really a quick rundown on that is, first have an understanding of what your keywords are that you want to promote, right? So your primary products and services, products and or services, or an event if you’re promoting an event, whatever, whatever you’re trying to promote. You want to have a set of keywords that you’re looking to promote. And you want to submit that as the primary keyword for each one of the press releases.

So the press release writers, the writers that they’re really good about creating brand plus keyword association. So if you submit the keyword that you want to be used as the primary keyword, they’re going to create that they’re going to use the brand name and the keyword in the title. Okay, which is very, very important. And then they’re going to write about whatever it is that you instruct them to write about. And you can be as descriptive about how to like, you can tell them the tone that you want, that you want them to write it in, you can tell them certain things that you want them to highlight within the press release. Or you can be vague, you can just say, here’s the URL that I want you to promote. And they’ll go look at the URL, also look at the brand and they’ll create a news angle story, that they’ll write a press release about so it makes it easy for you guys if you have something specific you want written about. add that in the writing description. If you don’t and you don’t know how to create a newsworthy angle, don’t worry about it because that’s what the press release riders do. So you can just submit a URL and say this is the primary

URL I want promoting, write a story about it right. And though they’ll figure out a way, which is why I love using it, because it takes the responsibility right off of us to come up with the angle all the time. They’re really good about that once the press release is published, or you want to also link back to whatever you’re primarily trying to promote. So for example, I like to, by the way, if you’re new SM, s and s insurance, you can go to our YouTube channel youtube.com slash Semantic Mastery and use the channel search feature. And you can even go to Google and search for a press release or PR silo stalking or press release, SEO, semantic mastery, something like that, and you can find a webinar it’s actually still on mg y v. If you go to the webinars tab on the MG y v.co. website, you can take a look, I think that was the last webinar that we did was PR silo stalking, and that’ll give you a really good description. It was almost an hour You know, I don’t know 40-minute webinar or whatever specifically about how to get the

Most uses out are the best use out of sight, press releases. So again, you’re going to want to have at least one URL that you’re going to promote, you can have up to three, I usually recommend only two URLs per the press release, unless you’re siloing press releases, in which case you’ll have three, three target URLs that you’re promoting within the press release because you’re going to be linking back to the previous press release within that silo. if all of this sounds foreign to you, just go check out that webinar that I just described. And then it will tell you exactly what we do to get really, really good results with press releases. And just an aside to kind of a point to kind of reinforce this is I was just talking in the mastermind two weeks ago when I did my last mastermind webinar, about how I have a GMB asset as a lead gen asset that I hadn’t done anything with it was published about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, but I never optimized it never did anything to rank it. And I did three press releases in one week to push that GMB asset and all it has is it’s a GMB location. You know, profile and it’s got a GMB website. It’s not connected to a money site. The money site is the GMB website. And I did three press releases in a week. And the son of a bitch disappeared from maps all together for about three weeks. But then it popped after three weeks of it like not even showing I thought it got it was doing a Google dance. But I’ve not seen one this drastic, or this is significant of a Google dance to where it like literally, the listing disappeared, it disappeared entirely from Google Maps. And then all of a sudden bounce it when it popped, it popped into number three, the C position in the maps three pack from just three press releases in a week. Now that’s those results aren’t typical, but I’m just sharing that because it does show you that and all I did was PR silo stacking method, the same one that I’m suggesting you go watch that webinar to learn the strategy. And it works guys. It really does work. So that’s what I would recommend is

Just first go look at that webinar. And then after you have published the press release, it’s always better to do like one press release isn’t going to move the needle much, if at all, but when you start to do the silo stacking with press releases, you can do significant damage with that, and in a good way, right, yeah. And then from there, the next thing you can do is do link building gigs to the press releases or to the organization page that we provide. When you order a press release. That’s something else and embed gigs. You can do embed gigs as well, but don’t link directly to your money site. Anyway, you want to comment on that anybody?

From dance is real man. Right? We tell people 21 days actually, it’s 20 days. But I tell people 21 days just to be sure they’re clear of it. And then that’s when you go and take a look at everything. You decide what to do, but it’s very real. I don’t know why more people don’t talk about that. They just see rankings drop and then they go try to fix it and they make things worse instead of trying to instead of the result being better.

You just supposed to leave it alone until like you said, it just comes back and then you decide.

Unknown Speaker 35:06 Yeah, what’s interesting is, like you said, for about three weeks, I haven’t seen something that drastic of a dance in quite some time to be honest with you. And so I was a little bit nervous. I was thinking like, What the fuck is going on with this, this listing? And all I did was a handful of GMB posts to that listing over the course of those three weeks that was it, nothing else. And like I said, it popped and when it did, it’s, it’s in the number. In fact, I just got a lead from that today for sure, for Tree Removal in that particular city. So it’s producing and all it took was three press releases, which again, is very, very powerful. So it used the exact same method I just mentioned was PR silo stacking, so just go watch that webinar. It’s done in the MGYB, webinar archive, and it’s PR silo stacking, and it works really, really well.

Okay, next question. DC SEO says, Hey guys, I received the ROI as part of my shield back and your wise keywords are the ones that gave your team they’re in the same niche, but very different to what I handed in Is this right? Mine didn’t have any location or mine, I guess he means mine didn’t have any location as per instructions and what I received that keyword plus locations from around the world. I’m in the UK as well as a ton of keywords that are irrelevant to my services. I don’t know how that could happen. Any, any suggestion? No, that doesn’t sound right. But this isn’t the forum for that is it support at MGYB.co. What happened? Give us the order number. We’ll go track it down. And if we have to do it over, we’ll do it over we’ll talk to the VA who built it. I mean, we take care of everything guys. We always do we always try to do right, by everyone. You have to do things in the proper forum.

Last week, end of last week or whatever, I think it was Friday, I announced that we had cracked the code that we were able to now extend the drugs tax because we had automated it. And then someone posted in all of our groups, well, what if I have a VA? How do I train them?

And so now, no matter where I respond, it’s going to look like I didn’t respond and all of the other I would have to go and respond in all of the other groups, the very same thing that I responded in the one group and it’s gonna make it look in the other in the groups where I don’t respond like I don’t care or it doesn’t matter or I didn’t want to respond or whatever. I don’t like guys do things in the right place. And at the right time, this first goes to support. If support doesn’t take care of you, then come to us and let us know. And then like, I know, one of the owners in MGB and I’ll have a talk with him and see what we can do about rectifying the situation, but it’s in here in a public forum. I can’t do anything for you.

Yeah, Fidel. If it was indeed a mistake on our end, then absolutely. We just kill that drive, stack, and build and one for you. So and it won’t, it won’t hurt you at all. So it’s not an issue if it was indeed our problem. If you submitted the wrong keyword file, that’s one thing, but if it was, somehow it got built with keywords that you didn’t submit, which is unlikely, but people are human things happen. So if that was the case, just bring it to supports attention, we’ll take a look at it and if that was indeed the case, it would just kill that stack and then go to a new one, and it won’t it won’t cause any problems. So that’s the beautiful thing about those guys and that’s also why we talked about using the SEO shield for clients and stuff like that because you get the accounts back and you could protect your work right? Because if something happens and you get fired or the client stops paying you I’ve had that happen where they just ghost on you, you know what I mean? The business still exists but they just won’t answer phone calls or emails when they owe you money that kind I’ve had that happen several times over my career. You can go in and just kill the drive stack, delete it. I don’t even set it to not public which is it’s changed now anyways and because it can still push power, even when it’s not indexable. But you can go in and just kill the damn thing or rework it to point somewhere else, you know, to meet to their competitor, that you can go land as a client. So that’s one of the beautiful things about it. So it can be remedied. That’s not a problem.

Can You Create A Subdomain, Rank, And Redirect All The Pages To Another Site While Maintaining Its Ranking?

The next question was, can you create a subdomain website and rank it and then redirect all the pages to another site? And the subdomain maintain its rankings? No, because the redirect will point to the new location and new locate the new location is going to replace the subdomain at some point, right? You can’t redirect a URL and have both the URLs still appear in search, or they might temporarily, and I don’t even know that that’s true. But Google will whatever the redirect is eventually that’s what will rank and the other one will fall out of the index entirely. Am I right in that, or am I missing something? I’m not I think you’re absolutely right. I don’t see how you can’t since you’re telling the bot through the 301 that the page or everything in that sub-domain moved permanently somewhere else. Yeah. You could use I mean, that’s what it is. Yeah, you could use a canonical. And it can both pages can rank. I’ve seen that many times, you’re telling Google with a canonical, like, hey, this page is similar to this page over here, give the credit to this page, right? And then Google sometimes disregards that and well, you know, both pages will index and they’ll both rank. And that happens. So I would suggest a canonical instead of a 301 if that’s what you’re trying to accomplish, but remember that just because you canonicalize. It doesn’t, you know, doesn’t mean Google’s going to honor that. It also doesn’t mean that they won’t honor it. Right? It just kind of it’s kind of a crapshoot. So yeah, what, what that is canonical is when you have similar or the same, and it doesn’t have to be two. It could be two or more, however many copies of that document. There is there exists. You can tell Google which ones the master copy is and to rank that one, rather than all the other. Now, whether Google follows the directive, well, that’s up to Google. And they’re not telling what they’ll do is right.

Yeah, and just to, you know, kind of reinforce that I’m working on a tree care project. for it, you know, for new, a new lead gen service provider that I got. And it’s a case study that I’m doing in the mastermind, and I use tags, tags to create location silos anyways, a Google, it’s a new site, right? And my blogger just started blogging for the location posts on the site. And the way that we’re doing building it out with using tags to create the location silos. Google was ranking the tag pages, but not, but not the posts that I wanted to be ranked. And it indexed the tag pages first, right and the tag pages because some in some cases, they’re unique tags, which means that the tag page is a duplicate of post, that if you guys understand how tags work, that’s what happens if it’s a unique tag, it’s only in one post, then the tag page itself is essentially a duplicate of the post. And so for whatever reason, Google index the tag pages instead of the posts, and so the tag pages were ranking for the keywords, but not the post. And so and I even set the canonical in the tag setting with SEO ultimate Pro, you can do that because you can go to what’s called the Global canonical manager, or even the code inserter plus module, you can actually go in and add like a separate canonical for each tag and all that kind of stuff anyway. So I added the canonical URLs for the tag pages to canonicalize to the post, right, when it’s a unique tag, you can do that. And but Google wasn’t honoring it. And about two weeks went by and so finally I went just this week, I just went to search console, and forced Google to recrawl the posts or excuse me, the tag pages because they had the canonical URLs in the HTML header to point to the posts that I wanted to give the credit to. Right and that’s what I want to be ranked, and it only took about 24 hours, and lo and behold, now the tag pages aren’t indexed, but the posts are, which is what I wanted. So again, it, you know, that doesn’t mean that that’s always going to happen, because it could be that Google doesn’t honor the canonical or doesn’t, you know, doesn’t recognize it for whatever reason, they, By the way, you can also check that when you submit inspect URL in Search Console. And once it inspects the URL, it’s going to tell you whether it’s in Google or not. And there’s a drop-down setting that your menu that you can click on to expand, it shows you additional details, and it’ll tell you what the Google recognized canonical is for that page, or that post whatever URL it is that you’re inspecting. Right? And so you can clearly see what Google seeing. So you can force a canonical, and then go ask Google to request indexing. And then once it does, you know you can look at the code that it shows like the rendered page and it’ll tell you the details of that and it’ll show you if it if it saw the canonical or not. So anyway, hopefully, that was helpful. Do you see SEO

Is It Okay To Embed MyMap Via Tag Manager?

Is it? Is it okay to embed the mind map via Tag Manager? I’m not sure how you would do that.

I’m not sure how you would do that. Tag Manager creates container codes, right header code, and Body Code. And then you inject things into that like scripts and tracking codes and pixels and that kind of stuff. And I don’t know what embedding a my map would do, or if it would even read. Is that something you have any idea about? Marco?

Hello, sorry. Yeah, sorry about that. I was talking intimidated might not I think you can. You can use iframes with Tag Manager not not only that, you can track them. Hmm. Am I giving away too much? Oh, nevermind.

I’ll have to play with that DC. I’m not sure. I’ve never done it. Don’t listen, go play with it. And then and then look at all the nice stuff that happens in there.

Okay.

Cool, well there you go.

Is It A Good Deal To Have A 1500 Monthly Retainer Plus Sale Percentage?

Unknown Speaker 45:03 Alright, so moving on next one is Josh says I am changing locations from my current office to a shared workspace and apparently with Google, this isn’t a verifiable address so they won’t verify my GMB profile with this type of address. With the MG y b GMB service will this help with this issue?

Is it a storefront or a service area business that would be my question. Can you get a listing right now a GMB listing through MGYB? Yes.

As we talked about with Mohammed’s question earlier, if it’s a storefront business, I don’t recommend using a spam GMB listing for any type of storefront business because you mislead potential customers because they think it’s in one location and you are indeed in another location. So the only time I would ever recommend using a spammed GMB listing, let’s call it what it is. As for a service area business where the actual physical location in the GMB profile is hidden from the public, so it makes sense. So again, if it’s a service area business, then yes, that would help you. If it’s a storefront business, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Any comments, guys?

No, I think that’s absolutely right, man. It’s a myth. You got to know what you’re getting into. Especially if you’re, if you’re going to spam it, right?

Yeah.

I’ve gotten away from doing spam, GMB listings just because the how much volatility there’s been in the last, you know, many months. Um, so I’m working more heavily on the organic side. Now, again, which has been years since I really pushed that. So it’s interesting, and that’s what the tree care project that I’m working on is, in part is a case study for the mastermind, is working on mostly organic rankings. I do have some GMB locations that are going to be incorporated into the project most of the organic rankings. And I’m also doing a lot of call ads call-only ads for Google ads. They are

If you’re very specific with Google call-only ads with your what I call Bullseye keywords, then you can get some pretty good results with that. It’s a lot less expensive than actual clicks to like, you know, regular PPC pay per Click type ads, pay per call ads are a little bit less expensive if you have very, very targeted keywords with location modifiers and such. So that’s what I’m working on right now.

What MGYB Service Should You Use Get More SEO Clients?

Lonnie says I landed my first client concrete company 1500 dollars per month plus percentage of sales. This is a good deal fucking a man. Congratulations, Lonnie. That’s all that looks like it looks like a really good deal. Absolutely. That’s a cherry deal for sure. So congratulations, man. I’m gonna hop in real quick and say it’s all relative, right? One congrats on getting that. Especially the percentage of sales and revenue. That’s a big one that I think a lot of people miss out on. But keep in mind too, this is totally dependent on what he’s doing for that. 1500 That’s true. You’d be getting worked to the fucking ground for 1500 but you know

It’s up to you, you You are the person who can determine whether or not that’s worthwhile. Yeah, that’s a great point, Adam.

And just know this, if it’s your first client, you probably are going to be work to death anyways. Because it’s your first client and you will learn over time, how to set boundaries with clients. Just talk to Mohammed who’s always here asking questions every single week. Mohammed’s been following us for a long, long time, and we’ve watched him grow considerably over the last couple of years. And he’s experienced a lot of growing pains and come here and ask for advice. And that’s what this forum is for Lonnie. So feel free to come back and ask questions every week. concerning how to handle certain situations doesn’t always have to be SEO related either. It could just be about how to handle particular clients, business operations, management, outsourcing, all that kind of stuff. Guys, we’re here to help grow your business as much as possible. Yes, we talk a lot about SEO. But there’s a lot of other things that we’ve all learned with our experience over the years on how to, you know, help you to avoid some of the mistakes that we’ve all made.

But just know that it is your first client there, it’s likely you’re going to be work to death for that client. And that’s okay. Because you’re going to learn a lot from that. And you’ll begin to learn how to start to set boundaries. And remember, you know, one thing I want to recommend is, you do need to also set like communication boundaries, I don’t know that your new client is is somebody that might message you outside of business hours or over the weekend and that kind of stuff. But I’ve got a lot of clients that still to this day do, but I’ve trained them that I don’t reply to messages after hours or on weekends. Unless it’s an emergency like I have a preschool client that had a site go down on over a weekend and I had my daughter and I did actually help him because he’s a really good client and me, you know, I felt for him and I wanted to help him but very rarely do I ever reply to anything outside of ours, because once you set that precedent, people will take advantage of it. I don’t know that they mean to be malicious, but they just think that hey, I messaged him at night and he answered me, so, therefore, it’s okay for me to ask questions at any time, I would recommend that you know, as your first client, you need to start to learn how to set boundaries right upfront.

Anyways, let’s get back to the question. Sorry, I’m glad that Adam put that into perspective, because I immediately saw that percentage. And my mind went to the mat, my mind always goes to the numbers, where I normally get this company to 100-200k a month recurring for you know, out of if it’s like Costa Rica, where they work around, like, it’s killer money, it’s killer money, but even if it’s seasonal, right, you can’t work in the winter, if what if they’re doing driveways or whatever it is that they’re paving. If they’re laying a concrete slab, you’re talking about 100 k easy and if you charge 10 to 15% of that recurring, then I’m seeing that as a really good deal. If you’re going to be worked to the bone and the client can’t close. Then you got a problem. So thanks for putting that into perspective.

Yeah, not to downplay it. Yeah, definitely just wanted to tell because the way he phrased it that’s what gave me the hesitation. It’s like, Is this good? Like, man, there’s no way for us to know you’re the one who’s got to do that. But you know, congratulations on doing that. That’s good to see. Yeah. And I mean, like I said, Just remember, as your first client, you will make mistakes, there’s no question, you will work harder than you probably should. And that’s okay. Like I said, you’re going to learn from that. So, you know, just keep that in mind. Remember, come back here and ask questions often and we’ll try to provide you as much advice as we can. He says, also, I’m looking for simple services I can use to get me in on getting clients and suggestions. By the way, I love the video lead gen 2xyoruagency. Well, there, there you go. You have the video lead gen system and 2xyoruagency which is great for prospecting and generating prospects, right? Don’t build that pipeline first. Right? And that’s super, super important in through having a full pipeline of prospects and making presentations sending proposals, right so pitching prospects, you will get better, you’re gonna lose money upfront, and that’s okay. But you will get better you’ll be able to polish your presentation and your pitch and your message and all of that. And so just that’s why it’s so important guys to fill that pipeline full of prospects so that you can make those mistakes. And not every prospect that you talk to is going like you depend on them to be able to put food on your table. If because if that’s the case, desperation comes through and everything that you do, and they can smell that from a mile away. And so I think it’s better to have a pipeline full of prospects because then it’s okay, you don’t need anyone of them because you have more behind them. Right, that makes sense. As far as simple services, I recommend getting the most updated version of the battle plan if you don’t already have that. A lot of that was covered in 2xyoruagency anyways, but the battle plan is a very succinct version of what we recommend to get results and timelines for doing so and all of that and it’s very inexpensive. So I’d recommend you pick that up if you don’t have it already.

I’d also say mgyb.co, I mean everything there for you to offer your clients, whatever it is that they want. Everything is their press releases, liquidity and anything and everything that you need to do to produce results for your clients in MGYB.co. And if it doesn’t mean you have a good idea of a product that let us know.

What Is A Money Site?

This is a great question from Josh, he says, And see, guys, this is the thing you know, I think we often forget. Because we’ve been in this industry so long that not everybody understands the terminology. He says one more quick question, what exactly do you mean by money site that means your primary digital asset so like, whatever your primary domain is that you host your, your website for your business on? That’s what we call a money site. Why? Because it’s the site that generates you money, right? A lot of the other stuff that you know, we talked about is tier-one branded entity assets. Again, big terminology for basically meaning like social profiles and stuff that you can build a branded profile or presence on that you’re going to link back to your money site, your money site is your Epicenter, right? It’s your point of origin, it’s the golden frame, you always want to drive, all traffic all leads as much as possible back to your money site, because you have control over that’s an asset that you own and control, having ancillary profiles on social media properties and, you know, web to Dotto properties, and all that kind of stuff is great. And that’s what we do with the SEO shoot as we build all that stuff out. But ultimately, you don’t own those platforms. They could be taken away from you by Google, by YouTube, by Facebook, whatever, at any time. So they’re great to have. They’re great to use. But it’s best to try to use those to push people push traffic back to your money site because you do have control over that. And there’s so much more than you can do that. So your money site is again it’s your self hosted primary domain asset for your business, your company, your project, whatever it may be. Anybody else wants to take a stab at that? Yeah.

It could be your Google My Business website. It could be that it could be your your G site. It could be, you know, a free WordPress blog or blogger, Tumblr, or wherever it is that you choose to blog from, like, you don’t have to have something that’s self hosted. WordPress, are a self hosted domain for you to have a money site. This is like you said, it’s the place where you plan to send people to in order to make money and edit in order to sell your product service or whatever it is that you want people to see or buy. That’s your money site. Why? Because it makes you money. Not to say that there are other places that could make you money like social media, but it’s the primary source of what it is that you’re planning to do. Yeah, that’s a great point because as we talked about a lot of lead gen assets that I have don’t have a self-hosted money site. They are just GMB website.

In other words, the website, the Google My Business provides you which is free. And ultimately you don’t have full control over that Google does. Right. So I, you know, I’m glad Marco brought that up. Because I just mentioned self-hosted website, it doesn’t have to be that recommend that was possible. But there are times where it makes sense to not build a self-hosted website, for example, spammed GMB listings, it might not be wise to go through the trouble of building out a, you know, a self-hosted site because of all the work that goes into it. Whereas, you know, in case it was to get suspended, you lose all of them, the work that you did, essentially. So in that case, you know, the GMB website becomes the primary website for that location. Or another option would be like Marco said, you know, Google Site g site, right, so sites.google.com, that they, Marco and Rob have done several projects using those as the money site, and it works. It works really, really well. So the money site is exactly what Marco described, which is whatever it is that you’re using to make money.

If you’re going to build a brand, I think it’s important to build a self-hosted website with the brand name as the domain name, because you can really grow the authority of that brand and you benefit from that in so many ways. So, it’s a great question though. Alright, so the last question and we’ve only got three minutes left, we’re gonna wrap it up.

What SEO And Lead Gen Contract Do You Recommend?

He says, Lonnie says I’m having trouble with putting an SEO and lead with I’m sorry, with put an SEO and lead gen contract. Do you have any recommended contract forms? No, I don’t, you know, you could probably just go online and find some templates that you could use. I personally don’t like to use contracts I, I mean, I have in the past, but typically, it’s only for bigger companies that, you know, they want the contract. I like to do everything on a verbal agreement. So that and I always say this to potential prospects or customers look, you know, if I’m doing my job, you’re gonna want to continue paying me if I’m not, you’re not gonna want to continue paying me and that’s okay. I also want to be able to part ways from that client if we don’t dive well, we don’t agree on things if it’s just not a good fit, and I don’t want to be locked into a contract either. So I don’t expect my clients to want to be locked into a contract. And sometimes that burns me, for example, I had a home inspector client, that, you know, I very clearly stated what the timeline was going to be on results.

I typically asked for, hey, give me this much time. And before that time had passed before I reached that certain level of time that I mentioned, he canceled services. And I you know, And to me, that’s really unfair for both of us because he wasn’t able to get the results that he wanted, because it wasn’t, you know, fast enough for him even though I clearly stated all of that before we agreed to work together. But at the same time, I put a lot of work into that and it wasn’t able to fully realize the efforts you know, for him or for myself for my own satisfaction because he stopped paying me before all the work had been completed, if that makes sense. Sometimes I wish I did have a contract in place. But for the most part, I like the ability to be able to walk away from a client. And I also like them to know that they don’t, they’re not locked into a contract that kind of eases that.

That low and lowers the barrier to entry, so to speak. However, that said, there might be a difference of opinion here for some of the other guys. And you guys have a suggestion for him.

Now, you know me, I don’t do contracts. I hate him. I hate him. He locks me into everything. And what if I want to go out and maybe the client doesn’t want to go well, what if I want to go? What if I can’t stand the client? I want to go and then I’m bound by a contract for a year with this guy that I can’t stand that knows more or supposedly knows more than I do, which sometimes happens.

If you know how to produce results, then always go, “Look, I’ll give you results.” But record the quality I always record the call that that call. We talk

Bradley, what is going to take this long? I always have that recorded even though there’s no contract and I let the guy know Look, I’m gonna record the call. And then you can always refer revert back to that’s a contract, believe it or not, that’s a contract. Right? And it’ll hold up in most courts. I believe in the US. It’ll hold up, it’ll hold up in Costa Rica.

That’s a good idea. And yeah, if you disclose that right up front, and then get it on the recording, you do agree that this is being recorded, and that’s okay, right.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I’m going to be recording this, I’m just gonna point this way. This way, we can refer back to the conversation, you know exactly what took place. I know exactly what to put in you walk them through, you know that this is going to take about 90 days for results. thereabouts. Because if you don’t, then you go into the process because I have to set everything up. And then we get everything going. I’m probably going to get two results before but I can’t guarantee any Google experience tells me that within 90 days, we should be able to see something, and then we can work from there but I need 90 days from you.

Are you okay with that? Yeah, yeah, sure, you’re gonna get that nine out of 10. So now you have a binding contract now, at the end of it you tell at the end of those 90 days when we meet again, then we’ll decide if we continue.

Now real quick, I know Adam is if you’re still paying attention, I know we’re a little bit over, but I think you have a little bit of a different methodology. Is there any way you can comment on this? Um, yeah, I just I’m trying to think like, I don’t have too much of a difference it’s kind of constantly evolving. But yeah, I mean, as far as contracts go like I stay out of that I’ve never done anything. Okay. Yeah. And then, if he’s looking for actual he may just mean, he’s looking for an outline for like a proposal or an engagement proposal. If that’s the case, just contact support at semantic mastery comm will point you in the right direction. I know Hernan put one out there we had as a free opt-in that you could get as an outline. And that can be really helpful. I mean, I’ve used other people’s as a starting point when I’m changing services.

Adding something in just so that I have a good starting point then you tailor it kind of to your specifics.

Very good. Thank you. Alright guys, thanks everybody for being here is Chris were you gonna says something? I’m sorry. I mean like he is like a lead gen contract. I mean, like why not sell on a per lead basis? I don’t see there’s an issue you can do like a contract that states the price of the elite.

Yeah. So you should be fine that way. It should be super easy.

Sweet. Well, thanks for your input, guys. And thanks, everybody for being here. We will see you guys next week. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 289 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 289

Click on the video above to watch Episode 289 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Welcome to Hump Day hangouts Episode 289 to one where Hernan looks continuously shocked for some reason.

Hi, how’s it going? Hernan Is everything okay. It’s great, man. I’m feeling like shit, but here we are. All right, good, good stuff. Well, keep going here. Like I said it’s Episode 289. Today’s the 27th of May 2020. I can see we got a lot of really good questions already today. But if you haven’t yet and you got a question, please put it on the page. First come first serve. And then I’m going to get into a few announcements. We’ve got some cool stuff that happened earlier this week. And then some last-minute announcements, things that we just found out about today that I want to touch on But first, let’s say hi to the guys real quick and see how everyone’s doing so

I’ll start to my top left here Bradley. How are you doing today?

Good. I’m good. I just edited the video description in YouTube because still had some stuff from the webinar we did yesterday. So anyway, but I’m good. Things are good. I’m back from taking a week off, and it sucked cuz I went away for a week camping and ATV riding, thinking that I was going to get away and get to enjoy it and it rained the entire week, all day every day and it was awful. It was fucking miserable. So I wish I would have stayed home and worked.

Yeah, man, speaking of weird weather that so I’m in the Bay Area. So we just hit 95 the last three days, which is like 34 Celsius. It’s just like, Okay, well guess I’ll go out in the morning, go for a walk and then come hunker in here, shut the blinds and turn the air just thinking. So that’s been my life for the past couple of days. So let’s head go with the happier weather report. Marco. How are you doing?

The sun’s out again. It’s the rainy season and he’s like the sun’s out. It’s rainy season man. Look, I live in paradise. All right, I can’t help that. Make some money. Right? First of all, go get the battle. You follow the Battle Plan.

make some money. Hire someone who will help you. Train, apply, and make money. lather, rinse, repeat. And then you can go find your own Fortress of Solitude where you can just watch the world go by and you don’t give up. Push your mouth but other than the outstanding weather

How are you doing marking things are going good. Things are good here man. Things are good. Yeah, I’m still like things are opening up a little bit here. Essential businesses and all that and all this other stuff, but I’m still self-parenting. I got three kids. They got to think about it and I’m not a spring chicken so that there’s another person that I had to think about right because I can go out or like one but I have to think about my family. Yeah. And what I might bring, bring home and closer to home to make somebody.

I knew personally died of this. It’s not as if it’s totally foreign to me like I don’t know anyone who is affected by this. I like what I do know. And so having it that cloth is not any longer six degrees of separation. it’s like I know and so no, it ain’t happening and we’re gonna see how this plays out and I’ll let everybody you guys can all go and enjoy yourselves you know to do whatever the hell you want and then let me know how that turns out and then I’ll decide after that second one what it is that we’re going to do but for now we’re cool we take it easy and that’s it, man. We did we just but my personal choice, right, my personal choice to do that. It’s not as if someone is forcing me to do it. I’m choosing that this is the best way for myself and my family. Enough. All right. Well, Hernan How about you man, things are like you’re moving into wintertime right? I always get

Yeah, it’s hot summer-like wait a second I was wearing a sweatshirt what hell’s going on? Yeah, actually actually all of you guys are well Marco Marco is like, you know, he’s in a good spot 20% but all of you guys are you know getting the nice season. I’m getting the shooting season. Yeah now so now but yeah man it’s good today was a good day.

Like warm-ish. But yeah, we’re getting into winter and all of that so see how that goes, could you? Oh, Chris How about yourself? Yeah, yeah can’t complain man sun’s out the sun is shining all day. I mean it’s dark right now and the best part of all Friday the gyms opening back up and stuff so things are really good standing. Well, I’m going to circle back around Bradley, you mentioned a webinar and I wanted to touch on that because we had Brian, a mastermind member, along with Bruno, and you all listening can get to know both of them better and see what Bradley has to say to about this go high-level system. And Bradley, you want to tell real quick, I’m gonna pop the link in where people can go and check out the replay. Do you want to tell them about the webinar a little bit?

Yeah, Brian, one of our mastermind members reached out and basically said that he was using a platform, an agency automation platform that consolidates a whole bunch of different services and such all under one roof. He reached out because he thought that it would fit really, really well with the 2xyoruagency training.

Because it does a lot of the stuff that I talked about in 2xyouragency about how to automate, delegate or eliminate because this platform consolidates a lot of services that you may have separate subscriptions for and I always call it duct taping them together using Zapier or some similar application. And basically these have integrated services that do all

All of the same things that many of these external services do that we put, you know, we connect via Zapier, and it’s all under one dashboard. And so it’s a lot more seamless. And there’s a lot of really cool features inside there, like one of the primary feature that was, is used to pitch this go high-level application or platform is what’s called database reactivation, which is a very easy way or a simple way for you to get your foot in the door as an agency owner with potential marketing clients because you can. So anyway, I can’t really go into depth right now about that, but it’s a really cool platform. I signed up my own agency on the agency level account level so that I can create a first of all, I’m gonna use it for my own agency, but second of all, so I could also create a case study for how I’m using it. I’ve got some really good ideas that I’m going to be sharing in that case study that I’m gonna be putting to the test and then sharing in the case study.

As well on how I’m using it and how to generate kind of exponential revenue growth from it, as opposed to just linear. And so anyway, I think it’s bad, it’s very valuable, I would encourage you guys to go check it out, it does come with a 14-day free trial. So once you see the webinar, you know, comes with some free or some, I think it’s free, or it’s like five bucks may be to pay for some of the training that Bruno had put together, what he calls the quick start training for that. And so you can get all of that. And your first 14 days determine if it’s for you or not, but I think once you see some of the potentials of this, it would be something if any of you are trying to grow. I think you should absolutely take a good hard look at it. Definitely. Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t do generally local stuff. But I check this out. And like I’ve been looking at it and I talked to Brian about all the details and like I was starting to be like maybe I could find a way to you just like no stop it. But like for anyone out there who’s dealing with especially local clients or can find the right use case

Yeah, just blew me away from the number of services and automation that’s packed into that suite of tools and how seamless that is, is pretty amazing. So definitely worth checking it out. Real quick to this one came up today. So we constantly get questions about GMB verifications, right? You know, hey, where can you guys do GMB verifications work in MGYB, when is it going to be available? I’m going to cut to the chase GMB verifications are available right now. As always, we cannot tell you how long that is going to be the case. So if you are doing lead gen if you’re needing a verification for some other reason, this would be a very good time to put your order in because not only can you order now what you couldn’t have yesterday, you can get a 15% discount today while we’ve got it opened up. Also, it comes with a 30-day guarantee. And it’s about I believe, 14 day turnaround time. So pretty quick. I’ll post all of that in the chatbox for those who are live. If you’re not just head to mgyb.co, and head to the store, you can look for GMB verifications there you can also get syndication networks, Rs drive stacks, SEO shield, link building all that sort of good stuff.

And circling back around. I wanted to touch on this real quick for those of you who are watching us for the first time, thank you very much whether you’re watching live or catching the replay on YouTube. If you want to go to the right place, head to semantic mastery comm slash HD questions every week, we asked you to limit your questions just to one. Unless you’re live, you can ask some more. You know, we get down there. We just want to make sure that everyone has a chance to ask their questions. So if you ask some questions, we may not get to all of them just before Warren. And then secondly, we encourage everyone to check out the battle plan and go to battle plan dot semantic mastery. If you want to get repeated repeatable SEO results that is for you. I’m not going to read the page to you you can go over there and check it out. But it is a fantastic tool that we recently just updated them released version four a month ago.

And then Bradley touched on this too if you’re an agency owner or a consultant that you want to get more clients, yes, you want to grow your revenue. Yes. And you want to scale your team, hopefully, yes. Then if you want to do that, head over 2xyouragency.com. There’s a ton of incredible training lets you crush it, whether you’re again, being a consultant, or if you want to build a true agency, and it doesn’t matter if that’s SEO, it’s other areas of digital marketing. It’s going to help you grow and make more money. That’s the bottom line.

All right, with that said, Guys, any other quick announcements before we dive into questions?

Good. All right. Let’s do it.

All right. Grab the screen.

You guys confirm when you see. See my screen.

Would You Recommend Ordering Another Drive Stack To A New Website Section Targeting Service Keywords In Different Locations?

So it looks like BB Now that might have been from last week. It looks like it was it will start with Bobby. Bobby says Hey guys, I got some questions. The first one was would you recommend ordering another drive stack to a completely new section of a website targeting a different service keyword in different locations on a large content site that would be perfect for the location sealed, am I right? Marco?

Yeah, that’s perfect for the extension. And it’s currently available and as a coupon sweep. So that’s what the drive stack expansion.

Yeah, we’re saying, Yeah, maybe if he already has the brand it because he’s saying another, right, a completely new section of the website. So we’re talking about the same website, money site. That’s how I’m seeing. I’m seeing something different.

He has a different service keyword, and a different location on a large content what so that’s, that’s just an inner page, I think what he’s describing the top of the silo. So you would aim the expansion on the current drive stack at that inner page, you’d get much more power going and extending that initial drive stack then you would be doing a completely different drive stack, g site. Sure, gotcha. Okay.

Would You Recommend RSS Masher To Drive Traffic To A Money Site And Lead Gen Assets?

The next question was  GMB.Thanks again, I’ve not used them for lead gen assets but I have in the past I haven’t built since the updated the new version of RSS master which is even better. But to create the kind of like Kwazii PBNs and when I say PBNs, they’re not like what we would traditionally think of a treat PBN, these are real sites to generate real traffic and that’s the differentiator, right? having real sites generate real traffic. With automated content posting to them right through all the RSS feeds that you splice together and RSS masher and all the really cool shit you can do. You can take a look at the most recent webinar we did with Damon Nelson, about the most current version of RSS masher and see some of the examples of the sites that he builds are 100% honest.

Major content sites using RSS masher. And they’re freaking beautiful sites. And he’s generating affiliate income and, you know, like AdSense income. And so such using those sites because they do generate traffic, they look beautiful. But from an SEO standpoint, I looked at it as like, hey, this could be really good to generate, you know, in related content type sites that could feed traffic back to a money site or a lead gen site or whatever. So, I mean, I think it’s certainly possible to use it for that I haven’t done it myself just to be honest because it’s not the strategy that I’ve been pursuing. I’ve wanted to in fact, I even talked about it with my partners here. I would love to have some time to play with that and set up some sights but I haven’t done it yet. I think Marco. Weren’t you guys gonna try playing with that a bit. I know it probably hasn’t been done but wasn’t that on the to-do list?

It is being done. What we are currently testing it and we won’t like there is anything. I’m not personally doing it but I got my mini mastermind, which is where all the evil takes place where we can go after everything. And there’s a couple of people in there who have a license. And then one of them is using our license as I gave her our license to go and try it out. So they got together. Three of the people in my seven-person mini mastermind got together. And what they’re doing is they’re sharing information on how to make make it work in the best way possible. And then they’re going to come back and report it to me and we’re either going to make it available through MGYB as a service, or I’m not sure how we’re going to offer that but there’s definitely something in the works with that RSS masher. It’s just you guys if you go get it just be prepared because there’s a high learning curve is that simple software that you’re just going to go and plug and play

You have to be prepared to go through the training to go through the process, gathering up the feeds making everything look right. And then you know that that’s when the magic happens and I can’t wait to blast that. Now get it, give it a companion g site and drive stack, expand it, and then blast it with link building and some embeds and see what happened. I can’t wait.

Yeah, it looks good. As I said, I wish I had more time to mess with it. Because I think there’s a lot of potentials there as well. So, so maybe next Wednesday, or the following Wednesday, we can give people a preview. But again, the first ones that’ll get a preview, it will be my mini mastermind, and then the semantic mastery mastermind, the heavy hitter club, and then we’ll go public with whatever we have. It’s still a few weeks away, it takes time. That’s all

Is It Possible To Get An Iframe For A Drive Folder?

so Frank’s up. He says it is it possible to get an iframe for a drive folder tried adding a link into iframe generator and it came back saying the page was blocked from being displayed? also. Well, first of all,

The first part of that is Yeah, you can use to be able to do that. But no, I haven’t tried since the updates recently. Marco, can you? Yeah. Not through the iframe January? That’s why I tell people to code their own code. Yeah, because you can’t do it that way. You have to separate the, I can’t go through the process that you have to get the folder ID to be able to iframe it. And what you have to insert in an iframe generator is the entire URL, and you can’t do it that way.

Okay.

Publish to the web would be a file setting in the drive used to say publish to the web, it would give you an embed code for the file or for the folder, but I think that has been taken away correct recently. Uh, no. I can check that right now. I mean, go on and let me take a folder that has nothing in it. And we’ll just move on while you’re looking that up.

Do You Have Any Link Building Services In MGYB For T1 Money Site?

He says also with MGYB, do you have any link building services that could be used for tier-one money site or only g sites? Yeah, that while the SEO shield can point back to your money site, right, which includes the drive stack files and folders as well as the G site. Also, press releases could be used for tier-one money site, right where your money site tier-one money site is. It’s redundant. That’s like the Department of redundancy department. You know what I mean? So, yeah, your money site, again, press releases and the SEO shield? Those are the two things that I would recommend. Am I missing something?

No, no, no, I don’t think so. And I can’t find it. I can’t find published on the web by the way. That’s what I thought had been removed since the recent update. But it used to be able to do it that way. So hopefully that was helpful.

What MGYB Service You Should Use To Rank For A City That Is Three Hours Away From The Dealership Location?

Mohammed’s up, it’s up mom and he says, Hey, guys, a client is asking me if I can rank his Volkswagen dealership for VW related keywords in a city. Three hours away from where the dealership actually is.

Actually, how would I go about this? I know I can get a GMB from MGYB for the New City and add a new city page to the money site. What else would I do?

Well, the problem that I see with that Mohammed is it’s a dealership right? So if you’re getting a GMB for a dealership which is a storefront business, right with the customers come to the business location, and you’ve got a spammed GMB listing, that’s three hours away from where the dealership actually exists, then, how is that going to play with potential car buyers? When they’re looking to go to a dealership in their local area and they’ve come to find out it’s a spam listing and instead they’ve got to go three hours away to buy a Volkswagen. To me, I don’t think that would be advisable for the reasons I just mentioned. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the question. Anybody else interprets this another way?

No, that’s the way I’m I’m reading it unless the dealer is opening up a dealership in that city in which case, you would need spam. GMB. Right. Correct. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I am not willing to drive three hours to go look at a car, like my dealer has to be closed by where I can just jump in the car. 1015 minutes, I’m there and look at the car and decide if I’m gonna buy it. Because I’ll be people. Yes. I mean, the idea behind it is correct. People are going to first look online to find a car that they liked, and they’re going to find the dealer, then they’re going to go visit the dealer to see the cart. Who’s going to drive? Did you talk that to this dealership owner, by the way, and ask him Who do you know that’s going to drive three hours to buy a car when they can buy one mic in the city? I don’t understand the thinking behind that. Not only that, but don’t you think it would piss a potential customer off if they were misled to believe that a dealership was in their local area just to come to find out that it’s three hours away? I mean, it’s not just that like if he was promoting like ranked a page organically for the city that is three hours away, and says, Hey, we sell cars. Were our dealerships over here and they’re honest about where it is. It’s very likely most people are going to drive three hours away anyways, but at least they weren’t being dishonest about it. Whereas having a GMB for a storefront business where a store doesn’t actually exist, that I think in my view would piss me off if I put driving directions and go show up at this place to find out that it’s it doesn’t exist, and then I got to drive three hours away to go where I intended. What about other car dealers dealerships? wouldn’t they be pissed if you’re faking? A GMB and I just totally am in the area. I don’t think VW corporate would be too happy with that with you faking GMB.  I don’t know how much trouble I mean, you can get into a whole lot of trouble behind that. talk to this guy. talk some sense and then

yeah, just find out what his intent is really. And maybe you already know it, Mohammed and it just wasn’t conveyed in that message.

Yeah, but yeah, I mean like I said if I was going to do anything it would be to try to just rank organically for that and just be honest about where the dealership is and why they should drive three hours away to purchase a car at that particular dealership.

SEO Shield Question

Alright, moving on uh, next question is Hello everyone recently I purchased an SEO shield and since I got some discount for link building, I also bought that so I placed the order for SEO shield and link building altogether. What I found out that instead of building the links to my properties, they pointed all the direct all directly to your money site. Okay, you can edit the URLs to build links to an M GI Bill, Why be disregarded that and build all the links to your money site? No continue can find that hard to believe okay. When I inquired from support about it, they said since you had provided the URL file, we built all the links around that. But they also said that they don’t recommend it. I’m a new user purchasing SEO shield first time and also not aware of the internal tech now technicalities excuse me of SEO SEO. So I provide all the information including the URL file because I thought it might be required to build the SEO shield since I bought the SEO, SEO, and link building. So I believe that SM support will follow the best practice since I’ve gone blindly trust SM for SEO related stuff. So my question is Why were the links built directly in the money site even when it is not recommended? No one will pay for the money to I’m not sure what he says.

Now, he says that the links can’t be removed. This website is my six months old hard work. I don’t want to degrade my website by any means. So what should I do now? Should I disavow the links pointing in the Excel sheet? Please suggest, okay, um, the first part of that. I’m not sure if you came to us cold and you don’t know anything about our methodology, then then I could understand where that confusion may have come from.

Perhaps we need to have that clearly explicitly outlined on this on the order page or the order submit Details page. In other words, if it’s not already, but

As far as what you know, we didn’t build all the links to your money site URL. If your money site URL was listed in your submitted URLs list, then some links will have been built to your money site URL. But in all of our training, we always suggest we actually won’t build links to your money site URL if we know that it’s in there. So I don’t know what to tell you on that other than and as far as disavowing Marco doesn’t ever recommend that I’ve done it in the past haven’t done it for years.

I don’t think Have you seen anything negative happen? We don’t suggest it, but I don’t know that it is going to cause any problems. Marco, what do you say about this? I say I have a really big problem with this guy. Right? Because this was sent to support at mg y v.co. And I heard from Deadia and he said, hey, look, you know what, what can we do it with this? What can we do for this person? So we’re looking to do the right thing. Here. Look, I can remove all I think I can remove all the links

But it’s gonna take a while I so we aren’t talking about it, he doesn’t even give support a chance to respond and let him know what the answers are. He comes here to a public forum to air the laundry. And I understand that. I mean, in no way Is this a recommended practice. But I mean, he submitted the URLs for us to build links to if you give us a spreadsheet, how are we to know that there’s a money site included in the spreadsheet? I mean, he’s assuming that we’re supposed to assume and look these, the logic behind this evades me because I just don’t see it, how we’re supposed to know that he’s submitting his money site from now on. And so now we know that we need to make sure that we tell people explicitly on the order form do not submit your money site URL. So thank you for that. But I don’t appreciate

This being aired on a public forum, where we’re taking care of when we’re looking to do what’s best for you and for your website. Not that anything bad has happened. Not that anything bad will happen. We don’t know yet what would happen, but it’s still in the discussion stage and he doesn’t even give it an opportunity comes publicly as Hey, you guys, I thought you were supposed to follow best practice practices and whatever else he says. And I just don’t appreciate it. Give us at least a chance to do the right thing. And then if there’s a problem, if there’s no resolution, then you come here and you speak to us publicly. I thought about writing to you by the way. Because I saw this, I saw the way he called it the ticket, come through and I know I’m supposed to stay away from customer service. But I thought about writing to him because I don’t see the logic. If he submits the URLs to build links. That’s what we’re going to build links to because the customer as always, right? So if you want links built to your money site, in spite of the fact that we don’t recommend it, and then we say, Don’t ever do it, we don’t do it. If you submit the URL, and it’s by mistake, and I’m not saying that you did it on purpose, if by mistake you included in my site, or you didn’t know, it’s going to get links built to it. Now, yeah, we are going to try to do the right thing. That’s all I can say. We were trying to do the right thing before, even after having come on a public forum, and then like hitting on my last nerve, we’re still going to help you out.

Yeah and I don’t know that it’s going to cause any problem. We just, we don’t build links, the types of links that we sell at MGB directly the money site, we always in all of our training suggest not to do that because that’s the whole reason for the SEO shield right is because and that’s why it’s named the SEO shield because it shields your money site, from all the external threats.

SEO and link building that you can do because link building to your money site can, doesn’t always but can create a problem. So it’s not a guarantee that you’re going to have problems because that happened, it might not cause any problems at all, we just don’t recommend it, we suggest not to do it, because there’s no need to because we push all the power to the SEO shield and use the SEO shield to launder basically clean any potential negative juice through Google properties and through high authority assets, that and push relevancy essentially, eventually to the money site. So again, we don’t know that it’s gonna cause a negative impact at all, we just don’t, we don’t test it. Because we don’t do that we always recommend building them directly to the SEO shield. Again, that’s the whole point of the SEO shield. So we have learned, we have now decided or just came to the realization that that needs to be very explicit on the order form, submit page, and that makes sense and we’ll make sure that we make that change and Marco and Dadea, our link builder, are going to do what they can for you. So hopefully that will suffice.

How Do You Use Press Release To Achieve Better Rankings?

Next question, SMS insurances total newbie here, I just ordered the press release. Not sure where to start. I’m clueless on what to do, and the advice would be great. This is awesome that you asked this question because I’m actually working on a little mini-course for press releases for people that want to order and not for SEOs. But for business owners. I mean, anybody can have access to it that they want, but it’s I’m doing a little mini-course for press releases.

For MGYB, in other words, a little mini-course on trying to teach a layman right or a business owner, somebody that’s not an SEO, how to get the most use in the best use the most traction from press releases that you order from MGYB. And I’ll have that done by next Tuesday for sure. Maybe even possibly will be available on by next Wednesday for people to go download as a Lead Magnet or whatever, we’ll see, I don’t know if I’m gonna have it ready by Tuesday. I don’t know if it’ll be ready on Wednesday for public consumption. That said, I can give you a brief rundown on it. Because I was actually working on that presentation earlier today. In fact, it’s over here. So I can show you that I’m not kidding, do it yourself press releases, leveraged PR marketing for your business. So this will be both a presentation as well as some of that stuff hasn’t been added yet. But it will be a presentation that will be available, as well as some videos. So it’ll be like a little mini training course, on how to get the best uses of press releases, and then what to do next as well. So really a quick rundown on that is, first have an understanding of what your keywords are that you want to promote, right? So your primary products and services, products and or services, or an event if you’re promoting an event, whatever, whatever you’re trying to promote. You want to have a set of keywords that you’re looking to promote. And you want to submit that as the primary keyword for each one of the press releases.

So the press release writers, the writers that they’re really good about creating brand plus keyword association. So if you submit the keyword that you want to be used as the primary keyword, they’re going to create that they’re going to use the brand name and the keyword in the title. Okay, which is very, very important. And then they’re going to write about whatever it is that you instruct them to write about. And you can be as descriptive about how to like, you can tell them the tone that you want, that you want them to write it in, you can tell them certain things that you want them to highlight within the press release. Or you can be vague, you can just say, here’s the URL that I want you to promote. And they’ll go look at the URL, also look at the brand and they’ll create a news angle story, that they’ll write a press release about so it makes it easy for you guys if you have something specific you want written about. add that in the writing description. If you don’t and you don’t know how to create a newsworthy angle, don’t worry about it because that’s what the press release riders do. So you can just submit a URL and say this is the primary

URL I want promoting, write a story about it right. And though they’ll figure out a way, which is why I love using it, because it takes the responsibility right off of us to come up with the angle all the time. They’re really good about that once the press release is published, or you want to also link back to whatever you’re primarily trying to promote. So for example, I like to, by the way, if you’re new SM, s and s insurance, you can go to our YouTube channel youtube.com slash Semantic Mastery and use the channel search feature. And you can even go to Google and search for a press release or PR silo stalking or press release, SEO, semantic mastery, something like that, and you can find a webinar it’s actually still on mg y v. If you go to the webinars tab on the MG y v.co. website, you can take a look, I think that was the last webinar that we did was PR silo stalking, and that’ll give you a really good description. It was almost an hour You know, I don’t know 40-minute webinar or whatever specifically about how to get the

Most uses out are the best use out of sight, press releases. So again, you’re going to want to have at least one URL that you’re going to promote, you can have up to three, I usually recommend only two URLs per the press release, unless you’re siloing press releases, in which case you’ll have three, three target URLs that you’re promoting within the press release because you’re going to be linking back to the previous press release within that silo. if all of this sounds foreign to you, just go check out that webinar that I just described. And then it will tell you exactly what we do to get really, really good results with press releases. And just an aside to kind of a point to kind of reinforce this is I was just talking in the mastermind two weeks ago when I did my last mastermind webinar, about how I have a GMB asset as a lead gen asset that I hadn’t done anything with it was published about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, but I never optimized it never did anything to rank it. And I did three press releases in one week to push that GMB asset and all it has is it’s a GMB location. You know, profile and it’s got a GMB website. It’s not connected to a money site. The money site is the GMB website. And I did three press releases in a week. And the son of a bitch disappeared from maps all together for about three weeks. But then it popped after three weeks of it like not even showing I thought it got it was doing a Google dance. But I’ve not seen one this drastic, or this is significant of a Google dance to where it like literally, the listing disappeared, it disappeared entirely from Google Maps. And then all of a sudden bounce it when it popped, it popped into number three, the C position in the maps three pack from just three press releases in a week. Now that’s those results aren’t typical, but I’m just sharing that because it does show you that and all I did was PR silo stacking method, the same one that I’m suggesting you go watch that webinar to learn the strategy. And it works guys. It really does work. So that’s what I would recommend is

Just first go look at that webinar. And then after you have published the press release, it’s always better to do like one press release isn’t going to move the needle much, if at all, but when you start to do the silo stacking with press releases, you can do significant damage with that, and in a good way, right, yeah. And then from there, the next thing you can do is do link building gigs to the press releases or to the organization page that we provide. When you order a press release. That’s something else and embed gigs. You can do embed gigs as well, but don’t link directly to your money site. Anyway, you want to comment on that anybody?

From dance is real man. Right? We tell people 21 days actually, it’s 20 days. But I tell people 21 days just to be sure they’re clear of it. And then that’s when you go and take a look at everything. You decide what to do, but it’s very real. I don’t know why more people don’t talk about that. They just see rankings drop and then they go try to fix it and they make things worse instead of trying to instead of the result being better.

You just supposed to leave it alone until like you said, it just comes back and then you decide.

Unknown Speaker 35:06 Yeah, what’s interesting is, like you said, for about three weeks, I haven’t seen something that drastic of a dance in quite some time to be honest with you. And so I was a little bit nervous. I was thinking like, What the fuck is going on with this, this listing? And all I did was a handful of GMB posts to that listing over the course of those three weeks that was it, nothing else. And like I said, it popped and when it did, it’s, it’s in the number. In fact, I just got a lead from that today for sure, for Tree Removal in that particular city. So it’s producing and all it took was three press releases, which again, is very, very powerful. So it used the exact same method I just mentioned was PR silo stacking, so just go watch that webinar. It’s done in the MGYB, webinar archive, and it’s PR silo stacking, and it works really, really well.

Okay, next question. DC SEO says, Hey guys, I received the ROI as part of my shield back and your wise keywords are the ones that gave your team they’re in the same niche, but very different to what I handed in Is this right? Mine didn’t have any location or mine, I guess he means mine didn’t have any location as per instructions and what I received that keyword plus locations from around the world. I’m in the UK as well as a ton of keywords that are irrelevant to my services. I don’t know how that could happen. Any, any suggestion? No, that doesn’t sound right. But this isn’t the forum for that is it support at MGYB.co. What happened? Give us the order number. We’ll go track it down. And if we have to do it over, we’ll do it over we’ll talk to the VA who built it. I mean, we take care of everything guys. We always do we always try to do right, by everyone. You have to do things in the proper forum.

Last week, end of last week or whatever, I think it was Friday, I announced that we had cracked the code that we were able to now extend the drugs tax because we had automated it. And then someone posted in all of our groups, well, what if I have a VA? How do I train them?

And so now, no matter where I respond, it’s going to look like I didn’t respond and all of the other I would have to go and respond in all of the other groups, the very same thing that I responded in the one group and it’s gonna make it look in the other in the groups where I don’t respond like I don’t care or it doesn’t matter or I didn’t want to respond or whatever. I don’t like guys do things in the right place. And at the right time, this first goes to support. If support doesn’t take care of you, then come to us and let us know. And then like, I know, one of the owners in MGB and I’ll have a talk with him and see what we can do about rectifying the situation, but it’s in here in a public forum. I can’t do anything for you.

Yeah, Fidel. If it was indeed a mistake on our end, then absolutely. We just kill that drive, stack, and build and one for you. So and it won’t, it won’t hurt you at all. So it’s not an issue if it was indeed our problem. If you submitted the wrong keyword file, that’s one thing, but if it was, somehow it got built with keywords that you didn’t submit, which is unlikely, but people are human things happen. So if that was the case, just bring it to supports attention, we’ll take a look at it and if that was indeed the case, it would just kill that stack and then go to a new one, and it won’t it won’t cause any problems. So that’s the beautiful thing about those guys and that’s also why we talked about using the SEO shield for clients and stuff like that because you get the accounts back and you could protect your work right? Because if something happens and you get fired or the client stops paying you I’ve had that happen where they just ghost on you, you know what I mean? The business still exists but they just won’t answer phone calls or emails when they owe you money that kind I’ve had that happen several times over my career. You can go in and just kill the drive stack, delete it. I don’t even set it to not public which is it’s changed now anyways and because it can still push power, even when it’s not indexable. But you can go in and just kill the damn thing or rework it to point somewhere else, you know, to meet to their competitor, that you can go land as a client. So that’s one of the beautiful things about it. So it can be remedied. That’s not a problem.

Can You Create A Subdomain, Rank, And Redirect All The Pages To Another Site While Maintaining Its Ranking?

The next question was, can you create a subdomain website and rank it and then redirect all the pages to another site? And the subdomain maintain its rankings? No, because the redirect will point to the new location and new locate the new location is going to replace the subdomain at some point, right? You can’t redirect a URL and have both the URLs still appear in search, or they might temporarily, and I don’t even know that that’s true. But Google will whatever the redirect is eventually that’s what will rank and the other one will fall out of the index entirely. Am I right in that, or am I missing something? I’m not I think you’re absolutely right. I don’t see how you can’t since you’re telling the bot through the 301 that the page or everything in that sub-domain moved permanently somewhere else. Yeah. You could use I mean, that’s what it is. Yeah, you could use a canonical. And it can both pages can rank. I’ve seen that many times, you’re telling Google with a canonical, like, hey, this page is similar to this page over here, give the credit to this page, right? And then Google sometimes disregards that and well, you know, both pages will index and they’ll both rank. And that happens. So I would suggest a canonical instead of a 301 if that’s what you’re trying to accomplish, but remember that just because you canonicalize. It doesn’t, you know, doesn’t mean Google’s going to honor that. It also doesn’t mean that they won’t honor it. Right? It just kind of it’s kind of a crapshoot. So yeah, what, what that is canonical is when you have similar or the same, and it doesn’t have to be two. It could be two or more, however many copies of that document. There is there exists. You can tell Google which ones the master copy is and to rank that one, rather than all the other. Now, whether Google follows the directive, well, that’s up to Google. And they’re not telling what they’ll do is right.

Yeah, and just to, you know, kind of reinforce that I’m working on a tree care project. for it, you know, for new, a new lead gen service provider that I got. And it’s a case study that I’m doing in the mastermind, and I use tags, tags to create location silos anyways, a Google, it’s a new site, right? And my blogger just started blogging for the location posts on the site. And the way that we’re doing building it out with using tags to create the location silos. Google was ranking the tag pages, but not, but not the posts that I wanted to be ranked. And it indexed the tag pages first, right and the tag pages because some in some cases, they’re unique tags, which means that the tag page is a duplicate of post, that if you guys understand how tags work, that’s what happens if it’s a unique tag, it’s only in one post, then the tag page itself is essentially a duplicate of the post. And so for whatever reason, Google index the tag pages instead of the posts, and so the tag pages were ranking for the keywords, but not the post. And so and I even set the canonical in the tag setting with SEO ultimate Pro, you can do that because you can go to what’s called the Global canonical manager, or even the code inserter plus module, you can actually go in and add like a separate canonical for each tag and all that kind of stuff anyway. So I added the canonical URLs for the tag pages to canonicalize to the post, right, when it’s a unique tag, you can do that. And but Google wasn’t honoring it. And about two weeks went by and so finally I went just this week, I just went to search console, and forced Google to recrawl the posts or excuse me, the tag pages because they had the canonical URLs in the HTML header to point to the posts that I wanted to give the credit to. Right and that’s what I want to be ranked, and it only took about 24 hours, and lo and behold, now the tag pages aren’t indexed, but the posts are, which is what I wanted. So again, it, you know, that doesn’t mean that that’s always going to happen, because it could be that Google doesn’t honor the canonical or doesn’t, you know, doesn’t recognize it for whatever reason, they, By the way, you can also check that when you submit inspect URL in Search Console. And once it inspects the URL, it’s going to tell you whether it’s in Google or not. And there’s a drop-down setting that your menu that you can click on to expand, it shows you additional details, and it’ll tell you what the Google recognized canonical is for that page, or that post whatever URL it is that you’re inspecting. Right? And so you can clearly see what Google seeing. So you can force a canonical, and then go ask Google to request indexing. And then once it does, you know you can look at the code that it shows like the rendered page and it’ll tell you the details of that and it’ll show you if it if it saw the canonical or not. So anyway, hopefully, that was helpful. Do you see SEO

Is It Okay To Embed MyMap Via Tag Manager?

Is it? Is it okay to embed the mind map via Tag Manager? I’m not sure how you would do that.

I’m not sure how you would do that. Tag Manager creates container codes, right header code, and Body Code. And then you inject things into that like scripts and tracking codes and pixels and that kind of stuff. And I don’t know what embedding a my map would do, or if it would even read. Is that something you have any idea about? Marco?

Hello, sorry. Yeah, sorry about that. I was talking intimidated might not I think you can. You can use iframes with Tag Manager not not only that, you can track them. Hmm. Am I giving away too much? Oh, nevermind.

I’ll have to play with that DC. I’m not sure. I’ve never done it. Don’t listen, go play with it. And then and then look at all the nice stuff that happens in there.

Okay.

Cool, well there you go.

Is It A Good Deal To Have A 1500 Monthly Retainer Plus Sale Percentage?

Unknown Speaker 45:03 Alright, so moving on next one is Josh says I am changing locations from my current office to a shared workspace and apparently with Google, this isn’t a verifiable address so they won’t verify my GMB profile with this type of address. With the MG y b GMB service will this help with this issue?

Is it a storefront or a service area business that would be my question. Can you get a listing right now a GMB listing through MGYB? Yes.

As we talked about with Mohammed’s question earlier, if it’s a storefront business, I don’t recommend using a spam GMB listing for any type of storefront business because you mislead potential customers because they think it’s in one location and you are indeed in another location. So the only time I would ever recommend using a spammed GMB listing, let’s call it what it is. As for a service area business where the actual physical location in the GMB profile is hidden from the public, so it makes sense. So again, if it’s a service area business, then yes, that would help you. If it’s a storefront business, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Any comments, guys?

No, I think that’s absolutely right, man. It’s a myth. You got to know what you’re getting into. Especially if you’re, if you’re going to spam it, right?

Yeah.

I’ve gotten away from doing spam, GMB listings just because the how much volatility there’s been in the last, you know, many months. Um, so I’m working more heavily on the organic side. Now, again, which has been years since I really pushed that. So it’s interesting, and that’s what the tree care project that I’m working on is, in part is a case study for the mastermind, is working on mostly organic rankings. I do have some GMB locations that are going to be incorporated into the project most of the organic rankings. And I’m also doing a lot of call ads call-only ads for Google ads. They are

If you’re very specific with Google call-only ads with your what I call Bullseye keywords, then you can get some pretty good results with that. It’s a lot less expensive than actual clicks to like, you know, regular PPC pay per Click type ads, pay per call ads are a little bit less expensive if you have very, very targeted keywords with location modifiers and such. So that’s what I’m working on right now.

What MGYB Service Should You Use Get More SEO Clients?

Lonnie says I landed my first client concrete company 1500 dollars per month plus percentage of sales. This is a good deal fucking a man. Congratulations, Lonnie. That’s all that looks like it looks like a really good deal. Absolutely. That’s a cherry deal for sure. So congratulations, man. I’m gonna hop in real quick and say it’s all relative, right? One congrats on getting that. Especially the percentage of sales and revenue. That’s a big one that I think a lot of people miss out on. But keep in mind too, this is totally dependent on what he’s doing for that. 1500 That’s true. You’d be getting worked to the fucking ground for 1500 but you know

It’s up to you, you You are the person who can determine whether or not that’s worthwhile. Yeah, that’s a great point, Adam.

And just know this, if it’s your first client, you probably are going to be work to death anyways. Because it’s your first client and you will learn over time, how to set boundaries with clients. Just talk to Mohammed who’s always here asking questions every single week. Mohammed’s been following us for a long, long time, and we’ve watched him grow considerably over the last couple of years. And he’s experienced a lot of growing pains and come here and ask for advice. And that’s what this forum is for Lonnie. So feel free to come back and ask questions every week. concerning how to handle certain situations doesn’t always have to be SEO related either. It could just be about how to handle particular clients, business operations, management, outsourcing, all that kind of stuff. Guys, we’re here to help grow your business as much as possible. Yes, we talk a lot about SEO. But there’s a lot of other things that we’ve all learned with our experience over the years on how to, you know, help you to avoid some of the mistakes that we’ve all made.

But just know that it is your first client there, it’s likely you’re going to be work to death for that client. And that’s okay. Because you’re going to learn a lot from that. And you’ll begin to learn how to start to set boundaries. And remember, you know, one thing I want to recommend is, you do need to also set like communication boundaries, I don’t know that your new client is is somebody that might message you outside of business hours or over the weekend and that kind of stuff. But I’ve got a lot of clients that still to this day do, but I’ve trained them that I don’t reply to messages after hours or on weekends. Unless it’s an emergency like I have a preschool client that had a site go down on over a weekend and I had my daughter and I did actually help him because he’s a really good client and me, you know, I felt for him and I wanted to help him but very rarely do I ever reply to anything outside of ours, because once you set that precedent, people will take advantage of it. I don’t know that they mean to be malicious, but they just think that hey, I messaged him at night and he answered me, so, therefore, it’s okay for me to ask questions at any time, I would recommend that you know, as your first client, you need to start to learn how to set boundaries right upfront.

Anyways, let’s get back to the question. Sorry, I’m glad that Adam put that into perspective, because I immediately saw that percentage. And my mind went to the mat, my mind always goes to the numbers, where I normally get this company to 100-200k a month recurring for you know, out of if it’s like Costa Rica, where they work around, like, it’s killer money, it’s killer money, but even if it’s seasonal, right, you can’t work in the winter, if what if they’re doing driveways or whatever it is that they’re paving. If they’re laying a concrete slab, you’re talking about 100 k easy and if you charge 10 to 15% of that recurring, then I’m seeing that as a really good deal. If you’re going to be worked to the bone and the client can’t close. Then you got a problem. So thanks for putting that into perspective.

Yeah, not to downplay it. Yeah, definitely just wanted to tell because the way he phrased it that’s what gave me the hesitation. It’s like, Is this good? Like, man, there’s no way for us to know you’re the one who’s got to do that. But you know, congratulations on doing that. That’s good to see. Yeah. And I mean, like I said, Just remember, as your first client, you will make mistakes, there’s no question, you will work harder than you probably should. And that’s okay. Like I said, you’re going to learn from that. So, you know, just keep that in mind. Remember, come back here and ask questions often and we’ll try to provide you as much advice as we can. He says, also, I’m looking for simple services I can use to get me in on getting clients and suggestions. By the way, I love the video lead gen 2xyoruagency. Well, there, there you go. You have the video lead gen system and 2xyoruagency which is great for prospecting and generating prospects, right? Don’t build that pipeline first. Right? And that’s super, super important in through having a full pipeline of prospects and making presentations sending proposals, right so pitching prospects, you will get better, you’re gonna lose money upfront, and that’s okay. But you will get better you’ll be able to polish your presentation and your pitch and your message and all of that. And so just that’s why it’s so important guys to fill that pipeline full of prospects so that you can make those mistakes. And not every prospect that you talk to is going like you depend on them to be able to put food on your table. If because if that’s the case, desperation comes through and everything that you do, and they can smell that from a mile away. And so I think it’s better to have a pipeline full of prospects because then it’s okay, you don’t need anyone of them because you have more behind them. Right, that makes sense. As far as simple services, I recommend getting the most updated version of the battle plan if you don’t already have that. A lot of that was covered in 2xyoruagency anyways, but the battle plan is a very succinct version of what we recommend to get results and timelines for doing so and all of that and it’s very inexpensive. So I’d recommend you pick that up if you don’t have it already.

I’d also say mgyb.co, I mean everything there for you to offer your clients, whatever it is that they want. Everything is their press releases, liquidity and anything and everything that you need to do to produce results for your clients in MGYB.co. And if it doesn’t mean you have a good idea of a product that let us know.

What Is A Money Site?

This is a great question from Josh, he says, And see, guys, this is the thing you know, I think we often forget. Because we’ve been in this industry so long that not everybody understands the terminology. He says one more quick question, what exactly do you mean by money site that means your primary digital asset so like, whatever your primary domain is that you host your, your website for your business on? That’s what we call a money site. Why? Because it’s the site that generates you money, right? A lot of the other stuff that you know, we talked about is tier-one branded entity assets. Again, big terminology for basically meaning like social profiles and stuff that you can build a branded profile or presence on that you’re going to link back to your money site, your money site is your Epicenter, right? It’s your point of origin, it’s the golden frame, you always want to drive, all traffic all leads as much as possible back to your money site, because you have control over that’s an asset that you own and control, having ancillary profiles on social media properties and, you know, web to Dotto properties, and all that kind of stuff is great. And that’s what we do with the SEO shoot as we build all that stuff out. But ultimately, you don’t own those platforms. They could be taken away from you by Google, by YouTube, by Facebook, whatever, at any time. So they’re great to have. They’re great to use. But it’s best to try to use those to push people push traffic back to your money site because you do have control over that. And there’s so much more than you can do that. So your money site is again it’s your self hosted primary domain asset for your business, your company, your project, whatever it may be. Anybody else wants to take a stab at that? Yeah.

It could be your Google My Business website. It could be that it could be your your G site. It could be, you know, a free WordPress blog or blogger, Tumblr, or wherever it is that you choose to blog from, like, you don’t have to have something that’s self hosted. WordPress, are a self hosted domain for you to have a money site. This is like you said, it’s the place where you plan to send people to in order to make money and edit in order to sell your product service or whatever it is that you want people to see or buy. That’s your money site. Why? Because it makes you money. Not to say that there are other places that could make you money like social media, but it’s the primary source of what it is that you’re planning to do. Yeah, that’s a great point because as we talked about a lot of lead gen assets that I have don’t have a self-hosted money site. They are just GMB website.

In other words, the website, the Google My Business provides you which is free. And ultimately you don’t have full control over that Google does. Right. So I, you know, I’m glad Marco brought that up. Because I just mentioned self-hosted website, it doesn’t have to be that recommend that was possible. But there are times where it makes sense to not build a self-hosted website, for example, spammed GMB listings, it might not be wise to go through the trouble of building out a, you know, a self-hosted site because of all the work that goes into it. Whereas, you know, in case it was to get suspended, you lose all of them, the work that you did, essentially. So in that case, you know, the GMB website becomes the primary website for that location. Or another option would be like Marco said, you know, Google Site g site, right, so sites.google.com, that they, Marco and Rob have done several projects using those as the money site, and it works. It works really, really well. So the money site is exactly what Marco described, which is whatever it is that you’re using to make money.

If you’re going to build a brand, I think it’s important to build a self-hosted website with the brand name as the domain name, because you can really grow the authority of that brand and you benefit from that in so many ways. So, it’s a great question though. Alright, so the last question and we’ve only got three minutes left, we’re gonna wrap it up.

What SEO And Lead Gen Contract Do You Recommend?

He says, Lonnie says I’m having trouble with putting an SEO and lead with I’m sorry, with put an SEO and lead gen contract. Do you have any recommended contract forms? No, I don’t, you know, you could probably just go online and find some templates that you could use. I personally don’t like to use contracts I, I mean, I have in the past, but typically, it’s only for bigger companies that, you know, they want the contract. I like to do everything on a verbal agreement. So that and I always say this to potential prospects or customers look, you know, if I’m doing my job, you’re gonna want to continue paying me if I’m not, you’re not gonna want to continue paying me and that’s okay. I also want to be able to part ways from that client if we don’t dive well, we don’t agree on things if it’s just not a good fit, and I don’t want to be locked into a contract either. So I don’t expect my clients to want to be locked into a contract. And sometimes that burns me, for example, I had a home inspector client, that, you know, I very clearly stated what the timeline was going to be on results.

I typically asked for, hey, give me this much time. And before that time had passed before I reached that certain level of time that I mentioned, he canceled services. And I you know, And to me, that’s really unfair for both of us because he wasn’t able to get the results that he wanted, because it wasn’t, you know, fast enough for him even though I clearly stated all of that before we agreed to work together. But at the same time, I put a lot of work into that and it wasn’t able to fully realize the efforts you know, for him or for myself for my own satisfaction because he stopped paying me before all the work had been completed, if that makes sense. Sometimes I wish I did have a contract in place. But for the most part, I like the ability to be able to walk away from a client. And I also like them to know that they don’t, they’re not locked into a contract that kind of eases that.

That low and lowers the barrier to entry, so to speak. However, that said, there might be a difference of opinion here for some of the other guys. And you guys have a suggestion for him.

Now, you know me, I don’t do contracts. I hate him. I hate him. He locks me into everything. And what if I want to go out and maybe the client doesn’t want to go well, what if I want to go? What if I can’t stand the client? I want to go and then I’m bound by a contract for a year with this guy that I can’t stand that knows more or supposedly knows more than I do, which sometimes happens.

If you know how to produce results, then always go, “Look, I’ll give you results.” But record the quality I always record the call that that call. We talk

Bradley, what is going to take this long? I always have that recorded even though there’s no contract and I let the guy know Look, I’m gonna record the call. And then you can always refer revert back to that’s a contract, believe it or not, that’s a contract. Right? And it’ll hold up in most courts. I believe in the US. It’ll hold up, it’ll hold up in Costa Rica.

That’s a good idea. And yeah, if you disclose that right up front, and then get it on the recording, you do agree that this is being recorded, and that’s okay, right.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I’m going to be recording this, I’m just gonna point this way. This way, we can refer back to the conversation, you know exactly what took place. I know exactly what to put in you walk them through, you know that this is going to take about 90 days for results. thereabouts. Because if you don’t, then you go into the process because I have to set everything up. And then we get everything going. I’m probably going to get two results before but I can’t guarantee any Google experience tells me that within 90 days, we should be able to see something, and then we can work from there but I need 90 days from you.

Are you okay with that? Yeah, yeah, sure, you’re gonna get that nine out of 10. So now you have a binding contract now, at the end of it you tell at the end of those 90 days when we meet again, then we’ll decide if we continue.

Now real quick, I know Adam is if you’re still paying attention, I know we’re a little bit over, but I think you have a little bit of a different methodology. Is there any way you can comment on this? Um, yeah, I just I’m trying to think like, I don’t have too much of a difference it’s kind of constantly evolving. But yeah, I mean, as far as contracts go like I stay out of that I’ve never done anything. Okay. Yeah. And then, if he’s looking for actual he may just mean, he’s looking for an outline for like a proposal or an engagement proposal. If that’s the case, just contact support at semantic mastery comm will point you in the right direction. I know Hernan put one out there we had as a free opt-in that you could get as an outline. And that can be really helpful. I mean, I’ve used other people’s as a starting point when I’m changing services.

Adding something in just so that I have a good starting point then you tailor it kind of to your specifics.

Very good. Thank you. Alright guys, thanks everybody for being here is Chris were you gonna says something? I’m sorry. I mean like he is like a lead gen contract. I mean, like why not sell on a per lead basis? I don’t see there’s an issue you can do like a contract that states the price of the elite.

Yeah. So you should be fine that way. It should be super easy.

Sweet. Well, thanks for your input, guys. And thanks, everybody for being here. We will see you guys next week. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 289 posted first on http://beyondvapepage.blogspot.com

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 289

Click on the video above to watch Episode 289 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Welcome to Hump Day hangouts Episode 289 to one where Hernan looks continuously shocked for some reason.

Hi, how’s it going? Hernan Is everything okay. It’s great, man. I’m feeling like shit, but here we are. All right, good, good stuff. Well, keep going here. Like I said it’s Episode 289. Today’s the 27th of May 2020. I can see we got a lot of really good questions already today. But if you haven’t yet and you got a question, please put it on the page. First come first serve. And then I’m going to get into a few announcements. We’ve got some cool stuff that happened earlier this week. And then some last-minute announcements, things that we just found out about today that I want to touch on But first, let’s say hi to the guys real quick and see how everyone’s doing so

I’ll start to my top left here Bradley. How are you doing today?

Good. I’m good. I just edited the video description in YouTube because still had some stuff from the webinar we did yesterday. So anyway, but I’m good. Things are good. I’m back from taking a week off, and it sucked cuz I went away for a week camping and ATV riding, thinking that I was going to get away and get to enjoy it and it rained the entire week, all day every day and it was awful. It was fucking miserable. So I wish I would have stayed home and worked.

Yeah, man, speaking of weird weather that so I’m in the Bay Area. So we just hit 95 the last three days, which is like 34 Celsius. It’s just like, Okay, well guess I’ll go out in the morning, go for a walk and then come hunker in here, shut the blinds and turn the air just thinking. So that’s been my life for the past couple of days. So let’s head go with the happier weather report. Marco. How are you doing?

The sun’s out again. It’s the rainy season and he’s like the sun’s out. It’s rainy season man. Look, I live in paradise. All right, I can’t help that. Make some money. Right? First of all, go get the battle. You follow the Battle Plan.

make some money. Hire someone who will help you. Train, apply, and make money. lather, rinse, repeat. And then you can go find your own Fortress of Solitude where you can just watch the world go by and you don’t give up. Push your mouth but other than the outstanding weather

How are you doing marking things are going good. Things are good here man. Things are good. Yeah, I’m still like things are opening up a little bit here. Essential businesses and all that and all this other stuff, but I’m still self-parenting. I got three kids. They got to think about it and I’m not a spring chicken so that there’s another person that I had to think about right because I can go out or like one but I have to think about my family. Yeah. And what I might bring, bring home and closer to home to make somebody.

I knew personally died of this. It’s not as if it’s totally foreign to me like I don’t know anyone who is affected by this. I like what I do know. And so having it that cloth is not any longer six degrees of separation. it’s like I know and so no, it ain’t happening and we’re gonna see how this plays out and I’ll let everybody you guys can all go and enjoy yourselves you know to do whatever the hell you want and then let me know how that turns out and then I’ll decide after that second one what it is that we’re going to do but for now we’re cool we take it easy and that’s it, man. We did we just but my personal choice, right, my personal choice to do that. It’s not as if someone is forcing me to do it. I’m choosing that this is the best way for myself and my family. Enough. All right. Well, Hernan How about you man, things are like you’re moving into wintertime right? I always get

Yeah, it’s hot summer-like wait a second I was wearing a sweatshirt what hell’s going on? Yeah, actually actually all of you guys are well Marco Marco is like, you know, he’s in a good spot 20% but all of you guys are you know getting the nice season. I’m getting the shooting season. Yeah now so now but yeah man it’s good today was a good day.

Like warm-ish. But yeah, we’re getting into winter and all of that so see how that goes, could you? Oh, Chris How about yourself? Yeah, yeah can’t complain man sun’s out the sun is shining all day. I mean it’s dark right now and the best part of all Friday the gyms opening back up and stuff so things are really good standing. Well, I’m going to circle back around Bradley, you mentioned a webinar and I wanted to touch on that because we had Brian, a mastermind member, along with Bruno, and you all listening can get to know both of them better and see what Bradley has to say to about this go high-level system. And Bradley, you want to tell real quick, I’m gonna pop the link in where people can go and check out the replay. Do you want to tell them about the webinar a little bit?

Yeah, Brian, one of our mastermind members reached out and basically said that he was using a platform, an agency automation platform that consolidates a whole bunch of different services and such all under one roof. He reached out because he thought that it would fit really, really well with the 2xyoruagency training.

Because it does a lot of the stuff that I talked about in 2xyouragency about how to automate, delegate or eliminate because this platform consolidates a lot of services that you may have separate subscriptions for and I always call it duct taping them together using Zapier or some similar application. And basically these have integrated services that do all

All of the same things that many of these external services do that we put, you know, we connect via Zapier, and it’s all under one dashboard. And so it’s a lot more seamless. And there’s a lot of really cool features inside there, like one of the primary feature that was, is used to pitch this go high-level application or platform is what’s called database reactivation, which is a very easy way or a simple way for you to get your foot in the door as an agency owner with potential marketing clients because you can. So anyway, I can’t really go into depth right now about that, but it’s a really cool platform. I signed up my own agency on the agency level account level so that I can create a first of all, I’m gonna use it for my own agency, but second of all, so I could also create a case study for how I’m using it. I’ve got some really good ideas that I’m going to be sharing in that case study that I’m gonna be putting to the test and then sharing in the case study.

As well on how I’m using it and how to generate kind of exponential revenue growth from it, as opposed to just linear. And so anyway, I think it’s bad, it’s very valuable, I would encourage you guys to go check it out, it does come with a 14-day free trial. So once you see the webinar, you know, comes with some free or some, I think it’s free, or it’s like five bucks may be to pay for some of the training that Bruno had put together, what he calls the quick start training for that. And so you can get all of that. And your first 14 days determine if it’s for you or not, but I think once you see some of the potentials of this, it would be something if any of you are trying to grow. I think you should absolutely take a good hard look at it. Definitely. Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t do generally local stuff. But I check this out. And like I’ve been looking at it and I talked to Brian about all the details and like I was starting to be like maybe I could find a way to you just like no stop it. But like for anyone out there who’s dealing with especially local clients or can find the right use case

Yeah, just blew me away from the number of services and automation that’s packed into that suite of tools and how seamless that is, is pretty amazing. So definitely worth checking it out. Real quick to this one came up today. So we constantly get questions about GMB verifications, right? You know, hey, where can you guys do GMB verifications work in MGYB, when is it going to be available? I’m going to cut to the chase GMB verifications are available right now. As always, we cannot tell you how long that is going to be the case. So if you are doing lead gen if you’re needing a verification for some other reason, this would be a very good time to put your order in because not only can you order now what you couldn’t have yesterday, you can get a 15% discount today while we’ve got it opened up. Also, it comes with a 30-day guarantee. And it’s about I believe, 14 day turnaround time. So pretty quick. I’ll post all of that in the chatbox for those who are live. If you’re not just head to mgyb.co, and head to the store, you can look for GMB verifications there you can also get syndication networks, Rs drive stacks, SEO shield, link building all that sort of good stuff.

And circling back around. I wanted to touch on this real quick for those of you who are watching us for the first time, thank you very much whether you’re watching live or catching the replay on YouTube. If you want to go to the right place, head to semantic mastery comm slash HD questions every week, we asked you to limit your questions just to one. Unless you’re live, you can ask some more. You know, we get down there. We just want to make sure that everyone has a chance to ask their questions. So if you ask some questions, we may not get to all of them just before Warren. And then secondly, we encourage everyone to check out the battle plan and go to battle plan dot semantic mastery. If you want to get repeated repeatable SEO results that is for you. I’m not going to read the page to you you can go over there and check it out. But it is a fantastic tool that we recently just updated them released version four a month ago.

And then Bradley touched on this too if you’re an agency owner or a consultant that you want to get more clients, yes, you want to grow your revenue. Yes. And you want to scale your team, hopefully, yes. Then if you want to do that, head over 2xyouragency.com. There’s a ton of incredible training lets you crush it, whether you’re again, being a consultant, or if you want to build a true agency, and it doesn’t matter if that’s SEO, it’s other areas of digital marketing. It’s going to help you grow and make more money. That’s the bottom line.

All right, with that said, Guys, any other quick announcements before we dive into questions?

Good. All right. Let’s do it.

All right. Grab the screen.

You guys confirm when you see. See my screen.

Would You Recommend Ordering Another Drive Stack To A New Website Section Targeting Service Keywords In Different Locations?

So it looks like BB Now that might have been from last week. It looks like it was it will start with Bobby. Bobby says Hey guys, I got some questions. The first one was would you recommend ordering another drive stack to a completely new section of a website targeting a different service keyword in different locations on a large content site that would be perfect for the location sealed, am I right? Marco?

Yeah, that’s perfect for the extension. And it’s currently available and as a coupon sweep. So that’s what the drive stack expansion.

Yeah, we’re saying, Yeah, maybe if he already has the brand it because he’s saying another, right, a completely new section of the website. So we’re talking about the same website, money site. That’s how I’m seeing. I’m seeing something different.

He has a different service keyword, and a different location on a large content what so that’s, that’s just an inner page, I think what he’s describing the top of the silo. So you would aim the expansion on the current drive stack at that inner page, you’d get much more power going and extending that initial drive stack then you would be doing a completely different drive stack, g site. Sure, gotcha. Okay.

Would You Recommend RSS Masher To Drive Traffic To A Money Site And Lead Gen Assets?

The next question was  GMB.Thanks again, I’ve not used them for lead gen assets but I have in the past I haven’t built since the updated the new version of RSS master which is even better. But to create the kind of like Kwazii PBNs and when I say PBNs, they’re not like what we would traditionally think of a treat PBN, these are real sites to generate real traffic and that’s the differentiator, right? having real sites generate real traffic. With automated content posting to them right through all the RSS feeds that you splice together and RSS masher and all the really cool shit you can do. You can take a look at the most recent webinar we did with Damon Nelson, about the most current version of RSS masher and see some of the examples of the sites that he builds are 100% honest.

Major content sites using RSS masher. And they’re freaking beautiful sites. And he’s generating affiliate income and, you know, like AdSense income. And so such using those sites because they do generate traffic, they look beautiful. But from an SEO standpoint, I looked at it as like, hey, this could be really good to generate, you know, in related content type sites that could feed traffic back to a money site or a lead gen site or whatever. So, I mean, I think it’s certainly possible to use it for that I haven’t done it myself just to be honest because it’s not the strategy that I’ve been pursuing. I’ve wanted to in fact, I even talked about it with my partners here. I would love to have some time to play with that and set up some sights but I haven’t done it yet. I think Marco. Weren’t you guys gonna try playing with that a bit. I know it probably hasn’t been done but wasn’t that on the to-do list?

It is being done. What we are currently testing it and we won’t like there is anything. I’m not personally doing it but I got my mini mastermind, which is where all the evil takes place where we can go after everything. And there’s a couple of people in there who have a license. And then one of them is using our license as I gave her our license to go and try it out. So they got together. Three of the people in my seven-person mini mastermind got together. And what they’re doing is they’re sharing information on how to make make it work in the best way possible. And then they’re going to come back and report it to me and we’re either going to make it available through MGYB as a service, or I’m not sure how we’re going to offer that but there’s definitely something in the works with that RSS masher. It’s just you guys if you go get it just be prepared because there’s a high learning curve is that simple software that you’re just going to go and plug and play

You have to be prepared to go through the training to go through the process, gathering up the feeds making everything look right. And then you know that that’s when the magic happens and I can’t wait to blast that. Now get it, give it a companion g site and drive stack, expand it, and then blast it with link building and some embeds and see what happened. I can’t wait.

Yeah, it looks good. As I said, I wish I had more time to mess with it. Because I think there’s a lot of potentials there as well. So, so maybe next Wednesday, or the following Wednesday, we can give people a preview. But again, the first ones that’ll get a preview, it will be my mini mastermind, and then the semantic mastery mastermind, the heavy hitter club, and then we’ll go public with whatever we have. It’s still a few weeks away, it takes time. That’s all

Is It Possible To Get An Iframe For A Drive Folder?

so Frank’s up. He says it is it possible to get an iframe for a drive folder tried adding a link into iframe generator and it came back saying the page was blocked from being displayed? also. Well, first of all,

The first part of that is Yeah, you can use to be able to do that. But no, I haven’t tried since the updates recently. Marco, can you? Yeah. Not through the iframe January? That’s why I tell people to code their own code. Yeah, because you can’t do it that way. You have to separate the, I can’t go through the process that you have to get the folder ID to be able to iframe it. And what you have to insert in an iframe generator is the entire URL, and you can’t do it that way.

Okay.

Publish to the web would be a file setting in the drive used to say publish to the web, it would give you an embed code for the file or for the folder, but I think that has been taken away correct recently. Uh, no. I can check that right now. I mean, go on and let me take a folder that has nothing in it. And we’ll just move on while you’re looking that up.

Do You Have Any Link Building Services In MGYB For T1 Money Site?

He says also with MGYB, do you have any link building services that could be used for tier-one money site or only g sites? Yeah, that while the SEO shield can point back to your money site, right, which includes the drive stack files and folders as well as the G site. Also, press releases could be used for tier-one money site, right where your money site tier-one money site is. It’s redundant. That’s like the Department of redundancy department. You know what I mean? So, yeah, your money site, again, press releases and the SEO shield? Those are the two things that I would recommend. Am I missing something?

No, no, no, I don’t think so. And I can’t find it. I can’t find published on the web by the way. That’s what I thought had been removed since the recent update. But it used to be able to do it that way. So hopefully that was helpful.

What MGYB Service You Should Use To Rank For A City That Is Three Hours Away From The Dealership Location?

Mohammed’s up, it’s up mom and he says, Hey, guys, a client is asking me if I can rank his Volkswagen dealership for VW related keywords in a city. Three hours away from where the dealership actually is.

Actually, how would I go about this? I know I can get a GMB from MGYB for the New City and add a new city page to the money site. What else would I do?

Well, the problem that I see with that Mohammed is it’s a dealership right? So if you’re getting a GMB for a dealership which is a storefront business, right with the customers come to the business location, and you’ve got a spammed GMB listing, that’s three hours away from where the dealership actually exists, then, how is that going to play with potential car buyers? When they’re looking to go to a dealership in their local area and they’ve come to find out it’s a spam listing and instead they’ve got to go three hours away to buy a Volkswagen. To me, I don’t think that would be advisable for the reasons I just mentioned. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the question. Anybody else interprets this another way?

No, that’s the way I’m I’m reading it unless the dealer is opening up a dealership in that city in which case, you would need spam. GMB. Right. Correct. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I am not willing to drive three hours to go look at a car, like my dealer has to be closed by where I can just jump in the car. 1015 minutes, I’m there and look at the car and decide if I’m gonna buy it. Because I’ll be people. Yes. I mean, the idea behind it is correct. People are going to first look online to find a car that they liked, and they’re going to find the dealer, then they’re going to go visit the dealer to see the cart. Who’s going to drive? Did you talk that to this dealership owner, by the way, and ask him Who do you know that’s going to drive three hours to buy a car when they can buy one mic in the city? I don’t understand the thinking behind that. Not only that, but don’t you think it would piss a potential customer off if they were misled to believe that a dealership was in their local area just to come to find out that it’s three hours away? I mean, it’s not just that like if he was promoting like ranked a page organically for the city that is three hours away, and says, Hey, we sell cars. Were our dealerships over here and they’re honest about where it is. It’s very likely most people are going to drive three hours away anyways, but at least they weren’t being dishonest about it. Whereas having a GMB for a storefront business where a store doesn’t actually exist, that I think in my view would piss me off if I put driving directions and go show up at this place to find out that it’s it doesn’t exist, and then I got to drive three hours away to go where I intended. What about other car dealers dealerships? wouldn’t they be pissed if you’re faking? A GMB and I just totally am in the area. I don’t think VW corporate would be too happy with that with you faking GMB.  I don’t know how much trouble I mean, you can get into a whole lot of trouble behind that. talk to this guy. talk some sense and then

yeah, just find out what his intent is really. And maybe you already know it, Mohammed and it just wasn’t conveyed in that message.

Yeah, but yeah, I mean like I said if I was going to do anything it would be to try to just rank organically for that and just be honest about where the dealership is and why they should drive three hours away to purchase a car at that particular dealership.

SEO Shield Question

Alright, moving on uh, next question is Hello everyone recently I purchased an SEO shield and since I got some discount for link building, I also bought that so I placed the order for SEO shield and link building altogether. What I found out that instead of building the links to my properties, they pointed all the direct all directly to your money site. Okay, you can edit the URLs to build links to an M GI Bill, Why be disregarded that and build all the links to your money site? No continue can find that hard to believe okay. When I inquired from support about it, they said since you had provided the URL file, we built all the links around that. But they also said that they don’t recommend it. I’m a new user purchasing SEO shield first time and also not aware of the internal tech now technicalities excuse me of SEO SEO. So I provide all the information including the URL file because I thought it might be required to build the SEO shield since I bought the SEO, SEO, and link building. So I believe that SM support will follow the best practice since I’ve gone blindly trust SM for SEO related stuff. So my question is Why were the links built directly in the money site even when it is not recommended? No one will pay for the money to I’m not sure what he says.

Now, he says that the links can’t be removed. This website is my six months old hard work. I don’t want to degrade my website by any means. So what should I do now? Should I disavow the links pointing in the Excel sheet? Please suggest, okay, um, the first part of that. I’m not sure if you came to us cold and you don’t know anything about our methodology, then then I could understand where that confusion may have come from.

Perhaps we need to have that clearly explicitly outlined on this on the order page or the order submit Details page. In other words, if it’s not already, but

As far as what you know, we didn’t build all the links to your money site URL. If your money site URL was listed in your submitted URLs list, then some links will have been built to your money site URL. But in all of our training, we always suggest we actually won’t build links to your money site URL if we know that it’s in there. So I don’t know what to tell you on that other than and as far as disavowing Marco doesn’t ever recommend that I’ve done it in the past haven’t done it for years.

I don’t think Have you seen anything negative happen? We don’t suggest it, but I don’t know that it is going to cause any problems. Marco, what do you say about this? I say I have a really big problem with this guy. Right? Because this was sent to support at mg y v.co. And I heard from Deadia and he said, hey, look, you know what, what can we do it with this? What can we do for this person? So we’re looking to do the right thing. Here. Look, I can remove all I think I can remove all the links

But it’s gonna take a while I so we aren’t talking about it, he doesn’t even give support a chance to respond and let him know what the answers are. He comes here to a public forum to air the laundry. And I understand that. I mean, in no way Is this a recommended practice. But I mean, he submitted the URLs for us to build links to if you give us a spreadsheet, how are we to know that there’s a money site included in the spreadsheet? I mean, he’s assuming that we’re supposed to assume and look these, the logic behind this evades me because I just don’t see it, how we’re supposed to know that he’s submitting his money site from now on. And so now we know that we need to make sure that we tell people explicitly on the order form do not submit your money site URL. So thank you for that. But I don’t appreciate

This being aired on a public forum, where we’re taking care of when we’re looking to do what’s best for you and for your website. Not that anything bad has happened. Not that anything bad will happen. We don’t know yet what would happen, but it’s still in the discussion stage and he doesn’t even give it an opportunity comes publicly as Hey, you guys, I thought you were supposed to follow best practice practices and whatever else he says. And I just don’t appreciate it. Give us at least a chance to do the right thing. And then if there’s a problem, if there’s no resolution, then you come here and you speak to us publicly. I thought about writing to you by the way. Because I saw this, I saw the way he called it the ticket, come through and I know I’m supposed to stay away from customer service. But I thought about writing to him because I don’t see the logic. If he submits the URLs to build links. That’s what we’re going to build links to because the customer as always, right? So if you want links built to your money site, in spite of the fact that we don’t recommend it, and then we say, Don’t ever do it, we don’t do it. If you submit the URL, and it’s by mistake, and I’m not saying that you did it on purpose, if by mistake you included in my site, or you didn’t know, it’s going to get links built to it. Now, yeah, we are going to try to do the right thing. That’s all I can say. We were trying to do the right thing before, even after having come on a public forum, and then like hitting on my last nerve, we’re still going to help you out.

Yeah and I don’t know that it’s going to cause any problem. We just, we don’t build links, the types of links that we sell at MGB directly the money site, we always in all of our training suggest not to do that because that’s the whole reason for the SEO shield right is because and that’s why it’s named the SEO shield because it shields your money site, from all the external threats.

SEO and link building that you can do because link building to your money site can, doesn’t always but can create a problem. So it’s not a guarantee that you’re going to have problems because that happened, it might not cause any problems at all, we just don’t recommend it, we suggest not to do it, because there’s no need to because we push all the power to the SEO shield and use the SEO shield to launder basically clean any potential negative juice through Google properties and through high authority assets, that and push relevancy essentially, eventually to the money site. So again, we don’t know that it’s gonna cause a negative impact at all, we just don’t, we don’t test it. Because we don’t do that we always recommend building them directly to the SEO shield. Again, that’s the whole point of the SEO shield. So we have learned, we have now decided or just came to the realization that that needs to be very explicit on the order form, submit page, and that makes sense and we’ll make sure that we make that change and Marco and Dadea, our link builder, are going to do what they can for you. So hopefully that will suffice.

How Do You Use Press Release To Achieve Better Rankings?

Next question, SMS insurances total newbie here, I just ordered the press release. Not sure where to start. I’m clueless on what to do, and the advice would be great. This is awesome that you asked this question because I’m actually working on a little mini-course for press releases for people that want to order and not for SEOs. But for business owners. I mean, anybody can have access to it that they want, but it’s I’m doing a little mini-course for press releases.

For MGYB, in other words, a little mini-course on trying to teach a layman right or a business owner, somebody that’s not an SEO, how to get the most use in the best use the most traction from press releases that you order from MGYB. And I’ll have that done by next Tuesday for sure. Maybe even possibly will be available on by next Wednesday for people to go download as a Lead Magnet or whatever, we’ll see, I don’t know if I’m gonna have it ready by Tuesday. I don’t know if it’ll be ready on Wednesday for public consumption. That said, I can give you a brief rundown on it. Because I was actually working on that presentation earlier today. In fact, it’s over here. So I can show you that I’m not kidding, do it yourself press releases, leveraged PR marketing for your business. So this will be both a presentation as well as some of that stuff hasn’t been added yet. But it will be a presentation that will be available, as well as some videos. So it’ll be like a little mini training course, on how to get the best uses of press releases, and then what to do next as well. So really a quick rundown on that is, first have an understanding of what your keywords are that you want to promote, right? So your primary products and services, products and or services, or an event if you’re promoting an event, whatever, whatever you’re trying to promote. You want to have a set of keywords that you’re looking to promote. And you want to submit that as the primary keyword for each one of the press releases.

So the press release writers, the writers that they’re really good about creating brand plus keyword association. So if you submit the keyword that you want to be used as the primary keyword, they’re going to create that they’re going to use the brand name and the keyword in the title. Okay, which is very, very important. And then they’re going to write about whatever it is that you instruct them to write about. And you can be as descriptive about how to like, you can tell them the tone that you want, that you want them to write it in, you can tell them certain things that you want them to highlight within the press release. Or you can be vague, you can just say, here’s the URL that I want you to promote. And they’ll go look at the URL, also look at the brand and they’ll create a news angle story, that they’ll write a press release about so it makes it easy for you guys if you have something specific you want written about. add that in the writing description. If you don’t and you don’t know how to create a newsworthy angle, don’t worry about it because that’s what the press release riders do. So you can just submit a URL and say this is the primary

URL I want promoting, write a story about it right. And though they’ll figure out a way, which is why I love using it, because it takes the responsibility right off of us to come up with the angle all the time. They’re really good about that once the press release is published, or you want to also link back to whatever you’re primarily trying to promote. So for example, I like to, by the way, if you’re new SM, s and s insurance, you can go to our YouTube channel youtube.com slash Semantic Mastery and use the channel search feature. And you can even go to Google and search for a press release or PR silo stalking or press release, SEO, semantic mastery, something like that, and you can find a webinar it’s actually still on mg y v. If you go to the webinars tab on the MG y v.co. website, you can take a look, I think that was the last webinar that we did was PR silo stalking, and that’ll give you a really good description. It was almost an hour You know, I don’t know 40-minute webinar or whatever specifically about how to get the

Most uses out are the best use out of sight, press releases. So again, you’re going to want to have at least one URL that you’re going to promote, you can have up to three, I usually recommend only two URLs per the press release, unless you’re siloing press releases, in which case you’ll have three, three target URLs that you’re promoting within the press release because you’re going to be linking back to the previous press release within that silo. if all of this sounds foreign to you, just go check out that webinar that I just described. And then it will tell you exactly what we do to get really, really good results with press releases. And just an aside to kind of a point to kind of reinforce this is I was just talking in the mastermind two weeks ago when I did my last mastermind webinar, about how I have a GMB asset as a lead gen asset that I hadn’t done anything with it was published about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, but I never optimized it never did anything to rank it. And I did three press releases in one week to push that GMB asset and all it has is it’s a GMB location. You know, profile and it’s got a GMB website. It’s not connected to a money site. The money site is the GMB website. And I did three press releases in a week. And the son of a bitch disappeared from maps all together for about three weeks. But then it popped after three weeks of it like not even showing I thought it got it was doing a Google dance. But I’ve not seen one this drastic, or this is significant of a Google dance to where it like literally, the listing disappeared, it disappeared entirely from Google Maps. And then all of a sudden bounce it when it popped, it popped into number three, the C position in the maps three pack from just three press releases in a week. Now that’s those results aren’t typical, but I’m just sharing that because it does show you that and all I did was PR silo stacking method, the same one that I’m suggesting you go watch that webinar to learn the strategy. And it works guys. It really does work. So that’s what I would recommend is

Just first go look at that webinar. And then after you have published the press release, it’s always better to do like one press release isn’t going to move the needle much, if at all, but when you start to do the silo stacking with press releases, you can do significant damage with that, and in a good way, right, yeah. And then from there, the next thing you can do is do link building gigs to the press releases or to the organization page that we provide. When you order a press release. That’s something else and embed gigs. You can do embed gigs as well, but don’t link directly to your money site. Anyway, you want to comment on that anybody?

From dance is real man. Right? We tell people 21 days actually, it’s 20 days. But I tell people 21 days just to be sure they’re clear of it. And then that’s when you go and take a look at everything. You decide what to do, but it’s very real. I don’t know why more people don’t talk about that. They just see rankings drop and then they go try to fix it and they make things worse instead of trying to instead of the result being better.

You just supposed to leave it alone until like you said, it just comes back and then you decide.

Unknown Speaker 35:06 Yeah, what’s interesting is, like you said, for about three weeks, I haven’t seen something that drastic of a dance in quite some time to be honest with you. And so I was a little bit nervous. I was thinking like, What the fuck is going on with this, this listing? And all I did was a handful of GMB posts to that listing over the course of those three weeks that was it, nothing else. And like I said, it popped and when it did, it’s, it’s in the number. In fact, I just got a lead from that today for sure, for Tree Removal in that particular city. So it’s producing and all it took was three press releases, which again, is very, very powerful. So it used the exact same method I just mentioned was PR silo stacking, so just go watch that webinar. It’s done in the MGYB, webinar archive, and it’s PR silo stacking, and it works really, really well.

Okay, next question. DC SEO says, Hey guys, I received the ROI as part of my shield back and your wise keywords are the ones that gave your team they’re in the same niche, but very different to what I handed in Is this right? Mine didn’t have any location or mine, I guess he means mine didn’t have any location as per instructions and what I received that keyword plus locations from around the world. I’m in the UK as well as a ton of keywords that are irrelevant to my services. I don’t know how that could happen. Any, any suggestion? No, that doesn’t sound right. But this isn’t the forum for that is it support at MGYB.co. What happened? Give us the order number. We’ll go track it down. And if we have to do it over, we’ll do it over we’ll talk to the VA who built it. I mean, we take care of everything guys. We always do we always try to do right, by everyone. You have to do things in the proper forum.

Last week, end of last week or whatever, I think it was Friday, I announced that we had cracked the code that we were able to now extend the drugs tax because we had automated it. And then someone posted in all of our groups, well, what if I have a VA? How do I train them?

And so now, no matter where I respond, it’s going to look like I didn’t respond and all of the other I would have to go and respond in all of the other groups, the very same thing that I responded in the one group and it’s gonna make it look in the other in the groups where I don’t respond like I don’t care or it doesn’t matter or I didn’t want to respond or whatever. I don’t like guys do things in the right place. And at the right time, this first goes to support. If support doesn’t take care of you, then come to us and let us know. And then like, I know, one of the owners in MGB and I’ll have a talk with him and see what we can do about rectifying the situation, but it’s in here in a public forum. I can’t do anything for you.

Yeah, Fidel. If it was indeed a mistake on our end, then absolutely. We just kill that drive, stack, and build and one for you. So and it won’t, it won’t hurt you at all. So it’s not an issue if it was indeed our problem. If you submitted the wrong keyword file, that’s one thing, but if it was, somehow it got built with keywords that you didn’t submit, which is unlikely, but people are human things happen. So if that was the case, just bring it to supports attention, we’ll take a look at it and if that was indeed the case, it would just kill that stack and then go to a new one, and it won’t it won’t cause any problems. So that’s the beautiful thing about those guys and that’s also why we talked about using the SEO shield for clients and stuff like that because you get the accounts back and you could protect your work right? Because if something happens and you get fired or the client stops paying you I’ve had that happen where they just ghost on you, you know what I mean? The business still exists but they just won’t answer phone calls or emails when they owe you money that kind I’ve had that happen several times over my career. You can go in and just kill the drive stack, delete it. I don’t even set it to not public which is it’s changed now anyways and because it can still push power, even when it’s not indexable. But you can go in and just kill the damn thing or rework it to point somewhere else, you know, to meet to their competitor, that you can go land as a client. So that’s one of the beautiful things about it. So it can be remedied. That’s not a problem.

Can You Create A Subdomain, Rank, And Redirect All The Pages To Another Site While Maintaining Its Ranking?

The next question was, can you create a subdomain website and rank it and then redirect all the pages to another site? And the subdomain maintain its rankings? No, because the redirect will point to the new location and new locate the new location is going to replace the subdomain at some point, right? You can’t redirect a URL and have both the URLs still appear in search, or they might temporarily, and I don’t even know that that’s true. But Google will whatever the redirect is eventually that’s what will rank and the other one will fall out of the index entirely. Am I right in that, or am I missing something? I’m not I think you’re absolutely right. I don’t see how you can’t since you’re telling the bot through the 301 that the page or everything in that sub-domain moved permanently somewhere else. Yeah. You could use I mean, that’s what it is. Yeah, you could use a canonical. And it can both pages can rank. I’ve seen that many times, you’re telling Google with a canonical, like, hey, this page is similar to this page over here, give the credit to this page, right? And then Google sometimes disregards that and well, you know, both pages will index and they’ll both rank. And that happens. So I would suggest a canonical instead of a 301 if that’s what you’re trying to accomplish, but remember that just because you canonicalize. It doesn’t, you know, doesn’t mean Google’s going to honor that. It also doesn’t mean that they won’t honor it. Right? It just kind of it’s kind of a crapshoot. So yeah, what, what that is canonical is when you have similar or the same, and it doesn’t have to be two. It could be two or more, however many copies of that document. There is there exists. You can tell Google which ones the master copy is and to rank that one, rather than all the other. Now, whether Google follows the directive, well, that’s up to Google. And they’re not telling what they’ll do is right.

Yeah, and just to, you know, kind of reinforce that I’m working on a tree care project. for it, you know, for new, a new lead gen service provider that I got. And it’s a case study that I’m doing in the mastermind, and I use tags, tags to create location silos anyways, a Google, it’s a new site, right? And my blogger just started blogging for the location posts on the site. And the way that we’re doing building it out with using tags to create the location silos. Google was ranking the tag pages, but not, but not the posts that I wanted to be ranked. And it indexed the tag pages first, right and the tag pages because some in some cases, they’re unique tags, which means that the tag page is a duplicate of post, that if you guys understand how tags work, that’s what happens if it’s a unique tag, it’s only in one post, then the tag page itself is essentially a duplicate of the post. And so for whatever reason, Google index the tag pages instead of the posts, and so the tag pages were ranking for the keywords, but not the post. And so and I even set the canonical in the tag setting with SEO ultimate Pro, you can do that because you can go to what’s called the Global canonical manager, or even the code inserter plus module, you can actually go in and add like a separate canonical for each tag and all that kind of stuff anyway. So I added the canonical URLs for the tag pages to canonicalize to the post, right, when it’s a unique tag, you can do that. And but Google wasn’t honoring it. And about two weeks went by and so finally I went just this week, I just went to search console, and forced Google to recrawl the posts or excuse me, the tag pages because they had the canonical URLs in the HTML header to point to the posts that I wanted to give the credit to. Right and that’s what I want to be ranked, and it only took about 24 hours, and lo and behold, now the tag pages aren’t indexed, but the posts are, which is what I wanted. So again, it, you know, that doesn’t mean that that’s always going to happen, because it could be that Google doesn’t honor the canonical or doesn’t, you know, doesn’t recognize it for whatever reason, they, By the way, you can also check that when you submit inspect URL in Search Console. And once it inspects the URL, it’s going to tell you whether it’s in Google or not. And there’s a drop-down setting that your menu that you can click on to expand, it shows you additional details, and it’ll tell you what the Google recognized canonical is for that page, or that post whatever URL it is that you’re inspecting. Right? And so you can clearly see what Google seeing. So you can force a canonical, and then go ask Google to request indexing. And then once it does, you know you can look at the code that it shows like the rendered page and it’ll tell you the details of that and it’ll show you if it if it saw the canonical or not. So anyway, hopefully, that was helpful. Do you see SEO

Is It Okay To Embed MyMap Via Tag Manager?

Is it? Is it okay to embed the mind map via Tag Manager? I’m not sure how you would do that.

I’m not sure how you would do that. Tag Manager creates container codes, right header code, and Body Code. And then you inject things into that like scripts and tracking codes and pixels and that kind of stuff. And I don’t know what embedding a my map would do, or if it would even read. Is that something you have any idea about? Marco?

Hello, sorry. Yeah, sorry about that. I was talking intimidated might not I think you can. You can use iframes with Tag Manager not not only that, you can track them. Hmm. Am I giving away too much? Oh, nevermind.

I’ll have to play with that DC. I’m not sure. I’ve never done it. Don’t listen, go play with it. And then and then look at all the nice stuff that happens in there.

Okay.

Cool, well there you go.

Is It A Good Deal To Have A 1500 Monthly Retainer Plus Sale Percentage?

Unknown Speaker 45:03 Alright, so moving on next one is Josh says I am changing locations from my current office to a shared workspace and apparently with Google, this isn’t a verifiable address so they won’t verify my GMB profile with this type of address. With the MG y b GMB service will this help with this issue?

Is it a storefront or a service area business that would be my question. Can you get a listing right now a GMB listing through MGYB? Yes.

As we talked about with Mohammed’s question earlier, if it’s a storefront business, I don’t recommend using a spam GMB listing for any type of storefront business because you mislead potential customers because they think it’s in one location and you are indeed in another location. So the only time I would ever recommend using a spammed GMB listing, let’s call it what it is. As for a service area business where the actual physical location in the GMB profile is hidden from the public, so it makes sense. So again, if it’s a service area business, then yes, that would help you. If it’s a storefront business, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Any comments, guys?

No, I think that’s absolutely right, man. It’s a myth. You got to know what you’re getting into. Especially if you’re, if you’re going to spam it, right?

Yeah.

I’ve gotten away from doing spam, GMB listings just because the how much volatility there’s been in the last, you know, many months. Um, so I’m working more heavily on the organic side. Now, again, which has been years since I really pushed that. So it’s interesting, and that’s what the tree care project that I’m working on is, in part is a case study for the mastermind, is working on mostly organic rankings. I do have some GMB locations that are going to be incorporated into the project most of the organic rankings. And I’m also doing a lot of call ads call-only ads for Google ads. They are

If you’re very specific with Google call-only ads with your what I call Bullseye keywords, then you can get some pretty good results with that. It’s a lot less expensive than actual clicks to like, you know, regular PPC pay per Click type ads, pay per call ads are a little bit less expensive if you have very, very targeted keywords with location modifiers and such. So that’s what I’m working on right now.

What MGYB Service Should You Use Get More SEO Clients?

Lonnie says I landed my first client concrete company 1500 dollars per month plus percentage of sales. This is a good deal fucking a man. Congratulations, Lonnie. That’s all that looks like it looks like a really good deal. Absolutely. That’s a cherry deal for sure. So congratulations, man. I’m gonna hop in real quick and say it’s all relative, right? One congrats on getting that. Especially the percentage of sales and revenue. That’s a big one that I think a lot of people miss out on. But keep in mind too, this is totally dependent on what he’s doing for that. 1500 That’s true. You’d be getting worked to the fucking ground for 1500 but you know

It’s up to you, you You are the person who can determine whether or not that’s worthwhile. Yeah, that’s a great point, Adam.

And just know this, if it’s your first client, you probably are going to be work to death anyways. Because it’s your first client and you will learn over time, how to set boundaries with clients. Just talk to Mohammed who’s always here asking questions every single week. Mohammed’s been following us for a long, long time, and we’ve watched him grow considerably over the last couple of years. And he’s experienced a lot of growing pains and come here and ask for advice. And that’s what this forum is for Lonnie. So feel free to come back and ask questions every week. concerning how to handle certain situations doesn’t always have to be SEO related either. It could just be about how to handle particular clients, business operations, management, outsourcing, all that kind of stuff. Guys, we’re here to help grow your business as much as possible. Yes, we talk a lot about SEO. But there’s a lot of other things that we’ve all learned with our experience over the years on how to, you know, help you to avoid some of the mistakes that we’ve all made.

But just know that it is your first client there, it’s likely you’re going to be work to death for that client. And that’s okay. Because you’re going to learn a lot from that. And you’ll begin to learn how to start to set boundaries. And remember, you know, one thing I want to recommend is, you do need to also set like communication boundaries, I don’t know that your new client is is somebody that might message you outside of business hours or over the weekend and that kind of stuff. But I’ve got a lot of clients that still to this day do, but I’ve trained them that I don’t reply to messages after hours or on weekends. Unless it’s an emergency like I have a preschool client that had a site go down on over a weekend and I had my daughter and I did actually help him because he’s a really good client and me, you know, I felt for him and I wanted to help him but very rarely do I ever reply to anything outside of ours, because once you set that precedent, people will take advantage of it. I don’t know that they mean to be malicious, but they just think that hey, I messaged him at night and he answered me, so, therefore, it’s okay for me to ask questions at any time, I would recommend that you know, as your first client, you need to start to learn how to set boundaries right upfront.

Anyways, let’s get back to the question. Sorry, I’m glad that Adam put that into perspective, because I immediately saw that percentage. And my mind went to the mat, my mind always goes to the numbers, where I normally get this company to 100-200k a month recurring for you know, out of if it’s like Costa Rica, where they work around, like, it’s killer money, it’s killer money, but even if it’s seasonal, right, you can’t work in the winter, if what if they’re doing driveways or whatever it is that they’re paving. If they’re laying a concrete slab, you’re talking about 100 k easy and if you charge 10 to 15% of that recurring, then I’m seeing that as a really good deal. If you’re going to be worked to the bone and the client can’t close. Then you got a problem. So thanks for putting that into perspective.

Yeah, not to downplay it. Yeah, definitely just wanted to tell because the way he phrased it that’s what gave me the hesitation. It’s like, Is this good? Like, man, there’s no way for us to know you’re the one who’s got to do that. But you know, congratulations on doing that. That’s good to see. Yeah. And I mean, like I said, Just remember, as your first client, you will make mistakes, there’s no question, you will work harder than you probably should. And that’s okay. Like I said, you’re going to learn from that. So, you know, just keep that in mind. Remember, come back here and ask questions often and we’ll try to provide you as much advice as we can. He says, also, I’m looking for simple services I can use to get me in on getting clients and suggestions. By the way, I love the video lead gen 2xyoruagency. Well, there, there you go. You have the video lead gen system and 2xyoruagency which is great for prospecting and generating prospects, right? Don’t build that pipeline first. Right? And that’s super, super important in through having a full pipeline of prospects and making presentations sending proposals, right so pitching prospects, you will get better, you’re gonna lose money upfront, and that’s okay. But you will get better you’ll be able to polish your presentation and your pitch and your message and all of that. And so just that’s why it’s so important guys to fill that pipeline full of prospects so that you can make those mistakes. And not every prospect that you talk to is going like you depend on them to be able to put food on your table. If because if that’s the case, desperation comes through and everything that you do, and they can smell that from a mile away. And so I think it’s better to have a pipeline full of prospects because then it’s okay, you don’t need anyone of them because you have more behind them. Right, that makes sense. As far as simple services, I recommend getting the most updated version of the battle plan if you don’t already have that. A lot of that was covered in 2xyoruagency anyways, but the battle plan is a very succinct version of what we recommend to get results and timelines for doing so and all of that and it’s very inexpensive. So I’d recommend you pick that up if you don’t have it already.

I’d also say mgyb.co, I mean everything there for you to offer your clients, whatever it is that they want. Everything is their press releases, liquidity and anything and everything that you need to do to produce results for your clients in MGYB.co. And if it doesn’t mean you have a good idea of a product that let us know.

What Is A Money Site?

This is a great question from Josh, he says, And see, guys, this is the thing you know, I think we often forget. Because we’ve been in this industry so long that not everybody understands the terminology. He says one more quick question, what exactly do you mean by money site that means your primary digital asset so like, whatever your primary domain is that you host your, your website for your business on? That’s what we call a money site. Why? Because it’s the site that generates you money, right? A lot of the other stuff that you know, we talked about is tier-one branded entity assets. Again, big terminology for basically meaning like social profiles and stuff that you can build a branded profile or presence on that you’re going to link back to your money site, your money site is your Epicenter, right? It’s your point of origin, it’s the golden frame, you always want to drive, all traffic all leads as much as possible back to your money site, because you have control over that’s an asset that you own and control, having ancillary profiles on social media properties and, you know, web to Dotto properties, and all that kind of stuff is great. And that’s what we do with the SEO shoot as we build all that stuff out. But ultimately, you don’t own those platforms. They could be taken away from you by Google, by YouTube, by Facebook, whatever, at any time. So they’re great to have. They’re great to use. But it’s best to try to use those to push people push traffic back to your money site because you do have control over that. And there’s so much more than you can do that. So your money site is again it’s your self hosted primary domain asset for your business, your company, your project, whatever it may be. Anybody else wants to take a stab at that? Yeah.

It could be your Google My Business website. It could be that it could be your your G site. It could be, you know, a free WordPress blog or blogger, Tumblr, or wherever it is that you choose to blog from, like, you don’t have to have something that’s self hosted. WordPress, are a self hosted domain for you to have a money site. This is like you said, it’s the place where you plan to send people to in order to make money and edit in order to sell your product service or whatever it is that you want people to see or buy. That’s your money site. Why? Because it makes you money. Not to say that there are other places that could make you money like social media, but it’s the primary source of what it is that you’re planning to do. Yeah, that’s a great point because as we talked about a lot of lead gen assets that I have don’t have a self-hosted money site. They are just GMB website.

In other words, the website, the Google My Business provides you which is free. And ultimately you don’t have full control over that Google does. Right. So I, you know, I’m glad Marco brought that up. Because I just mentioned self-hosted website, it doesn’t have to be that recommend that was possible. But there are times where it makes sense to not build a self-hosted website, for example, spammed GMB listings, it might not be wise to go through the trouble of building out a, you know, a self-hosted site because of all the work that goes into it. Whereas, you know, in case it was to get suspended, you lose all of them, the work that you did, essentially. So in that case, you know, the GMB website becomes the primary website for that location. Or another option would be like Marco said, you know, Google Site g site, right, so sites.google.com, that they, Marco and Rob have done several projects using those as the money site, and it works. It works really, really well. So the money site is exactly what Marco described, which is whatever it is that you’re using to make money.

If you’re going to build a brand, I think it’s important to build a self-hosted website with the brand name as the domain name, because you can really grow the authority of that brand and you benefit from that in so many ways. So, it’s a great question though. Alright, so the last question and we’ve only got three minutes left, we’re gonna wrap it up.

What SEO And Lead Gen Contract Do You Recommend?

He says, Lonnie says I’m having trouble with putting an SEO and lead with I’m sorry, with put an SEO and lead gen contract. Do you have any recommended contract forms? No, I don’t, you know, you could probably just go online and find some templates that you could use. I personally don’t like to use contracts I, I mean, I have in the past, but typically, it’s only for bigger companies that, you know, they want the contract. I like to do everything on a verbal agreement. So that and I always say this to potential prospects or customers look, you know, if I’m doing my job, you’re gonna want to continue paying me if I’m not, you’re not gonna want to continue paying me and that’s okay. I also want to be able to part ways from that client if we don’t dive well, we don’t agree on things if it’s just not a good fit, and I don’t want to be locked into a contract either. So I don’t expect my clients to want to be locked into a contract. And sometimes that burns me, for example, I had a home inspector client, that, you know, I very clearly stated what the timeline was going to be on results.

I typically asked for, hey, give me this much time. And before that time had passed before I reached that certain level of time that I mentioned, he canceled services. And I you know, And to me, that’s really unfair for both of us because he wasn’t able to get the results that he wanted, because it wasn’t, you know, fast enough for him even though I clearly stated all of that before we agreed to work together. But at the same time, I put a lot of work into that and it wasn’t able to fully realize the efforts you know, for him or for myself for my own satisfaction because he stopped paying me before all the work had been completed, if that makes sense. Sometimes I wish I did have a contract in place. But for the most part, I like the ability to be able to walk away from a client. And I also like them to know that they don’t, they’re not locked into a contract that kind of eases that.

That low and lowers the barrier to entry, so to speak. However, that said, there might be a difference of opinion here for some of the other guys. And you guys have a suggestion for him.

Now, you know me, I don’t do contracts. I hate him. I hate him. He locks me into everything. And what if I want to go out and maybe the client doesn’t want to go well, what if I want to go? What if I can’t stand the client? I want to go and then I’m bound by a contract for a year with this guy that I can’t stand that knows more or supposedly knows more than I do, which sometimes happens.

If you know how to produce results, then always go, “Look, I’ll give you results.” But record the quality I always record the call that that call. We talk

Bradley, what is going to take this long? I always have that recorded even though there’s no contract and I let the guy know Look, I’m gonna record the call. And then you can always refer revert back to that’s a contract, believe it or not, that’s a contract. Right? And it’ll hold up in most courts. I believe in the US. It’ll hold up, it’ll hold up in Costa Rica.

That’s a good idea. And yeah, if you disclose that right up front, and then get it on the recording, you do agree that this is being recorded, and that’s okay, right.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I’m going to be recording this, I’m just gonna point this way. This way, we can refer back to the conversation, you know exactly what took place. I know exactly what to put in you walk them through, you know that this is going to take about 90 days for results. thereabouts. Because if you don’t, then you go into the process because I have to set everything up. And then we get everything going. I’m probably going to get two results before but I can’t guarantee any Google experience tells me that within 90 days, we should be able to see something, and then we can work from there but I need 90 days from you.

Are you okay with that? Yeah, yeah, sure, you’re gonna get that nine out of 10. So now you have a binding contract now, at the end of it you tell at the end of those 90 days when we meet again, then we’ll decide if we continue.

Now real quick, I know Adam is if you’re still paying attention, I know we’re a little bit over, but I think you have a little bit of a different methodology. Is there any way you can comment on this? Um, yeah, I just I’m trying to think like, I don’t have too much of a difference it’s kind of constantly evolving. But yeah, I mean, as far as contracts go like I stay out of that I’ve never done anything. Okay. Yeah. And then, if he’s looking for actual he may just mean, he’s looking for an outline for like a proposal or an engagement proposal. If that’s the case, just contact support at semantic mastery comm will point you in the right direction. I know Hernan put one out there we had as a free opt-in that you could get as an outline. And that can be really helpful. I mean, I’ve used other people’s as a starting point when I’m changing services.

Adding something in just so that I have a good starting point then you tailor it kind of to your specifics.

Very good. Thank you. Alright guys, thanks everybody for being here is Chris were you gonna says something? I’m sorry. I mean like he is like a lead gen contract. I mean, like why not sell on a per lead basis? I don’t see there’s an issue you can do like a contract that states the price of the elite.

Yeah. So you should be fine that way. It should be super easy.

Sweet. Well, thanks for your input, guys. And thanks, everybody for being here. We will see you guys next week. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 289 published first on your-t1-blog-url