#anyway the gold is in the bookmarks. spread the word

[loverscrossmp3]

hi liv!!! 1 3 9 for fic writer questions!! xxxx

leah!! HII how are u omg!!!!!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

hmmm... i'd say and still the fire burns (sorry i've been on a kick lately! cannot be helped!!) i think as it is my most recent so it obviously reflects my writing style best and is much more developed both character and plot-wise than my others. but cross my heart, cross the line (god i need to come up with shorter titles) also for a more light-hearted approach!

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

the idea and fear of growing up? lots of light motifs! lily being cooler than james by a mile?

9. How do you find new fic to read?

it's called the bookmark method where i go into my favorite authors' bookmarks to find a fic, then read that fic, then read that author's other fics, then go into their bookmarks to find a fic, then-

questions for fic writers

[frogsandfries]

Day one of emptying my link doc went well enough. I think I got through like..... three or four of them? FFN is probably the worst site to try to archive. There isn't even a button to show the whole work and the late-aughts-esque ads are awful. I'm just going to leave the AO3 links in my bookmarks and if there are any searches, get some bookmarks out of them.

If I ever get through this document, maybe then I'll actually bookmark the searches I already have open on my phone. Or, I could sprinkle them into my link document.

In other news, I tried really very hard to focus on typesetting the Time Turner today. I cleaned up the first page of the table of contents. This volume has like four or five pages of table of contents. Instead of typesetting the Time Turner, I spent way too much time fucking around with the idea of Belle as hardened to near-narcissism by the poverty she's faced in her life and the cruelty by her step-mother, and turning that narcissism on the unexpected lord of the castle that looks like it's been abandoned for a century. I've decided that Beast and his (what is word) of freakish, living inanimate objects will have been frozen indefinitely in time while a cloak over the castle makes it look like it's been moving, abandoned, through time, to outsiders.

I'm not, like, actually a writer anymore, so I guess I don't know why I'm getting so invested in a story that I'll never actually stretch into a proper manuscript. I guess the storyteller at my core can only be finally extinguished in one way and one way only.

Anyway, who knows how long Beast has been frozen in time, simultaneously forever a naïve child as much as a...........(fill in the blank, something something, noblesse oblige×wisened by time and books??), so of course, stories have been spread to keep people away from this particular castle. Stories Belle had never heard before ambling into this little village in an isolated valley where she hopes her step-mother, and step- and half-sisters will never hear of her. This Belle is just as stunningly brilliant as the Belle in the original writing of the tale, but being so intelligent was no blessing for a growing girl who had been socially isolated, neglected and verbally marred for more of her childhood than she hadn't.

Even though her stomach is somehow more empty than her purse, Belle resolves to locate this castle--after all, the tales must have a granule of truth to them in there somewhere, and there doesn't appear to have been any nobles looking after this area for a long time. They must have lived somewhere. Belle had always fantasized about her prince charming whisking her off to a kingdom far, far away, where she could wear a new dress made of gems every day. Even long-crumbling ruins of a castle are still a castle, right? Even if there isn't even a speck of gold dust remaining?

Anyway, I got a few paragraphs further than this, but I'm grade A exhausted after my coffee worked a little too well this morning, and I still haven't thought of the end. Belle banished, maybe a Gaston....... idk. Absolutely no ideas. I'm not really one for creating the kinds of endings I occasionally indulge in. Beast of course gets to be Adam, the seventeen year old prince who gets to be among people--his people, and his noble peerage--again and even though he has great compassion toward Belle, he can see through her facade now, to the ugliness within.

[mercurryblack]

Chapter 10: Hattie

The night is but young.

❃❃❃

“Are you done yet? Are you done yet?” Hattie asked, squirming as she repeated her question for what seemed like the thousandth time.

“For the thousandth time, no, I’m not done yet. Stupid three thousand word count.” Cait groaned, slouched over their desk. “I swear, the day I graduate, I’m gonna kick Professor Rook square in the junk… boring old bastard… ”

“Sorry, time’s getting away from me.” Hattie apologized. “You’re still using that trick I told you about?”

Cait shrugged. “Even if I don’t count it as I go, it still feels like I’m never gonna finish it.”

The two had been spending the entire evening in their dorm room; Cait had been working on their assignment since the moment the Armilde sisters had left, and Hattie had been trying to keep herself busy by dusting, staring outside, dusting again, and even going as far as to read a lesson they hadn’t yet covered in class.

Tossing the Modern Remnant History textbook to her side, Hattie fell back on her bed spread-eagled, disappointed at the evening so far. She regretted how she had never really fostered a social life outside of Haven Academy— or much less her team, for that matter.

She had grown up as a ward of the underground Sisterhood, mostly keeping to herself and her small collection of fairytale books back then. Having dwelled for so long down in the habitable mine tunnels that the Sisterhood called home, she had recently found herself wanting to explore the world outside more often, if only to make up for lost time.

Those extracurricular lessons with Professor Gormlaith don’t count, she mentally noted.

Hattie didn’t have many friends, either— ironically, the happy-go-lucky girl could be a lot more introverted than extroverted at times. She knew a few students in their year by name, but not enough to warrant anything closer than a “hello” in the hallways. Plus, she didn’t find it to be much fun going out without her friends, which essentially consisted of LLAC and pretty much nobody else.

Well, there is CMYK, she thought to herself, remembering the team of now-second-years that they had tutored in the previous semester. I bet ol’ Mallow or Kara would have been free at this hour… but they’re all over in Vale helping with the set-up for the Vytal Festival, lucky dogs.

And since Lillian and Amaryllis were out doing their own things, she was left cooped up with Cait, who had been taking their time in writing an essay she had already finished.

“…Don’t you have anywhere else to go, Hattie?” Cait asked, glancing over their shoulder.

Hattie turned, wilting slightly as she did. “Should I leave you alone?”

“Nah, it’s not that.” Cait replied. “I just don’t want you to feel stuck here with me, y’know? You could go if you wanted to.”

Hattie shrugged. “Yeah, but I don’t really wanna. I’d prefer to wait for you rather than leave by myself.”

“Fair. Are we going somewhere after I’m done, anyways?” Cait said, turning back to their writing.

“I don’t know. I mean, Ammy said we can come down to her boyfriend’s family’s charity event, but it sounds kinda formal.” Hattie said, then shook her head. “I’m not in the mood for formal tonight.”

“So you don’t have a plan for this evening?” Cait inquired.

“I was kinda hoping you had that part sorted out,” she said with a lopsided smile. Having hung out with them the most, Hattie had always left the ideas up to Cait— they did always know where to go for a fun time. Also, she tended to worry that she’d make a big plan and it would turn out to be a flop.

Lost for any follow-up, she wondered aloud, “What do you think Detective Yuen and the old guys are up to now?”

“Probably living their nice and worry-free adult life.” Cait said sarcastically.

“Do you think we should give them a call? You know, check up on them?”

“Nah. I’m sure they’re doing fine on their own for one night.”

Hattie grabbed her Scroll from the far edge of her bed and waved at Cait, sticking out her tongue. “I’m gonna do it anyways! What if they’ve finally found the bad guys or something?”

Cait rolled their eyes. “Whatever you say…”

***

Sardion paced back and forth in Yuen’s office, his gaze fixed on the vinyl floor. The day had been yet another bust— Rudyard had hung back at Yaara’s house, while Sardion and Yuen, with little else to do, had returned to the precinct.

“I’m just saying, don’t you think we should give LLAC a call?” Yuen suggested. “They’re part of this investigation too, and we could really use some help right now. Plus, they might see something we’ve overlooked.”

“They’re having a night off, Yuen. I’m sure they have better things to do.” Sardion replied. “You don’t want to tire the young’uns out before they even graduate, right?”

“Maybe.” Yuen sighed. “Hear anything from Rudyard?” 

“Not yet, but he said he’d call if he found anything to go on.”

***

Rudyard stared up to the inky heavens, taking in the starry night sky from Yaara’s old lawn chair, a half-empty bottle of beer loosely grasped in his fingertips.

In the backyard of her humble home, the Huntress had cultivated a small flower garden. In the back of his mind, Rudyard reflected on the visits he had paid her, how she had meticulously tended to them every day; thoroughly watering them, rooting out any weeds, gently humming while she kept her garden impeccable.

Now, seeing as their owner had been dead for a week, the garden had slowly begun to die as well. The bright petals and leaves of the flowers had begun to fade and wilt from a lack of water, and weeds had taken over a small patch of dandelions.

Rudyard rose to pick up a rusty old watering can on the back veranda, then filled it up with a nearby hose. As he let the water trickle down onto the garden’s parched soil, he let out a long sigh— after all she had done for him, it was the least he could do. Eventually emptying the can, he opted to go back inside, as the night air started to grow colder.

Searching for a spot where the police hadn’t tagged or taped anything of interest, he made himself comfortable in a reclining chair in her personal study. Looking around, a single book lying on her desk caught his eye, the tip of a torn sheaf of paper stuck in the pages halfway through. The title on the cover read Eternal Blue Sky, luminescent gold font on a pastel blue background.

“Of course.” Rudyard chuckled to himself. “You would have hated this, Yaara, leaving a book unfinished.” Absentmindedly, he picked up the book and opened it up to the bookmarked page.

He paused.

Written on the scrap of paper in what was unmistakably Yaara’s handwriting was a short message; 1100 apr 23 for further details - stored on hosaki comm log 1138.

“April…?” Rudyard muttered, squinting at the writing. He remembered that April 21st had been the starting date of the last mission on her and Berilo’s record, and it had been marked as remaining within city limits.

He had never heard of a place called “Hosaki” anywhere in Mistral City.

Frowning, he tucked the sheaf of paper into his pocket and rose from the chair, reaching into his pocket. “Wonder what Yuen’ll make of this.”

He paused, fingers fumbling inside an empty pocket.

“…Where’d I put my Scroll?”

***

“Do you know of any other places they might have escaped to?” Sardion asked as he took a closer look at the map of Mistral spread over Yuen’s desk, doing his best to focus despite his inner restlessness slowly clouding his mind.

“Besides the forest, nothing, and if that’s the case then they’re likely long gone by now.” Yuen said, leaning back in her chair. “Maybe the Manju-Shage District, but I doubt it. The whole thing’s cordoned off by a tripwired security fence. There’s no way someone could’ve broken in without us knowing about it.” She continued, tapping her fingers against the armrests in mild frustration.

“Well, maybe they could’ve snuck in, if they had the right Semblance for the job. At this point, I’m ready to try anything if it means we might find a lead,” Sardion paused, sharply exhaling, “Any step we take, no matter how small, is at least a bit closer to the whoever’s behind this.”

“True.” Yuen said, glancing up at him. “After all, there’ve been times that thugs occasionally get the great idea to break in and squat there, to lay low or whatever… you want to check it out, just in case?”

“Might as well. I’ve already got my weapon on me.” Sardion shrugged. “I’ll call up Rudyard first, see if he’s up for it.” He pulled out his Scroll and sent a call to Rudyard’s contact.

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz. A small buzzing hum came from beneath a stack of papers on the right of Yuen’s desk. The Huntsman and the detective exchanged confused looks, before realizing what was making the noise.

“Oh, for the love of…” Sardion muttered, sticking his hand underneath the stack and pulling out a Scroll— Rudyard’s own. “Perfect time to forget this, you freakin’ cueball…” He stuck his Scroll back in his jacket and tossed Rudyard’s onto Yuen’s desk.

“Okay, well, that’s a bust… like I said before, we could call up LLAC.” Yuen suggested.

Sardion was inclined to disagree with her, given that it had been the students’ night off— calling them in for duty at such an hour wouldn’t be the most gracious move. However, he figured that they’d best bring some backup, if only to cover more ground if nothing else.

“Alright, go for it.” he said.

Yuen took out her Scroll and pulled up Lillian’s contact. “Here goes. Hope for the best.”

***

“Why do I always have to be the one to make the food?” Rosario asked, swinging her now-empty basket from one hand as she walked alongside Lillian down the cliffside path.

“You’re a great cook, and I can’t even season my food correctly.” Lillian replied. “Do you remember the last time when I tried to make instant ramen unsupervised?”

“Point.” Rosario said. “You did literally set a pot of water on fire. I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty certain that violates every law of thermodynamics that there is.”

Lillian nodded. “See?”

“Riiiight.” Rosario drawled. “Imagine what adult life would be like. Every night, it’ll just be me greeting you, ‘Welcome home, mi amor! What do you want first? Dinner? A bath? Me?’ And then you’ll go, ‘I’ll have you for dinner in the bath!’”

“I know you’re trying to make fun of me, but you’re drooling, Rosario.” Lillian said, giving her girlfriend a flat stare.

Rosario flushed red, wiping the corner of her mouth. “I am not.”

Lillian snorted.

***

“Damnit, her Scroll’s turned off.” Yuen groaned. “Her sister’s offline as well.”

“Thought so. They have private lives too, you know.” Sardion shrugged, slinging his coat over his shoulders. “C’mon, might as well see if any airships are available and just get this over with.”

Yuen rose from her chair. “Fine. I’ll leave them a message if we do find anything.” Just as she was about to follow Sardion out, her Scroll suddenly vibrated in her coat.

The profile picture that displayed the caller wasn’t Lillian— rather, it was the Lazuli kid calling her.

It’s something, I guess. Yuen thought to herself, swiping to accept the call.

“…Hey, Detective Yuen.” Hattie chirped up on the other end.” How’s it going? It’s Hattie from, uh, Team LLAC. Uhm, we just wanted to check in, and—” She continued, stumbling slightly over her words.

“As a matter of fact, I’m glad you called.” Yuen replied. “Listen, Sardion and I are going to investigate a possible lead down in the old Manju-Shage District, and your help would be very much appreciated.” She hesitated before continuing. “That is, if you’re not already preoccupied.”

***

On the other end of the line, Hattie’s face lit up as she heard Yuen’s invitation. For the moment, she managed to suppress the urge to whoop and cheer out of deference to the still-working Cait. “Nononono, no problem. We’ll be there right away, Detective,” she said, struggling to contain her excitement as she ended the call.

It took her a few seconds before she was able to produce words, since all that was coming out of her mouth were muffled joyful squeaks. “…Cait?”

“Gimme a sec.” Cait replied, holding up a finger.

Hattie paused, her smile falling slightly.

“Cait.” she repeated, her tone becoming  normal.

“Wait, I’m almost done.” Cait said, focused on their computer’s monitor.

“Cait!” Hattie repeated for a third time, her voice rising slightly as she grew irked by their dismissal.

“I said wait, Hattie.” Cait said, still not turning around. “…’Make sure to provide footnotes along with citations’? Aw, what the hell’s the point of that?” they muttered to themself as they reviewed their essay.

Hattie scowled darkly, thoroughly annoyed at the brush-off. After a moment, she tiptoed up next to her teammate’s shoulder and leaned in towards their ear as close as possible.

“CAAAAAAAAAAAIT!” she screamed.

“AUUUUUUUGH!” Cait screeched, jumping up from their seat in shock as they spun around to face her. Their brow contorted, startled and frustrated at the girl’s outburst.

“WHAT?!” they snapped.

Hattie’s expression morphed into a tooth-bared cheshire grin, her attempt at emulating Cait’s own habit.

“I know what we’re gonna do tonight~♪.”

[theangriestpea]

In the Shadows : One

Summary: Jughead Jones, resident werewolf, just wants to protect his family and his back from the incoming doom of The Red Circle. Sweet Pea and Lily join him to help keep the Southside safe from human tyranny. Meanwhile a demon princess named Myra and succubus named Lavender had a plan to bring on the apocalypse. ({coming soon: Ao3 link & Masterlist))

Rating: Mature 

Pairings: Jughead Jones x OC, Sweet Pea x OC, Kurtz x OC 

Warnings: Blood, light violence, cursing

Word Count: 5k+

A/N: Huge thank you to everyone who has supported me through my recovery and an even bigger thank you to @the-gargoyle-queen​ for letting me use her OCs in this fic (Lily and Myra). She is the most amazing friend I’ve ever had and she is my biggest source of inspo as well as my biggest supporter. Thank you for your gorgeous moodboards (like the one up top) and for being my beta <3

Part One: On the Night of the Moon 

Basil. She needed basil, as fresh as possible. Gods, why did she run out at a time like this? Her flashlight bounced across the ground as she tried to find the green plant she so desperately needed to bring down Sweet Pea’s fever. It had spiked so suddenly and she hadn’t even realized that she was out. He had managed to croak out where to find his recipe for a simple potion to bring it down. It was in his grimoire, towards the back where most of his remedies were.

She had everything but basil and all of the plants in her garden seemed to wither at once the day before. It was a sign. A terrible sign that she didn’t even want to think about decoding. But sooner or later she would have to. Something had arrived here, something rotting and horrible. Something that sucked all the magic out of their garden.

Her nervous eyes looked up at the moon, beautiful and full. Full. That was the issue. No one on the Southside went out on a full moon if they knew what was good for them. Actually, no one went out after dark anymore. Not with what has been going on. Not with the red circle and their guardsmen out with guns full of silver. She looked human at least. She had no reason to fear them, per se. But what they were after? That was something anyone would be afraid of whether they were armed or not.

Something caught her eye, bright green leaves sprouting from the forest floor. The light shook in her hands as she dropped to her knees to collect as many leaves as she could without killing it. Who knows when she’d need more. She took out a leather pouch to put them in. That’s when she heard it.

A low, feral growl sounded in the unusually quiet woods. Wolves weren’t much of a danger for witches, not normally. This wasn’t any regular wolf though. It was the creature that had plagued Riverdale with so much death and destruction the past few weeks. It was the catalyst of the rift between those that were human and those that were not.

Dry leaves crunched loudly under heavy paws. The underbrush swayed, adding to the noise that had the fair haired witch frozen in place. The flashlight in her hand moved as she managed to project the light onto the shaking bushes. She didn’t want to see what it was, not really. However morbid curiosity had her looking anyway. Something about wanting to see death’s face before she met him.

Slowly it broke from the brush. A face that probably should have been white was actually grey with smudges of mud. She’d seen plenty of werewolves before, most of them were harmless if their heads were on straight. This one however even smelled like death as frothy drool dripped from its gaping mouth. Eyes a bright sunshine yellow that seemed to glow in the dim light. It was about three and a half feet tall, which made it about a head taller than any healthy wolf.

It wasn’t at full height though. Shoulders were hunched as it crouched low to the ground so that it could spring at any moment. Their eyes were connected and she could not find even a trace of humanity in them. No, this creature was too far gone. Too far settled into madness. She realized that it probably didn’t even know what it was.

Suddenly it shifted its weight onto its back feet before lunging forward with a powerful leap. She couldn’t even scream as terror strangled her.

It happened so fast.

A black blur tackled down the pale wolf that was now in midair. A dark furry mass growled, staining the already dirty fur with red. It was a hard hit but the newcomer did not have a good grip with his teeth. The smaller wolf was thrown off in less than a minute.

Lily grabbed the pouch full of basil leaves and scrambled backwards out of the way. The two wolves fought vehemently, the dark one letting out sharp yelps of pain more than a few times. The white one was thrown back again finally as howls let out in the distance. It seemed to cock its head at the sound before snarling. Promptly, the large wolf turned and bounded away.

Lily shown her light on her savior. His once fluffy coat was slicked back in places with thick liquid that she knew was blood. He wasn’t putting weight on one foreleg. His eyes were on her, a dark gold color with specs of honey. There was sanity in them, a kind of calmness. A breath escaped her chest, one she had not realized that she had been holding.

The wolf padded towards her with a heavy limp. It looked at her curiously, head cocked as if to ask what she was doing here.

That’s right, the herbs! Lily looked at her pouch and saw she had plenty of basil in it now. She bit her lip, looking towards the werewolf before glancing back towards the cottage where she lived in the woods with Sweet Pea.

“Come with me,” she finally said softly, “I can heal you, just come with me.” She stood up and offered her hand to him as if he would take it. Suddenly she felt foolish, a blush light on her cheeks as she put her hand away. “Please, it’s the least I can do.”

She turned, hoping that he’d follow her back. After taking a few steps she heard him behind her, following without any objection. He found himself wondering who she was or, more specifically, what she was. She didn’t smell totally human. In fact, she smelled like warm sunshine on an early summer morning. It was pleasant if not somewhat intoxicating. Hopefully she’d be aware that he could not change back until the moon set. This is the form she’d have to tend to for now.

The walk back was short, only about fifteen minutes. Every time she heard a leaf crunch or twig snap, Lily stopped and listened. She waited for a sign that the vargulf had come back to finish them both off. The dark wolf behind her hadn’t done much damage to it during the fight. It only left because it heard the rest of his pack coming closer. It was sick, not stupid.

Once outside the stone house she looked back at her pursuer. He blinked up at her with those same beautifully captivating eyes. She felt her breath catch in her chest again before unlocking the door and walking inside. “Sweets?” She called out into the darkness. He groaned a response from the worn couch he was laying on, half-conscious.

“I need your help.” She said as she walked in. The wolf hesitated at the entrance, looking behind him, scanning the edge of the woods for any sign of someone following them. Once he was satisfied with the silence of the trees, he hobbled inside.

The door shut behind him on its own. He noticed that the girl had flicked her wrist towards it slowly. A thought clicked on in his brain as realization hit him. She was a magic user, most likely a witch. Though he had never met a witch that smelled as wonderful as she did.

He heard the creaking of furniture and shuffling of feet. A tall man wrapped in a multitude of blankets appeared looking more pitiful than intimidating. He smelled woody, like the earth after a fresh spring rain. It was pleasant and much more witch like, the wolf mused.

The male witch spotted the wolf and halted, a scowl spreading across his face. “You brought that into the house?!” He snapped at the witch who dwarfed in front of him, “Daisy is right in the other room! Are you crazy?” He stepped between the two that had just entered protectively. He cut off the wolf’s path towards the rest of their home.

“Nathaniel, calm down.” Lily said dryly and he flinched at her using his real name. “He saved my life and he’s hurt. I need your help healing him.”

Sweet Pea huffed indignantly, “you know my magic won’t work while I’m sick.” He replied in a sour tone. “Even if I wasn’t sick, it won’t work on him in that form. Did you get the basil?”

Lily rolled her eyes and shoved him out of the way. She walked up to the werewolf who was now sitting on the wooden floor. Her hand softly pet his head between his ears, a warm smile on her face. “Go back to the couch and I’ll clean him up.”

“Him? What about me?” Sweet Pea asked in an offended tone. Shouldn’t he come first? He was her best friend and the father of her child. Certainly she should be healing him and not this stranger donned in fur.

She sighed in annoyance of his obvious jealousy, “I’ll brew your potion first then, okay?” Her voice was heavy with frustration. The warlock on nodded in response before sulking back to his place on the couch, his body lost under the layers of blankets. 

Lily grabbed his moleskin grimoire. He had wanted a leather one but moleskin was all they could afford. She had been saving up for months to buy him one for his birthday. Unfortunately their daughter, Daisy, became extremely ill and needed to see a doctor in town. It was a sickness beyond anything they could handle with simple potions and magics. Every penny she had pinched was gone. 

These thoughts perturbed her as she went to the bookmarked page. A frown was on her delicate face as she began to brew the easy concoction. Hopefully this would be all he needed. They couldn’t really afford another doctor visit. Not without skipping out on a bill or two. 

She added the basil to the part she had already half brewed. Once she finished the rest of the steps, she poured the contents into a mug with a broken handle. Purple tinted steam rose up out of the dark liquid. A light, herbal scent wafted from it. 

The mystery wolf sat in the entryway still, not daring to overstep his welcome by going somewhere he wasn’t supposed to. He watched the sad look on the witch’s face and wondered what caused such a sullen expression. He was frowning too, though you couldn’t really see it. Emotions didn’t translate too well in this form. 

Once the potion had cooled enough so it wouldn’t burn going down, Lily took the mug to Sweet Pea who was almost asleep on the couch. She peeled back the layers of old quilts and crocheted yarn blankets to see his tired face. “Here, Pea.” She whispered to him as she handed over the mug. 

Sweet Pea sat up enough to swallow the earthy liquid. It tasted like soil and was bitter going down, but almost instantly he felt relief. Chills stopped running up his spine as he lay back down. A small cough sputtered from his throat as he closed his eyes. “Thanks, Lils.” He mumbled groggily, the medicine taking effect. 

She watched him fall into the deepest sleep he’d had in weeks. A smile lit up her face as she tucked him in lovingly. The wolf, watching them intensely, mistook this tenderness as affection. It wasn’t. Not truly. Sure they had tried the whole dating thing, tried to make things work even after Lily mistakenly became pregnant. But in the end they were better as friends than lovers. They were compatible, sure, yet not quite compatible enough to last. 

So while it looked like they were a couple, it really wasn’t something so serious. Lily cared deeply for Sweet Pea and he cared deeply for her. But love? They were never in love. It was just the comfort of not being alone that they loved. After all, they had no one else in their lives. Orphans with only each other. 

But of course, he did not know any of this. He didn’t understand the pang of regret he felt in his heart. Especially since he had his own fair haired woman waiting for him on the Northside. Though admittedly things were not so great between him and Betty at the moment. The more violence that the Northside rallied for, the more uneasy it made him, and the less she understood why he found himself not wanting to ever risk crossing the railroad tracks. The only reason he did these days were to see her. 

Lily set the mug down on the small end table next to the couch and walked over to the werewolf. She kneeled down, still smiling that beautiful smile that had his pain fading away. “I guess you can’t change back yet. I’ll still clean you up though, okay?” 

He cocked his head at her, not wanting to be too vocal and wake up the sleeping members of the household. She pet his fur between his ears again, making his mouth open and tongue lull out. It was perhaps the most non threatening image of any wolf that had ever existed. He looked like an overgrown puppy that just wanted attention. 

Which was somewhat true. He did want attention, but only hers. Quickly he cursed himself for even thinking that way. 

Lily got up and motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen. He trotted, nails clicking against the hardwood floors. The sound caused her smile to grow ever so slightly. 

Once they were in the kitchen she went under the sink to grab a few towels and what appeared to be a modern first aid kit. He felt this to be a little strange for a magic user to have, though he truly didn’t know a whole lot about witchcraft and what could and couldn’t be done. 

Simple cuts and burns, bug bites and bee stings, didn’t really need magic. It could be seen as a waste of energy. There was such a finite amount that using it on any little thing was truly a waste. Lily practiced magic when it was absolutely needed and she strictly only used white magic. 

Sweet Pea wasn’t as reserved as her, using all kinds of magic (though mostly black) to do whatever it was he wanted to do. She tried to stop him, tried to get him to change, for black magic always comes with a price. Eventually you will owe more than you can give. This scared her deeply, not wanting to see him hurt in any way. 

Lily put her hand on his head for a moment and closed her eyes, “What is your name?” She asked him then. It wasn’t out loud, rather a voice inside his head and he knew what she was doing. 

“Jughead Jones.” He thought back to her. She drew her hand away, not wanting to use any more energy than she had to. Her smile faltered a fraction and he knew exactly why. It was his surname. Jones. His father was the alpha of the largest wolf pack in Riverdale. Those woods they had been in was his territory and he made sure all of Southside knew that. 

“Jughead,” She repeated out loud and he found himself adoring the way she spoke his name. “Interesting,” she giggled then before wetting one of the rags. “I’m Lily Owens and that’s Sweet Pea on the couch. Just ignore him though, he’s being an overprotective grump because he’s sick.” 

She started to wipe away the blood on his fur. The white rag began to turn pink with it. Jughead sat perfectly still, despite the tiny sparks of pain that flurried through him any time she hit an open wound. If Jughead had anything on the gods’ green Earth, it was control. 

But if Lily had anything it was the master ability of picking up even the slightest changes of body language. It was magic that required no energy for her, so when she did touch these places on him she noticed the way his eyes seemed to change for a fraction of a moment. She found herself apologizing in a soft voice whenever this happened.

“You shouldn’t go back out tonight, in case it comes back. You won’t be able to defend yourself, I don’t think…” her voice trailed as the uncertainty in her heart made it waiver. Some of the places were inches deep from long canines sinking into soft flesh. The blood was thickest there, sticky with clots and almost black.

The healing ability of werewolves was fast but not nearly as fast as legends would have you believe. These cuts would scab and fade within a few days rather than a few minutes. It was totally possible to die from things other than silver bullets, though bullets would certainly do the job faster. Regular leaded ones. Silver bullets were actually quite inaccurate due to their weight and hitting something with on was more based on luck than marksmanship. This was something The Red Circle had yet to figure out. Some legends were created as a protective cover for the supernatural. Silver bullets was one of them.

By the time Lily was done cleaning off most of the blood, the rag she had in her hand was a dark and blotchy red. Jughead felt almost a weight lifted off of him as he could feel his fur no longer clumped together with his viscous life force. To be completely honest this was the cleanest he had felt in a very long time.

The witch didn’t need to convince him to stay. Her offer was quickly accepted. The black wolf nodded his head slowly to show that he would remain there with great appreciation of his hostess.

Lily smiled a beautifully genuine smile as she stood up, tossing the red piece of cloth into the sink haphazardly. She’d deal with it in the morning. As of now it was late, past midnight, and she was exhausted. Daisy would be up early without a doubt, though she’d probably pester her father first.

“Do you want me to get you a blanket or pillow or…something?” She asked, unsure of what a wolf would need for comfort. He chuckled inside his head at her, amused by how much she wanted him to feel good.

His answer came in the form of him limping towards the brick fireplace and laying down, curling into a tight ball of fluff. Lily understood this as a sign of him not needing anything and retreated into her own bedroom to try and get some much needed sleep. Although, to be perfectly honest, she wasn’t sure if she would even be able to knowing she had a Jones in the living room. Would FP come looking for him when he didn’t return home? Hopefully not. 

+++

A purple haired demon clicked her long stiletto nails rhythmically across the oak table, obviously bored out of her mind. Waiting on assignments from her boss was even more tortuous than hell itself. She groaned after looking at the clock for the hundredth time.

The old door that led into the old house creaked and the demon’s black eyes lit up with hope. A petite blonde woman walked in, wearing a dramatically heavy robe. Dark makeup swirled around her equally dark eyes. “Have you eaten?” She asked cryptically.

Lav grit her teeth, almost compelled to tell her to go fuck herself however the small mark on her pulse point burned at the mere thought. “It’s been a few days. As you requested.” She finally replied in a strained voice. She could not disobey, not without severe consequence. Though sometimes Lavender wondered if living in hell would be less painful that walking the mortal realm under the heel of Myra’s boot.

And curse Satan for creating something as monstrous and evil as Myra’s father. The demon which taught her everything he knew. The demon that created an even bigger evil than himself. Probably, Lav thought bitterly, an evil even greater than the devil.

She was so impossibly hungry. The longer she spent on Earth with mortals the more she had to eat just to stay sane. But Myra, oh this fucking creature spawned in the depths of hell, forced her to starve herself for the past two days. It wasn’t good for someone as young as her. It wasn’t good at all.

“Excellent,” Myra said with a feverish grin that showed pointed teeth. “I have a very special conquest for you. There is a warlock in Riverdale. He’s been writing checks his body can’t cash and now my father requires his soul.”

“And that’s where I come in,” Lav drawled out in a bored tone. “You want me to fuck his brains outs.”

Myra snorted back a laugh at her crude comment. “Well, I can’t account for how much brain matter he actually has. Fuck his soul out instead.”

“But he’s a magic user. He’ll know what I am.” Lav countered, knowing that bedding a warlock could be dangerous. There were powerful spells that could seriously harm her kind. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at hiding her own darkness from others. She was easy to spot…if you knew things like her existed and walked the earth at least.

However, none of this was Myra’s problem. Myra’s problem was her father demanded this witch’s soul and her enslaved soul sucker just had to seduce him to get it. It shouldn’t be hard. Lav was good at what she did, whether she hid herself or not. Talent begets talent and her mother had been one of the best.

Lavender was in truth a hybrid. Her father had been human, her mother a demon. Though most demon women were infertile, barren, and totally incapable of breeding; her father had had just enough of a touch of magic to allow her to be conceived. It was nothing short of a miracle. The high ranking demons demanded the girl be recruited for the army of hell. An army that was to rise up and overtake the mortal realm of earth one day.

In short, the apocalypse.

And in the end, the prince of demons himself would have her under his thumb. Well, more specifically his daughter would have the hybrid under her thumb. Asmodeus bragged more often than not about how his daughter was the one to obtain a virile hybrid into the ranks of hell.

“I don’t want you to just obtain his soul, Shoshanna.” Myra added, her voice dropping to something that sounded more grave for a heavier impact. The use of her old mortal name had Lav on edge, “You are to conceive his child.”

Lavender froze, “You want me to have a baby?” She asked, completely confused as to why anyone would want this. She had been told that because she was a hybrid that she was capable of breeding and that any lesser demon would use her for this purpose, but Myra assured her that she was not a lesser demon.

It would seem that Myra, as she had many times before, twisted the truth when she tricked Lavender to serve under her. “And on top of that you want me to kill that baby’s father?”

Myra scoffed, not seeing what the issue could possibly be. “He won’t die. Magic users can live without a soul, in fact it makes them all the more powerful. He will be thanking you by the time you’re done.”

Deep down Lavender knew she didn’t want to do what was being asked of her. She had no desire to have children, at least not at this point in her immortal life. “So I have this child and then what?” Lavender asked, the inverted pentacle on her throat was burning now. It felt like a fire hot brand was being pressed against her sensitive skin just from thinking about how much she didn’t want to do this. 

And if hurt this much at the thought, then what would happen if she actually went through with disobedience? It was beyond sinful. 

“You give the child to me.” Myra replied as if her minion was the dumbest demon that walked the Earth. “I will raise it to follow Asmodeus’ whim just as I was raised and just as I’ve commanded you to. They will join the legions of hell and we’ll be one step closer to our goal.” 

The gears inside the succubus’ brain clicked into place. “My child is going to start the apocalypse?” It was a bit of a reach, however she knew how Myra operated. She knew what the endgame was and she knew what was needed to get there. A child. A very special kind of hybrid to be exact. 

Myra smiled, cruel and wicked, “as it is written. The child will bring hell on mortal Earth.” She moved closer to the young demon and cupped her face in what could almost be seen as a loving manner. “You are the key, Shoshanna, that is why I have cultivated you into the best seductress on this side of Hell. Do this for me and I will set you free.” 

Freedom. The thought rang suddenly, as clear as a church bell in Lavender’s mind. Freedom which she had been dreaming of for over twenty years was now within reach. Bringing on the apocalypse couldn’t possibly be that bad of a price. After all she was already guaranteed her run of the Earth and her fill in the souls of mortal men. What did she have to lose?

The burning disappeared suddenly and all thoughts of deserting the cause vanished with it. “Deal.”

Suddenly the door broke open, a lean and very naked man stumbled in, holding a shoulder that was drenched in thick dark blood. There were a few other scrapes and obvious bite marks across his arms and upper torso, but his shoulder was definitely the worst.

Lav glanced out of the window and saw the sun was rising. The newcomer collapsed onto the stone floor, his breath ragged and rough. Myra moved at a speed that Lav had never seen before, at his side instantly and scooping him into her arms. The purple haired demon watched with growing curiosity.

“Leave us,” Myra demanded then and Lav sighed. She stood and left after giving a small wave by flicking her wrist nonchalantly. Once she was gone Myra began to brush back the man’s dark hair.

He groaned as he rested his head against her, clearly exhausted from the battle with the moon. He couldn’t remember anything that had happened since sundown. He wasn’t even sure how he had gotten here. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was safe within his demon princess’ arms.

“The Jones boy,” Myra practically growled with seething hatred. “He will pay for this.” She could smell his scent all over her lover as well as the death and decay that her rabid wolf had brought. The blood was not all his and that she knew for sure. The wolf just breathed a heavy sigh in response, not knowing who Jones was or what Myra meant by what she said.

Myra chanted a spell in a demonic language that was older than the Earth itself. At once all of the wounds on his body began to close and heal. The magic slowly worked its way throughout his body so that there was nothing left but the blood that had come from his wounds and from his attacker. His mouth was full of it. Coppery and earthy, it was actually a comforting taste.

“Kurtz,” She said softly as he began to fall asleep, his body torn from the change that caused him to run rampant across Riverdale. “Let’s get you cleaned up, my love.” Her voice was light and almost human.

Hazel eyes peered in through the window, watching with an absurd amount of intrigue. In the two decades she had been enslaved to the blonde demon, she had never seen her act…tender. She had brief lapses where she wasn’t quite as horrid but she was never sweet. Lavender thought she was incapable of such things. Myra was so distracted that she couldn’t even feel her presence there right outside the ramshackle house.

That was perhaps a good thing, as Myra would have tortured her with rage had she noticed.

Myra managed to get the man she called Kurtz up and into the bathtub. She ran him a bath of hot water, adding a few herbs into the mix to help soothe his broken body. The change was so hard on him. The madness wracked his body, causing him to shake in the milky bath water.

She grabbed a washcloth and began to scrub away the blood as he relaxed against the tile, his head falling to the side as he fell in and out of sleep. “The white witch, did I get her?” He asked suddenly in a broken voice that had her withered heart wrenching.

“No, not this time.” Myra replied in a tone that showed no disappointment in him. She was too worried to care if the witch was dead or not. He had come close, she could feel that, but the black wolf got in the way.

They had finally crossed paths, light and dark, and Myra feared that she may be too late to stop them. There was one way the final prophecy could fail, only one, and of course those two had something to do with it. At least as far as she could tell. Decoding ancient texts was not an exact science, rather a fine art.

But there was still time, her slave was now on course to become with child. Soon no one would be able to stop her from raising the depths of hell.

“Soon, my wolf.” She said with a bite to her voice now. Anger bloomed as the water began to turn pink. She stared intently at a sprig of fresh lavender that floated by, “We will get her soon.” 

tag list: @the-gargoyle-queen​, @southside-vixen​ @wayward-river​ @redhairdontcare732​ @cigarettesafterserpents​ message me if you want to be added!

[jeserai]

bits and pieces (4/7)

catradora week 2019 day 4 - silver/gold

“There are also many comparisons to heavenly bodies—She-Ra, the sun, C’yra both the moon and the stars—showing again that while they were related, they were also enemies. The moon and stars swallow the sun each night, and the sun rises again each morning. Anyway. Another thing that every myth I have read has in common is that C’yra was the only being—divine or mortal—that could mortally wound She-Ra. But other times, C’yra is referred to as She-Ra’s second sword. Their relationship was volatile, built on blood and war, but when their morals—She-Ra’s need for justice and C’yra’s need for retribution—collided, it was said that the earth and even the sky would tremble at their combined wrath.”

This late at night—and on a Friday night, at that—the library is blessedly empty, and Adora deposits her things on the desk before making herself comfortable. Thesis work isn’t due until the end of the year, but she’s seen time and time again how much procrastination had hurt the seniors in the years before her. Besides, she’s actually excited and interested in her topic: a comprehensive study of ancient Etherian gods and how they helped shape modern culture. After going over various research with her professor and his husband, they’d decided that focusing on only a few of the gods would be a much easier task, given the extensive lore and research.

So for now, Adora is researching the most well-known and celebrated Etherian god, She-Ra. She’d been able to peruse her professor’s extensive collection of Etherian artifacts, and at his insistence, even borrow whatever she wanted for her research. (“Anything for a fellow palaeophile—and please, call me George.” her professor had said, beaming.)

All Adora had taken was a small mountain of paintings and texts—both translated and left in their original language—she wishes now that she hadn’t been so shy about it, but the first draft of the thesis won’t be due for about a month, so she has more than enough time.

For now—

Adora begins to look through the pictures she’d taken, trying to get a feel for the god she is now studying; fishes her phone out of her pocket and starts a new voice memo to record her findings. “I’ve just started my research on the Etherian goddess She-Ra for my thesis, a comprehensive study of ancient Etherian gods and how they helped shape modern culture. That title may change later, but for now—She-Ra. From what I already know, she was kind of the leader of all the other gods. Here it says…” Adora skims the glyphs and continues, “she is the defender of order, uniter of all lands, king of the gods. Often times, she is seen with her weapon of choice, the Sword of Protection.”

Adora pauses the voice memo to read through a paperclipped bundle of text; interspersed are sticky notes with scrawled notes and corrections by Lance and George. When she’s finished, she unpauses it to say, “So far, She-Ra is the only god to have a sort of mortal enemy that was also a god: C’yra. Both are Etherian war goddesses, avenger of wrongdoings, night huntress, mistress of slaughter. It seems that while She-Ra fought for balance and good, C’yra fought for whatever side pleased her. She was invoked by the ancient rulers before battles, and demanded a sacrifice upon victory.” Squinting at the glyphs on the well-worn scroll in front of her, Adora reads, “She-Ra never demanded any kind of living sacrifice, only prayers.”

There are paintings of the two goddesses on tablets and scrolls covering her desk; She-Ra holding up a sword, a shining beacon of hope and divine retribution, C’yra, feline-headed, snarling, daggers in both hands. Even from just the images, Adora can feel C’yra’s bloodlust and rage, She-Ra’s cool partiality to justice.

“So far, out of all the Etherian gods that I have studied, C’yra and She-Ra are definitely the most interesting—in most of the myths and paintings of them, they are pictured as mortal enemies, but I have also read that they were comrades, both on the battlefield and off. My professor wrote that some myths say that they used to fight for good together until some major breaking point forced them apart—he only had half of the tablet with the story, so he doesn’t know what—and his husband writes that they were always enemies, and only fought together when their morals aligned. But…there was—here it is,” Adora reaches for another wellworn scroll and reads, “in summary, a legend that when one of C’yra’s eyes was gouged out, She-Ra plucked the brightest star from the sky to replace it. There are also many comparisons to heavenly bodies—She-Ra, the sun, C’yra both the moon and the stars—showing again that while they were related, they were also enemies. The moon and stars swallow the sun each night, and the sun rises again each morning. Anyway. Another thing that every myth I have read has in common is that C’yra was the only being—divine or mortal—that could mortally wound She-Ra. But other times, C’yra is referred to as She-Ra’s second sword. Their relationship was volatile, built on blood and war, but when their morals—She-Ra’s need for justice and C’yra’s need for retribution—collided, it was said that the earth and even the sky would tremble at their combined wrath.” There comes then the quiet tap-tap-tap of nails on the door, so Adora pauses the voice memo again and glances back at the door as it opens.

“Figured you’d be in here,” Catra says. She sounds fond, amused as she sweeps aside a pile of papers to sit herself on the desk. She looks at all the work spread out and makes a disgruntled face before rolling her eyes. “I hope you know what a huge nerd you are, Adora.”

“Shut up,” Adora mumbles, but it’s automatic, and there is no malice in her words. “I didn’t want to wait to start my thesis, and besides, I actually really like what I’m studying.”

“Is that so? What is all this junk, anyway?” Catra picks up the closest paper to her—a copied image of C’yra; from here, Adora can’t tell which one.

“Well, that’s C’yra, one of the Etherian war goddesses. I think you’d actually like her.”

“What do you mean, actually?” Catra sounds offended, but Adora just rolls her eyes and scoots her chair closer so she sits between Catra’s spread legs.

“You’re always telling me how boring class is.”

“Yeah, the class is boring. I would’ve dropped it if not for a certain pretty blonde girl though.”

Adora flushes pink and ducks her head to hide her flustered smile; then leans her head on Catra’s thigh as her girlfriend reads to herself. “Avenger of wrongdoings, night huntress, master of slaughter? I like her.”

“Mistress,” Adora corrects automatically, and then, “I figured you would. I’m telling you, they’re both so interesting!”

“C’yra and…” the sound of more papers rustling, and Catra’s thigh tenses under Adora’s cheek as she shifts. “She-Ra?”

“Yeah, another Etherian war goddess.”

“Yeah, I like C’yra better. Anyway—I’d ask if you ate, but I know you haven’t.” As if on cue, Adora’s stomach grumbles, and when she looks up to give Catra a sheepish little grin, she just rolls her eyes and tugs on Adora’s ponytail. “We’ll stop by somewhere on the way home. I could go for a milkshake—you’re buying.”

“Can I finish this first? Please? Their stories—”

“Will be here for you to decipher tomorrow, nerd,” Catra interrupts. “Even if this C’yra sounds pretty cool. The Bright Star, huh?”

Adora pushes herself to sit up, rests her elbows on Catra’s thighs and ignores the way she hisses (“your elbows are fucking bony, Adora,” Catra always says) and nods. “You’re really getting better, I’m proud of you!”

“Yeah, well,” Catra shrugs. “Nerdy dead languages aren’t my thing.” But Adora can tell that she’s pleased at the compliment by the way the corners of her lips twitch up into a self-satisfied grin.

“Then how about I’ll keep researching and you can listen to me talk?”

Catra huffs out a sigh and shakes her head, amused. “You’re not gonna give this up, huh? Fine, ten minutes and we leave, it’s late.”

“Thank you!” before Catra can change her mind, Adora leans up to kiss her cheek and then grabs one of Lance’s books that he’d bookmarked for her. She stands so Catra can sit in her chair, and when Catra is comfortable, Adora sits as well, relaxing automatically as Catra’s arm wrap around her middle. It should be uncomfortable in the tiny chair, and it is, a little, but the little bit of intimacy makes it more than worth it.

After unpausing the voice memo again, Adora clears her throat and says, “I’m reading Myths of Ancient Etheria, the first section that is bookmarked. In summary, it says that the first time She-Ra and C’yra fought together was to rid Etheria of a scourge on the land. She-Ra, of course, felt it was her duty to restore the balance between good and evil, and the scourge—the Horde—fell out of C’yra’s grace when they destroyed one of her temples and a village that worshipped her. Even the sun and moon paused to watch the battle at its fiercest—Etheria’s first eclipse.”

From behind her, Catra makes a tiny, appreciative noise, and Adora bites back a grin. She knew Catra would enjoy this too. “This was also where C’yra became known as She-Ra’s second sword. The battle was so important to Etherian history because none of the gods worked together, ever. So having She-Ra and C’yra, mortal enemies, fight together on the battlefield, for humans, at that? C’yra was also known to be hot headed, stubborn and prideful, so her coming to She-Ra at all would have been considered something hugely important. I—”

“Second sword,” Catra nudges her, impatient and just a little bit petulant, “what about the second sword thing?”

“Right, right. As I said earlier, She-Ra always carried her Sword of Protection—its jewel in the center was said to shine brighter than even the North Star—and C’yra primarily used smaller hunting knives or daggers. This again perpetuates their sun, moon and stars theme: She-Ra’s sword bright and big, C’yra’s knives smaller and more inconspicuous. But as for being She-Ra’s second sword, this was because of the way they fought together; like they were on the same wavelength. She-Ra was bigger and mainly used brute force—no one else, not even the other gods, could lift her Sword—but C’yra was smaller, and like her title of night huntress, faster, more cunning. Nothing could ever hurt She-Ra, but even if things could, no one could get the chance, because when they fought together, C’yra took any enemy that even tried to sneak passed She-Ra’s line of sight. Her second sword.”

“Oh—another thing to note. The ancient Etherians believe that gold was indestructible, blessed by the gods. This belief was spread because of She-Ra: gold for immortality, blessings, and the sun. C’yra, despite being a god, has no sign of gold anywhere but for her eye, the one given to her by She-Ra. This again perpetuates the idea of gold being a sign of healing and indestructibility. Silver was instead associated with C’yra, for its symbolism of destruction, repentance, and neutrality. Even today, silver can be seen as a symbol for deceptiveness and cold; calling back to C’yra’s neutrality in her morals. Statues of She-Ra and C’yra are done in gold and silver perspectively; their temples were full of riches to show the people’s respect.”

This time, when Catra nudges her, Adora glances up at the clock. 2:46 am. She disentangles herself from Catra’s grip and stops the voice memo for good this time before settling back into Catra’s warmth; suddenly, without the buzz of new knowledge and research, she’s exhausted. “I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“You do tend to do that,” Catra sounds beyond fond, but she lets go of Adora to gently push her up after a moment of quiet. “Now can we go? I’m exhausted.”

“Fine, fine,” Adora huffs. She packs her things as quickly as possible—Catra doesn’t help, just sighs every few seconds as if that will somehow make things go more quickly along—and when she’s done, (“god, finally,” Catra says petulantly,) she reaches out for Catra to hold her hand. “Thank you for coming to get me, and staying with me even though it’s so late…”

“You would’ve done the same for me,” Catra shrugs. “And I guess it wasn’t too boring, besides. You picked a good topic, Adora. You’ll do well on your thesis too, I know it.”

Adora is grateful for the darkness now surrounding them; her cheeks are flushed pink and she knows Catra would tease her endlessly for it. “Thank you, really.”

“I didn’t do anything, dumbass,” even without seeing her face, Adora can practically see Catra rolling her eyes, “you don’t have to thank me.”

(And that gives Adora the oddest sense of déjà vu—she dismisses it, because yeah, of course she’s heard Catra say that before, she says it all the time.) “Then how about I buy you dinner?”

Catra snorts out a laugh and squeezes Adora’s hand, trapping her against the closed car door before leaning in to kiss her quick. “Why, Adora, are you flirting with me?”

“Is it working?”

Adora feels Catra smile wide against her lips before she kisses her again, again. When she pulls back, she looks soft, fond. “Buy me dinner and maybe you’ll find out.”

1 - 2 - 3 - x - 5 - 6 - 7

[popliar]

namseok fic links pt 2

more namseok fic links! for namseok_week on twt

this post includes a ton of namseok+others ot3 links too!

usual disclaimer: I bookmark so many things and sometimes I don’t remember why… but these are all readable and worth a click imo!

part 1 namseok links is here | other fic links here 

Hoseok/Namjoon

Strike A Pose - hope_and_hardship Hoseok/Namjoon. "Hoseok and Namjoon are Instagram models who are both just starting to make a name for themselves. It turns out they have a lot in common. The trouble is they don’t like each other very much." 10,500 words.

Happy Friendship Time - almostblue (fictionalaspect) Hoseok/Namjoon. "Namjoon takes a deep breath. "I thought--that you'd maybe--and we don't have to stay here, we could go out, sometimes--there's this really pretty park I've been meaning to go to, and this great restaurant I think you'd really like--"

"Oh," Hoseok says, and tries to ignore the flipping sensation in his chest. "Oh. You want to like. Have a standing…" Date, he thinks. No, wait, don't say date. "...Happy Friendship time?"

Namjoon presses his lips together, looking like he's trying not to laugh. "Yes," he says earnestly. "Yes. I would really like that."

"Well, damn," Hoseok says, all of his feelings swimming around in his chest, like he's a goddamn living fishbowl or something. This is a bad idea. This is such a bad idea. "Awesome. Sure. Let's get it."" 11,700 words.

when the moon rises - niveuos Hoseok/Namjoon. "Namjoon, self proclaimed human disaster, makes out with Hoseok, his Super Cool best friend, while they're drunk at a college party. Oh, and Hoseok is also probably the love of his life, so he's pretty sure he's just basically ruined absolutely everything between them. (Spoiler alert: he hasn't.)" lots of pining and misunderstanding! 22,000 words.

no one's got me quite like you - morsku Jimin/Yoongi, Hoseok/Namjoon. "Hoseok's had a bad luck streak in his relationships and Yoongi has always been there to pick him up, dust him off and send him towards new disappointments. Except this time, Hoseok accidentally finds the love of his life, no one around Yoongi is single anymore and the tables get completely turned when Jimin barges into Yoongi's life like he owned the place." 13,100 words.

in the heart of the light - jesspava Hoseok/Namjoon. "Hoseok doesn’t hide the way pain crosses his face. “You’re going to cite our non-fraternization policy at me, aren’t you?” he says. “Yessir.” “God,” he laughs, bitter. “I hate how well I know you.” (military AU inspired by descendants of the sun)" 13,100 words.

The Prince's Wingmen - smiles Seokjin/Yoongi, Hoseok/Namjoon. "It had been assumed that the fuss and borderline-intrusive interest in the crown prince's nuptials would eventually subside once he and his groom were married. This, of course, did not happen, and so the task fell to the royal biographer Kim Jisoo to interview, collect, and in all ways assemble the story of how Namjoon met and fell in love with Hoseok. As Prince Namjoon's closest friends, Yoongi and Seokjin have a lot to say about their role in the happy couple's pairing. And a lot more to say about each other." 23,400 words.

under the blazing sun - bananas  Hoseok/Namjoon. "That night, as he lay in his rickety bed, thin sheet barely covering his sweat-soaked body and his defenses suddenly all but non-existent, all Namjoon saw when he closed his eyes was Hoseok's radiant smile, glowing like the sun, and he thought to himself, he wouldn’t mind letting the light from this sun blind him. or namjoon has photophobia and hoseok is the sun" surfer hobi. 20,200 words.

miscommunifection - KingOfHearts709  Hoseok/Namjoon. "“And... I just want...” Namjoon freezes, why does this sound so serious? Why is Hoseok playing with his hands? “...be my boyfriend.” OR Namjoon gets an ear infection, and admittedly, context clues aren't always the best to rely on." 3800 words.

told you with a smile - pardon  Hoseok/Namjoon. "Namjoon can be evasive. Hoseok figures out why." 1000 words.

Secret Santa's Who's Who - emerald_bard  Hoseok/Namjoon. "FROM: Kim Taehyung TO: Kim Namjoon Your participation in this year's Secret Santa drawing is mandatory. I need an even number of particpants. And you can't say NO! You owe me too many favors." office au. 4900 words.

Bring Me Back Down to Earth - Katuize  Hoseok/Namjoon. "Sometimes Namjoon needs someone to get him out of his head. When he needs someone, he goes to Hoseok." caregiving, hurt/comfort. 1100 words.

we will fly well - Miralana  Hoseok/Namjoon. "Namjoon and Hoseok just want to have a nice dinner and maybe fuck somewhere where their children can't interrupt them every five seconds. (They just hope that Seokjin doesn't accidently microwave them while they're gone.)" hot and funny and sweet. 4600 words.

Pink in the Night - updownandsideways  Hoseok/Namjoon. "Maybe there's a few perks to being stuck at the kids' table every christmas party after all."  7400 words.

Like The Moon To The Sun - AttesTaetion (BTS) Hoseok/Namjoon. "“Joonie.” It’s said softly. Gently and sweetly. Hoseok is speaking to him the way Namjoon typically speaks to the little animals he comes across during his walks in the park. In a way that’s meant to soothe them. To let them know that he doesn’t mean any harm. Because he cares for them. Because they’re cute and small and he thinks they’re adorable. Basically, Namjoon has a bad day and Hoseok is there to take care of him." 5800 words.

yesterday, today, tomorrow - tsukishirohana  Hoseok/Namjoon. "Namjoon breaks up with Seokjin. He tries to put himself back together." the first 2/3 of this are about namjoon trying to get over jin and it's sad esp if you ship namjin. but the last chapter is namseok sweetness! 61,300 words.

a house made of cards (and us inside) - agustxxx, honeyboyyoongi  Hoseok/Namjoon. "Being the generally fearful person that Hoseok is, most people would think that when faced with a grim reaper, Hoseok would run the other way screaming, which is fair. But then again, most people don’t know that Hoseok’s boyfriend is the King of Hell." 10,700 words.

Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi

Little Admirer - gusgiis (rravii)  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "Looking back out into the sea, Hoseok spots a glint of purple hair and a grin spreads on his lips. "Our admirer is here." Hoseok remarks, making Yoongi smile as well." Hoseok is a demon, Yoongi is a witch and Namjoon is a siren. Cute! 9500 words.

whoever’s got you got gold - wildlikeawolfpack  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "hoseok (very much human) meets yoongi and namjoon (far from human). he offers them his blood and his hands to hold." 7700 words.

want oceans to part, overcome in a war of hearts - morelenmir  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "Yoongi enters the little house with a clatter, blinking through raindrops in his eyes at the figure in front of the cast-iron stove. "Seok-ah," he calls, wrestling with the buttons of his yellow raincoat and the plastic bags digging into his fingers. "I need a hand--" His voice whips away into nothingness. The groceries hit the floor, eggs cracking open inside the bags. Namjoon stares up at him from where he kneels, firewood still in his hands. Yoongi takes a faltering step forward, fingers opening and closing on empty air. Namjoon smiles. "I'm home."" fantasy au. 2300 words.

Poly rapline au - runchrandom “Poly rapline au where namjoon is trying to get dressed but he left his jeans on the washing line the night before and has to make a dash outside in his boxers and shirt & hears a whistle from an upstairs apartment balcony where he can see boyfriend sope drinking coffee & watching”

Space, I Guess That's What I Choose - DefaltManifesto  Yoongi/Hoseok/Namjoon. "Yoongi doesn’t purr. He never has. It’s in the movies as a sign of the ultimate love and devotion, something everyone knows is bullshit but all it does is remind him that he’ll always be alone. The truth is, Omegas purr for all sorts of reasons. It’s a way to self-soothe the doctors say. He’s not sure what came first with him – the depression or the lack of purring, but the psychiatrist says it doesn’t matter. The anti-depressants he’ll start taking won’t let him anyways. His mother cries as he takes the slip from the psychiatrist. “It’s fine,” he says on the way home. “I’m not any good at soothing myself anyways.” Her hands turn white as they grip the steering wheel. “That’s not the point.”" follows canon timeline quite closely. 8700 words.

your body calls me - momentsinlove  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "just really soft rapline with hoseok and namjoon taking care of yoongi" 2600 words.

shawty you can get blazed - marienadine  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "Namjoon knows it’s going to be one of those nights the second Yoongi crawls into Hoseok’s lap." 2000 words.

we never sleep (we never try) - psikeval  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "There’s a joyful sort of fluttering in her throat, like something bubbling up and aching with how happy it makes her feel. Just this, the two of them waiting here for her, in love with each other and with her. Never stops feeling like a miracle." yoonji and her 2 bfs. very porny. 4100 words.

Bound Together - landofpromise (BTS) Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "“How is everything? How are you and Hoseok handling final year?” “Ah, it’s going okay,” Namjoon says, then supplies, “Hoseok has a boyfriend.” “Oh, that’s why you’re acting like this,” his mom smiles solemnly. There's a reason that Namjoon doesn't feel jealous about that.” 7800 words.

Logical Thinking - Only_A_Fangirl  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "“What’s the favor you wanted?” Namjoon asks.“Right,” Hoseok says. “So, I drank a little bit yesterday, and I got this really good idea. And then I sobered up and the idea was still good, so… here I am.”“What is it?” Yoongi asks.Hoseok takes a deep breath, looks at Yoongi pointedly for a few seconds, “Let me suck your dick.”" a huge novel of porn and feelings, i respect this so much!!! 135,100 words.

So You're Still Thinking Of Me - emlisy  Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "The classic ‘who in your otp is scared of spiders and who begrudgingly removes them’ that grew a mind of it's own and turned into long term boyfriends yoonseok slowly falling in love with their kindhearted neighbor Namjoon." 35,200 words.

Someone to Save Me; Someone to Love Me - eightninetwo  Namjoon/Hoseok/Yoongi. "Two's company, three's a party— Namjoon's just looking for a new companion, but he ends up with a whole lot more." the one where he adopts a dog! 17,100 words.

In my eyes, in my heart, you are there - sassy_ninja  Hoseok/Yoongi/Namjoon. "Hoseok starts off with everything and ends up with nothing. He starts off alone and ends up with a family. He starts off scared and he ends up braver (I mean he's still scared of spiders, but that's what boyfriends are for aren't they?) Or Yoongi offers the homeless guy outside his apartment block a warm place to stay in the middle of a Seoul winter and he ends up with Jung Hoseok." 6600 words.

You were holding on to make a point - bambambams (phanjessmagoria) Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "When he exited the bathroom, sweatpants slung low on his hips, Hoseok's shirt had been removed, Yoongi's lips closed around his collarbone. Namjoon stopped short, smirking, more amused that Yoongi had waited until he was absent to start anything. He was like that, Namjoon had found—enough of a brat, even though he was the oldest of the three of them—but he knew the agreement that they had, too. He wasn't supposed to touch or kiss or lick or bite or anything until they were all together. It wasn't that Namjoon was jealous. None of them were—they, and their relationship, had evolved beyond that. It was simply that the three of them had agreed to always be just that—the three of them. Yoongi hated being left out and had been the one to propose that particular stipulation for their relationship. So, really. He should have known better." 7600 words.

how, or when, or from where - moonsuns   Namjoon/Yoongi/Hoseok. "Stop calling it my quest,” Namjoon whines, and Hoseok laughs. “You’re the one that said it first.” “I was drunk.” “Well, the bad thing about going out with people, is that you can’t take back the stupid shit you said when you were drunk. Especially when they’re way less drunk than you.” Or, after Namjoon almost dies, he decides to go on a quest to live his best life, and takes Yoongi and Hoseok along for the ride." 28,100 words.

Lonely Night - realface  Namjoon/Yoongi/Hoseok. "It starts, as most things in Namjoon’s life does these days, with a tweet." 2400 words.

Can’t Look Back, Can’t Look Too Far Ahead - teenuviel1227  Yoongi/Hoseok/Namjoon. "It started as directorial help for their sex tape--but what’s a couple to do when their bestfriend is the best at directing? Or Namjoon helps Sobi film a sex tape and gets caught up in the action too." 2700 words.

I Guess That's A Yes - rravii  Hoseok/Yoongi/Namjoon. "Hoseok is 19 when he ruins his first relationship by falling for someone else and eventually cheating with them. Hoseok is 22 when he falls for someone else again while in a committed relationship, but this time, he doesn't ruin it." 13,300 words.

Different - rravii   Hoseok/Yoongi/Namjoon. ""Come home with me." Based off of the INU/Prologue/Run MVs loosely." 4000 words.

Coming Home - busan_brat  Hoseok/Namjoon, Hoseok/Yoongi. "For Namjoon and Yoongi, home isn't a place. It's a person." Overwritten prose, underwritten everything else, but I'm into the pairings. 21,200 words.

and this is my one rapline ot3:

Simple Maths Hoseok/Namjoon/Yoongi. "Namjoon, Hoseok, and Yoongi go on a holiday, share a bed, get drunk, and fall in love - not in that order." 6500 words.

Hoseok/Jimin/Namjoon

thought i'd ask you just the same - pearl_o  Hoseok/Jimin/Namjoon. "Like so many things, it's Jimin's fault. Or to Jimin's credit, maybe, is more fair, though that might just be Namjoon getting hung up on semantics." 1800 words.

i'd be lying if i said (i wanna be your friend) - raviolijouster  Hoseok/Jimin/Namjoon. "Hoseok’s head tilts to the side, a bright smile on his face. Namjoon turns to see a corresponding smile on Jimin’s face. This is a bit much, he thinks." cute! 19,700 words.

so show me, i'll show you - marienadine  Hoseok/Jimin/Namjoon. "He’s not special like Namjoon and Hoseok. If they’re stars, Jimin is a cold little moon. He only shines when he’s reflecting someone else’s light." 2100 words.

Smile At Me Like You're Dying To Say - Zee  Namjoon/Hoseok/Jimin. "Namjoon has been sitting on his ass and pining for Hoseok and not making a move for six months when Park Jimin shows up, does the opposite of all that, and ruins Namjoon’s chances forever. Or at least, that’s what Namjoon predicts will happen." 5200 words.

Goodnight Kisses - joonphases  Hoseok/Namjoon/Jimin. "Hoseok is tired, grouchy, and touch-starved. Namjoon and Jimin are waiting for him at home, ready to remind him how much he means to them." 2400 words.

Hoseok/Jungkook/Namjoon

body & soul - rapmonied  Hoseok/Jungkook/Namjoon. "Jungkook and Namjoon have been dating for almost two years. Emotionally, Jungkook has never felt more elated with someone. Namjoon’s all praise, and kissing and holding and talking and listening. Jungkook and Namjoon’s hearts were definitely in sync. Physically, however, there was a different story. Namjoon was gentle and soft and Jungkook sometimes likes to be held down and treated roughly. Enter Jung Hoseok." 10,600 words.

2/2/3 - cobbleles  Hoseok/Namjoon/Jungkook. "There is plenty of fish in the sea, two and two and three. Or: Hoseok wants to see other people and Namjoon agrees. Prompt - Secret Relationship." 9900 words.

namkookhope au by jellyfishes Namjoon/Hoseok/Jungkook. "NAMKOOKHOPE AU 💕 jungkook is looking for something casual, he signs up to tinder & meets namjoon. he’s in an open relationship and not looking for anything srs. so it’s fine if he starts sleeping w his dance teacher jhope too, right? what could go wrong?"

Speed - topbun (TrappingLightningBugs)  Jungkook/Hoseok/Namjoon. "When the force assigns him to go undercover to bust the head of a gang, Jungkook thinks he can handle it. But, when he meets drug-dealer Hoseok and street-racer Namjoon, who have an arrangement where they exchange speed for sex, they drag him in deeper than he ever intended to go. Deeper than he might ever be able to come back from." 38,600 words.

Hoseok/Namjoon/Seokjin

With sudden fall, it trails a thunderous ruin - monbon  Hoseok/Namjoon/Seokjin preslash. "Seokjin attempts to protect his crown from two usurpers." bake sale dads! 5300 words.

Something Brewing Between Us Three - merryofsoul  Hoseok/Namjoon/Seokjin. "Hoseok leans his body into Namjoon’s with a soft sigh as they watch Seokjin walk out, but perks up a little when Seokjin stops in the doorway and turns back. “It’s bean a pleasure,” Seokjin calls, and then starts laughing at himself as he leaves the cafe. Namjoon and Hoseok stand in shock for a few seconds before Namjoon says, “Oh my god.” or; Namjoon and Hoseok work in a coffee shop, and a cute customer starts to flirt with them." 11,700 words.

Can't Spell We Without W(you and you) - gbyesummer (shouldshy)  Hoseok/Namjoon/Seokjin. "“We’re going out tonight,” Namjoon says. “You should come with.” Hoseok sits up and narrows his eyes. “I don’t think Jin would appreciate me being invited on your date without asking him first.” “It’s not... like a date-date. It's a friend-date." or: Hoseok loves that they’re a close group of seven, but seven is six plus himself, and six is an even number. He's the seventh in a group with three (well, two and one almost-couple) couples. He’s a seventh wheel." I LOVE. 12,900 words.

Hoseok/Namjoon/Taehyung

i want it? i got it - brightlight   Hoseok/Namjoon/Taehyung. "“And what if I was asking? What if I asked what you want?” Taehyung enjoyed the way this put-together, successful man seemed to be shy at this, the way he looked flustered. Namjoon swallowed, looking at him. “I want you to meet my husband.” Hoseok and Namjoon live comfortably, and now Taehyung does too." 6000 words.

time to bring this ship into the shore - sugarlizard  Hoseok/Namjoon/Taehyung. "“Hoseok hyung,” Taehyung says dramatically. “You know that you’re totally the one that got away for our Namjoonie, right?”" eh. 6900 words.

come closer - pardon  Hoseok/Namjoon/Taehyung. "Namjoon tries so hard to be strong, like he thinks he’s responsible for holding everything together. He’s so painfully introspective sometimes, it makes Hoseok want to tear his hair out and plant comforting kisses on any bit of his face he can get to at the same time. Every time it's too much Hoseok and Taehyung are there, with soft assurances and gentle reminders that they’re there to help – that they want to help." 4700 words.

lay your head on summer's freckled knees - pearl_o  Hoseok/Namjoon/Taehyung. "Taehyung can never find the right words to describe their situation. Hoseok and Namjoon aren't Taehyung's boyfriends, but they always have room for him when he needs it." 4900 words.

pour yourself onto my heart - toxicmew  Taehyung/Namjoon/Hoseok. "Taehyung's always been a bit weak for cats but it's worth mentioning he's even weaker for the hot piece of ass knocking on his window looking for his." 10,400 words.

More...

hold me tight - hobipd  Jungkook/Hoseok/Yoongi/Namjoon. "Anyway, the thing Jeongguk likes... It might sound a bit strange for a 19-year-old boy, to be into something like this. This being BDSM. Bondage in particular." 15,000 words.

Steals and Deals - idyllic_hummingbird  Hoseok/Namjoon/Seokjin/Yoongi. "Boyfriends Namjoon and Yoongi sometimes commit petty crimes to get by. When Yoongi hears about a rich CEO going out of town, he convinces his boyfriend that an attempted heist couldn't hurt. Little do they know that the CEO's son, Seokjin, was given housesitting duties, and brought his boyfriend along for company. or, namgi are terrible burglars and 2seok are amused about it." 13,000 words.

Just a little bit (is what you need) - pacajins  Yoongi/Hoseok/Namjoon/Seokjin. "When you spend so much time with someone, living together and doing everything with one another, some things are probably inevitable. Like taking care of each other's needs and making sure the frustration doesn't interfere with work." 3000 words.

[themagiciansreccenter]

Author Spotlight @echomoon

Every week we are going to be interviewing a writer from The Magicians fandom. If you would like to be interviewed or you want to nominate a writer, get in touch via our ask box.

First things first, tell us a little about yourself.

what up im jared, im 19 and i never learned how to fuckign read. JK my name is Theo and I super know how to read. Most of the time. Also I’m 22. Anyway I’m one of the more OG members of the Magicians fandom, having been here since back in the early days of early s1. Uhhh I’m nonbinary and hella queer. Metafic is my most favorite thing in the world other than puppies. I cry at least once a day. I have adhd and depression and chronic pain and hella other issues. I’m an anthropology major, in my third year. I’m a slytherin, an illusions discipline, and a pisces.

How long have you been writing for?

Since I learned how, basically, but I only really started posting things online because of the Magicians and also because of Twilight?

What inspired you to start writing for The Magicians?

It’s the BEST and I find it very easy to write from Quentin’s pov which means I actually finish things sometimes lol.

Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write? What it is about them that makes them your favourite?

Quentin, because he is essentially me if I was born as a cisdude except more repressed in terms of sexuality and also more wealthy, which makes him super easy to write and super easy to get ideas about. I also like Penny, because for some reason people think I’m good at writing him?

Do you have a preference for a particular season/point in time to write about?

I write a lot set in the Brakebills years because I like the whole magic school thing and the exploration of magic and interpersonal relationships without having to deal with the Beast or other threats trying to destroy everything they know and love? Like I like that slow burn, spread out, things are happening but they’re happening slowly and also heres some meta about magic kind of exploration that that time gives me the opportunity to do. I think this is partially influenced by that the first book has them in that setting so much longer, and partially because I’m still doing the whole college thing myself and find that easiest to relate to (because no one really wants to read ‘Quentin working two part time jobs and struggling to survive and nothing else happens’ unless it’s just a tiny segment of the fic lmao).

Are you working on anything right now? Care to give us an idea about it?

Well, in regards to Magicians fic, I’m still trudging along on chapter two of Magician’s Path - I’m trying to introduce more of Julia’s side of the story as well as working on how to warp the two canons into each other while also making the storyline unique - and also on the next part of crazy/classic/life, my paradise kiss and magicians crossover au. I’m also trying to find the time to record more podfic of my fics, because I think its important to have audiofic available. But nothing new, just continuations.

As for other fandoms, I’m working on a HELLA long reworking of the Descendants universe (hi i love disney channel movies dont judge), and that’s my primary focus right now in terms of fic.

How long is your “to do list”?

Very

What is your favourite fic that you’ve written for The Magicians? Why?

Oh heck, um… probably either all tied up or The Magician’s Path. all tied up was my first time writing PiV smut and also writing shadeless!Julia and I’m just really proud of it? And TMP is like, my baby, my huge multichapter canon reworking that I’m putting so much planning into and I’m always so excited to talk about it. I know it doesn’t seem like much yet but y’all I have so many plans for it and I hope you end up loving it as much as I do.

Many writers have a fic that they are passionate about that doesn’t get the reception from the fandom that they hoped for. Do you have a fic you would like more people to read and appreciate?

TMP for sure - I hope that when I’m done more people give it a try.

What is your writing process like? Do you have any traditions or superstitions that you like to stick to when you’re writing?

Ha my writing process is either ‘has no ideas for months straight and then suddenly idea when I’m supposed to be doing something else but I gotta write this down!!!’ or ‘one sentence every month at most’. Now that the FTB server has gotten bigger, I’ve found some people who will proofread for me, so there’s that editing process afterwards (thanks @oneeyeddestroyer for being the best beta).

I guess my only superstition is that if I’m doing a multichapter or big work I try not to give too much detail out when I talk about it because I get worried that saying about the plot too much will make me lose interest in it.

Do you write while the seasons are airing or do you prefer to wait for hiatus? How does the ongoing development of the canon influence and inspire your writing process?

I do tend to write more when the show is airing, because more people are engaged and it’s something to fill the void between episodes - during hiatus I tend to drift away a bit and focus on other fandoms. This is the first show thats been so all consuming for me, I don’t usually watch things while they air because I tend to forget about remembering to watch them after a week or so? But Magicians keeps pulling me back and keeping me in.

As for ongoing canon developments, it really depends on the thing. If it fits into my plot of it’s a detail I want to put in, I might, but otherwise I’m comfortable lifting what I want from canon and throwing the rest out for a fic - we follow a show with canon multiverses, we can do what we want lmao.

What has been the most challenging fic for you to write?

Honestly, most of my fics? Because I try to improve every time I write and like, explore new things. So whatever I’m working on at the time is the most challenging.

Are there any themes or tropes that you particularly like to explore in your writing?

EVERYONE BEING HAPPY AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENING EVER cough cough I mean, um. I like meta, I like worldbuilding and exploring meta and seeing what I can change. I keep accidentally writing soulmate fics? So that’s a trend I guess.

Are there any writers that inspire your work? Fanfiction or otherwise?

Oh heck, so many dude, I don’t even know, I’m gonna just link you to my bookmarks because that’s the fic I love and probably unconsciously imitate on the often

As for nonfic, like I def want to write like Marisha Pessl or Tamora Pierce or Donna Tartt or Lev Grossman or Mark Z Danielewski but more in his house of leaves phase than his current stuff tbh or Neil Gaiman and also like. Everything that you read or watch or experience makes up how you see the world and how you create what you create and I consume so much stuff I can’t even begin to guess my influences beyond the little tidbits that I keep in my bookmarks or on my shelves.

What are you currently reading? Fanfiction or otherwise?

Currently I’m reading a lot of harry potter fic - the mood is the department of mysteries or other exploration of magic, so things related to that. HP fic is my go to when I’m not revving for any fandom in particular. Nonfic, I’m working my way through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which is hella fucking good, as well as a bajillion textbooks.

What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?

Fuck canon do what you want

Cringe time:

Are there any words or phrases you worry about over using in your work?

Yes but now that you ask can I remember any? Nope.

What was the first fanfic that you wrote? Do you still have access to it?

Oh shit dude I don’t even know. The earliest one I can remember was this like, post twilight self insert fic where the cullens came to my middle school for some reason? I barely finished the intro of it iirc but it might still be in my stack of papers in my old room somewhere.

Rapid Fire Round:

Self-edit or Beta? Beta (always get a beta kids! They’re worth their weight in gold)

Comments or Kudos/Reblogs or Likes? Comments!! (please, leave me comments, i live for them)

Smut, Fluff or Angst? fluff

Quick & Dirty or Slow Burn? Slow burn

Favourite season? All?????? Dont make me choose

Favourite episode? Im stuck between life in a day or all that josh

Favourite book(The Magicians books)? Probably book 2, i love seeing julia’s side of things and exploring hedge magic

Three favourite words? BUTTS, lore, hearth

Want to be interviewed for our author spotlight? Get in touch here.

[apex-academy]

Chapter 1: Smite Evil and Other Murder Methods (#24)

Nobody’s gotten maimed by the time my supper’s ready. In fact, things have settled enough for a character-building session to form at one table. I might end up spattering my documents with broth, but I join them anyway.

The conversation isn’t as lively as it had been earlier. It’s harder to get excited with such an oppressive atmosphere creeping in on us. Will game night be enough to shake it off? I’m not convinced, but at least I get some work done for it.

Eventually the crowd whittles down to just me, Aidan, and Aki. Before I can get my character inventory sorted out, Aidan stands. 

“Miss Kogamino?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you mind if I excuse myself early tonight? I’d like to return to my room now! There are a few more builds for the others I need to work on. You’re free to borrow the rulebook, though!”

“...How are you planning to work on those without the rulebook?”

“I have most of the book memorized. And only a small portion is necessary for what we’re doing here, anyway! I’m trying not to make everyone’s first shot at this overly complicated.”

“All right.”

Going back to his room, huh? Is it just for some peace and quiet, or is this about that wardrobe bit again?

“Excellent, thank you! Feel free to return it to me at any time outside of curfew!”

“I’m trusting you with this, so please refrain from making any marks or spilling any liquids, crumbs, or other troublesome things on it! And for goodness’ sake! Do! Not! Dogear anything!!”

“I’ll be careful.”

“All right!! Enjoy yourself! I’m sure you’ll have no trouble navigating the contents! And thank you for your help, Miss Shitanaga! Please be sure to grab something for dinner if you haven’t already!”

WIth that, he zips off.

“Have I eaten yet...?”

“Not while I was sitting here. Did you have anything before then?”

“Mmm. I’m not sure.”

“Maybe you should grab an apple or something, at least. Just in case.”

“Yeah, probably.”

I glance around the cafeteria. A few people are still eating, but they’re sitting as far away from each other as possible. I don’t know if I can stand this crap much longer.

“Hey, Aki? I’ll just take this back to my own room, if that’s all right. I can hang on to my sheet, so don’t worry about it.”

“Oh... Yeah, that’s fine.”

I... can’t tell if she’s upset or not. Probably not?

“Okay, thanks. See you.”

I make it to my room uninterrupted. In lieu of using the actual desk, I flop belly-first onto my bed and spread the rulebook and sheets of paper out in front of me.

“All right... Where was I?”

Looking through weapons and armor and whatever other crap I have to buy. How many types of arrows does this game have?

“Geez... And for armor I have to worry about it being too heavy, too.”

On what level is this not overly complicated? It’s even hard to look things up in this convoluted rulebook. I at least mostly get the hang of it before too long. Or rather, I reach a point where I don’t need to flip around much.

I’ve spent all but 20 gold when the television flickers on.

“Um, hello? It’s not nighttime yet or anything! You can keep doing whatever you’re doing! Well, um, most of you can...”

“I’m going to be adding another school rule...! I-I’d hate to be too overbearing, but I think it’s very important to your safety here, so! Please keep an eye on your student IDs! The rules app will update automatically very soon! A-and it will be effective immediately!”

“Aaaaah, I don’t know what else to say... I’m not used to these extra announcements... U-um, everyone have a good evening?! B-bye!”

The screen shuts off again.

“What was that all about?”

I use my character sheet for a bookmark and sit up. After a stretch, I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and fish out my ID. The rules app, huh?

I pull up the list and swipe through all of them. Looks like the same six to me.

What could Monochap be adding? His definition of our “safety” is more than a little skewed, so I doubt it’s anything helpful. Maybe he’ll make us read the secrets when they’re sent out?

“Will there be a test later?”

I’m tapping at the screen aimlessly when the device dings. Displaying another vague notification message, the screen stops to load before returning to rule one.

“Okay...”

I swipe back through. Most are exactly the same. But in place of the “Rules may be added as necessary" bit...

“Rule six. You may not attempt to tamper with your student ID—software or hardware—for any purpose.”

I check rule seven—it’s just what used to be rule six—before swiping back to look at the new one.

“What’s considered tampering, I wonder...?”

At that point, I hear a very loud “FIDDLESTICKS!” from the other side of the hallway.

“..............”

Gee, I wonder who that could have been.

“Maybe I should check on him.”

I could go ahead and bring the rulebook with me. Or I could keep it for the night. He did say he didn’t need it, and I have to have something to do tonight.

I lock the door behind me before stepping over towards Aidan’s. Knock, knock.

”...”

It takes him a minute to get to the door, though he doesn’t ask for my patience this time. He glances at me and runs a hand through his hair.

“Ah. Good evening... Are you done with the rulebook?”

“No, just wanted to drop by.”

“Is, uh, everything okay?”

He laughs sheepishly.

“I should keep my voice down a little, huh? Sorry.”

“But everything is fine, I assure you!”

“I just didn’t work fast enough, I’m afraid.”

I figured.

“Since the jig is up, you might as well tell me what you were doing with your ID.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

He glances around the hallway and sighs.

“I would invite you in, but I must lead by example, so!”

He takes a step over and knocks on Mahavir’s door.

“Yes?”

“Junior Commander Attenborough! Miss Kogamino and I will be having a short conversation in the hallway, so I’d like to ask you to keep your door open in case anything happens! You needn’t listen in on us if you are otherwise occupied!”

”Understood.”

Mahavir sets something down for a doorstop and returns to his room. Leaning on his own doorframe, Aidan turns back to me.

“Okay! Well! I have little of use to report.”

“Since it’s now been firmly established that our IDs have communicative capabilities, I believed it was worth the effort to see if I could establish a connection with the outside. Access the Internet, or broadcast a signal at some noticeable frequency.”

“Of course, I had no reason to believe the electroID could send out anything strong enough, particularly if we’re as far from civilization as the Academy is stated to be!”

“But as it turns out, the only thing wrong with the computer in Mister Ford’s study hall is the power supply system. None of the other hardware was discarded or damaged. So between the computer and the student ID, I thought I had a pretty good shot of producing a strong enough signal.”

“Apparently I was right, or Mister Monochaperone wouldn’t have considered it enough of a threat to ban, but...”

“But it’s still banned.”

“Do we even know what the punishment for breaking the rules is?”

“No, but considering we’ve been placed in a game of life and death, I sincerely doubt it’s anything worth the risk!”

“Makes sense. At least he can’t punish you for breaking a rule that didn’t exist at the time.”

He nods.

“There is one more thing... When the rule addition was announced, I thought I’d try to track the incoming signal.”

“I can hardly pinpoint us on the globe at the moment, but I do believe it was sent from within this building!”

“Within the building? So... You think whoever’s behind this is in here with us?”

“Oh. Or Monochap could have sent it.”

“That’s the thing! I don’t think he could have. Even at the time of the rule change, my ARP scan only showed sixteen devices on this network.”

Time to act like I know what an ARP scan is. At least its function is clear in context.

“Sixteen devices... But there are sixteen students, and each of us has an ID, right?”

“Right. Either Mister Monochaperone is and/or uses one of the devices and someone here isn’t connected to the intranet, or it was one of the sixteen student IDs that updated the rules. I’m sure the same device would have sent out the secret, too.”

“It’s suspicious either way, isn’t it? Wouldn’t someone have spoken up by now if they hadn’t received the secret?”

“Right?! And if anyone was ignoring his or her ID completely, he or she certainly would have checked for the new rule just now! But I’ve heard nothing!”

“Then you think one of us...”

“I wouldn’t say it with certainty at this point, but that seems like the most likely scenario! Especially considering Mister Monochaperone’s behavior when he set out to update the IDs before we even got them... We’ll just have to see what kind of information we can gather from here on out.”

“I... see.”

He straightens up before I can give it much more thought.

“Miss Kogamino!! As I said, this is a very tentative theory! There is no cause for alarm!”

“Alarm, no, but I can’t help but be concerned.”

“Concern is reasonable.”

He suddenly jumps to grab his door, and I flinch back.

“Curfew is now under a minute away!! Please return to your room at this time! Junior Commander Attenborough, you may now close your door as well!”

Mahavir steps over and shuts his own door without a word.

“Okay, see you, I guess.”

“Until tomorrow!”

He shuts the door in my face.

“Guess he’s only polite until his rules are threatened.”

I'll go back to my room, though. After this, I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep. 

The mastermind is one of us? Could that be true? Who could it be? Do they have a master key? I don’t see why they wouldn’t...

“But... if they want us to kill each other, they wouldn’t just do it themselves, right?”

Certainly not so soon. I should be fine. I’ll just... Shoot.

I’ll just try to focus on the character sheet stuff. Maybe it’ll wear me down enough I’ll have to sleep.

Here’s hoping.

[BACK] [NEXT]

[breziarchive]

a punch a day keeps the yakuza away

i ain’t got time to proofread shit this is majimakoto fic one of eight billion that i finally actually finished

post-0 or whatever, rated pg, pg-13? fuck it! it’s fluffy but it involves cutscene typical violence. the kind of cutscenes that, i don’t know, don’t destroy you viscerally maybe? it’s 4am.

extreme disclaimer that the title is a misnomer.

~~~~

Makoto let out a small hum of relief, relaxing her shoulders as she found the crowds dispersed as she made her way to her subway platform. The rainy season was just letting up, and since people were seeing the sun for the first time in well over a month they were taking every opportunity to walk or bike their way around the city. Granted, she was going home early. Work was slow enough that she could leave it in the hands of her assistant, and at his behest she took a half-day. It was the calm before the storm, after all. Good weather meant more strain and injuries from more outdoor activities—soon her cozy little clinic would be overrun with groaning sportsmen and older individuals under the presumption that they were still in their youth for the summer.

But for now, she could take a half-day. Go home. Enjoy the weather and the relative silence of the subways on her way there. Her eyes were mostly healed but colorful city crowds, coupled with the noise, tended to overstimulate her to headaches if she remained in them for too long. It had been long enough that she resigned herself to the idea that she'd always have this problem. At least it was more of a nuisance than a curse.

Her spine coiled up, thrusting her shoulders up and her chest out as she heard whooping calls and hollers from the cavity of her subway platform. It sounded vulgar and low-life. It sounded like yakuza. She felt her muscles become iron piano wires in danger of damage due to hyper-tension as the first elbow of a flashy suit came into her vision. A group of about six or so men, ranging from just below her in age to perhaps several years above, were rough-housing on the platform, near enough that their shoes more than once stepped onto the yellow strip meant to caution people away from the tracks.

Makoto quickly swept her eyes around the platform. Only a ragged elderly man snoozed on a bench facing the opposite of the yakuza and where her train would be arriving—and from the looks of it, he had been there for a while and probably missed his train twice over. Essentially, it was just her and the yakuza. She inhaled a steely breath and readjusted the position of her jaw.

She had survived much worse situations.

The yakuza seemed too preoccupied with their brand of horseplay to pay her much heed as she stood for her train, far away from them. Ducking her chin, she pulled out a novel from her purse and slipped the bookmark between her fingers as she pretended to read. Her eyes skimmed the pages, minimal information was given, she flipped the page, she continued to listen to the pack next to her. Several of them had loud voices, but one seemed more grating than the rest. Her ear seemed particularly tuned to it, and each word he said made claws rake down her skin. It was like he was unhinged, unpredictable—mad. Even if the cadence to his words were jovial and over-the-top even for Kansai, there was something immeasurably off about the screech to his voice.

With no warning the soothing but loud chime in her wristwatch went off. Makoto tried not to jerk so hard in surprise. Usually it went off to remind her to break for lunch or she'd forget, but with her taking a half-day, it decided to serenade proudly to everyone on the platform. Her, the still-sleeping man on the bench, and the pack of yakuza to her left. Resisting the urge to clamp a hand over her wrist, she clenched her jaw and pretended not to notice the chime, pulling the book closer to her nose as if she'd look more convincingly engrossed. To her dismay, as the chime continued the yakuza's ruckus simmered down to harsh, assumedly lewd whispers as they were finally forced to turn their attention to her.

Before the chime had even died out she saw the pack begin to move in her peripherals, spreading around her until the only escape was the track, and even that was blocked off by a battering ram of a young man.

“Hey, sis,” one of them addressed her, and she wished she could've pretended to ignore it but the anxiety drove a spike into her neck, striking the piano wires rigid and forcing her to look up from her book with a stony gaze, “That's a cute li'l song. Won'tcha play it again?”

The yakuza talking to her had a flashy blue pinstripe suit, topped with a coral tie that had some sort of stain at the tip. Makoto narrowed her gaze and her voice was polite but strained.

“It plays at specific times of the day.”

“What, time fer you to get onna train? Don't they have schedules for that?”

“Oi, where y'off to anyways?” the one to her side prodded, “'Specially on a day like this? Yer too pretty to be hoppin' trains when it's sunny-shine out.” He looked to be one of the older ones, with a brain so knocked about that one corner of his lip seemed permanently limp.

“I'm avoiding the crowds,” Makoto answered, flicking her gaze between the encroaching wolves, “Crowds like this one.”

“Hey, don't it take like, fifty people to make a crowd?” one piped up. His suit was far less flashy, and she got the impression it was because he did a lot of rolling in the dirt.

“No, you idiot, two's company, three's a crowd, it's basic math—but we all know you failed math,” another snapped. Technically, the style of his suit was the sharpest out of all of them there, but the colors and the composition of the patterns clashed so harshly he might as well have been colorblind or fashionably lacking in areas that weren't proper grammar and tailoring.

“That applies to relationships, not law-abidin' cityfolk, bozo-brains,” another half-sharp reply, from a freshly-made adult with short, fat lips and slick hair.

Makoto grunted. Inane though it may have been, the banter was only serving to twist the wires tighter.

“Hey, what's got ye all scared?” the latest yakuza turned to her, “I just said we're law-abidin' cityfolk, what y'got to be afraid of?”

“Plenty,” Makoto growled despite herself, “Please leave me alone.”

“No need to get so cold, sis,” the first one said, “There's plenty o' places to go fer a lady like you, but we're waitin' on a train, here. We already mentioned the sunny-shine,”

“If you're waiting, then please wait somewhere else. There's a whole platform, and I'd like to be alone, please.” she reiterated, clutching her novel so hard the pages bent. The slick-haired one stepped forward and grabbed at her book, forcing her attention as his voice oozed poisoned honey.

“Hey, but it's dangerous for a lady to be alone,” he said, “We could protect ya, easy!”

“For sure!” The dirt-roller nodded, “All's it takes is a small fee or two!”

“We could start at, hmm,” the grammar-brain said, obviously cunning enough to be the brains behind this, “30,000 yen an hour. How does that sound?”

“Each,” Blue-suit pitched in, “Otherwise we'd be splittin' it so much we couldn't afford no ramen to beef our muscles for ya.”

“I don't need protection!” Makoto yelped, curling herself away from the yakuza, relinquishing her novel to the slick-haired one to do so. Baring her teeth though it wouldn't do any good, the whites of her eyes showed as more than half of them began to chuckle.

“Shure ya do!” Limp-lip proclaimed as Dirt-roller moved forward, “Or we're gonna show ya why ya needs it!”

Makoto's breath felt cold as the wolves closed in. Closing her hands into fists, her mind raced as every lesson and memory raced through her head. It was too late to wish for something different. Her nails bit into the flesh of her palm as she tried to keep each yakuza in her sight. The old man on the bench was still asleep, and suddenly she got a pang of fear that they had murdered him quietly before she got there. Brain firing all cylinders in panic, she felt her heart race the likes of which it hadn't since she was last in a life-or-death situation.

A harsh, crazed peal of laughter sliced through the tension and all the yakuza flinched and righted themselves, half out of fear, some out of embarrassment it seemed. All bowed (or cowered?) and moved out of the way in respect as a tall, wiry man stepped forward. Silver-tipped boots clacking on the concrete platform with each stride, the alpha yakuza barely seemed to notice the sea he was parting. Arms, long and lanky, were casually slung over a well-loved, well-beaten bat that had scuffs and stains that could not have possibly come from baseball. His clothes clashed with everything decent in the world—a harsh, snake-skin jacket that moved freely about his bare chest while his leather pants clung a little too tellingly along his legs. A gold chain graced his collar beneath a neatly-trimmed beard pulled sideways in a lopsided smirk that hung on a dangerous pause. Most significantly, though, was the patch covering his left eye. Makoto froze in recognition, wide-eyed stare moving from the patch to meet his remaining eye. Once, several years ago, that eye had gazed at her with such sadness she was almost sure he knew her better than anyone had any right to. Now it was almost condescending, looking down on her from a throne. She blinked. Long ago he had saved her from a similar situation, but here he was at the helm of the wolves. Maybe he didn't recognize her, but either way she was ready to sneer back and bite at that throne, for this was the yakuza with the unhinged voice. All the other ones were lackeys, but her heart knew true danger when she saw it.

He opened his mouth to speak, and the remaining cloud of smoke from the cigarette he had been nursing while his lackeys tormented her escaped, making him look like a demon, “Ain't you boys been listenin'? The Miss says she don't need yer protection.”

Malicious laughter rippled through the yakuza, making Snakeskin's eye gleam. Something was off about it, like everything else that was off about him. Off-beat, out-of-tune with his pack—and somehow he seemed aware of this.

Tipping his feet upwards and bending forward so that most of his weight was on his heels as he lowered his face to be more in-line with hers, bat still set parallel to his shoulders, he hummed with a smile, looking her up and down. Scrutinizing without changing his expression, he continued, “Hmm, yup, I'd say protection is the last thing the Miss needs,”

More laughter, but some of it slowed—particularly from Limp-lip, whose eyes started to widen as he took an extra step back. Some of the other ones that seemed to hold more experience were catching on to something not quite being on the same beat as them, and they started glancing at each other nervously. Makoto's heart raced, but she didn't dare take her eyes off of Snakeskin. If the other yakuza were unsure of what was going to happen next, then she should be even more afraid. She should run. Bolt. Go back upside and throw the half-day in the trash and go back to work. Despite her inner thoughts she willed herself now to cower and kept her back straight and her expression firm as it was unwavering. Snakeskin craned his neck closer, tipping it at an angle as he continued to hum study her. A grin split his face like it was elastic and she wrinkled her nose at his narrow, discolored teeth.

“S'nice melody though, really. Does it warn ya of danger?” he split his cadence as if it was in time to the watch's melody, but his memory was poor and his notes even moreso. Makoto brought her wrist up with the watch in question and grasped it protectively.

“It warns me that I need lunch.”

A peal of laughter from Snakeskin, but the other yakuza didn't know what to do or say, suddenly transfixed in worry at the scene unfolding before them.

“Oh! A big mouth! A big, big, biiig mouth!” Snakeskin celebrated, “Where'd ya learn to have a mouth that big, Missy?”

Makoto couldn't help her voice becoming dark and hateful, “Running into people like you.”

“Oho!” The white of Snakeskin's eye showed around his iris as he laughed from his stomach, whooping until the singular oho's became a string of them, echoing in the empty platform. Some of the yakuza began to laugh again, though whether because they were nervous or eased it was hard to say. Makoto narrowed her eyes. His harsh laughter pierced her ears, painful and infuriating. He was laughing at her, like she was some cute innocent dolly out of place in the action figures' section. Anything to shut him up, to kick at that throne, so she wouldn't have to deal with him and his irritating voice anymore. Why it was irritating she couldn't say, it was just something in the air he breathed, she supposed. No matter. She was high-strung from the encounter and she had to wrestle control back into her hands. (After all she would not, could not be taken lying down again.)

Makoto slapped the cheek of his ruined eye and cut his laugh short.

“Hey! You bitch!” Slick barked along with his comrades suddenly calling for her blood for such insolence. All of them rolled their shoulders forward like they were going to fight a bear, not gang up on a girl, and Slick moved faster than any of them, youthful face snarling in rage as he lunged.

Makoto flinched as wind rushed past her, shutting her eyes for one terrifying moment where everything was blind again. Too afraid to keep them closed, she opened them, and her lips pursed together in shock.

The blunt end of the bat Snakeskin had been toting was now wedged in the precious, fleshy gap between Slick's jawbones. Snakeskin was glaring but his smile was wide, eye gleaming with what Makoto could only describe as unchecked rage though his voice was the same as ever.

“Oh, my bad, Ogawa-han,” he drawled, “I forgot that a bat's longer than a knife.”

Shoving him backwards into his neck, he swung the bat in a comfortable circle and it resumed its place parallel to his shoulders for his arms to rest on as Ogawa collapsed on the ground, sputtering desperately for air without being able to use his tongue for words. Dirt-roller began sizing imaginary objects with his hands, the dim light in his head brightening until he realized what the others did—Snakeskin did not just forget the length of the bat. And if he did, then that would mean that the blade of the knife was headed for Ogawa's throat anyways. Makoto felt her limbs freeze from the outward in. She had instigated the violence—was she now fair game?

“Nahh, you disappoint me, Missy!” Snakeskin ignored the rest of the yakuza as he hung his head and shook it, “If yer gonna hit a man, hit a man, like ya really mean it! We ain't duelin' with pool noodles, y'gotta put some snap into your slap!”

Everyone, Makoto included (though excluding Ogawa, who was still writhing on the ground) gave a distinct, bewildered eh?! Snakeskin frowned at her, continuing to lecture.

“You just dragged yer fingerpads 'cross my cheek like you were a toddler who ain't got the concept of personal space yet. Y'call that a slap? Y'gotta wind it up!”

He gestured with the bat, bouncing it up and down on his far shoulder, “Imagine if home-run hitters just swung with their arms. They'd get nowhere! They swing with their whole body—all the way! If yer gonna throw down, y'best be bringin' yer A-game like that!”

Makoto stared at him in wonder the more he lectured, rolling his shoulder and doing demonstration swings with the bat that made every lackey around him nervous and step back. She held her ground, his words melting to mush in the background. There was still condescension in his eye, but she was starting to realize that there was something behind it—something a bit more true to form, something closer to the day he rescued her from the yakuza accosting her on the street.

Only one way to see what was behind the mask.

“Jeez, is this how they teach women nowadays? Back in th' day you'd see grannies with grips of steel right terrifyin', this is just pathet—,”

Makoto reeled back and threw everything she had into another slap. Mid-word Snakeskin's head snapped to the side, spittle flying from his mouth as he stumbled back on one boot. The bat swung down on his own instinct, catching him like a third leg before he fell completely to the floor.

“B-Boss!!” his lackeys cried, all jerking like they meant to leap forward to help but too wary of the consequences. Some of them shot glances in her direction, but none of them dared to lunge at her as Ogawa had sufficiently become catatonic for the time being on the ground. Snakeskin was quiet. The namesake of a jacket hung at a wonky angle from his shoulders, revealing the tattoos on his pectorals to also be snakes. She briefly wondered if that's all the tattoo was or if there was more to it. The curiosity didn't last as Makoto quietly damned herself as he poked the cheek she had now slapped a second time and turned so his good eye could see her.

There. A flash of something else in his eye, but it wasn't cruel or enraged or upset. Pure something, and from that something he smiled. It soon split into a maniacal grin as he began to cackle once more, but she had seen it in the precious few seconds he had given her.

Yeah.

He most definitely recognized her.

Snakeskin righted himself, still laughing, “Now that's what I'm talkin' about!” The lackeys looked on, dumbfounded, though Limp-lip started to crack a smile that was almost genuine as he looked between the two players on the stage.

“Li'l bit of practice and you'll have men spinnin' to the pavement! Awright, Missy, hit me agai—,”

Makoto did without hesitation, curling her nails so they raked across his flesh. Snakeskin yelped, pinwheeling backwards into Dirt-roller and Blue-suit. The bat clattered to the floor, nearly tripping Snakeskin completely before he found his footing with the help of Dirt-roller. Raising a gloved hand to his cheek, he looked at her in complete and utter shock as he gingerly pressed against the scratch marks that were starting to ooze blood.

“O-Oi,” he stuttered, “Nails are next week's lesson.”

Makoto felt the eyes of every yakuza on her as she straightened her shoulders, now strangely relaxed despite everything, and replied, “I learn quickly.”

Another smile that came from that something that Makoto was having a hard time naming. His voice still annoyed the ever-loving shit out of her, but she was getting the nagging feeling that it was because of something other than its initial repulsiveness. Snakeskin righted himself, straightening his lapels as he bent down and picked up the scarred bat. A train arrived—not hers, but the one the yakuza were waiting for in the first place. Snakeskin swung the bat onto his shoulders, turning away from her.

“Motozawa, stop gawkin' at the Miss like you got a slappin' fetish. Hey, someone drag Ogawa into the car,” he ordered, “I ain't comin' back for his sorry ass.”

She watched them pile into the car, one by one by dragging-Ogawa's-sorry-ass one. Though Snakeskin had swaggered in, as soon as it seemed he was clear of her he slumped onto a seat, bad eye towards her. Spreading his long legs outward so no one could even consider sitting near him, he leaned on the bat like it was a cane and pressed his forehead to his folded hands on the pommel. His lips were pulled into a frown that was more than just a natural resting state, distorting the scratches she left on him. It looked painful for reasons she was sure she didn’t know about.

The train sped off. Somehow this was the one thing in the entire world that jerked the old man behind her awake. She barely listened as he turned, standing up and hobbling over to her to ask the time. Glancing down at her watch, she gave the answer in a distant voice, transfixed by the ticking second hand.

S'nice melody though, really. Does it warn ya of danger?

Did it warn her of danger, or did it draw it to her?

She wiped a smudge from the glass face. Perhaps a little bit of both?

Makoto reminisced on the sadness of his eye coupled with the ferocity of his attacks as the station announced her trains arrival within the next two minutes.

Perhaps a little bit of both.

[lawrenceseitz22]

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

Click on the video above to watch Episode 154 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://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.  

  Announcement

Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154 posted first on your-t1-blog-url from Blogger http://ift.tt/2yJSmkx via IFTTT

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

Click on the video above to watch Episode 154 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

Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154 posted first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

Click on the video above to watch Episode 154 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://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.  

 Announcement

Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154 posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnZU8p

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

Click on the video above to watch Episode 154 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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  Announcement

Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

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The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.  

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Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

Click on the video above to watch Episode 154 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://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.  

  Announcement

Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154

Click on the video above to watch Episode 154 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://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.  

  Announcement

Adam: We’re all excited and I’m fired up and you want to know why? ‘Cause today is Hump Day Hangouts episode 154.

Bradley: Wow. Can that one guys.

Adam: Aye. Welcome everybody. We got almost a full crowd here. I think Hernan’s out and about, so he may or may not be joining us. But before we get into things lets go around and say hi to everybody, today on the 18th of October, and I’ll start off. I’m Adam, if you haven’t been here before, but I’ll start on my left and go down the line. So Chris how’s it going, man?

Chris: Good. Good time and good weather in Tampa.

Adam: Outstanding. Oh that’s right, you’re still in the US. So Chris is normally over on the European continent, but he’s in the US for a little bit longer.

Chris: Yeah. Just for Halloween and then I’m off again.

Adam: Awesome. Awesome. Marco, how’s the weather treating you?

Marco: It’s been beautiful, man. But it rained for about a week. I’m willing to live with that because we haven’t had a drop of rain in three days.

Adam: Gotcha. A little rain in paradise, right? So …

Marco: There you go. You have to take the good with the bad.

Adam: Awesome. Bradley, how you doing, man?

Bradley: Oh, I’m happy to be here. So, I’m going to try a new … It’s not new, it’s ManyCam. But I’m going to try to use ManyCam today for broadcasting the hangout, so that while I’ve got the screen share up I will also show my little image, like picture in picture, at the bottom. And we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know how well it’s going to work, but we’re going to attempt it.

Oh and before we get into any other announcements, you know what today is, right?

Adam: What? What is it today?

Bradley: Episode 154. You know what that means, right?

Adam: Beers on Hump Day Hangouts? I don’t-

Bradley: No, that’s in two more weeks. In the … We’re three years away … Or, excuse me, two episodes away from our third year anniversary, 156 episodes. So I don’t know what we’ve got planned for that yet, but I know were gonna do something special, like we have the last two anniversary episodes. So, you guys make sure that you’re attending that one, because we usually give away some pretty good stuff. And this being our third, it’s probably gonna be a pretty good give away.

Marco: Best question, I’ll tell you right now, is going to get at least an RYS Reloaded Stack so that they can see how fucking awesome some of these things are working. How great these are, and then just spread the word, man. When it starts ranking like crazy, you go and spread the word, how good this shit actually is. It’s incredible.

Bradley: And that’s a several-hundred dollar value, so-

Marco: Oh, yeah. One of those is going to, it has to be the best question.

Adam: Awesome. And word on the street is that we got some Semantic Mastery, new T-shirts coming out. Some, kind of, high quality shirts with the new logo coming, so maybe that might work in there somehow. We’ll see.

Bradley: Word on the street, huh?

Adam: Yeah, you know.

Bradley: Where’d you hear that?

Adam: Eh, I don’t know. Just overheard some stuff, so. Alright, so what else we got?

Bradley: What else we got?

Adam: We got a few announcements. If you’re watching this, and this is the first time or you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you for watching, thanks for tuning in. If you haven’t ever yet, put your question on the event page. It can be about anything. SEO, marketing, anything related to that. And if you haven’t yet, check our SEO blueprint, the Battle Plan. I’ll pop the link on there in a second for you, we got a coupon code that’ll save you 75 bucks. Please grab it, it’s well worth the money. It’s worth 100 bucks but you can get it for 25.

If you haven’t been to Serp Space yet, head over there. You can create a free account, check out the free tools they’ve got. We’re working on some more. And then that’s where all the done-for-you services are at. So if you’re looking at saving some money and saving time, instead of trying to figure this all out on yourself, or on your own, go to Serp Space. You’re gonna hear us talk about a lot, you’ll have other people refer you there. Trust us, check it out, at least.

Alright, and then, if you are new again, go to support.semanticmastery.com. We got a lot of comment questions there and FAQ’s. It’s a great place just to bookmark and we’ve got graphs, things like that, where we can explain stuff more in-depth. And I’ll pop all those links up there, so again, if you’re new, those are just some helpful areas for you to start.

And then also, as more word on the street, Monday I believe we have a webinar. Is that right, Bradley?

Bradley: Yeah, we should have … We’re having a webinar for a really awesome product. Something we’ve been … People been asking us for over two years now, to produce a on-page SEO training course. And the reason why we never have, is because we cover it in so many other programs that we’ve had, like for example, MasterCLASS. We did several different site builds on there, so there was on-page optimization covered in each one of those site builds. And then we obviously are always covering stuff in the MasterMIND, which, you know, we cover stuff … Whatever people want to cover in the MasterMIND, we cover that, so we’ve covered on-page strategies multiple times, or on-page methods, excuse me.

So we never actually produced a singular course about on-page SEO and silo structures, silo architecture and that kind of stuff. But people been asking us for several years and I actually have got … I got involved with somebody, we got a joint venture agreement thing going on in another area, but he’s just an absolute on-page SEO beast. And I was actually going through some of his training the other day, or about a week or two ago, and I was just really blown away with how high-quality it is. And there’s no reason for us to go out and produce any sort of on-page SEO course, when this one is absolutely gold.

And so we’re going to be having him on as a special guest on Monday and he’s going to be doing a lot of teaching about his methods and his strategies, his keyword research is what he called ‘keyword clustering,’ silo building, all this kind of really … Internal linking structures, I mean the guy’s just a ninja. So he’s coming on to share that information with us on Monday, so guys, be prepared for that. I think Adam’s gonna drop the registration link on the event page and emails go out tomorrow, but you definitely want to be there and be present for that ‘cause it’s gonna be a really good webinar.

Chris: Speaking of ninja, Rob just joined us, man.

Adam: Hey, what’s up Rob?

Bradley: ‘Sup buddy?

Chris: The guy’s a killer in the lab, dude. We’re doing some math and stuff to Google.

Bradley: Can you say hi, Rob?

Rob: Hey. Glad to be here, fellas.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks man.

Rob: I’m on my phone again, so if you lose me, it’s 'cause I’m on the Apple device you guys hate.

Bradley: Yeah, Apple device, well there’s your problem.

Rob: Yeah, I know. I got lots of problems but that’s one of them.

Bradley: That is one of them. I got 99 problems, and that’s one of them.

Rob: Yeah.

Adam: Awesome. Anybody else, just a quick round up, any more announcements, anything that we didn’t cover?

Bradley: We got MasterMIND webinar tomorrow, gonna be talking about some pretty cool stuff going on over there as well, I mean, we always do anyways, but just kind of really interesting stuff. So anybody that’s in MasterMIND, be prepared for tomorrow.

Adam: Awesome, alright, let’s do this.

Bradley: Alright, so, I’m gonna attempt to switch this thing around a little bit and see if this works. You guys let me know what you’re seeing, also did we double check to make sure we’re broadcasting on the event page okay?

Adam: I’m looking right now. Also, while we’re checking if … I shared it with the guys earlier, but in case any of you do your own broadcasting, looks like Facebook is finally adding the capability to do the screen overlays, or sorry, to show your screen as well as to obviously show faces. Which is a nice addition, but previously I’d use something like OBS to get that done.

Bradley: Okay, alright so this should be doing like, a funky picture in picture thing on your end guys, is that look right?

Adam: Yes, I’ve got you and then I’ve got us in the corner, and I’ve got your whole screen.

Bradley: Okay, well actually you have an area. It may look like my whole screen but I don’t think you see, like, the-

Adam: No I just see, sorry, I see your browser.

Can You Recommend A One Payment Keyword Research Tool?

Bradley: Okay, yeah, alright, very good. Well this looks like it might work. It’s gonna screw me up a little bit but that’s okay. Alright, so, Elizer is up. Excuse me if I mispronounce that. “What’s up guys, can you recommend a one-payment keyword research tool?” Yeah, Power Suggest Pro. It’s been our go-to tool forever. It’s more of a keyword discovery tool, or whatever, it’s not really a keyword research tool in that … And the only I say that is because most all keyword research tools show competition metrics and all this other kind of shit that really, in my opinion, is unnecessary. I don’t use any of those tools anymore. I think they’re over-complicated and that kind of data really means nothing to me.

We’ve been using Power Suggest Pro, the same exact keyword method strategy, or keyword research method, that I’ve used since, like, I don’t know, three or four years now, is what I … It’s the same one I use today, which is always going to Google Trends first, starting with that, identifying all your related keyword searches, both your top related searches as well as rising related searches based upon the trends’ data. Which you can even drill down into specific geographic areas if you’d like.

And then from there, I take those and then I go do, right now it’s kind of a manual thing where we’re actually gonna be building a tool into subspace that will do that. We’ll go scrape the related searches, so in other words, once you grabbed your related search terms from your seed set, or your seed terms, then what I do is go … Or, I have a VA do it now … But she goes and manually searches each one of those keywords and then pulls the relevant related searches ‘related to’ at the bottom of the search results, and adds those to the spreadsheet then from there we drill down in each one of those with Power Suggest Pro.

That’s it. That’s all I do. I know there’s another question further up on this event page today about SEMrush. I gotta be real honest with you, Hernan put SEMrush in the Battle Plan 'cause he uses it, I do not. I’ve never used SEMrush, well I’ve used it a couple times, but I’ve never used it consistently because it’s just more data than I personally need to use for all the SEO stuff that I’ve done. I know there’s some benefits to having some of those kind of metrics, guys, and there’s a lot of cool stuff that SEMrush will do, but I just find it to be over-complicated for what I need to do, so I always just start with trends.

Well, to be honest, I have one additional step now that I haven’t done before, that I didn’t really do before, and that was using Google AdWords. Because, you know, SEO’s become so complex. It takes so much more effort now to rank for keywords that it did several years ago. So instead of just determining, or looking at keyword research tools and letting those metrics tell me, “Okay, these are the hot keywords. These are what I should be optimizing for.” I’ve done that, many, many times and spent weeks or months ranking for keywords that were told to me by SEO tools or keyword tools, that they were good keywords. They were keywords that would produce traffic and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I spent weeks or months getting those keywords ranked, and find out that they’re not converting or they’re not really the best keywords that I should have been targeting.

And so that’s weeks, and/or months, or wasted time. And so what I like to do now, is go to AdWords and set up a AdWords campaign for whatever project I’m working on, be it local or affiliate, or whatever it doesn’t matter. I just go in and set up AdWords campaign and I might put depending on the niche, it might be a bit more expensive, but for like, a lot of affiliate stuff I might only throw like, $50 in traffic at it.

I’ll spend 50 bucks and at the end of that $50, I will have this search query report from AdWords that shows exactly which queries were being, you know, were generating clicks to my ads. And so those are the ones that I know to go optimize for because there’s traffic data that I have. Proven, bonafide, genuine traffic data from Google’s own data from advertising money that I spent that says, “These are the keywords that are gonna produce the best results for you.” Then I’d go actually optimize for those, build out an SEO campaign for those keywords.

So I start with that, if it’s local and sometimes some of the clicks are expensive for that, you know, you might have to pay $30 a click. I might spend $200 on traffic, but to me it saves me so much time from having to optimize for stuff that’s not going to convert or produce traffic, or produce clicks, or might produce clicks but doesn’t convert because it’s not relevant traffic. And I need to know all that stuff before going in and starting an SEO campaign because an SEO campaign requires so much more effort.

So I’d rather spend anywhere between 50 to 200 bucks on traffic, let Google AdWords tell me which keywords I should be optimizing for SEO, then I go just do the exact same process. And I usually always start, guys, with the same process, even for AdWords, I still go to trends first then I look at Google related searches. I also look at the ads at that point. Strictly for keyword research, if you don’t want to go with the AdWords route initially, which I recommend you guys do just to save yourselves a ton of time and head and heartache for optimizing for keywords that aren’t gonna produce results.

However, if you’re not gonna do that, then Power Suggest Pro is, in my opinion, probably the most inexpensive and best tool that you can possibly use for SEO keywords. Because remember, the AdWords keyword planner tool is for AdWords. It’s for PPC. So it’s not going to … Those traffic data, like the traffic search volume data and all that, first of all, we all know that it’s not really accurate. Number two, unless you’re spending money in AdWords, it’s gonna give you this broad range of search volume instead of like, more narrow metrics right, more exact or precise metrics, which again, those metrics aren’t precise anyways.

But also, those keywords for keywords in search queries based upon AdWords, there’s not really SEO-type terms. Whereas with Power Suggest Pro, it’s using Google Suggest or auto-complete keywords. And those are actual keywords that people are manually typing and searching in this … In order for them to show up and suggest it, it means there had to been, I don’t know what the threshold is, but there had to have been enough occurrences or instances of those search queries being searched for, for Google to add them in auto-complete. Okay?

And so those are really gold terms and a lot of times you can pull back some really long tail keywords from tools like Power Suggest Pro. It’s a very simple tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all the other tools. It doesn’t need it. It does one thing and it does it very, very well and very, very quickly, and it’s like $57 I think, one time fee. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s been my favorite keyword tool for about, I don’t know, three years now. So I highly recommend that. Okay?

That was a long-winded question, or answer to that question, but I think that’s important because we get those kind of questions all the time, about keyword research tools, guys. And I swear to God, I bought at least 15 keyword research tools over the years. I mean, no kidding, some of them that are incredibly expensive, I mean hundreds of dollars per month, know what I mean? And I’ve just always gone back to the same process that I just described, so … And it works.

Is It Okay To Point Client Sites To RYS Properties?

Okay, Nathan’s up. He says, “Hey guys, I wondered with RYS whether you ever point the links you build out with RYS properties to a customers own website, or would you only point the links to rank Google sites? Further, would you ever put both the customers’ website and the Google sites on the RYS properties together? Cheers to the excellent insights you give each week. Nathan.”

Um, yes, you can point at your money. We encourage you to so, okay? Because again, you’re siphoning authority from Google Domains over to your main property, which would be your money site. And that’s going to not only produce additional authority, but it also helps to validate the entity. There’s a lot of benefits in doing so. So it’s not just about promoting a Google site. If you don’t have a money site and you’re gonna use a Google site as a money site, then obviously you wouldn’t have that. But if you have a money site, include it. Okay?

“Further, would you ever put both customers’ website and Google sites on the RYS properties together?” Sure, absolutely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t. If you’ve got both, link to both. Okay? Marco, do you want to comment on that, or was that good enough?

Marco: That’s good enough.

Is It Possible For A Pay Per Lead Adwords Campaign To Use The Revenue Share Model Without A Call Center?

Bradley: Okay. Mohammad’s up, what’s up Mohammad. He’s here asking questions every week, certainly appreciate that Mohammad. “Hey guys, for a while I’ve been working on pay-per-lead AdWords campaigns with the contractor. I’ve gotten a lot of experience with this niche because of it and built a solid relationship with the contractor. Based on what I see, I have an opportunity to earn more if I go with a revenue share model. The only problem is, currently all calls go to the contractor.”

Oh, tsk, tsk, tsk, Mohammad. I know when you’re first getting started out, that’s the easiest way to go because it requires less. It’s not necessarily that it’s easier, it’s that it requires less capital on your part, less investment 'cause you don’t have to pay for a call center. I do not recommend sending leads directly to contractors, though. Personally, I’ve … When I first started my lead-gen business, for about the first … I’d say the first year or so, I did that. I had all calls just like … I had my own call forwarding numbers, you know what I mean, my own virtual phone numbers. I’ve always just used CallFire. I would have the calls go directly to contractors.

The problem with that is that contractors a lot of times, most contractors at least most of the companies that I deal with, the service providers that I’ve generated leads for are smaller companies. So the contractors are actually working contractors, in other words, they own the business but they’re also out with their tools on, or up a tree. Like literally climbing trees, cutting limbs, and you know, taking trees down and stuff like that. So they’re usually busy throughout the day.

And so when a call comes in, they often don’t answer the phone because they’re in the middle of work. And so if the phone doesn’t get answered, guess what happens to that lead? It goes cold, or it goes to the next listing in Google, or in AdWords, or wherever they found the information for your contractor or for your lead-gen site. They found more, right? And so if the call doesn’t get answered, that lead is gonna call the next person in line. And very rarely would a lead ever leave … Will a caller ever leave a message, because typically, especially in the contracting industry, people are looking to solve a problem.

So when they’re in that mood or that mode of trying to solve that problem and, you know, request estimates … Set up estimates, and that kind of stuff, they’re looking to do it now. And so if they get voicemail, they usually will hang up or they’ll leave a message but by the time the contractor gets back to them, they’ve already scheduled other contractors to come out. So my point is, after the first year of doing that, running my business that way …

I don’t remember who it was but somebody told me about the call center stuff. And I was like … And you know what, it was probably Ivan Budimir from Maps Magic again, 'cause he was like my biggest mentor when I first got into doing maps marketing. And so I hooked up with answerconnect.com, which is the call center that I’ve been using ever since, and I think that was back in … It would’ve been around 2012. Anyways, I’ve been using AnswerConnect ever since, and the reason why is because that’s 24-hour day, 7-day a week, 365-days a year call center.

So they answer the phone every single time any lead comes through any one of my lead-gen properties, it goes to the call center. Call center screens the calls, gets rid of any spam calls. By the way, that’s the other reason why you don’t want to send calls to a contractor, because as you rank in maps, guys, you’ll start getting a shit ton of spam calls from advertisers. Basically, people looking to sell marketing services. Which is kind of ironic that when you get on, like in the top three results, you get the most calls from marketers. When you’re on page two, you don’t. Seems like that’s a little backwards.

But, so anyways, contractors will often times get hammered with sales calls, so having a call center will actually screen the calls to where the only calls or notifications that the contractor receives are gonna be notifications from bonafide, genuine leads that’ve been screened. And because the caller got a live body on the phone, somebody answered the phone, and took their information, it’s not that they don’t call other contractors, but they feel a lot … At least that lead is still generated. Because otherwise, you know like I said, if it goes to voicemail a lot of times they’ll just hang up. So even if they don’t get to talk to the contractor, they know that their contact information is being dispatched to the correct contractor, if that makes sense.

So, my point is, I’m telling you, I know Mohammad from when I first started, you’re doing basically the same thing. You’re sending calls directly to the contractor. I don’t recommend that though, because you have a lot more control over the lead when it goes through a call center and you can verify the leads and you can verify the contractor got them. And then you’ll have a record of it, so that you can even follow up with the leads if you decide to pursue a revenue-share model. Which I know is what your question is. Can a revenue share be done without a call center?

It can be, but you have to have … It’s not advised, because the contractor can screw you and you wouldn’t know it. I mean, I guess if you have a virtual phone number and you look at the call reports you’ll be able to see the calls that came in. And if you look at the duration you can probably determine which calls were actually resulted in a conversation with the contractor based upon the duration. But to me, that’s a lot of additional work to have to go filter through all that stuff and then call those customers to verify that jobs are either not accepted … You know, proposals weren’t accepted or they were accepted.

And to me, again, back in the days when I used to do that kind of stuff, it was a pain in the ass. So using a call center is the only way to go in my opinion with the revenue-share model, because otherwise you got … And by the way, even using a call center, contractors can still screw you. So it is important that at least for the initial first six months to a year, that at least quarterly, so once every three months, you do a verification campaign. Where you’ll just pick out, you know, like 10 calls that were actual, genuine leads that were generated, and you can use somebody from like, Upwork … Telemarketer from Upwork to do call surveys.

And there’s other services out there that will do it, and their call surveys is little as like $1.50 per call or $2 per call, where they’ll call those customers and say, “Hey we,” You know, this is, whatever let’s just say Joe’s Plumbing Service, let’s just say that was your lead gen site or whatever, or your service provider. “This is Joe’s Plumbing Service, and we’re calling because we understand that you did not accept a proposal that we made, or you know, from an estimate that we gave. And we were just wondering if there’s anything that we did that could’ve been improved upon that would’ve changed your mind?”

Simple question like that, because then the customer’s going to say either, “Okay this is the reason why I didn’t go with you guys, that I went with somebody else,” Which would actually give you some good insight as to your contractor, but also if the lead, the customer that you’re calling, actually did go with the contractor, they’ll say, “No, wait a minute, we did hire them.” That’s when you find out that the contractor was lying to you, and it’s happened to me many, many times, guys. I’ve fired many, many contractors for lying to me or cheating me out of what was rightfully mine.

And it sucks, and to me it’s dumb because for a contractor to do that is stupid. When you’re sending them leads on a revenue-share model, where they’re only paying for leads that are closing into actual jobs, for them to do something as dumb as try to cheat you out of your rightful small piece of that just to save a few bucks, is dumb. Because when they do get caught, they now have lost that lead source, because I’ll never do work with them again, if that makes sense.

So, you know, my point is again, I know another long winded answer for that question but I think it’s really important to understand why call centers are so important if you’re in the lead-gen business. Because it’s gonna prevent a lot of additional heart-ache down the road, and it gives you a lot of verification, a lot of ways to verify, if that makes sense. Okay? Great question, though, Mohammad.

How Do You Use A Live Rank Sniper Stream For A Rank And Rent Video Campaign?

Number two, “I acted on the R&R video advice you gave me, and I used Live Rank Sniper to get a live stream ranked on page two for DUI lawyer, Fort McMurray,” Well, good for you, man, “And divorce lawyer, Fort McMurray. I also made a separate channel for the videos themselves,” Okay, “With the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start but now, should I delete the stream from LRS and upload the video to my new channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

I would do it in your new channel- [crosstalk 00:23:55]

Marco: Hey, Bradley-

Bradley: Go ahead.

Marco: Before you give the answer, can I just give him some advice?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: Never publicly reveal the city that you’re targeting or your niche. This is public. Everyone who comes to our channel and looks for this will now see your question and your niche and what you’re targeting, and you know, we can’t account for what other people are going to do when they see that you’re doing this. So please, guys, and this is for everyone else not just Mohammad, be general but don’t ever get this specific. Please.

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah, you could’ve said DUI lawyer, and then like, plus city. You know what I mean? And divorce lawyer, plus city. And that way you would’ve not revealed your locations.

Adam: Yeah, and so feel free to … You can actually delete this after the Hump Day Hangout. Mohammad, is who I’m talking to.

Bradley: Okay, and then Adam’s going to edit the replay to pull it out, too. Is that what you’re saying, Adam?

Adam: Look, I didn’t think that far ahead, but …

Bradley: Alright, so anyways, “I made separate channels for the videos themselves with the YouTube syndication network. I think it’s a good start, but should I delete that stream from LRS and upload the video to my channel, or just upload the video to LRS and give it some embeds from Serp Space?”

Upload it through your own channel, Mohammad, not the LRS channel. Go through the channel that you set up and optimized for that project. The LRS stuff, guys, you can do that. But however, if you’re using live … Excuse me, Live Rank Sniper, which again, I ran it yesterday. I use that tool a lot actually, it’s really great tool for that, for poking keywords. Those accounts should be like, orphaned accounts. They shouldn’t be connected, really, to anything else. They’re usually just for testing purposes, for poking keywords.

So after I’ve determined … Run a campaign, and then I go back and do the search using Live Rank Sniper to go back and determine, you know, searches page one and two, and then we’ll send you a text file with the keywords, plus the ranking URL’s for anything that showed up on page one or two. After I’ve grabbed that text file, then I just go back into the channel and delete all those scheduled live streams because there’s really no reason to leave them. I mean, you can leave them there, don’t get me wrong. If they’re ranking on page one and you want to keep them as just a place-holder and it pushes somebody else off of page one, then by all means, leave it. It’s not gonna hurt, okay? I don’t know how long it’ll stick, but you can leave it there anyways.

But, you know, I typically will go on and just delete them, because I use the same test channels over and over again for multiple projects. Different keywords and everything, that’s why I don’t like having, like, a network or anything attached to those test channels because they’re not themed. They’re like literally all over the place as far as the types of keywords and the poking, the testing, that I do with them. So if you’ve got a syndication network set up and a branded channel for all that kind of stuff, it’s been optimized for those types of keywords and that city, whatever, then use that because you’re gonna get better results. Right? And they’ll stick longer, too.

The problem with trying to live stream to a scheduled live event from a orphaned account, is that although the live stream may rank initially, typically it falls off or out or down. I mean, that’s … Fairly quickly. Because it’s not an account that has any authority or any validation. It’s not an entity, so to speak, it’s just an orphaned account. So I don’t recommend it. It’s will initially rank well, but it usually won’t stick, alright?

What Kind Of Tasks Do You Get Your VAs To Do?

Alright, question number three. “What kind of tasks do you get your VA’s to do? I currently have mine creating content and I’m training them to make syndication networks but I know I’m not getting the most out of them.” Mohammad, what I do is, our VA’s are really compartmentalized. What I mean by that is that we teach our VA’s, for the most part, a specific task, and they do that repeatedly and that’s their job. That’s it. And the reason why is because they become incredibly efficient at that. Instead of having them do …

Now, if you have an administrative assistant, that’s different, right? Because administrative assistant’s gonna do multiple types of tasks, almost like personal assistant, right? That’s what I would call … An administrative assistant can handle all different types of tasks, but for most of the VA stuff that we do … It’s almost like a franchise model, like an assembly line, because we teach our VA’s to do, like, one specific task for one specific project type, or whatever it may be. And that’s what they do, over and over again because they become incredibly efficient at it. Okay?

So, you know, if you’re not a point where you got enough volume of work to keep them busy with those specific tasks, then you may want to train them on some other related type of tasks and try to get them more work. Or, here’s a better idea, just go out and create more volume of work for them. Go out and sell more networks, create more properties, do whatever you gotta do, you know?

Are IFTTT Networks Still Working?

Okay, I’m gonna keep moving. James says, “Are IFTTT networks still working? I’ve heard that other done-for-you IFTTT network builders are discontinuing the service because it no longer works.” Well, that’s great to hear, James. So I hope everybody does feel that way. All the other network builders out there, the copy-catters, I hope they do think they’re not working and they all get out of the business, they just leave the industry. I encourage them to do so.

Adam: Yeah, I heard that somebody was giving a behind-the-scenes tell-all, you know, for a certain amount of money and made a reference to us, but, you know …

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: So, yeah, “IFTTT network builders are discontinuing their service.” That’s great, I hope they all just leave the industry. But yes, they absolutely still work, James.

Marco: Can I say why?

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: James, if you don’t mind.

Bradley: ‘Cause they-

Marco: Most of the other-

Bradley: … Haven’t … Right.

Marco: … Other people, either they build them incorrectly, or they use automation. Both cases, the reason why it doesn’t work is not because syndication, the way Semantic Mastery teaches it doesn’t work, it’s the syndication that’s done via the way these other people do it.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Doesn’t work. IFTTTT … IFTTT, excuse me, network building and content syndication is still working like gangbusters. I can’t get into how we’re using it with RYS Reloaded, but trust me, it works. And it’s going to continue working until Google decides to change the algorithm [crosstalk 00:30:24] and I don’t know how they’ll manage to do that, right?

Bradley: Yeah, and they’ll have to change it considerably because the brand and networks, guys, just a way to validate the entity. It’s like you’re claiming your brand, your footprint, and then you’re syndicating your own content to it, which has been encouraged. And that’s been like, best practice, for years. So, you know, again, unless they change their algorithm significantly, yes, they still work. The reason why other networks aren’t working is because they either built them incorrectly, they built them with automation like Marco said, they didn’t interlink them properly, or they’re syndicating bullshit content.

Sorry to say, but that’s really what it comes down to, if you’re syndicating crap content, it’s not gonna help. Although, if the syndication network is built correctly, I’ve seen boosts of serious ranking jumps for lower competition-type keywords for just connecting the syndication network without even syndicating any content. So we know that they absolutely work, okay? But again, I hope they all get out of the building game.

Adam: Yeah, tell them that it doesn’t work.

Bradley: Yeah, tell them that you came to our webinar and we said, “Yes, they stopped working. So go ahead and get out of the business.” Tell them we said that.

How Do You Create A Sales Pitch Video For A Referral Client?

Alright, Ben’s up. He says, “Hey Bradley and guys, on episode 148 you talked about 27 minute, here’s-what-I-see video you put together for a referral client who was very impressed. What info did you look at to show him, what tools did you use to get the info?”

Okay, Ben, I just do the same … Usually, those type of videos, those analysis videos aren’t that long. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. It depends. It depends on how valuable the client or prospect may be to me, so sometimes I’ll put more effort in than others. But in this case, for something like that, usually what I’ll do is just … First of all, go into some keyword research 'cause I start with that, and I’ll explain … Like especially … It depends on the prospect. If the prospect has been around for a while, they’ve had a digital presence, they’re already probably gonna know a lot of like, what has been working or they’ve done AdWords in the past or whatever.

So this particular client had really, a very non-existent digital presence. They had a website that was very poorly done, and it’s because they had been relying on a couple of … They’re an HVAC contractor and they had been relying … A commercial HVAC contractor. And they had been relying on primarily, the majority of their work coming from large contracts with, like, franchise type chain stores. And they had a couple of their biggest contracts, like drop. And so now, they’re scrambling for leads, and that’s what part of the 27 minute video was me explaining to them that they should’ve threw out …

They got fat, dumb, and comfortable, you know? And fat, dumb and happy living off those big contracts but they had no backup plan in case those contracts didn’t renew. And that’s exactly what happened. And I said, you know, “You should never rely on just once source of leads.” You should start building your lead funnel regardless, because that way, you always have a pipeline full of leads in case one source or two sources dry up, you’ve got multiple sources.

So that said, I usually start with just keyword research stuff. I show where I’ve … What keyword opportunities I think exist that they may not have been aware of or that I can look at their site and tell that they’re not targeting certain keyword opportunities. So I start with that, then I usually show them their site. And I don’t criticize anything that they’re doing, you never do that, 'cause you … Sometimes people have an emotional connection to their website or to their digital presence, period, and if you start to criticize stuff you can lose them.

So what you do, is you try to … What do you do, call it a compliment sandwich. Which is like, compliment, criticism, compliment, that type of stuff. And so, I’ll kind of analyze their presence. Their website, any social media they have, you know, the landing pages, all that different kind of stuff. I’ll look at it and I’ll just do a brief analysis, “You know what, this is really cool I like what you did here, however, I think you could get better results if you did this.” And then I just go through, piece by piece.

And I’ll just explain each thing that I found and I always try to do that same method where I don’t ever talk down, as far as what they’ve got. I just try to explain how it could be improved. And that’s all it is. As far as the tools, I just use, again, the exact same process I always talk about for keyword research. I show them Google trends to show them Google data. And what’s nice about trends is it gives you graphics, right? Graphs and charts and things like that, so you can actually show related searches and the correlation between the keywords and that kind of stuff. You can show all that and it comes out really nice.

So I use Google trends and then I use, for local stuff, which is where, obviously when I’m sending out an analysis video to a client it’s, at least for me, about 99% of them are gonna be local-based. I use BrightLocal for reporting, for showing citation reports, for showing what they call the Google Local Wizard or whatever it is in there, which will show you the report and there’s also local ranking report. So after I do the keyword research, I’ll go input all the keywords into BrightLocal, I’ll generate a report. Even though they’re not a client I still add them as a client in BrightLocal.

I’ll generate a keyword report, a citation report, all of those. They have a full SEO analysis report inside of BrightLocal that’s a really good report. So I’ll generate those three, it’s very simple, I just enter their details in, I hit the generate button. It takes about 10 minutes, then I get all three reports back and I put all of those into an email along with the video where I just go through each one of the reports and point out and explain what the reports are saying. And that’s it.

It basically comes down to keyword research, showing opportunities that I think exist that they’re not capitalizing on, and that analyzing their digital assets, showing where I see some improvement could be made, and then walking through the three reports that BrightLocal generates. And BrightLocal’s an incredibly affordable service, guys, if you’re doing any sort of local, I highly recommend it. Okay? Again, another good question. You guys got great questions today.

Is It Possible To Create A T2 Persona Network For The T2 Personas That Support A T1 Network For A Youtube Channel?

Alright, Chris is up. He says, “Quick question, is it possible to create a tier,” … This is gonna be kind of a geeky … There’s too many T’s, and ones, and two’s in this. So I’m not gonna read the question, you guys can all read it. Yes, Chris, you can do that. I read this question earlier. You absolutely can create third-tier networks that link to your … That boost your tier-two networks. And so, if you look at … If you were to draw a graphic of it, the way we … I don’t like to go beyond tier two only because, it’s not that it doesn’t work, just it’s a lot of work setting it up and then there’s a lot of things that can break down. Because now you’ve got several triggers and actions chained together, so they’re like daisy-chained together. And if something breaks down, it’s a lot harder …

Now if you’re using something like Serp Space network monitoring, you should be notified that something’s not posted quickly. So you can go back through and identify very quickly, especially if you’ve added your networks correctly inside of Serp Space. But prior to having Serp Space, it was kind of a pain in the ass to troubleshoot to find out where there may be a breakdown in the process chain, so to speak. Because, again, it can become very complex. If you look at a graphic, typically we draw the graphic with the branded ring, tier one, and we’ve got three tier-2 rings and that’s because we use the three primary blog accounts, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as the tier two trigger accounts, right?

So … God. If anybody else gets Yelp calls as much as I do, I mean, we should get together and go blow up Yelp or something. I’m getting another damn spam call from Yelp. They call at least five times a week, I’m not kidding. It’s just unbelievable.

Anyways, so, one tier 1, three tier 2’s, and then you can actually have for tier three, you can have three tier 3 rings per tier 2 ring. So you would end up with what? Three, six, nine tier 3 rings, three tier 2 rings, so that’s 12. And then the branded tier one ring, so that would be 13 rings if you have a full, entire built out structure like what you’re describing here, Chris. And it works, it does work. It’s just a pain in the ass to set up. It’s a lot of work to set up. And again, if anything breaks down, you gotta go troubleshoot and there’s a lot of steps in that chain.

So to me, it’s more work than it’s worth, although I know we’ve got somebody that took our methods and basically did what you’re talking about here Chris, and she just went crazy with it. And she builds these great, big, super massive networks with hundreds or rings, no kidding. And she just ranks shit whenever she wants, like at-will. So it does work, it’s just a lot of work and it’s something that you gotta monitor to make sure that it is all firing correctly. Okay?

“Also, is that a recommended strategy in the first place?” I mean, again, you can. It’s just up to you how much effort you want to put in and how much headache you’re willing to deal with in case stuff does break down. And personally, I don’t. I’ve got too many of these network, you know, too many campaigns that I monitor and manage, for me to worry about building them out like that. I just like to do tier one and tier two for YouTube. I do tier two rings … Tier two networks structures and I just stack multiple tier two structures together. For money sites, I typically just do one branded tier, one ring, and then just boost the hell out of it. Okay? So, alright, there you go.

How Can You Get Ads Inside The 3 Map Pack Using Local Kingpin?

Jenia’s up. He says, “What’s up buddy?” It’s been awhile since you’ve commented on Hump Day Hangouts. “Hey Semantic crew. Wondering if you could shed some light on the ads inside the three pack and how I can get one in there. I own Local Kingpin, very grateful for this course, but I don’t see the info in there. Thanks.” Yeah, because Jenia, at the time it was … In the areas that I worked in, the ads weren’t appearing in the Maps pack yet. They were starting to appear in the expanded Maps, so like when you clicked on the ‘more results’ and it opens up, instead of from Google search, it actually opens up in the Maps. It would show an ad at the very top, sometimes two ads.

  It’s the same process either way, it’s … You have to have a location extension, number one. So you have to be using a local extension in your ads. Ad extensions for location, that makes sense, number one. Number two, you have to be the top bidder or the highest quality score. You gotta be the top-ranked ad. If you do that, then you should be able to get into the Maps pack for those keywords that are displaying ads in the three pack. Okay? That’s just started to roll out in my local area, not for all keywords, but for some of the niches that I’m into. For some contractor niches, now ads are starting to appear in the three pack.

Since Local Kingpin was launched, which I think was in August last year, 2016, the expanded Maps … I’ve had a lot of ads show up there, and my ad, it typically shows up because I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. For about 80% of the AdWords I set up, I usually end up being the top-ranked ad. And so my ad will show up in the expanded Maps pack but now like I said, just recently, within about the last six weeks or so, some of the projects or campaigns that I’ve worked on are starting to see ads appear in the Maps pack, the three pack too.

So again, it’s just a matter of: you have to have a location extension, and then you have to be the top … Not the top bidder, the top-ranked ad. Because sometimes you can be the top-ranked ad without being the top bidder because your quality score’s higher. So that’s really what you should be striving for, is improving your quality score to the best that you can get it because that lowers your cost-per-click and increases your rank positioning, or your ad positioning, ad rank, whatever. And that will get you into the Maps pack. Okay?

What Are The Possible Reasons Why A Verified Client GMB Page Isn’t Ranking In Google Maps?

Alright, Shane is up. Let’s see, and Shane’s doing this to be showing an actual listing here, so Marco’s advice earlier to Mohammad should apply to you [crosstalk 00:42:28] as well. “Hey, I have an issue where I can’t get a client listed in Google Maps. I have the website ranking on second page for the primary keyword. Also the GMB is verified, site already has citations, site over one year old, Maps listing two to three months. The next step was to get it ranking in Google Maps. It was set up as a service area, not a location, as he only does call-outs and there was another business in the location as it’s his residential address he submitted. Here’s the actual Google location on Google Maps.”

Okay, I’m not going to click through, but, “I’ve ordered Maps Powerhouse with 30 primary embeds in correct categories, and 1000 secondary embeds, but the listing isn’t even appearing in the Maps listing. It seems every other carpet cleaning business is listed in Google Maps except this client’s. Any suggestions on what I should do next?” Sounds like you’re being filtered out from the Pigeon filter, Shane. That’s a more common occurrence now. I’ve had that happen, I’ve got a couple sites, actually, that are Maps listings that have been filtered from Pigeon as well.

I’ve been testing some different methods to get that filter lifted. They did a little bit of a rollback on it recently, and because one of our sites that we’ve been struggling with that on is actually a client site, it’s not a lead-gen site. And his sites came back for about 50% of the keywords, where it had been filtered for 100% of the keywords for several months. Now it’s back for about half of the keywords. So, I know that the Pigeon filter has been lifted somewhat, but I’ve been testing some other methods. I’m not ready to reveal them yet because I don’t have consistent enough results, Shane. And when I do revel it, it’ll be inside the MasterMIND and I understand you’re not in there anymore.

What I would suggest is maybe testing, if you’ve got it as a service area business, I know if it’s his residential address that is listed as the physical location and he doesn’t want that to show, that could be an issue. But I was gonna say, we were just instructed, actually yesterday I was talking to one of our MasterMIND members about another similar case, and they changed the listing to show the address, from hidden address to show the address, and everything came back just like that, that had been filtered out. Within like, a matter of days, he said. So that might be something you want to try.

And then what I would suggest is if you just go back in, set it to where it does show his address, and his listing does come back, give it a few days. But if his listing does come back and starts to appear in the Maps again, it means that it was being filtered by Pigeon because of the address being hidden. Which again, I don’t know why that would be if it’s a true service area business, but what I’m saying is if you do that, what I would suggest is if the client doesn’t want his address being shown, then I would do a citation clean-up job and I would change the address. Literally go get a PO box or something. You know, like what we’ve talked about many times, and change the address for the business, so that you can still show the address but it won’t be showing his home address.

And it’s gonna suck, 'cause you’re gonna have to go and update all the existing citations, but there are some services online that will do that for you. Cost money, but they do it and they do it very, very well. Okay, so that’s what I would suggest doing. If that’s not an option or if that does not help, showing the actual address doesn’t change anything, than I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than, again, you’re saying that there was another business at that same location? That could be causing a problem, because that’s part of the Pigeon filter.

If Google determines that there are two businesses closely adjacent to each other, Google is going to determine which one is more relevant. And Google makes that determination, I don’t know what that criteria is, but that’s where my problem has occurred with several of my listings that have been filtered by Pigeon, is that it was in close proximity to another company that provided the same service. Products and/or services. For whatever reason, Google determined that other business was more relevant than mine, so it only shows that because it’s too close in location.

So if you got two businesses listed at the same location, it could … I don’t know why it would happen unless they’re both carpet related businesses, but for some reason Google’s saying that that other business is the only one that it’s going to display. And I’m not sure why that is or what the criteria is.

Marco: Rob and I actually took a look at this a couple of weeks ago for someone who was having issues with the Map. The issue was the entity. I typed in the address and what Google showed for the entity was something that was sharing the … It was another company, related, sharing the address. And that was showing as the entity, rather than the one that we were looking for to be the entity. So this … The only way that he can determine this is by listing the address and doing a Map search for …

Bradley: On the address.

Marco: Not a Map search, doing an address search to see what comes up in the entity panel, in the knowledge panel, and then that’s the only way to know which one Google is taking, considering the entity. And you need to get that changed. You need to either pop a three pack in there and then change it back to the knowledge panel. There’s a few ways that we do it through RYS Reloaded, it’s one of the … Rob, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s one of the webinars that we’ll have sometime in the future, on how we can’t always do it. And that’s a big issue. I don’t like going into anything unless I can replicate and do it over, and over, and over again. But I can tell right now, just from this, from reading this, his problem is probably entity.

Bradley: Yeah, so changing the address can help to solve that because again, if it’s like what Marco says, is absolutely true. If you do a search on just the physical address instead of the company name or the phone number or anything, then Google’s gonna show you what it sees at that location. And so if you change the address, then that could actually help. But again, I would test … First start with showing the address, instead of selecting for it to be hidden and see if that helps. Give it a few days, though. Don’t just change it and then tomorrow, go look and say, “Oh, it didn’t work,” And then start doing all this other stuff. Give it a few days and see if it changes it, and you can go in and update then if that does help.

If it doesn’t help, then like Marco said, it’s kind of difficult because I haven’t found anything that consistently solves that problem yet, either. I’ve tried several different things with mixed results, so that’s why I’m not willing to share it yet either. Because I don’t want to send people down a rabbit hole, go chasing stuff that may or may not work. Okay?

How Do You Use SEM Rush With Keyword Template In SEO Battleplan?

Okay, Ivan’s up again. He says … Or this is a different Ivan, excuse me. Ivan says, “I’m starting a new business. This morning I took some time to read the Battle Plan again. I downloaded the keyword research template provided after the SEMrush part. Can you give us a brief overview of how to use SEMrush to fill this template?” I’m sorry, Ivan, I can not. As I mentioned earlier in this webinar, I do not use SEMrush.

I know there’s some powerful features there but to me, it’s more data than I need. So I just don’t use it. That’s Hernan’s method, and he’s not here to explain. So I apologize for that, Ivan. If you want to repost your question next week when Hernan is here, hopefully he can provide some insight, or post your question in the group, whatever group you’re in and maybe he can jump in and answer it for you there.

What Are Some Best Practices Building Links Pointing To A Google Stack?

Okay, Armand says, “Is there a best practice for what links you point at a Google Stack? Do you generally use PBN’s or do you go crazy with GSA? Or could something like GSA be bad for the money site?” Well, if you’re not pointing directly at your money site, you should be okay. We don’t typically recommend throwing any sort of like, kitchen sink spam onto tier one links. Even Google links, I know Marco and Rob have tested, like literally over a million of the worst, most horrid, awful, atrocious links you could possibly imagine at Google Stacks and it actually ranked them.

Marco: In fiber gigs.

Bradley: Yeah, in fiber gigs and everything else. We don’t want to tell you to do that, so use at your own risk. I prefer to still use our [inaudible 00:50:39] methods that we do for syndication networks, which is the tier one links going to the drive stack are contextual links on higher metric properties. And then we throw kitchen sink spam behind that. Also, press releases are working really well to point at drive stacks, or drive files, drive folders, whatever. I deal with a lot of press release stuff right now with drive stacks and then I’ll throw GSA spam behind the press releases. The ones especially that have the do-follow links, which you just gotta identify those.

PBN’s do still work for that kind of stuff, guys. I wouldn’t point them at my money site but a drive stack, sure, why not? Okay? So you can go crazy, I’m just not encouraging you to do it, because we don’t recommend doing that because even though it still works now, we don’t know if in tomorrow or in six weeks or in six months, that all of a sudden that could tank your stack and/or your site. So I don’t recommend doing that. I would still be somewhat gentle for tier one to the drive stack, and then you can throw spam behind that.

Alright, Roger. “Is there an RYS Reloaded webinar on Monday?”

Marco: It’s listed in the events in the Facebook group, so go there.

Bradley: From now on, Marco’s going to be listing the webinars in the events tab of the Facebook group. So Facebook will be sending out notifications to everybody. So, yes, just pay attention to the Facebook notifications that should solve the problem.

Marco: And that one was already sent out, by the way. It’s already scheduled. And no, it’s not this coming Monday, it’s the following Monday.

Adam: Gotcha. And if it did, if we have somebody coming on, when we do these webinars, we know a lot of people can’t make it. So we’ll definitely have the replay available.

Should You Go With Serp Shaker And Build Pages For Lead Gens?

Bradley: Okay, and I got a couple minutes left. Let me run through the last few. Sajjad … Forgive me for being a dumb American. Can’t pronounce some named. “Recently found out about Serp Shaker, should I still go for it and build pages for lead-gens?” That’s up to you. It’s more cost effective than some of the other mass-page generators, that’s for sure. But it requires more manual work. We’ve used, for those types of things, Lead Gadget, is something that I was associated with for quite sometime. That’s a really good powerful, it’s a lot more expensive though, tool. Yeah, it’s still valid. P

Personally, I don’t like those methods for lead-gen stuff so much anymore because a lot of times those sites get slapped and de-indexed. Or they just fall or they catch penalties, whatever. So it’s just, to me, it’s a churn-and-burn. And I don’t like churn-and-burn strategies, guys. I don’t like doing rework. I hate doing anything that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into, to just have it disappear. So I got away from doing that, although it does work, I got away from doing it because it was a lot of rework. You’d get site slapped, or they would get de-indexed and then you’d have to go rebuild them again.

And although it’s not a difficult process to do, especially once you have a process in place, it’s still a lot of repeat stuff. That kinda stuff just annoys me, so I kinda got a way from doing it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. They work, okay? But you just have to understand what you’re getting into, okay?

How Do You Use IFTTT Networks When Ranking A Podcast?

Only got a couple left so Jay says, “Hi guys, high five.” High five back at ya, Jay. “Have you got any suggestions, tweaks, or warnings regarding using IFTTT ring whose content is a podcast? Can you take the podcast or iTunes RSS feed and use it as an RSS source for the tier one ring?” I don’t see why not. I’ve not done it. I don’t know what the syndication would look like. I know we’ve done … I’ve tested some stuff in the past. This was a couple years ago now, but with SoundCloud, and using SoundCloud as a trigger. ‘Cause the SoundCloud embed code’s very much like a YouTube embed code, you know what I mean?

So it’s just like … It shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just an iFrame, but play with it, Jay. As far as, will it work? Yeah. I don’t know how they look when they get syndicated but-

Adam: For example, we’ve got ours. Like it’s not our only, so that’s what I can say, is that I don’t have any experience using solely a podcast, but Semantic Mastery, we integrate our podcasts into our blog, which then gets syndicated though.

Bradley: Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna say. I don’t see it … It’s not gonna cause you any problems. I just don’t know how it looks once it’s syndicated 'cause I haven’t gone and investigated that. But yeah, you can absolutely do that.

Adam: Yeah, definitely be some power to adding, like call to action or some extra content onto it, instead of just like the SoundCloud play button. But, anyways, sorry Marco, what were you saying?

Marco: No, that’s three sources of content that he actually has on there, right? Because if he records it, then he has sound, he has video, and then he gets the video transcribed, and now he has a blog post.

Bradley: Yeah, written content.

Marco: Because a video embed, and he has the audio pushed through. So Jay, go to town. I don’t see why there’s any problem with that.

Do You Have Any Training On Getting SEO Clients?

Bradley: Mohammad says, “Thanks for the advice guys, not much I can do now but I did edit the question. At the very least, lesson learned.” No problem, buddy. You know what, lesson learned is right. So back to another question from this gentleman. That’s all I’m gonna say. “New to your training. Do you have any training on client acquisition? My SEO agency site is currently ranking for a few countries and also for a few states, but I need more clients. Called a few from Yellow Pages, says not interested and ends the call.” Yeah, that’s the problem. And the reason why is because so many … Well, I say contractors 'cause that’s what I deal with, but clients of small business, they get hammered with sales calls guys, all day long. That’s why interruption marketing really doesn’t work that well for prospecting. It just doesn’t. Because you get read the riot act from prospects that when you interrupt them, and I don’t blame you, 'cause I get so many damn spam calls a day that I don’t even answer my phone anymore. In fact, my voicemail reading says, “Due to the overwhelming volume of spam calls that I receive, I’m no longer answering my phone. If this is important, leave your name and number and I will call you back. If it’s solicitation,” Well, I don’t say this but I wanna say it: Go ‘F’ yourself. You know what I mean? So anyways I don’t answer my phone anymore specifically for that reason. So I totally understand where businesses are coming from when they, even though like, from you, you’re genuinely trying to help and provide them services, but they don’t see it that way. So that’s why I try to do a more nurturing, like lead development type of strategy, where I contact them like cold-contacting. Email. I get them into a funnel and I do remarketing, direct mail, you know all these different things that I can do to constantly remind them that I’m there, so that when they’re ready, they’ll schedule the call with me on their own time. And that changes the whole psychology or the dynamic of that phone call, if that makes sense.

Adam: And I think, also Bradley, something else you’ve done is the video mail and I think that might be something that he could do. You don’t have to show yourself if you’re … Depending on if you’re comfortable speaking and doing a screen-share, walk through people. You don’t have to show your face but talk to them and then send them that, and then they have time to look at it. Send them two or three emails and then get them to call you.

Bradley: And so, there you go. That was gonna be my next comment was to tell you that we have, in our bonus site, we have the video email ports that basically walks you through the process of how to set up and use video email, or v-mail is what I used to call it, to prospect for clients. It’s very, very effective. It’s a bit time consuming but it’s very effective. So if you don’t have access to the bonus site … You’re supposed to have purchased one of our products. If you haven’t purchased any of our products yet, start with YouTube Silo Academy, it’s 7 bucks. But contact us at support@semanticmastery.com.

Adam: I was gonna say, his next question was about the Battle Plan, so I would say, what’s it all about? It’s about having a list that you can go down, a process, a plan, that you can follow for your SEO. So, grab that, get the training, and that’s probably the best thing for him.

Bradley: Yeah, contact us at support@semanticmastery.com and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site if you pick up the Battle Plan or whatever. Just contact us there and we’ll get you set up with the bonus site. And in there, there’s a ton of additional training too, guys. Alright? Okay, cool, well let’s see if I can undo this. Crazy thing. I know isn’t that weird? Okay, it’s back. Are we back?

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay, cool. Alright everybody, thanks for being here. We’re a little bit over on time, but we got MasterMIND tomorrow. Any final parting words, guys?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Alright.

Adam: Bye, everyone.

Bradley: Hey, Rob, thanks for showing up and participating so much.

Rob: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Adam: Awesome, good to have you here man.

Bradley: Alright guys.

Adam: Alright. Have a beer. See you guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 154 published first on your-t1-blog-url