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oscar-lettjohanssonloveme · 3 years

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Purple Roses pt. 2 (Miss Venable x reader)

hiya..its 4 am in germany and im really tired :3 but here we go, Mina is damn soft in this fanfic..i hope its okay sksks..here is the first pt.:

https://littlejeaniehugsbumblebees.tumblr.com/post/640902350735818752/purple-roses-ms-venable-x-reader

summary: Mina meets ur parents and u have ur coming out..ouhh and she wants to ask u smt

warnings: nothing its super duper fluff i guess :D

tagglist: @d14n4ol

google translate sksksk

"Earth to Mina ..", you grumbled and reached out your finger to tap her cheek gently.

"What?"

Your girlfriend looked away from her newspaper with a frown to look down at you, who was lying in her lap.

You had to grin as she stared down at you in confusion as the glasses slid down a few millimeters on the bridge of her nose.

"I asked you something.."

"And what did you ask?"

"So ..", you started after your fingers had moved to her glasses and you had pushed them up again.

"Imagine you had to decide: Either you are the only mortal human among immortal humans or you are the only human who is undying among all mortal humans.. What do you choose?"

"Is that a test?"

"A test for what?"

"For finding out if I'm a psychopath or something like that?" She asked, still staring down at you, frowning.

"No ..." you shook your head. "I just saw it earlier on instagram and was just thinking about it .."

She looked at you thoughtfully for a few seconds.

"I would probably want to be the immortal human among mortals .."

"For real?" You shouted, tilting your head.

"Then you should see all your friends die .."

Mina raised an eyebrow.

"Which friends?"

"Oh wow .." you rolled your eyes.

"So, am I a psychopath now?" She smiled and you could see her white teeth.

"No .." you mumbled as you started to play with her purple blouse.

"I would probably have taken that too .. but just because it would have been weird to be the only person who would have to die at some point .."

Mina let out a low snort.

"Imagine that, a graveyard for one person ..".

"Yes! .." you exclaimed cockily. "I would probably be exhibited in a museum as the only human corpse. And I would get a coffin made of gold and people would come from all over the world just to see me dead .."

"Or some crazy scientist would use your dead body for their projects .."

"Ew .." you made and grimaced. "That wouldn't be that great ..".

"Better to be immortal, then ..", Mina said with a grin before leaning forward to put her newspaper on the table.

"Now I have a question for you, Y / N .."

"Oh yeah?" You looked confused into her brown eyes and she hummed in agreement as her fingers started to comb through your hair.

"Okay, imagine a bitter old woman comes up to you and asked you, if you want to marry her, what would you answer?"

"I would say no, of course ..." you said, tilting your head to one side.

"First of all, I don't find old, bitter women really attractive and, secondly, why should I marry an old, bitter woman when I can just have the most beautiful woman in the world?"

Mina laughed softly before tapping the tip of your nose with her index finger.

"You know what I'm getting at ..".

"What I know is that you could then leave your show-off house and then finally move into my horror apartment ..", you grinned cheekily at her and she just rolled her eyes.

"You know, I've been thinking, Y / N .." she continued, suddenly sounding serious. "We've been a couple for almost a year now and the only person who knows about it is your aunt and some of your friends .."

"Should I start tagging you on my pictures now?" You laughed.

"You're the one who doesn't like all the love stuff in public and that's not supposed to be a reproach .. I-"

"I want to get to know your parents ..", she interrupted you and looked at you carefully.

You met her gaze for a few seconds before you swallowed.

"My parents?" You repeated quietly.

"Your parents."

"Uhm..okay..that's unexpected .." you muttered as you rose from her lap to sit up.

"So my parents are nice people, but you know, that they dont now that I am ... you know-"

"That you are attracted to old, bitter women?"

"Oh shut up Mina .." you hissed and slapped her gently on the upper arm.

"If you say that again, break your stupid stick and throw it in the fireplace ..".

"Ouhh now I'm scared .." Mina teased, grinning, but you just shook your head.

For a moment there was silence between the two of you and Mina was finally the one who interrupted them.

"I don't want to force you to do it and if you say, you don't want to do that, then that's okay .. I don't want to drive a wedge between you and your parents either .." she said and put her hand on yours. Your gaze landed on her hand, ran down her arm to finally meet her face.

"Maybe it's a good idea .." you muttered and she smiled gently.

"At some point I have to tell them anyway .."

-----------------------------

"Hello beautiful woman .." you greet your girlfriend who entered your shop. Like she did every Tuesday night after work ... It was one of your favorite traditions in your relationship.

"How can I help you today?", You smiled brightly at her as she leaned against your counter

"Well Miss Y / L / N, my wonderful girlfriend and I will be with her parents for dinner for the first time tomorrow evening .. You know, her parents don't know that she is a lesbian ...", Mina explained seriously and brought you to grin.

"That sounds interesting .."

"That's it! We're both just pretty nervous and I thought it would be a good idea to bring flowers to her parents ...".

"That's a great idea, Miss Venable .. what were you thinking of?", You tilted your head and wandered your eyes over the woman who was just standing in front of you.

The lavender suit, the way her hair was perfect and the dark lipstick ... she was so fucking beautiful.

Mina cleared her throat briefly when she realized that your attention was no longer on your conversation.

"You know, Miss Y / L / N, I love to watch your talented little fingers remove the thorns from the roses ..", she playfully raised an eyebrow and you couldn't help but laugh.

"How vulgar, Miss Venable .. just make sure that your girlfriend doesn't notice this, otherwise she'll get jealous ..".

You bent down briefly to get the box with the red roses from under the table. You put them on the table between you and Mina and took out the small knife to start removing the thorns.

"How was your day, honey?" You finally asked her after a minute had passed.

"Good," she said curtly.

"Good?", You looked at her grinning. "You sound like a school child who is asked how it was in school ..".

Mina shrugged her shoulders.

"I hate those idiots from my office, but that's nothing new ..".

"Imagine if I would work for you .. maybe you wouldn´t hate it so much anymore ..", you muttered while you still slid your knife over the flower stems.

"I think that wouldn't be a good idea .."

You just nodded and stared intently at the roses in front of you.

"What about the purple roses?", Your friend suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You had these roses once and never again .."

"That was a special delivery .." you explained and reached under the counter, took out the paper and wrapped the roses in it.

"But we can also make some ourselves ..".

You put the flowers in Mina's arms and looked expectantly into her confused face.

"How is that supposed to work?" She asked.

"You water white roses with purple color .."

"Should we try it sometime ..", she mumbled and you nodded.

"Listen Mina, you wait in the car and I'll finish everything here and then we can go home .."

"Sounds good .." she replied just before she turned around and strutted out of the shop.

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Her dark eyes stared at Mina in the mirror as she smoothed her blouse with her hands. Miss Venable was usually never nervous, which was because, due to her dominant demeanor, she almost always had the strings in hand when it came to dealing with other people and she didn't care how much she hurt someone with her words. But that was you, her precious little princess and what she wanted least of all was to see you sad because of her. She also knew that she couldn't win over your parents if she intimidated them.

She leaned forward to apply her dark lipstick when you stepped into the bathroom behind her and let out an impressed whistle.

"Is that the blouse you wore on our first date?" You asked, examining the silk fabric on Mina's skin.

"Yes .." she muttered.

Miss Venable's eyes watched you in the mirror while she admired how beautiful you looked in the dress you were wearing.

"My parents should just like you and not want to go to bed with you .." you said with a grin when her eyes found yours in the mirror.

"Ha ha ..", Mina made dry before she screwed the cap of her lipstick back on and turned to you.

"Are you ready?" She asked and you nodded while you smiled wryly.

"You look beautiful .." she muttered and planted a quick kiss on your temple before walking past you to leave the house.

"So to summarize again what my parents know ... or rather

what they think they know .. "you started staring out the window of the moving car.

"Well, actually they don't know anything .. I think they used to think that I had something with my best friend because he was my homecoming date .. And now they think I was single and I told them on telephone you were a good friend... "

"That sounds like it will be a very relaxed evening ..", Mina joked and you couldn't help but grin.

"I'm just afraid it might be a little too much .."

"Too much?" Mina repeated confused.

"Is it a good idea to come out and bring your girlfriend with you? Don't get me wrong, it has nothing to do with you .."

"Well ... you have a point, but let's speculate ..", Mina said when the car stopped at a traffic light.

"How could they react?"

"So .. we have these two iconic situations: The first situation would be this "we always knew it mimimi".

The other situation would be that they will be angry ... and so angry that they don't want to see me anymore .. "you explained and Mina could hear the concern in your voice.

"Something like that is sure not going to happen ..", Mina muttered as she took her right hand from the steering wheel and placed it on your thigh.

"I hope so .."

You were silent for the rest of the journey and that's why Mina decided not to say anything. Would you want her words, you would let her know.

"Here we are ..", Mina mumbled when she finally parked the car in front of your parents' modest house. She looked at you sideways and found that you were staring at the house as if you were about to start crying.

"Hey .." she cooed gently and grabbed your chin to force you to look at her.

"Everything will be fine..".

She examined your worried face and grinned when she saw that there was still a print of her lipstick on your temple.

"What?" You asked confused.

"You have my lipstick on your face ..", Mina mumbled and wiped her thumb over the print to remove it.

"And I think you don't want your parents to find out about your homosexuality that way."

"Not funny ..", you rolled your eyes.

Mina glanced at the car clock.

"We should go in, princess, we are already 5 minutes late .."

"Okay .. here we go ..", you mumbled and suddenly sounded brave as you leaned forward to press your lips against Minas for a moment.

When you both stood in front of your parents' front door and your mother opened the door for you both beaming, Mina immediately noticed the resemblance between you and your mother. This woman seemed just as straightforward as you, and you both had the same laugh. If your mom were really as carefree as you, then the evening wouldn't be complicated, Mina thought as she greeted your mother.

The first half of the evening was totally relaxed, your parents seemed to be really nice people, as far as Mina could tell.

While your mother was just as crazy as you, your father was a bit more introverted, but he had the same sense of humor as you and he was the one who cooked. A fact that somehow gave Mina hope, as it showed that your parents didn't seem to care about the old gender roles (cooking housewife and working businessman).

It was really nice. Mina, who usually had her problems with people, thought she might really like your parents at some point. they didn't ask private questions, didn't let an awkward silence reign, and were totally open-hearted people.

And yet she felt how nervous you were while you were sitting next to her at the dining table and trying to choke the food down even though you were probably extremely sick. Usually you played with your fingers when you were nervous or excited, but since your hands were holding the cutlery, it was your leg that was pushing off the floor all the time. And it was Mina who then, invisible to your parents, put her hand on your knee to calm you down.

It was around 9 o'clock when the four of you ran out of conversation and it was you who finally broke the silence.

"Well uhm, I actually came to tell you something .." you said and your voice sounded thick. Immediately all pairs of eyes were focused on you and Mina tensed her hand on your thigh to show you that she was there.

"Oh yeah?" Your mom asked confused before you nodded.

"Well, you always wanted me to be in a relationship with someone .." you continued and stared lost at the half-empty wine glass in front of you.

"And surprise..I'm in a relationship .."

"Oh really?", Mina could see your mother's eyes starting to glow and she wondered if the whole thing was really a good idea.

"Yes ..".

"Who is he?" Asked your father.

"Well uhm she's sitting right next to me ..".

Mina closed her eyes for a moment when she felt the confused looks of your parents on her. For a few seconds no one said anything and she felt you start to slide back and forth on your chair.

"Oh ..", Your mom finally pounded when she understood what you were talking about.

Mina opened her eyes again and stared into the flame of the candle that was on the table.

"You and Wilhemina ..?", Your mom looked confused between Mina and you.

"We've been together for almost a year .." you added and Mina heard your voice break at the end.

"What does being together mean?" Your mom asked sharply.

"She is my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend like best friend?"

"No, girlfriend like i love her ..", you muttered and looked carefully at Mina who smiled gently at you while she rubbed your thigh.

"Does that mean that you .....?", Your mother stared at you with her eyes wide open.

"I'm a lesbian, yes .." you said firmly and returned her gaze.

"Damn it .." your mom muttered and fell back into her chair.

Finally your father cleared his throat, too, who hadn't moved an inch before.

"How long have you known?" He asked, leaning forward.

"Since Highschool i guess ..".

"Since high school? Are you kidding me?" Your mom shouted angrily and Mina could feel you flinch under her hand.

"Why are you telling us this now?"

"Maybe because your most asked question to me was whether I have a boyfriend or when I will finally get one ..?" You croaked.

"Because we thought you were straight .." your mom yelled back. "If we had known that you were into women, we would never have asked such a thing .."

"I thought you'd be disappointed or something."

"Disappointed? Oh damn Y / N ..", your mother shook her head in disbelief and looked at you sadly.

"Can you say something too, Dad?" You asked after two minutes of more silence as you looked away from your mother to look at your father, who was staring at you thoughtfully.

"I uh ... so when you have a daughter, as a father, you imagine all the things your child has in store for you ..." your dad began.

"That includes the person your daughter wants to grow old with at some point and I just imagined that this person was a man and now it's a woman .. And now I need a few seconds to turn this man into one woman .. if you understand.."

"Okay ..." you replied quietly.

"You know, at the same time I wonder if I have said anything homophobic in all the years of your childhood that could have scared you .." he continued and you nodded slowly.

"Who knows it?" Your mother suddenly asked.

"Uhm .. some friends and aunt Phoebe .."

"Aunt Phoebe?" Your mother frowned when you mentioned your aunt.

You shrugged your shoulders.

"She noticed that Mina only comes to the flower shop when I'm there and then wanted to know why .."

"My sister knows that my daughter is a lesbian and I don't know?" Your mother called, sounding reproachful.

"I was afraid that you would be angry or something .." you defended yourself.

"Y / N you're still our damn daughter .." your mother mumbled and swore again.

"No Y / N, you are our daughter .." your dad interfered.

"There is no place for a 'still' because you are simply our daughter and your sexuality could never change that .. Who you love is your business and you do not need our permission .."

You stared at him and felt tears welling up in your eyes.

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that .." you muttered before getting up and walking over to your dad to give him a hug.

"Thank you so much .." you whispered against the fabric of his shirt.

Suddenly you felt your mom, who had also got up, put a hand on your shoulder and pulled you from your dad's arms into hers.

And while you all played happy family, Mina was still sitting a little lost at the dining table and watching the situation in front of her. It all happened faster than expected.

In her eyes, your father had taken it a little better than your mom, who seemed a little disappointed because you had only told them now.

"I should go to the bathroom to fix my make-up ..." you mumbled and smiled sheepishly as you withdrew from your mom's arms.

Your mother just nodded before you turned around to jump out of the room, leaving Mina alone with your parents.

"So you're a lesbian too .." said your mother, mumbling as your parents sat down again.

"I am.", Mina replied curtly and pressed her lips together.

"And is that serious between you?"

"It is."

"This is probably the moment when I should threaten to kill you if you break her heart .." joked your father.

"I'll propose to her," Mina said firmly.

"So it's really serious ..", your mother's eyes widened at Mina's words.

"It is .." repeated she.

"Well, we would be happy if you would invite us to your wedding..", your dad interjected and Mina decided at that moment that she liked your parents.

A few seconds later you were standing in the doorway and had your radiant smile back on.

"I think we should go now, Mina .." you said and Mina hummed in agreement.

"That's a good idea.."

As soon as you were outside, after hugging your parents for a long time, you jumped into the arms of your girlfriend to kiss every inch of her face.

"Jesus Y / N ..", Mina muttered, who stumbled a few steps back from your sudden attack.

"I'm such an idiot ..", you laughed. "I've been worrying for free all these years and now they have reacted so well to it ... I should have done that much earlier .."

Mina smiled as she pressed a quick kiss on your forehead.

"I'm proud of you, princess .."

"So and now ..", you shouted cockily and pulled her hand to your car.

"Now I want to get to know your mother .."

"No way..You don’t want to meet that witch ..".

----------------------

"Come on, Y / N .. you promised me .." Mina pleaded.

"But it's really cold up there and besides, I'm tired .." you replied.

It was New Year's Eve and the two of you had decided to spend the evening at your apartment and then climb onto the roof around midnight to watch the fireworks. To your surprise, it was Mina who suggested going to you, although she usually doesn't like visiting your "horror apartment".

"If you put on your winter jacket you won't be cold and besides, I'm there ..", Mina tried further.

"You know, I think the idea of you as a human heater is really cute, but we could just drive to you ..".

"That wouldn't be the same."

You sighed.

"Okay ..", you mumbled and had your friend give you your coat.

Surprisingly, you found out that you were the only ones on the roof. At least you couldn't see any of your neighbors when you went over the roof to your self-made bed.

It was currently 11:37 pm and until the fireworks started at midnight you had enough time to watch the beautiful starry sky, as you always did when you were with her.

Your head was on her shoulder as always while she had an arm around you as always and was playing with your hair.

"I actually wanted to talk to you .." you mumbled after a few minutes.

"Is everything okay?", Mina asked and looked down at you worriedly.

You nodded quickly.

"Yeah .. it's just uhm, you know I love the flower shop, but I don't think that's what I want to do for the rest of my life ..".

"No?"

"No ..", you said. "That's why I'll catch up on my school leaving certificate and then probably study something ..".

"Thats great, princess .." Mina smiled gently at you.

"And what do you want to study?"

"History .. I guess and then I'd like to work as a professor .. At schools or colleges .." you mumbled.

"Professor sounds hot," said Mina and you had to laugh.

"The good thing is that when I study I can still live with you."

"Yes?"

"Yep .." you nodded. "We have a college in town, in case you forgot .. and if they take me, I don't have to move to campus ..".

"That would be great ..", Mina muttered and glanced at her watch.

11:52

"In 10 minutes it will be ready ..".

"Ouhh, we should stand by the railing .." you said before you jumped up and stretched your arm to help Mina up.

"Well ..", you began as you clung to the railing of the roof and leaned forward a little so that Mina was afraid you would fall off the roof at any moment.

"Josh lives back there ..", you explained and pointed with an outstretched finger at another tower block. "He is the brother of a friend of mine. He makes a lot of fireworks with his friends every year. Then my neighbors, the Andrews, who are not there today for whatever reason, always let a lot of fireworks rise from our roof, even though it is actually is forbidden .. And then there are all the people on the street who bring their fireworks .. ".

You stared at a group of people who were standing on the corner of the street in front of the bakery and were already setting off fireworks

"It occurred to me, I think Josh broke his leg and can't even go on the roof .." you mumbled with a frown and Mina hummed in agreement, not even listening to you.

As your eyes wandered over the city, hers glued to you and looked at you lovingly. She looked at her watch one more time (11:55) and took a short breath before reaching into the pocket of her coat to feel the velvet-covered can with her fingers.

You didn't even notice it when you were still happy watching other people's fireworks

"Okay, Y / N .. I'm not good at this, but I'll try my best, okay?" Mina said suddenly and you looked at her confused.

"What do you mean?"

"We've been together for almost a year and I have no regrets, except for one small thing .."

"Oh yeah?" You frowned as she continued.

"About a year ago you asked me in the evening, if I believed in love at first sight and I told you, that I generally don't believe in love and that was actually a lie. So it was true somewhere, I didn't believe in love until the moment I walked into your little flower shop and saw you cut your finger because of your lack of concentration.

You know how much I hate people, but with you it's different..I can't hate you and I never could hate you and I hope that you understand that between all the 'hate' I try to explain to you how much I love you .. because I do and I have no idea what I would do without you, I would probably just be a bitter old woman .. ", she finished and grinned when she saw you roll your eyes.

"I hope you're not mad at me, because I can't get down on my knees because of my handicap .." she mumbled and took out the small velvet box to hold it towards you.

"But do you want to marry me?"

You stared at her in shock.

"Shit, that wasn't a joke?"

"Does that mean no?", Mina frowned.

"God no! I'm just- Oh damn, Mina, of course I want to marry you ..", you grabbed her face between your hands and pulled her close to kiss her tightly.

"This is going to be great .." your eyes lit up as you pulled back.

"I already have so many ideas for the wedding, I'll take your name and all that .. Y / N Venable sounds amazing, change my mind.. and then I'll move in to your house and then I can catch up with school and maybe one day we'll adopt a lot of children from poor countries..".

"Slowly, Y / N ..", Mina laughed and took your hand to slide the ring onto your finger.

"We still have enough time to plan, let's celebrate New Year's Eve now, please..”

"God, it is beautiful .." you muttered, staring at the silver ring on your finger. Mina smiled as she leaned over to press her lips against your forehead.

"Happy new year, princess .."

"Happy new year, my dear future-wife.."

#wilhemina venable x reader #sarah paulson x reader #wilhemina venable imagine #american horror story #purple roses

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nuclearterror · 6 years

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Today went down in the books as a day of fucking luck! First day in a while since I’ve had everything right happen at work.To quickly sum it up, all of my equipment (i.e. chainsaw, wellies, helmet and chaps) has been in some way broken or defective ever since I began this job. It especially chaps (ha...ha.) my ass that everyone else has either top notch or fully functioning equipment... which is a good thing or else nothing would get done. Now to the good part.... I got a brand new chainsaw. Turns out my last one (i’ve been through 3) had something wrong with the air intake that couldn't be doctored. Work today was a GD dream, I was rippin’ through trees, it was a gay old time. Happy “friday” to me!

So, naturally, I am at hoops celebrating. I was trying to dissect what it is about this brewery that makes me so inclined to go so often to the point of being a regular. This place is my dojo. I come here because only the bartenders know me and I get to just relax without people being overly social. See, there is the occasional conversation next to bar neighbors.... like the tourist couples or the occasional sports watcher... maybe a fly fisher if im lucky, but that’s it. I've walked away from this bar without anything but an occasional, enjoyable conversation and a beer stache haha. I just enjoy a place to drink beer and read a book/use the internet. Brewerys are sort of awesome when you think about it. Its such a contrast to a bar. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum, solely because of the crowds and intentions. Bars are just people usually trying to get shitfaced and be shifty, lets be honest, after a few drinks, no matter who ya are, ya get frisky. Im getting to a point in life where i just enjoy getting a few beers and relaxing. Dont get me wrong, being rowdy every once in a blue moon is a blast too.

On that note, everyone is here for the vikings game and I forgot how lit Minnesotans get. I had to pop in my earphones because every time they get a touchdown everyone stands and yells haha. I got a job offer for the Maine Conservation Corps. CCM to MCC.. i dont even know if I have another Americrops year in me. Im flat broke after this job. Living stipends do not fund full ass moves across the country to make more living stipends. It would be another 5 g’s to add towards my education award for grad school, but based off of my experience at CCM, I cant handle another year of being treated like a serf and a toddler at the same time. I need to call the lady and have a serious conversation about what they are about (i.e. their take on managing invasives, policies and procedures, project types etc.). i’m thinking that ill be able to have a better grip on the similarities and differences between the two. There is, however, a trail crew as well as an environmental steward crew. I’d forsure take on the trail crew, hands down. After learning what the government’s take on “conservation” is, I need to not be a part of it. We have fundamental differences on what a land steward is and should be. Trail crew looks mental, right up my ally. I love love loveeeee trail work. Sure, its not as environmentally educational, but what can I say, I love manual labor. Trail work will kick your ass. It’s conditioning for my future in wildland firefighting.

Here’s where I run into the dilemma. I have to contact this woman before October 11th with my decision and I am in the midst of applying for a fuckton of Wildland firefighting jobs.... which is my top priority. Unfortunately they don’t start their hiring process until usually Nov./Dec. I could either pick up a bar tending jobs downtown and live my lease out until Jan.and move to Maine or I could turn the offer down and continue applying for wildfire positions through USFS and private contractors. Im sort of leaning towards option two but if im being smart i’d take maine and roll with it. Something to ponder on. Responsibility or follow yr dreams. I usually go with option 2. Even the phrase option 2 sounds appealing... I’ve never been one to follow through with plans ;) There’s this 1 private contractor called Grayback Mountain that I reallllly want to work for. Ive applied for their position on a Type 2 Handcrew in Oregon. Ashole Williams is trying to move out there with me which would help me with rent and take care of my future kitten while im gone for 6 months at a time. I am thinking either Eugene or Bend since their fairly close to where I’d be stationed. The max you can live is two hours away from base which neither of those are but 30 minutes away. I figure ill live on the west coast for a year or 3 before climate change takes on the wrath of volcanic activity, hurricanes, tectonic plate movement, refugee populations rising etc.... lets not forget fires. The whole western half of the united states is up in flames.... job security.now would be a great time to fight fire wile im red card certified while I enjoy the coast before its toast (i told u i was freaky). Thats a good one ;)

I’ve added the tinder app.... which has been detrimental. I got super high and thought about the things these people were saying to me and am now super offended lmfao im laughing in my head as we speak. Its super difficult because most of the time its a bunch of horny men and women trying to hook up. Luckily duluth is split between red necks northerners and “upper peninsula” type northerners who are super into outdoor activities albeit winter or summer. there’s a small handful of gems who are backpacking or canoe guides that I fall shortly in love with. I met one dude off tinder and successfully met him at a planned location. His name was Ryan Mell the glass blower (hes not dead) and we had various dates. That was the one success story except were both busy and don’t see each other much. He was str8 up my lover stylistically but hes more of a watch tv and get stoned kind of man. Thats ok, DIVERSITY!

What is a blog? Is it an acronym? I should probably look that up. I think of this as more of an online journal. I get super stoned and write these at the brewery so there bound to be a mess of words posted together.

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ubizheroes · 7 years

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SEO for Copywriters: Tips on Measuring SEO Impact – Next Level

Posted by BrianChilds

Welcome to the newest installment of our educational Next Level series! In our last episode, Brian Childs shared a few handy shortcuts for targeting multiple keywords with one page. Today, he’s back to share how to use Google Analytics to measure the SEO impact of your content. Read on and level up!

Understanding how to write web content for SEO is important. But equally important is knowing how to measure the SEO impact of your content after it’s published. In this article I’ll describe how to use Google Analytics to create reports that evaluate the performance of articles or the writers creating those articles.

Let’s start with some definitions.

What is SEO content?

Search engine optimized content is the strategic process of researching and writing website copy with the goal of maximizing its impact in the SERPs. This requires having a keyword strategy, the ability to conduct competitive analyses, and knowledge of current ranking factors.

If you’re a copywriter, you’ve likely already been asked by your clients to create content “written for SEO.” Translating this into action often means the writer needs to have a greater role in both strategy and research. Words matter in SEO, and spending the time to get them right is a big part of creating content effectively. Adding SEO research and analysis to the process of researching content often fits nicely.

So the question is: How do I measure the effectiveness of my content team?

We go in greater depth on the research and reporting processes during the Moz seminar SEO for Content Writers, but I’ll explain a few useful concepts here.

What should I measure?

Well-defined goals are at the heart of any good digital marketing strategy, whether you’re doing SEO or PPC. Goals will differ by client and I’ve found that part of my role as a digital marketer is to help the client understand how to articulate the business goals into measurable actions taken by visitors on their site.

Ideally, goals have a few essential traits. They should:

Have measurable value (revenue, leads generated, event registrations)

Be identifiable on the site (PDF downloads, button clicks, confirmation page views)

Lead to business growth (part of an online campaign, useful to sales team, etc.)

Broad goals such as “increase organic sessions on site” are rarely specific enough for clients to want to invest in after the first 3–6 months of a relationship.

One tool you can use to measure goals is Google Analytics (GA). The nice part about GA is that almost everyone has an account (even if they don’t know how to use it) and it integrates nicely with almost all major SEO software platforms.

Lay the foundation for your SEO research by taking a free trial of Moz Pro. After you’ve researched your content strategy and competition with Keyword Explorer and Open Site Explorer, you can begin measuring the content you create in Google Analytics.

Let me show you how I set this up.

How to measure SEO content using Google Analytics

Step 1: Review conversion actions on site

As I mentioned before, your SEO goals should tie to a business outcome. We discuss setting up goals, including a worksheet that shows monthly performance, during the Reporting on SEO Bootcamp.

During the launch phase of a new project, locate the on-site actions that contribute to your client’s business and then consider how your content can drive traffic to those pages. Some articles have CTAs pointing to a whitepaper; others may suggest setting up a consultation.

When interviewing your client about these potential conversion locations (contact us page, whitepaper download, etc), ask them about the value of a new customer or lead. For nonprofits, maybe the objective is to increase awareness of events or increase donations. Regardless of the goal, it’s important that you define a value for each conversion before creating goals in Google Analytics.

Step 2: Navigate to the Admin panel in Google Analytics

Once you have goals identified and have settled on an acceptable value for that goal, open up Google Analytics and navigate to the admin panel. At the time of writing this, you can find the Admin panel by clicking on a little gear icon at the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Step 3: Create a goal (including dollar value)

There are three columns in the Admin view: Account, Property, and View. In the “View” column, you will see a section marked “Goals.”

Once you are in Goals, select “+New Goal.”

I usually select “Custom” rather than the pre-filled templates. It’s up to you. I’d give the Custom option a spin just to familiarize yourself with the selectors.

Now fill out the goal based on the analysis conducted in step #1. One goal should be filled out for each conversion action you’ve identified. The most important factor is filling out a value. This is the dollar amount for this goal.

The Google description of how to create goals is located here: Create or Edit Goals

Step 4: Create and apply a “Segment” for Organic Traffic

Once you have your goals set up, you’ll want to set up and automate reporting. Since we’re analyzing traffic from search engines, we want to isolate only traffic coming from the Organic Channel.

Organic traffic = people who arrive on your site after clicking on a link from a search engine results page.

An easy way to isolate traffic of a certain type or from a certain source is to create a segment.

Navigate to any Google Analytics page in the reports section. You will see some boxes near the top of the page, one of them labeled “All Users” (assuming segments haven’t been configured in the past).

Select the box that says “All Users” and it will open up a list with checkboxes.

Scroll down until you find the checkbox that says “Organic Traffic,” then select and apply that.

Now no matter what reports you look at In Google Analytics, you’ll only be viewing the traffic from search engines.

Step 5: Review the Google Analytics Landing Page Report

Now that we’ve isolated only traffic from search engines using a Google Analytics Segment, we can view our content performance and assess what is delivering the most favorable metrics. There are several reports you can use, but I prefer the “Landing Pages” report. It shows you the page where a visitor begins their session. If I want to measure blog writers, I want to know whose writing is generating the most traffic for me. The Landing Pages report will help do that.

To get to the Landing Pages report in Google Analytics, select this sequence of subheadings on the left sidebar:

Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages

This report will show you, for any period of time, which pages are delivering the most visits. I suggest going deeper and sorting the content by the columns “Pages per session” and “Session Duration.” Identify the articles that are generating the highest average page depth and longest average session duration. Google will see these behaviors and signal that you’re delivering value to your visitors. That is good for SEO.

Step 6: Review the conversion value of your writers

Remember those goals we created? In the far right columns of the Landing Pages report, you will find the value being delivered by each page on your site. This is where you can help answer the question, “Which article topics or writers are consistently delivering the most business value?”

If you want to share this report with your team to help increase transparency, I recommend navigating up to the top of the page and, just beneath the name of the report, you’ll see a link called “Email.”

Automate your reporting by setting up an email that delivers either a .csv file or PDF on a monthly basis. It’s super easy and will save you a ton of time.

Want to learn more SEO content tips?

If you find this kind of step-by-step process helpful, consider joining Moz for our online training course focused on SEO for copywriters. You can find the upcoming class schedule here:

See upcoming schedule

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/seo-for-copywriters-next-level via IFTTT

from Blogger http://imlocalseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/seo-for-copywriters-tips-on-measuring.html via IFTTT

from IM Local SEO https://imlocalseo.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/seo-for-copywriters-tips-on-measuring-seo-impact-next-level/ via IFTTT

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nereomata · 7 years

Text

SEO for Copywriters: Tips on Measuring SEO Impact - Next Level

Posted by BrianChilds

Welcome to the newest installment of our educational Next Level series! In our last episode, Brian Childs shared a few handy shortcuts for targeting multiple keywords with one page. Today, he's back to share how to use Google Analytics to measure the SEO impact of your content. Read on and level up!

Understanding how to write web content for SEO is important. But equally important is knowing how to measure the SEO impact of your content after it's published. In this article I’ll describe how to use Google Analytics to create reports that evaluate the performance of articles or the writers creating those articles.

Let’s start with some definitions.

What is SEO content?

If you're a copywriter, you've likely already been asked by your clients to create content “written for SEO.” Translating this into action often means the writer needs to have a greater role in both strategy and research. Words matter in SEO, and spending the time to get them right is a big part of creating content effectively. Adding SEO research and analysis to the process of researching content often fits nicely.

So the question is: How do I measure the effectiveness of my content team?

We go in greater depth on the research and reporting processes during the Moz seminar SEO for Content Writers, but I’ll explain a few useful concepts here.

What should I measure?

Well-defined goals are at the heart of any good digital marketing strategy, whether you're doing SEO or PPC. Goals will differ by client and I've found that part of my role as a digital marketer is to help the client understand how to articulate the business goals into measurable actions taken by visitors on their site.

Ideally, goals have a few essential traits. They should:

Have measurable value (revenue, leads generated, event registrations)

Be identifiable on the site (PDF downloads, button clicks, confirmation page views)

Lead to business growth (part of an online campaign, useful to sales team, etc.)

Broad goals such as “increase organic sessions on site” are rarely specific enough for clients to want to invest in after the first 3–6 months of a relationship.

Lay the foundation for your SEO research by taking a free trial of Moz Pro. After you've researched your content strategy and competition with Keyword Explorer and Open Site Explorer, you can begin measuring the content you create in Google Analytics.

Let me show you how I set this up.

How to measure SEO content using Google Analytics

Step 1: Review conversion actions on site

As I mentioned before, your SEO goals should tie to a business outcome. We discuss setting up goals, including a worksheet that shows monthly performance, during the Reporting on SEO Bootcamp.

When interviewing your client about these potential conversion locations (contact us page, whitepaper download, etc), ask them about the value of a new customer or lead. For nonprofits, maybe the objective is to increase awareness of events or increase donations. Regardless of the goal, it's important that you define a value for each conversion before creating goals in Google Analytics.

Step 2: Navigate to the Admin panel in Google Analytics

Step 3: Create a goal (including dollar value)

There are three columns in the Admin view: Account, Property, and View. In the “View” column, you will see a section marked “Goals.”

Once you are in Goals, select “+New Goal.”

I usually select “Custom” rather than the pre-filled templates. It’s up to you. I’d give the Custom option a spin just to familiarize yourself with the selectors.

The Google description of how to create goals is located here: Create or Edit Goals

Step 4: Create and apply a “Segment” for Organic Traffic

Once you have your goals set up, you’ll want to set up and automate reporting. Since we’re analyzing traffic from search engines, we want to isolate only traffic coming from the Organic Channel.

Organic traffic = people who arrive on your site after clicking on a link from a search engine results page.

An easy way to isolate traffic of a certain type or from a certain source is to create a segment.

Select the box that says "All Users” and it will open up a list with checkboxes.

Scroll down until you find the checkbox that says “Organic Traffic,” then select and apply that.

Now no matter what reports you look at In Google Analytics, you’ll only be viewing the traffic from search engines.

Step 5: Review the Google Analytics Landing Page Report

To get to the Landing Pages report in Google Analytics, select this sequence of subheadings on the left sidebar:

Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages

Step 6: Review the conversion value of your writers

Automate your reporting by setting up an email that delivers either a .csv file or PDF on a monthly basis. It’s super easy and will save you a ton of time.

Want to learn more SEO content tips?

If you find this kind of step-by-step process helpful, consider joining Moz for our online training course focused on SEO for copywriters. You can find the upcoming class schedule here:

See upcoming schedule

from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/seo-for-copywriters-next-level via IFTTT from IM Local SEO Blog http://imlocalseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/seo-for-copywriters-tips-on-measuring.html via IFTTT from Blogger http://nereomata.blogspot.com/2017/07/seo-for-copywriters-tips-on-measuring.html via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

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