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raendown · 4 years

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The next chapter of my Amends to the Dead series, commissioned by the wonderful @birkastan2018 who has been amazingly supporting of my works and provided so much inspiration.

Pairing: None Word count: 4239 Chapter: 1/4 Rated: T+ Summary: Months after the village is built Izuna is near his breaking point. Peace is nice, don't get him wrong, but he could do without the pale shadow that follows behind him everywhere he goes. All he wants is to understand. What the hell is Tobirama's obsession with watching him?

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Chapter 1

Grey clouds and a dreary sky greet him when Izuna leaves the administration tower this afternoon, a dour forecast for the evening’s weather. Determined to keep a positive attitude, he tells himself that at least it is holding off for now, will hopefully keep itself in check until after he finishes his inspection. That massive dream-headed idiot of a Senju wants a wall around their settlement but as much as Izuna freely agrees with the tactical benefits of such a barrier he is glad Madara has managed to talk the man in to waiting rather than just springing something up out of the ground willy-nilly. Although several clans and minor villages have already emigrated to join them there are still others they hope to bring in to the fold as well. If Hashirama grows a wall around them at their current size it will ostracize any new districts built in the future – not to mention that such a short-sighted buffoon will almost definitely forget to leave room for population growth as the years go on.

Hence why Izuna has saddled himself with the boring task of trudging his way around the outskirts to scope out where they can expand, how far, whether some portions of the surrounding terrain should be left available to grow crops, that sort of thing. Trying to keep his thoughts grand scale, the first thing he does is make the long climb up the mountain face overlooking them all. From there he is granted a wonderful view of all they have built so far and all the space they have to build upon in the future. Izuna does his best to sketch what he sees on several different pieces of paper and includes the surrounding terrain as little symbols. Later he can use these sketches to create different proposals for wall construction.

Considering how often he changes his mind he intends to make at least five copies. He only gets halfway through the fourth before his hand freezes in place and his eyes slowly roll to one side, looking around without actually turning his head. It’s a useless endeavor anyway. Even if he turns all the way around and carefully inspects every inch of the space behind him Izuna knows he will see absolutely nothing.

Tobirama is better than that.

Weirder than the fact that his counterpart has been following him around like a lagging shadow for weeks now is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it. The man hasn’t even gone to the trouble of suppressing his chakra. Izuna might not be a sensor type like his brother is but he isn’t so chakra-blind that he can’t tell when someone he’s spent years on the other side of a war from is nearby. He might be tempted to think the other man is mocking him somehow if not for the fact that Tobirama never once alludes to his little stalker habit when they are forced to interact in the tower. If anything his habit worsens during work hours. Very few days go by when Izuna does not turn around to find Tobirama hovering over him or staring intently from across the room.

Knowing that his old rival has been up to the same idiocies all day – just as every other day – is not very comforting but it makes his movements a little less awkward as he decides that he’s taken up enough time loitering here at the top of the cliff. It’s odd, the things one can get used to after being exposed for long enough. Having someone follow him around isn’t exactly comfortable but it’s something he learned to live with as soon as he concluded that it isn’t a statement of the Senju’s lack of trust. Not the clan as a whole, at least.

If there were anyone they don’t trust it would be Madara and no one follows him around. Izuna cannot imagine them wasting their best on him while assigning someone lesser to tailing his more dangerous older brother. The Senju have never been a stupid enemy.

Almost worse than the strangeness of knowing that he is being followed is trying to decide how to act. Izuna packs his sketches away and does everything he can to resist the urge to turn around and search for the face he knows is watching, reflecting that he isn’t actually sure what Tobirama will do if he confronts the man. When this first started Izuna hadn’t really known what to think of it, held off on reacting in any way in case he was misinterpreting something, and now that he knows for sure that the other is following him he realizes he’s let it go on for so long that bringing it up now will only be more awkward. They need to talk about it at some point, obviously. Just maybe not right this second.

Using that excuse only gets less and less valid with every day.

With a grand overview of the village fresh in his mind Izuna refocuses himself on the task at hand and begins drafting a few tentative blueprints in his mind while he scales his way back down the cliff. Halfway down he makes a mental note to suggest they install an easier way to get up here somehow. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that any tourists or visitors will be very interested in the view of a village so important to the history of the five great nations, the first of its kind. Then he pushes the thought away in to the corner of his mind for ‘things to deal with later’; he has much more important business at hand. Before they can welcome any tourism they need to be more solid in their defense of the people already here.

Senju Touka stands in the center of the road leading in to their settlement from the north when he arrives. Izuna is quick to hide the grimace that appears as soon as he catches sight of her. Enemies they might not be any longer but Touka is not likely to ever be his favorite person. Too brash, too hard, and too focused on being a warrior without ever allowing herself to still be a woman. Izuna enjoys a tough skin as much as the next shinobi but he needs friends and lovers who allow themselves to unclench at least once in a while. The woman before him carries a look on her face even when making no expression which tells him she probably hasn’t unclenched since the first time she learned to wield her body as a weapon.

“Nothing to report,” Touka’s voice rings out sharp even when she speaks quietly. He nods once to show that he understands.

“Border inspection,” he grunts back.

“Already? With all the paperwork that goes through the Tower I had guessed it would take at least another week for anyone to even think about doing something useful about their own ideas.” She snorts and this time Izuna allows the grimace that slides back over his face.

With a rueful sigh he shakes his head. “I gave myself the job for just that reason. This needs to get done.”

“Lots of things need to get done,” Touka mumbles dryly. Her eyes flick back down the path and her chin dips to signal someone else. “The others can walk the road; if I’m going to guard the wall when it goes up I’d like to hear your thoughts on where it’s to be built.”

Since there is really no polite way to refuse her Izuna shrugs and turns away without waiting to see if she follows. If she can’t keep up that’s her own problem. He isn’t the one who invited her along. Just as he finishes the thought her footsteps come from behind and her severe face returns to his peripherals with the blank expression of someone waiting to form an opinion.

That gives him an idea, actually, speaking of opinions. As the two of them travel in silence he lets his eyes roam around the terrain on all sides, mentally comparing it to the visual he remembers from above even as another part of his mind races trying to find the wording for how to broach a subject that many still consider sensitive.

“If I may, I’d like to ask about the climate in your clan,” he says eventually. Touka gives no physical reaction, betrayed only by the caution in her tone as she replies.

“You may ask your questions.” He notices that she has promised him no answers.

“Tensions were high for a while after we first merged our territories. Obviously it’s going to take a number of years before our people can coexist with true ease but – for my own clan at least – I’ve noticed massive improvements. What I mean to ask is: what of your own clan?”

“What of them?” Touka grunts.

Careful not to show his temper, Izuna keeps his voice low so it will not carry to other ears following along behind them. “Have the tensions eased in your people? Or do they still fear mine like enemies?”

“Fear isn’t exactly how I would describe it,” his unwanted companion muses. “Caution would be more accurate.”

“Do they distrust us so much?” he presses.

To his utter lack of surprise Touka turns to give him a sharp warning look. “Don’t go looking for trouble where there is none, Uchiha. Our people distrust yours no less than yours return in kind. Like you said yourself, it’s going to take years to erase the effects leftover from generations of war. Those of us who lived through it may never recover entirely. But”-from the corner of one eye he watches her move both hands away from her weapons in a deliberate motion-“we recognize and accept that the Uchiha want this peace to work. “

“Ah. Thank you for your input, Touka-san. I had thought that was how things stand but at this stage assumptions aren’t safe to be relied upon. Let’s change the subject. We’re thinking of building out from the current settlement to allow for growth but I don’t think this particular area would be good for that. Doesn’t the ground here turn in to swamp a few miles out?”

While she does allow him to change topics without comment Izuna notes the lingering gaze from the corner of her eyes to the corners of his own. He lets her stare. If they truly are allies then he has nothing to fear from a couple of eyes that don’t even have the advantage of a Sharingan. Rumor says this woman is nearly as good with genjutsu as any Uchiha but it would need to be some kind of skill indeed to trap him in an illusion he can’t escape – and besides that there is really no reason for her to do any such thing unless she wants to start another war.

Instead the two of them trade mild opinions on the surrounding land and discuss construction plans all while pretending they don’t notice the acid undertones or the barbs hidden in their words. Much as he is loathe to admit it, by the time they make a half circuit around the village and Touka declares it time for her to turn back he almost finds himself reluctant to see her go. Almost. Sometimes it’s nice to find someone who can withstand the worst of his vitriol. He is still firm on his belief that Touka will never be one of his favorite people but perhaps they can stand each other a little better than he first imagined.

The rest of his patrol around the perimeter is done in silence with no one to talk to but the thoughts inside his own mind, probably the most intelligent conversation he is likely to have all day. Rather than give that Senju woman any reason to look at him funny again Izuna ends his inspection by ducking in between some of the housing built on the fringes like afterthoughts.

He could have done without some of the man’s habits and opinions but if there is one thing Izuna wishes their brothers had actually listened to Tobirama about it’s the road planning. Caught up in their dream as they had been, Madara hadn’t so much held Hashirama back as he had egged the man on to raise frames and rooves without a single thought for the carefully drawn street maps Tobirama had been trying to present them with. Now everyone else pays the price for it as they wind their way through crisscrossing streets that often follow no logical direction whatsoever, haring off towards wherever Hashirama had raised the next home. Surely it can only be the mercy of the kami that made him finally stop and listen to his sibling before he made a similar mess of the village center.

Finding his way through the busy foot traffic is infinitely easier once he reaching the districts where the streets are wider than his own wingspan, leaving plenty of room for Izuna to duck and weave around the gaggle of children chasing each other, wild laughter ringing over the crowds with no regard for the different clans they each belong to.

This, he has come to understand, is the peace that Madara has been dreaming of since they were young boys clinging to each other with all their strength, the last of their siblings and so desperate not to lose any more. In some ways he wishes he had understood earlier. He also hopes that the idiot following along behind him on a nearby rooftop understands the same.

When he reaches the tower Izuna heads straight for his office and rather pointedly shuts the door behind him, relieved to note Tobirama’s distinctive chakra moving off to hopefully be productive somewhere else. How the man gets anything done when he’s following other people around all day is a mystery but Izuna is just as glad to finally be alone. It’s much easier to concentrate on drawing up a few difference proposals for wall construction when he doesn’t have some part of his concentration occupied with the ever-watching eyes over his shoulder.

Unfortunately for all that he’s always been fast at coming up with plans he is also, given the time, a perfectionist. What should only take him a mere twenty minutes to sketch some rough blueprints turns in to nearly two hours of meticulous lines and painstaking notes along the edges of every paper to list the benefits of each different proposal. Izuna is already rolling his eyes at himself by the time he finally drags his body up out of the chair with a firm mental declaration that any further additions will be a waste of time. Only one of these proposals can be chosen as the final plan and the entire council will be looking over it to add their suggestions. No one expects him to think of everything himself.

Seeing Madara roll his eyes as well when he lets himself in to his brother’s office makes him stick out his tongue, a gesture the man returns without pause. Dignity isn’t exactly a concern when they are alone.

“Took you long enough,” is his greeting. “Didn’t you leave to do that just after noon? It shouldn’t have taken you that long just to walk in a big circle and doodle a couple outlines. What did you do, take a nap in a tree somewhere?” Madara tuts and shakes the handle of a brush at him, then he frowns and looks down at the parchment he’s just splattered with ink.

“Pardon me for doing my job well,” Izuna grumbles.

“Well give them here then. Looks like you have several ideas. That’s good, actually. I know it sounds counterintuitive but the bloody elders actually decide faster if we give them more options.”

The two of them share a tired look and Izuna nods understandingly as he tosses his papers on the desk. “Fewer options always means one person picks a favorite right away and another person takes exception to that. Best to let them talk it all out first, I get it.”

Madara spreads the sketches out and fiddles with the end of one, lifting it only to turn his eyes to another.

“Do you have any you’re particularly attached to before I look them over?” he asks.

“No.”

He should know to watch his tone. It’s only a single word but the moment it leaves his mouth Izuna winces, pinned in place under the sudden scrutiny of dark eyes that know him just a little too well.

“You sound upset by something,” Madara notes. “What’s wrong?”

“Ah, I wouldn’t say wrong, precisely. I’m being followed around again and I still don’t like it.” It’s gratifying to see the other man scrunch his face up with distaste. At least he isn’t the only one who finds this situation endlessly odd.

“Still not talking to you about it, I suppose?”

“Not a damn word. Any time I bring it up he just stares at me with these…empty eyes. Honestly sometimes I’m tempted to worry that he’s been possessed by some demon with a grudge against me. Somehow that would make more sense!” Izuna shakes his head, stepping around to slump his body in to the single visitor chair available. Then he squirms uncomfortably as a floral scent wafts up his nose. It’s easy to tell who usually sits in this chair.

Fingers twiddling absently at the edges of the papers spread out on his desk, Madara rolls his eyes at such dramatics but makes no comment on them, which Izuna takes to mean that his sibling agrees in his own way. He wishes he could say he is only being silly and dramatic but deep down he truly believes that Tobirama being possessed by a vengeful spirit would make more sense than for the man to follow him around as though suspicious of his intentions. Still ridiculous, of course, but somehow more plausible.

He hadn’t been stupid enough to believe Hashirama's vague words about recovery during the first few meetings of peace between their people. The longer time went on without the Senju second heir appearing the less anyone had been willing to believe such nonsense but it was the look in Hashirama's eyes which stilled their tongues as the months stretched out in to a full year. Not anger or exasperation, no nervousness that they might be taking offense. What earned their silence both then and now had been the worry in his eyes, the fear for another which he tried so desperately not to let them see, the flash of uncertain terror that shadowed his eyes with every mention of his brother. Izuna has seen that look in the eyes of those who worry for their loved ones even when there is no wound to worry over.

“And he’s not…aggressive?” Madara asks.

“No!” Izuna throws his hands in the air and slumps further in his seat. “At least if he was angry or something I would understand that but this silence and following me around, it’s just weird! I don’t know how I’m supposed to react to it.”

“You could, oh I don’t know, ask him to stop?”

With the bitchiest look he can summon Izuna nods exaggeratedly. “Oh of course, why didn’t I think of that? Ah right. Because I did. And all that accomplished was a big fat load of nothing.”

“There’s no need to be so sarcastic,” his brother grumbles. When Madara turns away to pout Izuna rubs at the space between his brows.

“Do you have any idea what his problem is? Serious question, any idea at all? Has your best friend for life not said anything or dropped any hints? I’m at my wits end here.” What small hope he has is dashed by the shaking of the other man’s head.

Madara shrugs as he says, “Not a clue. It’s weird but Hashirama doesn’t actually talk about his brother very much.”

“You mean they don’t like each other?”

“No, not like that. But every time Tobirama comes up in conversation, if it’s not work related Hashirama will get this really weird look on his face and change the subject. Usually in such a way that I don’t think about it till later. You know how he is, all loud and distracting.”

“He’s certainly not as dumb as he pretends to be,” Izuna agrees.

The two of them sit in silence for a minute or two, thinking of the all the unexpected similarities between the Senju siblings and all the ways they’re still so different. For all that they are both unexpectedly intelligent it seems to be only in their own respective fields. Where Tobirama’s intelligence is nearly unparalleled when it comes to science and political machinations he seems to be quite useless when it comes to human interactions and yet that is where Hashirama shines – earnest Hashirama who can only stare with a blank smile whenever his beloved sibling goes off on some in-depth explanation of a new tax code proposal.

Shaking his head to clear it, Izuna takes a deep breath and decides that sitting around moaning about his own confusion isn’t getting much done. There are still other things he needs to do that day and he can’t do anything of them while staring across the desk at Madara.

Leaving the man to his work is as easy as reminding him that he has a lot of it and suddenly Izuna finds there is no more attention on him, the perfect time to slip out the door and wander slowly back to his own office. It is only his perfectionist nature which leads him to hearing what he does then. Were he anyone else he might shrug it off when he notices the wrappings around his left ankle coming loose, something that can certainly wait until he sits down to be fixed, but he stops instead and leans against the wall just before a turn in the corridor to bend down and fiddle with his ankle. Not until he is already busy unwrapping and retucking does he realize he is in the perfect spot to overhear two people just around the corner.

“Tetsuo thinks maybe they’re having an affair of some kind,” the first voice says, full of scorn for their own words.

“Ridiculous. That icicle and Izuna-sama? Not a chance. They were rivals for years, they’re not going to fall in to bed only a few months after peace was made!” The second voice sounds vaguely familiar, probably a member of his own clan though he can’t quite identify them.

“I never said I believed it!” the first objects. “But it’s weird, right? The way Tobirama-sama just…hovers around him. If they weren’t enemies for years I would say he’s acting like a nervous parent or something with how he watches Izuna-sama’s every move and how he glares at anyone who says something bad about the man.”

To Izuna’s annoyance his possible clan member feels the need to waste time defending his honor with a sharp, “Who’s saying bad things about him?”

“Oh for kami’s sake, that’s not the point.”

“Hmph.”

“But you get what I’m saying, yeah? I know Tetsuo think they’re rolling around together but my theory is a blood oath or something. Maybe Hashirama-sama set him this duty as penance. I heard one of them almost died in the final battle between your clans and everyone knows Tobirama-sama is too fast to go down easy.”

Much as it hurts Izuna’s pride a little to have someone believe him the weaker in any battle, he forces himself to remain still and continue listening. It takes a moment for his prideful clansman to get past the spluttering and rage over the same issue but eventually it fades in to senseless grumbling and a solid declaration that Tobirama was in fact been the one injured during their final clash. Clearly this person hadn’t been present or else they might not so casually reference that moment.

Very few had known how to process the sight of an elder version of his rival appearing only to turn and slaughter his own younger self.

As the two strangers continue to speculate Izuna swallows thickly and turns away to take another route back to his office, finding suddenly that listening in on a conversation he isn’t supposed to hear has lost its appeal. More than ever his curiosity has been peaked, however. He needs to figure this situation out.

Why does Tobirama follow him?

That will have to be dealt with on his own time, however. Later he will pass on what he heard to his brother and they can speculate to their hearts’ content over dinner. For now he has work to do. Work that, so long as he remains shut away within his own office, he can trust that he will be able to do in the silence of solitary.

Only when the work is done will he turn his mind to the problems that he has already let go too far. Surely one more day of ignoring it all cannot hurt anything. He’ll deal with it eventually, of course, but until then Izuna supposes he can hope that ignoring his problems might, by some miracle, simply make them go away.

#rae writes #commission #izuna #tobirama #madara #touka #fanfiction

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hethrewmyheartinthecut · 6 years

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The Bride • Chapter 8

The Woman: Esme moves out. Also, Grace.

Prologue (if you haven’t read The Bride yet) • Chapter Nine (not yet written) • on ao3

For a long time, all Esme felt and all that Esme wanted to feel was Ada’s one-armed hug. All she could hear, and all that she wanted to hear, was Karl fussing quietly in Ada’s other arm.

“I’m sorry,” Esme said, finally. “Sorry I caused Arthur so much trouble, and you so much worry. I’m fine.”

Ada released her, face full of gentle disbelief.

“I really am. It wasn’t so bad.” Esme sank into a kitchen chair and recounted the entire thing in all its detail. She was tempted to wash over the last part, with Campbell, but she needed Ada to believe that things had not been so bad, and in retrospect, of course, they hadn’t been. They’d been fine. No harm done. She left in every detail, except for Grace; during the car ride back, she’d become convinced that Campbell’s obsession with Grace had been similar to his treatment of her; focused on her relationship with Tommy, and drawing mainly on his manic desire for domination, the deep satisfaction he seemed to get from every little display of power. She’d be damned if she carried out his work in her own family, spreading that poison.

Esme finished on a light note: “I’d call it a success. Freddie knows that Karl’s all right, and you know that Freddie’s still alive, and it’s not so bad.”

“What about Campbell?”

“He’s an ass. I don’t think he’ll try to arrest me, unless it’s part of his game with Tommy. It’ll be fine.” Between the warmth of the flat and Ada rubbing her shoulders, Esme felt much better than before, and when she said fine, it was with real confidence. “The lesson, I think, is not to jump in without an exit route marked out. Which, come to think of it, is exactly the mistake Tommy made with those guns.” She shook her head at herself.

“Well, I’m glad. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you were arrested.”

“I don’t know what I would’ve done, either. But since I wasn’t, I think I might have a bath now.” With one last hug, Esme rose to go.

“Esme?”

“Mm?”

“Thank you.” Ada’s smile came like a sunrise, and Esme couldn’t match it, but she tried.

“You’re welcome.”

Deep into the evening, when Esme had bathed and was wrapped up warm in a quilt, with her feet up on the table, reading the newspaper and eating some biscuits, there came a knock on the door. Two knocks, tentative. Setting down the newspaper and picking up a knife, she went for it.

“Tommy.” He looked awful, and she felt a little guilty. Somehow, she’d thought that when she told Ada that everything was fine, the world would magically right itself, but come to think of it, Ada still wasn’t talking to Tommy and probably didn’t even know he was in the building. Esme stepped out into the hall, wrapping the quilt more tightly round her shoulders, and closed the door behind here.

“I didn’t realize you were waiting all this time,” she said, quietly.

“Are you—”

“The walls here are thin.” It wasn’t a reprimand, just a warning.

He swallowed. When he spoke, it was quieter and a few shades lower, too. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” Again, there was that look of disbelief, the same as the one that Ada had given her, only in his eyes it was more stark, more frank. More miserable. “Tommy. I promise. All they did was make speeches.”

Esme’s right hand held together the edges of the quilt round her shoulders, and Tommy touched her right wrist, briefly, where some bruises bloomed in the shape of finger-marks.

“I didn’t even notice that,” she murmured. “It’s embarrassment, is what it is. I tried to hit one of them, that’s all. And he restrained me.” Still the disbelief lingered, and he didn’t even try to hide it. He was looking away now, thinking, lost in his own head. “Tommy.” She claimed his attention, and tried a half-smile. “When have I ever lied to you?”

That was his cue to say something about her heading to church, or something cutting, something that would bring them back onto the path of conversation that she recognized with him. Instead, he asked, as gravely as before, “Where did you go?”

“I needed fresh air.”

“Alright.” He slipped off into his own mind again, and this time, she allowed it, just watching him now, looking for all the world as if he carried the weight of the whole family on his shoulders. Eventually, he said, “Esme, you can’t do that again.”

“I know. I won’t.” She sounded too soft to her own ears, so she amended it: “I think Ada’s as satisfied as she can be, until you find a way to release him. I’ve done all I can do on that front.”

A little of the tension drained from his shoulders, and a little of the old Tommy slipped into his voice. “You’re sure you won’t try to break him out yourself?”

“Very sure.” It was cold there in the hallway, and there was nothing further she could do about how incredibly weary he looked. Just. “You should sleep, Tommy.”

“Alright.” He looked her over one last time.

“Tell Arthur I’m sorry I got water all over the seats of his car. Tell Arthur I’m sorry about everything.”

“You’ll see him sooner than I will, at work tomorrow. Goodnight, Esme.”

Esme nodded, and watched him go.

He was wrong. The next morning, Esme woke up with a sore throat, a cough, and a fever. It was the downpour that had done it, she knew, her stupid decision to sit out there in the rain feeling sorry for herself. It had felt cool and refreshing and delicious at the time, but nowhere close to worth it.

“I have to go,” she told Ada. “I can’t risk giving the flu to the baby.”

Ada chewed her way through an entire sausage before answering. “You’ll have to stay in the house,” she finally said. “Polly’s over at John’s place, helping Lizzie with some complications, and Arthur’s place isn’t fit to be seen. You’ll have to take my old room.”

“It will only be a day,” said Esme, shrugging and reaching for a piece of bacon off Ada’s plate before she remembered she really shouldn’t be spreading the flu to Ada any more than she should spread it to Karl. She sat back. “I’ll be back in no time.”

She was wrong about that too. It took her three days to weather the flu, and at the height of it, the fever rose so high that she drew herself a cold bath and sank into it, fully submerged save for the tip of her nose, for ten minutes.

When finally she woke up on the fourth morning, while it was still so early that it was a little dark outside, Esme sat up and and found the fever had broken and her mind was perfectly lucid once more. As she combed through her hair and took stock of the situation, she found that her memories of the past few days were a significant worry.

Polly floated in and out a little, but it was Tommy she’d seen the most. He came in at unexpected moments, bearing a glass of water or a piece of toast and sat her up, saying, “Here, drink.” He took away her old dress when she threw up on it, and brought it back clean. And once, just once, she could’ve sworn she heard singing. That was him, wasn’t it? Polly’s voice didn’t go that deep. It hadn’t been a tune she’d known, but it was bittersweet and nearly slow enough to be a lullaby.

God, what a mess of contradictions he was. If only he could pick one thing and fucking stick to it, she’d feel a lot more settled, but here he came with his callousness one minute and his honeyed tea the next. How was a woman supposed to build a marriage on that? Whenever this struggle with the police and Billy Kimber ended—and she knew it would end soon—she wanted to know what she was going to make of that future. And he was not helping.

Downstairs, Tommy was making toast and eggs, and she joined him in the kitchen to make some coffee. Neither of them said a word, but he dished out the food onto two plates, and she poured the coffee into two cups. He was well into the business section of the newspaper when Esme said: “Did you take me to see the horses?”

Tommy didn’t look up. “Yes. I thought that the fever had broken, and neither of us could sleep. You don’t remember?”

“I remember parts of it. I remember a massive bay trying to eat your cap.”

“That was the night.” He turned to the next page of the newspaper.

Well. “Thank you.”

He cleared his throat. “Polly would have done it, but she was busy with Lizzie.”

“Ah. In that case, I take it back.”

He looked over, and smiled.

“I have an errand to run now, but I’ll be back in time for the shop opening.” Esme patted him on the shoulder and headed for the door, still stuffing the last scrap of toast into her mouth as she went. She nearly ran smack into Polly. “Oh!”

“Morning,” Polly said, a touch dryly.

“Morning.” There was something in Polly’s expression that didn’t put her entirely at ease. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s no trouble, I was just in the office for a minute. I’m glad to see your fever’s broken.”

“How’s Lizzie?”

“Recovering more slowly than you are. Don’t delay your errand for me, I need to speak with Tommy anyways.”

The implication that Polly needed to speak with him alone made Esme want to stick around, but the sun was rising and she still wasn’t completely back to full fighting force after that flu, so she said her goodbyes.

Grace was stacking clean glasses when Esme came through the door, readying the Garrison for the rest of the day. “We’re not open.”

“I didn’t come for a drink.”

“Would you like one anyway?”

“No. Thank you.” Esme took a seat at the bar, and Grace left the glasses to face her.

“What can I do for you?”

“I thought I’d come and introduce myself. I’m Esme.”

“Tommy’s wife, I know. I’m Grace.” Grace’s hand was cool and dry, her handshake firm.

“I know. I’ve been busy lately, with Ada, and with other things. That’s why I’ve missed meeting you so many times, perhaps. Polly tells me you’re an excellent secretary.”

“Oh, well. It’s only papers.” Her self-deprecating smile didn’t meet her eyes.

“Business in this family isn’t only papers. Don’t sell yourself short.” It wasn’t a compliment quite as much as it was an accusation, but it was a compliment nonetheless.

“Thank you. It’s a pleasure to meet you, after hearing so much about you.”

“Really? From who?”

“Oh, everyone. Arthur.”

Of course. Bless him. “I was talking about you the other day, actually, when I visited the county jail.”

“I heard about that, too,” said Grace. “It was very brave of you.” There was no way to tell whether that was ironic or not.

“It was stupid, but it was for Ada.”

“I’m sure she feels better now. Especially since Freddie will be back soon.”

“How soon?”

Grace blinked. “I don’t know.”

“How do you know he’ll be back soon, then?” Esme didn’t give her time to reply. So Tommy trusted this woman with the date of his plan. That was to be expected. Men and their cocks were like that, as Polly would say. “Anyhow. There was a man visiting the Birmingham jail, an Inspector Campbell. He had plenty to say about you and Tommy.”

“He’s convinced that Thomas has committed some sort of crime. I’m sure he likes to feed rumors and stir up discontent. I wouldn’t mind him, if I were you.”

The words were a denial, but the name Grace used for him was an admission of guilt. Perhaps not guilt, even; there had been a visible widening of her eyes at Campbell’s name, but not a speck of shame in her voice. Esme found herself admiring it.

“I’d mind him more, if I were you,” Esme said. “Campbell is loathsome, and if he believes half of what he says, I’d keep my door locked.”

“My doors are always locked.”

Esme nodded. “It’s not that I mind the rumors. I do find the spread of them through the city to be...annoying. But I don’t mind their content as much. Half the reason they spread so quickly is because they make sense. He’s been alone since the war, he didn’t know the wedding was coming. You’re beautiful, trustworthy. Why wouldn’t he?”

“It sounds like you believe these rumors.”

“Only because they’re true.” Grace’s stare held, and Esme knew the direction of what came next was all down to her. “I’m inconvenienced,” she added slowly, “But as long as they don’t become more than an inconvenience, I’m not angry.”

Grace absorbed this. “May I ask why that is?”

How odd it was, that Esme would tell this to the one Shelby woman she trusted least. How odd that she was offering this truth, a truth that had become the backbone of all decisions during her short but eventful time with the Shelby family. “From our wedding night, from the time that Freddie Thorne was taken, I knew I couldn’t put myself in a position where I’d be more than inconvenienced by his betrayal.” She looked away, so to soften, slightly, her next words. “Loving him, I think, would be its own punishment.”

Grace met honesty with honesty, in a way that was almost friendly. “It’s not so bad.”

Esme half-smiled. “Isn’t it?”

“He has his good moments.”

“And his razors, and his arms deals, and his complete inability to trust.”

“I don’t blame him for all of it. He was in the war.” Grace paused a moment, the sudden sharpness in her green eyes betraying the mellow tone of her voice. “He has nightmares, sometimes. A cup of tea—”

Esme was leaning forward slightly in her seat

“I’m so sorry, I should go back to work,” Grace said, hurriedly, pushing a strand of hair out of her face. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“Grace—”

Grace disappeared into the back room, and seconds later, Harry Fenton emerged.

“Can I help you with something, ma’am? Get you a drink, perhaps?” Harry said with a kind of rough politeness that indicated he expected an argument from her.

“No, thank you.” And Esme was out the door, walking slowly back towards the shop and thinking hard.

There had been something so deeply wrong about those last few words. What was it? What was it? It wasn’t that Grace was admitting to sleeping with him; that had been established long ago. She wasn’t laying claim to his bed; Esme had ceded that. So why on Earth would she need to say it? Why would she want to? More than words, when it came down to it, why did Grace have that look in her eye, as if she was reaching out, as if she was remembering a past hurt?

Or was she anticipating one?

Esme stood outside the shop, unable to walk in and still think about it properly, unable to do anything until she worked it out, but then there was a familiar, gruff voice saying, “‘ello, Esme,” and she lost her train of thought altogether.

“Arthur!” She mustered her sunniest smile.

“Feeling better?”

“Much.”

Work was busy, and it wasn’t till later that night in Polly’s flat, sipping whiskey, that Esme had the time to collect her thoughts. He has nightmares, sometimes. A cup of tea— Like Grace had been sharing. Why would she need to share that? Like they were friends, and—think of it carefully. Lay out the facts. Grace loved him, and Tommy loved her; trusted her and slept with her, at any rate, which was close enough to assume it. Esme had come to lay out an understanding, and she and Grace had both made themselves known. So what was it?

It wasn’t a warning, exactly. If it reminded Esme of anything, it reminded her of the way her aunts might give her little details about their children, when she was younger and had to go over and mind them for the night. “Aishe likes fighting with her sisters. Mind that Chal doesn't get into the sugar, last time he made himself sick. Tommy has nightmares from the war.” Passing the baton. But why would Grace need to do that? Esme had been clear that she wouldn’t make herself a challenge, and business was going to return to normal soon, with the end of the deal…

“What?” said Polly.

Esme looked up. Polly had finished her glass of whiskey already, and was now looking straight into her. Esme hesitated. She knew how it would sound, but she decided to try anyways. “I talked with Grace this morning.”

Polly put her glass down. “And?”

“There’s something wrong with her. Not that she’s fucking Tommy; I knew that already. But he trusts her.”

“How do you know he trusts her?”

“Do you know when he plans to take out Billy Kimber? Because she does.”

“She could’ve been lying.”

“But she wasn’t. I think she’s hiding something.”

“What is it you think she’s hiding?” Polly said, and in the moment that Esme faltered, Polly tilted her head just so. Fuck.

“She’s going to do something.”

“What?”

“I…” Esme finished her glass and set it down. “Never mind. I need to think on this more.”

“It’s better if you don’t.”

Esme felt her temper rising, and she knew it was uncalled-for, but fuck, if there was one person in the family that could help her untangle this, it would be Polly, and here Polly was trying to help her with all the hurt feelings she didn’t have. “I’m not looking to fight with her over him.”

“You may not be thinking it, Esme, but it’s there nonetheless. You’ve been cut off from your old family, and now he’s anchoring you here with us. He took care of you for days, and he’s not without his charms.”

“His extremely dubious charms.”

“And he’s your husband. No one would blame you.”

“I would. I’d blame myself.”

“I know. That’s why you’re sitting in my flat with a whiskey instead of marching over to hers with a crowbar.”

“I’m not insane.”

“Marching over to hers, period, then.”

“We’re barely married.”

“You seemed married to me, this morning.”

Esme just shook her head.

“If you really believed this woman was a threat, you’d have better evidence, and you’d be talking to him, not to me.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Esme rubbed her face and returned her glass. “Well, this has been embarrassing,” she said, by way of farewell.

“Nobody has to know. Walk safe, Esme.”

“Goodnight, Pol.”

On the walk home, she resolved to talk with him, but when she arrived, the house was empty. Come morning, it was Polly calling her up on the house phone to tell her that the day had arrived, Kimber was being taken, and she should go stay safe with Ada until the battle was done.

Chapter Eight • The Victory (unwritten): Looking at him, Esme thinks that Tommy may have won, but he doesn’t exactly look like a victor.

@blinder-secrets @peakystitches, @prettieparker86, @tommyshelyb, @sympathyfortheblinderdevil, @annaistiredofyourshit, @lolashelby, @peakyrach, @fookingblinders, @helloandreabeth, @fookingblinders, @unluckymonaghan, @pb-bonniegold @pure-bastard-extract

#Esme Shelby #Tommy Shelby #Ada Thorne #Polly Gray #Peaky Blinders imagine #Peaky Blinders #Peaky Blinders fanfiction #Polly Shelby #Ada Shelby #mine #The Bride

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headlineeternal · 4 years

Text

Read a tempting extract of Kelly Rimmer’s second-chance romance, UNSPOKEN!

CHAPTER ONE

Paul

I’ve been developing a single software application since I was seventeen years old. In recent years, I’ve worked with some of the best developers on earth, but it’s still my software. The sum of my life’s work is seventy-four million lines of code which, in layman’s

terms, enables people to use the internet in a safe and efficient manner. I don’t know all of that code by heart of course, but if you were to give me any portion of it, I could tell you what it does and why and how.

Code is knowable. Understandable. Infallibly rational. Opening my compiler is like wrapping myself in a warm blanket on a cold day. Code is safe and familiar, and I am completely at home and completely in control in that sphere, which is pretty much the polar opposite to my feelings about other humans. People are unfortunately illogical creatures, and today, people are ruining my day.

Well, one person specifically.

“Hello, Isabel,” I say to my almost-ex-wife. Her sudden appearance is as unfortunate as it is unexpected. Whenever we find ourselves in the same room these days, the tension is untenable, but it’s certain to be even worse today, because this room

happens to be in the very vacation home we spent most of the last year squabbling over as we negotiated the separation of our assets.

“You said that I could keep this house—” Isabel starts to say, but I really don’t like to be reminded that if the divorce was a cruel game, there’s a clear winner, and it’s not me.

That’s why I cut her off with a curt “my name is still on the title for four more days.”

Her nostrils flare. She makes a furious sound in the back of her throat, then closes her eyes and exhales shakily. Isabel is trying to keep her temper in check.

I lived with Isabel Rose Winton for four years, one month and eleven days. She likes almond milk in her coffee because she thinks it’s healthier, but she masks the taste with so much sugar, she may as well drink a soda. She sleeps curled up in a little ball, as if she’s afraid to take up space in her own bed. She resents her mother and adores her father and brothers. She loves New York with a passion, and she has an astounding ability to pluck threads from a city of 8.5 million people to weave them into a close-knit village around herself. Isabel makes friends everywhere she goes. She never forgets a name and people always remember her, too, even after meeting her just once. Everyone adores her.

Well, almost everyone. I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the woman these days.

“You’re supposed to be on retreat with your team this weekend.” Isabel flashes me a look, but it passes too quickly. I don’t have time to interpret it.

“How do you even know about my retreat?” I ask, but then I sigh and we both say at the exact same time, “Jess.”

Jessica Cohen has been my friend since college and she’s been my business partner almost as long. Isabel and Jess are friends, too, and they still see each other all the time. But Jess popping up in this conversation makes me uneasy, because she’s the reason I’m at Greenport today. And Jess does so love to meddle…

I’m distracted just thinking about this, and that’s when I make a critical error: I forget that there’s a reason I’ve been standing at a supremely uncomfortable sixty-degree angle, with my lower half hidden behind the wall which houses the stairwell, my top half leaning into the living room where Isabel is sitting. As soon as I shift position into something like a more standard posture, I see Isabel’s gaze run down my body. The scowl on her face intensifies, and mortifyingly, I feel myself blushing.

“Why are you naked?” Isabel demands.

That’s not why I’m blushing; after more than four years together, I’m certain Isabel is at least as familiar with my junk as I am. And my current state of undress is actually easily explained. I arrived here ninety-four minutes ago, immediately went for a very

long run and then took a very long shower. Everything

was fine until I reached for a towel and discovered

that Isabel’s scent was all over the soft cotton.

That made no sense, because my assistant Vanessa was supposed to arrange for the cleaning service to refresh the house before my arrival here today. I was headed downstairs to see if Vanessa had at least managed to stock the fridge with food and booze when I heard the sound of footsteps in the living room. It seemed a safe assumption that

if someone had broken into the house while I was in the shower, it wouldn’t be someone who was already well acquainted with my nether regions, so I was careful to stick only my head around the corner to investigate.

That was when I found Isabel herself, sitting proudly on the sofa as if it was her throne, firing death glares in my direction.

Which, for the record, she is definitely still doing. I might not be super skilled at reading body language, but even I know a stink eye when I see one. And this particular stink eye is focused with laserlike intent on the fourth finger of my left hand.

That is why I’m blushing, because what she can see there is not nearly as easily explained as a casual spot of midday nudity.

“Why on earth would you put your wedding ring back on now?” she asks me stiffly.

The thing is, I never really took it off; I’d just slide it into my pocket if I knew I was going to see her. It wasn’t all that difficult to hide the fact that I’m still wearing the ring—I’ve only seen her in person ten times since she walked out of our Chelsea brownstone ten months ago. Once at our one and only attempt at marriage counseling. Once at Jess’s

legendary and, this year, somewhat awkward New Year’s Eve party. Once at the engagement party for our friends Marcus and Abby.

And seven times at mediation sessions, each one more heated than the last.

Isabel obviously noticed I wasn’t wearing the ring during those encounters, although it seems she missed the way I constantly rubbed the empty space on my finger, endlessly aware of its absence, just as I’m endlessly aware of her absence in our home in

Manhattan. I’d inevitably have felt her missing in this house today. If she wasn’t here, that is.

I’ve tried to stop wearing the ring and I find I just can’t break the habit, although if anything is going to cure me, the mortification of this moment might just do the trick.

#headlineeternal #romance #romancereads #KellyRimmer #unspoken

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kawaiipsycho101 · 7 years

Text

Righteous Side of Hell--Ch.2

2. Something There

Nearly three hours passed before a small group of men left the hideout and gathered at the trunk of my tree.

“Hey! Hey, shinigami!”

‘Bout time.

I let myself slip off the branch and floated down towards them.

“Yes?”

“Mello wants to talk to you,” a man with dreadlocks said nervously. “If you would please come with us.”

I could tell that they were still apprehensive of me, for their eyes held the same fear from before, and they made sure to keep their distance. I silently chuckled at the poor bastards.

“Very well.” I followed them inside, where Mello was waiting, seated on a plush leather chair, munching on another chocolate bar. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes. I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot earlier.”

“Agreed.”

“I’d like to ask again for your assistance.”

“You didn’t exactly ‘ask’ the first time.”

“Well, I’m asking now.” He leaned forward and eyed me intently. “A, we would deeply appreciate it if you would keep watch outside and let us know if you see anything or anyone out of the ordinary. We’d be willing to give you a bar of chocolate for every other hour of your service.”

Again, I felt the uncomfortable sensation in the pit of my stomach as my mouth started to dry up.

Damn it, cut that shit out!

“What kind of chocolate?” Mello blinked, surprised that I hadn’t accepted the offer right away, and perhaps slightly confused at my question. “I mean, is it good chocolate?”

“Oh, yes,” he nodded. “It’s very good. Here, let me show you.” He motioned to one of his men, who presented me with a moderately-sized bar of Godiva. “One of those, every other hour.”

“Um-hmm…” I paused, as if considering, when in reality, I’d already made up my mind. The thought of having chocolate again, especially exquisite chocolate such as Godiva, was far too tempting.

“So, what do you think?” Mello asked.

“Deal.”

“Great. Now, before you start, would you mind if we asked you some more questions about the Death Note?”

“Not at all.” I sat cross-legged in the air to get myself comfortable. “Fire away.”

And so it went, for the next few weeks. Whenever I wasn’t keeping watch outside, I was in the hideout, munching on my reward while answering Mello’s many questions. (“If you give up ownership of the Death Note, you will lose all memory of it and the shinigami possessing you, which would be me.” “No, you can’t make someone kill a large group of people without writing all of their names down too.” “You can’t kill anyone under seven-hundred-and-eighty days of age, that is, a little under two-and-a-half years old, and why would you, ya sick fuck?” etc. etc.) As time passed, my calls inside became less and less frequent, going from nearly every couple of hours, to once or twice a day, then maybe once every few days, then none at all, until I would just pop in to eat my chocolate and go back to what I was doing with barely even a word spoken between me and the others; not that I really minded. I didn’t care about them anyway. They were just worthless, mindless, disgusting human beings. I had no sympathy for what fate would most likely befall them, and I wished it would come soon. The sooner those assholes died, the sooner I could get my notebook back.

While I kept guard outside, I would pass the time the way I did back in the Shinigami Realm: I sang. Using a variety of different voices, I would sing to myself, sometimes softly, sometimes loud enough that a mobster or two taking a smoke break might hear me, but no one ever spoke up about it. I figured that they were probably too scared.

Often times I would fly around the perimeter of the hideout, doing various spins and loop-de-loops. There were few things that were desirable about being a shinigami, but in my opinion, the invulnerability and the eyes had nothing on the ability of flight. It was the only thing aside from my voice trick that made me genuinely glad to be what I was. Every time I flew, it felt like the first time. There would be this sense of wonder and excitement blossoming in my chest, and I’d always think, “Holy fucking shit, I can’t believe I’m actually flying!” It never got old.

But when I wasn’t singing, or flying, or fantasizing about slowly and brutally killing the pigs I worked for, I would sit and meditate. I’d think about Mello.

Mello was a fascinating creature. I would often watch him out of the corner of my eye when I took my chocolate-breaks. He was just as I’d imagined he’d be, but also the exact opposite of what I’d pictured. He was bold, confident, tough, and didn’t take shit from anybody, as to be expected; but he was also ruthless, sadistic, cocky, and vain.

Simply put, he was an asshole, albeit a very smart asshole, but an asshole nonetheless.

Although to be fair, he seemed to hate his cohorts just as much as I did. I could tell by the way he interacted with them, the way he’d look at them; they were nothing more than pawns to him, and while normally I hated that kind of mentality (and I still do), I couldn’t blame him that much. I’d use those schmucks as pawns too.

I began to wonder if I should tell Mello what I knew, or if he even deserved to know. Would my information do any harm? I knew it would provide nothing useful to his Kira investigation, but it would definitely be interesting to see his reaction. And, as much as I hated to admit it, I really wanted a chance to talk to him alone, without any of the other thugs listening. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part, or perhaps it was a genuine feeling, but I had a hunch that there was more to him than just the ingenious douchebag he appeared to be.

Eh, what the Hell. What’s the worst that could happen?

So, on a night shortly after the beginning of the fourth week, I waited until most of the mobsters had gone to sleep, and positioned myself on the roof of the base over what I hoped to be Mello’s room. I already knew the layout of the outside of the building by heart, but I hadn’t seen much of the inside aside from the main room. I’d taken little peeks here and there during my last few chocolate-breaks, but I didn’t want to raise any suspicion.

Here goes nothin’.

I sunk through the ceilings and floors before landing in a medium-sized bedroom. There was a bed with black silk sheets and a comforter with a zebra striped pattern, a desk and wall covered with computer monitors, a door leading into a large closet filled with many different styles of clothing (mostly leather), and another door that opened into a rather nice washroom. My eyes found a rosary dangling from the doorknob and I knew I was in the right place.

I sat in a corner of the room, facing the door, and waited.

It took him a while, nearly an hour or so, but Mello finally showed up.

“Hey.”

“What the-!?” His eyes widened in obvious surprise, and I knew that very soon that surprise would quickly turn into anger, which it did. Before he was able to cuss me out at the top of his lungs, I pressed a finger to my lips and shook my head slightly.

Not a good idea.

Getting the message, he lowered his voice to a menacing hiss.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was wondering if I could have a word with you in private.” I nodded to the door behind him, and after a slight hesitation, he closed it. “Are there any bugs or cameras in here? If so, I’d like you to turn them off. I want this conversation to remain strictly between us.”

“Very well, but I’m only doing this because I too have some questions for you that I don’t want the others to hear.” He went to the desk of computers and sat in the leather rolling chair. I stood up and watched him closely as his fingers danced across the keyboard. Once he was done, he spun around and faced me. “There. We’re completely alone. Now, could you please tell me what’s so damn important?”

I gently nibbled on my lower lip. Even though I’d rehearsed what I was going to say a thousand times over in my head, I was still a little nervous, a fact which detested me to no end.

“Before I do, let me ask you something.” His eyes narrowed slightly, but he motioned for me to continue. “Do you believe that human beings have souls?”

He thought about it for a second.

“Yes.”

“Alright. I figured you did since, unless that rosary is for show, you appear to be Catholic.”

“I am.”

“So, you believe that after people die, their souls pass on into another place, like Heaven or Hell?”

“Yes. And before you ask, yes, I know where I’m going, and I’ve made peace with that.”

“I wasn’t going to, although from what I hear, people who use a Death Note cannot go to Heaven or Hell.”

“Really?” He opened a desk-drawer, revealing many chocolate bars. He grabbed one and began to open it. “Then where do they go?”

“No idea. Perhaps nowhere. Maybe humans aren’t meant to go anywhere after they die; they’re just supposed to rot. There’s no way to know.” As I began to stare off into space, I noticed the impatience growing on Mello’s features and quickly brought myself back to reality. “Sorry, I got off-topic. Anyway, in the Shinigami Realm, where I’m from, there is said to be a special breed of shinigami, one radically different from the rest of shinigami kind. One so rare that some believe it to be a myth; these are shinigami supposedly created from the soul of a deceased human. They don’t usually live very long, whether because they don’t write enough names in their Death Notes, or they do something to piss off the King.”

“The King?”

“The Shinigami King. He rules over the Shinigami Realm, makes and enforces the laws, and punishes those that break them. His power is greater than that of any other shinigami and then some. I believe your religion would call him ‘The Devil’.”

I watched Mello’s expression very carefully. His eyes widened a bit and he stopped chewing the chocolate in his mouth.

“You’re serious.” His voice was the softest I’d heard.

“Yes. Supposedly, every human’s soul has a chance of transforming into a shinigami upon death. It’s an extremely slim chance though, say, one in a million, no, one in a billion shot, maybe more.”

“A shinigami king…shinigami born from dead humans…” Mello leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. “Incredible…Absolutely incredible…”

“They don’t appear very often, these human-shinigami hybrids,” I continued as he processed the information. “Up until recently, there hadn’t been one for over a thousand years, and the last couple before that were spread out over several centuries.”

“How many are there now?”

“Two, as far as I know, one of whom I’ve met. He claimed to have grown up in a place that specialized in mass-producing geniuses, in the hopes of creating a successor to a very well-regarded human known as L. The institute was an orphanage, he said, named after its founder, called Wammy’s Hou-oh shit, you okay?”

Mello had inhaled his chocolate and was currently coughing it back up. He threw up a hand when I went over to help him.

“I-I’m fine.” The morsel of cocoa soon melted in his throat and he swallowed it. “There’s no way…it’s impossible…” He stood up and faced me, trying to take control of the situation. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“Why would I lie? It’s not like I have anything to gain from this, other than the look on your face, which I’ll admit is pretty priceless,” I smirked.

“I still can’t be sure. You’ll have to tell me something else, something only people from Wammy’s House would know.”

“Isn’t the fact that I know of the House’s existence and its purpose proof enough?”

“Almost, but not quite.” He crossed his arms, quirking a hairless brow. “Did this ‘human-shinigami hybrid’ give you his name?”

I think you already know, Pretty Boy.

“Yes, he did. When I first met him, he said it was Rue Ryuzaki, but eventually he told me to call him Beyond-”

“Birthday.” Mello looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“You knew him?”

“No…no, I was just a kid when he left. I don’t think we ever had a one-on-one conversation, we were just aware of the other’s existence. But I heard about him, years later. Only the people who had been at Wammy’s long enough even knew he existed, and even fewer knew just who exactly he was and what he did.” He clutched his rosary tightly and slumped back into his chair. “Holy shit…holy shit, son of a bitch…”

“You gonna be okay?”

“Yes!” he snapped, getting a hold of himself rather quickly. “Did Beyond really tell you this?”

“Again, why would I lie?”

“Then that settles it. I had a feeling from the start, but I just had to be sure…” He looked up at me with triumphant eyes and spoke without a trace of doubt. “You’re the other hybrid.”

There was silence for a few seconds, then I smiled.

“You really are as good as he said.” I went over to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall casually. “Out of curiosity, what gave me away?”

“It wasn’t that hard. The first clue was that you knew there were different kinds and brands of chocolate, plus the fact that you knew what it was without me telling you. How would you know the name of a substance that probably doesn’t exist in the Shinigami Realm? And the more I thought about it, the way you ate that first chocolate bar back then, there was a look on your face; that was the face of someone eating a treat they hadn’t had in a long time.”

“Yes,” I sighed, remembering that first bite. “I’d forgotten how wonderful chocolate was. It was…amazing. Thank you for that, by the way. Really, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” For the first time since I’d met him, Mello sounded genuinely sincere. I appreciated that.

“What else was there?”

“The Beyond I’ve heard about would never give away personal information like that unless it was for an important reason, or if whomever he was telling was important to him…He would have wanted to share his story with another human.”

“Serial killers get lonely too, Pretty Boy. Since we’re the only shinigami to truly understand humans, it was only natural for us to become…acquaintances.”

“So he told you everything?”

“Just the basics; Wammy’s, L, the murders, his suicide, you and the others-”

“What do you mean, ‘others’?”

“Oh, he’s been watching over the children of Wammy’s ever since he died, especially L’s new successors. He once told me about a pale kid who was really good with puzzles and wasn’t much of a talker…”

“Near.” Mello said the name as if it were a curse-word that befouled his tongue.

“Right, Near. Then there was this hot-headed boy with a serious chocolate addiction, which was you, and a computer genius that was able to hack into a Swiss bank account when he was only ten years old.”

“Matt.”

“Yes. He said you two were thick as thieves. I’m actually a little surprised that he’s not here.”

“I don’t really need him for this, so I figured it’d be better not to get him involved.”

“Ah.” I could tell that he wasn’t telling the whole truth, and was at least a little bit uncomfortable discussing the matter, so I let it drop. “But anyway, you said you had a feeling from the beginning?”

“Yeah. At first, I had this wild notion that you might be the A, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that you weren’t.”

“Heh, my memory of human life may be pretty hazy, but I think I’d remember growing up in a place like Wammy’s House. Nah, it’s just coincidence that A and I share the same first initial.”

“‘Hazy’?”

“Some of the hybrids, like Beyond, can remember with absolute clarity what they were like as a human; how they lived, how they died. While some hybrids, like me…” I sighed. “Have a little trouble with it.”

“Oh…” For just a split-second, I could have sworn I saw a little bit of sympathy in his eyes. I was surprised at the gratitude I felt then.

“Anyway, you said you had some questions for me?” I really wanted to change the subject.

“Well, I was going to ask if you were once human, but seeing as you already confirmed my theory, there’s no need to. Although, there is one thing I’m curious about…”

“What?”

“Why are you telling me this? You said so yourself, you have nothing to gain from it. So, why?”

“Honestly,” I shrugged. “I’m not quite sure. Part of it was just so I could see your reaction, and I guess I thought you deserved to know. But looking back on it, I don’t know…I thought…maybe…” I struggled for the right words. “It might make you…feel better?”

“Feel better?”

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I think there’s more to you than meets the eye. It’s like I can sense it.”

“Okay…” There was an awkward silence and I inwardly smacked myself for saying something so incredibly stupid. Then a small smirk slowly crawled onto Mello’s face.

“What?”

“Ever since it occurred to me that you might be human, I’ve been trying to figure out what your age and gender might have been when you died.”

“Oh? What was I?” I was secretly glad that he’d been thinking about me.

Fuck, I may be seriously starting to like him. If that’s the case, then he must never know. Ever.

“The age was pretty easy. At first I thought you might have been a guy in his early to mid-twenties, but after your immature teasing and name-calling, I became almost certain that you were a teenager, possibly in your mid-to-late teens. But then again, you seemed very okay with murdering a bunch of innocent people, something I wouldn’t think a young person would be very comfortable with.”

“Shinigami can only survive by taking the remaining years off a human’s lifespan and adding them to their own; it was either them or me. And for what little it’s worth, I made sure their deaths were quick and relatively painless. Besides, I’ve been doing this a long time, Pretty Boy,” I smirked as he glowered at the nickname. “You get used to it. And you’re one to talk; you’re only what, eighteen?”

“Nineteen,” he corrected.

“Exactly, and they say you‘ve been with the mob for a year and a half.”

“Good point.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, thinking. “Still, for your age, I’d be willing to bet that you were anywhere between your late teens to early twenties when you died.”

“Alright,” I nodded, urging him to continue.

“The gender on the other hand…It’s hard to tell. I constantly switch back and forth between boy or girl, seeing as you don’t seem to have any distinguishable male or female traits. Then there’s your voice; it’s very androgynous. It sounds too high to be a male’s voice, but too low to be female. Was it like that back when you were alive?”

“No. I lost my original voice when I turned, so the King gave me a new one, along with the power to mimic any other voice I hear.”

“Interesting.” He pondered for a second. “Then there was all that talk about my feelings…something only a woman would bring up.”

“I guess…but men can be sentimental too, ya know.”

“True. But there is one other thing…”

“What?”

“You seem to have taken a liking for me.”

Shit!

“Beg pardon?” For a second, I thought I could feel heat rise in my cheeks, but there was no way; shinigami are physically incapable of blushing.

“They say that when someone picks on someone else, it means that they like them. And you act differently around me than with the others. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have a crush on me.” He watched me carefully as he spoke, hoping to gauge my reaction.

“I see.” I tried to look as calm and collected as possible. He wasn’t entirely right, but he wasn’t entirely wrong either. “I’ll admit that you are a very attractive person, Mello, and your intelligence is a trait that most people would find desirable. But mostly, you’re just fun to watch.” I slowly started to grin, a mischievous thought entering my mind. “And I can’t help but wonder, the way you mentioned that other successor, Near; I think it’s safe to say that you don’t like him very much.”

“Yes.” His voice dripped with the same venom he’d used when mentioning the name before.

“Back when I was alive, I always thought that when someone held a strong dislike for someone else, it sometimes meant that that person was in denial, because they didn’t want to admit they had feelings for-”

“Oh, Hell no!” He stood up, disgusted by what I was implying. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“See? Fun to watch.” This only served to make him angrier, and for a second I thought he was going to throw me out and/or shoot me. But then he quickly simmered down and smirked with triumph.

“I was right, wasn’t I? You were just trying to distract me so you wouldn’t have to admit it.”

Damn it!

“You little shit.” I clenched my hands into fists as an alarming amount of anger surged through me. But as quickly as it came, it was gone, and I was left feeling worn and depressed, slumping against the wall in defeat. “What does it matter if you can figure out my age and gender anyways? It’s not important.”

“No, it probably isn’t.” He sounded a little surprised at my sudden changes in mood. “It was just something to get my mind off of Kira.”

“Ah.” I straightened up and stretched, even though I hadn’t been still for that long. “Anyway, I’ve said what I wanted to say. Goodnight.”

“Wait.” Mello stood up. “You didn’t confirm whether or not I was right about your age and gender.” I stared at him in puzzlement. I didn’t know if he really cared, or if he just had an issue with closure.

“What was your guess again?”

“Teenaged girl, somewhere between sixteen and nineteen.”

He’s figured me out. The son of a bitch figured me out.

After a brief silence, I sighed and muttered,

“I prefer the term ‘young woman’ rather than ‘teenaged girl’. And sadly, I cannot remember exactly how old I was when I died, but I’m pretty sure I was somewhere between eighteen or twenty, maybe older.”

I suddenly felt a deep wave of sadness seep into my heart.

Wow…Saying it out loud…I never knew how much it hurt.

I turned to go, my wings slowly unfurling.

“A.” I glanced back and what I saw shocked me to my core. Mello looked at me with eyes filled with empathy, as if I was seeing my own despair reflected back at me. I hadn’t thought that he was capable of seeing me or anyone else as more than just a tool in his master plan, but there it was, staring into me; pain, understanding, and maybe, just maybe, the tiniest bit of care. “I’m sorry.”

It took me a minute, and after a few stuttered attempts, I was able to reply.

“Alixandria. You may call me Alixandria. Goodnight, Mello.”

“Goodnight.”

As I returned to my regular branch, it occurred to me that even after being warped and twisted into something I barely even recognized, some people could still read me like an open book. It almost made me smile.

The next night, everything changed.

Alternative Title for this chapter: Shameless Godiva Plug/Exposition Dump

#death note #fanfiction #my work #righteous side of hell

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sithlordintraining · 7 years

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She’s No Angel (Part 4)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5

MISS Y/N L/N. TAKE THREE PILLS A DAY. MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS OR DIZZINESS. ALCOHOL COULD INTENSIFY THIS EFFECT. USE CAUTION WHEN PILOTING OR OPERATING HEAVY MACHINERY. DO NOT TAKE IF PREGNANT.

The humming of the machinery calmed you, as you and Lucky walked back to your quarters. “Thank you again, Lucky.” You smiled reaching the door. The doors opened up and Lucky waited for his invitation. Others found it strange, how the flirtatious bad boy of troopers could be a gentleman, “But, only for you Angel.” He said strolling in. Lucky removed and placed his helmet on your kitchen island. Picking up the bottle, he examined the words. “Take three a day. Angel?” His blue eyes looked up at you. You turned to look at him. “Is this because of yesterday or-” You cut him off before he could continue. You knew where this was headed. “Luck, you don’t have to worry. I’m fine.” You grabbed the pill bottle and placed it in the cabinet. “But, I do.” Lucky whispered. You turned to look at him, only you got to see Lucky like this and you felt honored enough that he wanted to show you this side. Making your way around the island and engulfed him in a hug. “You shouldn’t, but thank you.” You squeezed him. Wrapping is his arms tightly around you, he spoke up. “Y/N,” he began, knowing this was a serious conversation. “I know how amazing and respectful you are and everyone told me not to worry. And then you didn’t show up to lunch and that stupid Matt guy wasn’t there and I was getting very suspicious.” You chuckled. “You thought I was hanging with Matt? ” “No. I thought Matt got you or something, but he came later. And don’t say it like that, I’m not jealous.” Shaking your head he continued. “Then, when I heard what happened, I just . . . when I heard” he squeezed you tighter. “I wanted to look for you, but everyone stopped me. I’m sorry.” You squeezed back. “It’s not your fault and thank you for caring so much.” You let go and still saw Lucky’s blue eyes still gazing down at you.

“You’re not going to let this go are you?” You let out a shaky breath. You knew he wanted to know and he kind of did deserve to know. He was your best friend. His ungloved hand grabbed yours. “It was just . . . he locked me in that dark room and I felt myself losing it. When he came back, I-I couldn’t help but just . . . then he choked me. And I.” tears began welling in your eyes and the thought you’ve been suppressing rushed back. ‘That fucking moan’ you thought. “I was in such a state, that they thought it would be best to just put me on medication, to help.” you began trailing off. You were instantly pulled into his hard-armored chest. “I’m sorry.” You pushed him off of you. Letting out a laugh as there were tears in his eyes as well. “The longer you stay, the more tempted I’ll be to tell all your buddies about this look.” He rolled his eyes, grabbing his helmet making his way towards the door. “Oh Angel, by the way, Zeros is throwing a little party in the private sectors, if you feel comfortable-” “Yes, I’d love too.” He sent you smile before leaving your quarters.

Kylo sat there meditating. This was the calmest and most in control since he’s met you. He felt a disturbance. “General.” He spat out. The blast doors opened and in stormed the general. “REN! HOW DARE YOU TREAT Y/N LIKE THAT?!” The general stood behind the seated commander. “It seems that both of you have forgotten your place.” He responded. Disregarding his comment, Hux spoke up again. “First, you talk about actually trying to make an effort with actually using her specialties and then, you mentally scar her. Y/N has done nothing to you or anyone to deserve this. She's so bad, she had to be admitted to the med bay! I say, Ren, this is the lowest.” The general huffed out. “Well, General.” Kylo stood up turning around to tower over him. “It seems like you care a little bit more than you show. Did she tell you what happened?” Hux rolled his eyes. “She doesn't need to! I know what type of man you are! Hurting the poor girl, she's just innocently doing her job.” Kylo raised a finger to Hux’s chest. “There is nothing innocent about working for the First Order and you should know that if your judgment wasn't clouded by your feelings for your subordinate.” Colliding shoulders, Kylo Ren exited the room.

Exiting your quarters, you made your way down the hall. You never really got a chance to take in how beautifully pristine the hallways were. Casting your gaze on the ceiling, you didn't realize who you were about to bump into. “Oh, Matt! I'm sorry” your hands reached at his forearms, stabilizing yourself. He tensed under your grasped. ‘Damn, Matt works out?’ You thought. As if on cue, he flexed his muscles as a smug smile appeared on his face. Letting go, you stepped back. “What are you doing out of your quarters?” Matt asked. Furrowing your brows at his question, you answered. “Um. . . I got bored and I'm hungry. Why were you coming to visit?” You raised your brow. Red crept on his face. “You were? Weren't you?” With the red covering his face and neck he couldn't deny it. “I-I just wanted to see how you were doing. I heard that you were really bad, but this morning you seemed fine.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Well, thank you. I guess, even if it was only out of curiosity.” You gave him a small smile. Continuing to walk in the direction you were heading, he quickly strode by your side. “Where-where are you going?” He asked. “To the kitchen. As a consultant, I have access to these things.” “So then why do you eat with those of lower rank?” “Like yourself?” You raised a brow, smirking. Matt stopped in his tracks, baffled on how you turned it on him. “Would you like anything?” You asked, he shook his head no. You entered the kitchen, leaving a thinking Matt outside. Minutes later, you returned Galaxy Bun in hand. “You really like those things?” He questioned. “Love ‘em.” You sent him a smirk.

Heading back to your quarters, Matt accompanied you like security. His tall-brooding figure stayed next to you. You kind of liked it, not in the sense of protection but authority. You loved to be escorted, it made you feel important. Stopping at the entrance to your quarters, you turned to Matt, “Don't you have to return to work?” “I have a 15-minute break.” “Yeah, and you spent most of it with me.” You smiled, which gained a twitch from Matt's lips. “You want me gone?” He asked so monotone, turning to head back to work. Rolling your eyes “No Matt, I just don't want you terminated.” Your voice echoed down the hall. “Anymore.” He replied. Leaving your face twisted.

Shaking out your curls, you looked at yourself in the mirror once again. You looked over at the time: 22:01. You fixed yourself once again, calming your nerves. You need this night. You needed to forget and have fun. You walked over to the cabinet and grabbed your medication. Popping a pill, a melodic knock echoed at the door. Making your way to the door, you shut off the lights and greeted them.

Waiting for the whole group to show up, you met in the Rec Room. You enjoyed seeing officers and troopers out of uniform and laughing. It made you feel... normal. “Alright is everyone here?” Lucky asked. “Nah, we have one more.” 8041 said, “And speak of the devil.” Everyone turned to the doorway to see a lost Matt. Matt stiffened as everyone gaze fell on him. He scanned the crowd until his eyes fell on you. Lucky noticed and slowly slid his hand around your waist. “Hi, Matt.” You waved. Lucky squeezed your side. “Angel, did you invite him?” He whispered in your ear. “No, and don’t let your jealousy get the best of you.” You removed his arm around your waist and followed the group out.

23:27. You sat on the couch nestled between the arm rest and Lucky, who now was swapping spit with some blonde. Usually, you didn’t care. But you hated her. Something with an A. That is as much as your mind could remember at the moment. Finishing your fourth bottle, you sighed. Lifting the bottle up, you looked inside. Squinting, you seemed to be able to make out an abnormal blond sitting across from you. Looking up, you instantly locked eyes with the brown-eyed blond. You gulped at his intense stare, no has ever looked at you like that. Goosebumps cascaded on your arms. With a sudden burst of confident, you removed yourself from your spot and went to the make-shift bar.

Matt straightened up as you made your way to the empty seat next to him. Sitting down you stared at him until he stopped ignoring you. “Yes?” He blatantly asked. “Are you having fun?” you asked. Matt simply nodded. “Well, it doesn’t look like it. You’ve been sitting here the whole time.” you pointed out. Turning to face you, he said: “I could say the same for you.” Not liking his answer, you turned back around grabbing a bottle from behind the bar. Matt scrunched up his face in confusion. The liquor was clear and you seemed to be pouring a very large amount in two glasses. Sliding the glass over to him, you began to drink yours. “Drink up.” Matt raised the glass to his lip, disregarding the smell or the scorching burn the ripped down the walls of his throat. Coughing, he felt his temperature rise; it was so hot his glasses fogged up. He turned to look at you, as you casually poured another glass, with no effect.

“How can you drink this?” Matt asked gripping the bar while answering with a shrug. And by 23:41, you both drunk. Well, you more than him. The two of you engaged in conversation, in which you learned of his deadpan humor. You snapped your head back in laughter for the umpteenth time. Coming forward, you pushed yourself a little too hard, falling into his muscular arms. ‘Damn, is this from all the tech stuff’ you thought. Nose to nose, you studied the beauty marks and moles that adorned his face. “I-I, I think you’ve had enough. You should go lie down.” Matt gripped your arms a little tighter, stabilizing you. Rubbing your nose against his, you bit your lip. Matt was kinda cute and sweet, while intoxicated. “Nope.” you popped the P. “I want to stay, I’m having fun. Do you want me gone?” You said mockingly. He rose from the chair, leaving you to crane your neck at his full height. Silence filled the space between you. Tilting your head, Matt’s eyes widened at the naughty thought that flashed across your mind. “Yes-yes, I’d like that.” With quick strides, you two made your way out the door.

Grabbing his hand, you dragged him down to your quarters. He was very surprised how even your fast paced steps were as you made every turn. As you slowed down, you began to fumble causing a collision with him. Laughing once again, he caught you before you can fall. “Oh Matt, do you want us both to be terminated?” You looked down at his big arms wrapped around your waist. He immediately let go and watched you haphazardly enter your code. After the fourth time, the blast door opened. Quickly snatching him with you, you threw him to the wall.

The dark room was only lit by the stars that dusted outside of the large window in the room. Matt sucked in a breath, as it also seemed to illuminate her silhouette. Slowly, but with confidence, she made her way over to him. He sensed the closeness of her by the smell of that disturbing liquor that laced her breath as she breathed. His heart pumped faster than ever, as he felt the blood rushing to his head the closer he got. He gulped as felt her fingers creep under his shirt, while her other hand pulled him down by the neck. “You’re too tall,” she whispered, pulling him down to meet her. Her drunken lips pressed delicately to his. Her wet lips intertwined with his and he tried to focus on control instead of her pressuring thoughts. She glided the tip of her tongue across the bottom of his lip for permission. “Mhm.” nodding his head in acceptance. She pulled him closer, nails digging into his pale skin as she devoured him. The sensation driving him wild, Matt couldn’t contain himself as he craned his neck even more. His swollen pink lips made the kiss sloppy. Frustration caused him to be a bit more aggressive, snatching her hands from him so he could control her. But she wouldn’t cease and continued to fight for dominance. Hunger for this amazing sensation made him want more.

Pulling away, his large hands were still wrapped around your wrist. He looked over your face once again, to see an animalistic look in your eyes. Letting go of your wrist, you latched your hands on to him, attacking his jaw and neck. Matt’s back was pressed up against the cold wall and he felt helpless. ‘How can you be this strong?’ He thought. But, stars did he love this feeling. He started to feel light-headed. Soon enough, one of your hands slid down his body. He took in a sharp breath, trying to contain himself. If the kiss wasn’t already doing him in. This would definitely kill him. But, before he knew it he felt your body go limp against his. Removing your head from his neck, he saw your sleeping figure and heard the little snores emit from you. He took your sleeping figure and placed you on your couch.

Rushing from your quarters, he replayed the kiss in his head. Vividly. He wasn’t even thinking straight, feet just making every which move. Shaking his head, he whispered to himself. “I’m Kylo Ren. The Master of the Knight of Ren, Commander of the First Order.” He turned down the hallway. How could you make him feel so out of control? He was so glad you’d fallen asleep, he didn’t know how long he could last. He turned around fist clenched and he realized he was at the Rec Room. He entered the nearly emptied room and followed the sound of the vending machine. His eyes scanned the products deeming them all ridiculous except one. “Galaxy Bun.” He huffed. Even this small product with an abnormal amount of sugar made his mind think of the taste of her lips. Using the force, he retrieved the treat and made his way to an empty table in the corner. Fumbling with the wrapper, he sat down. With the burst of plastic, came the sweet smell that was once held in it. Pushing the pastry up, he took a bite. Ripping a piece off, he stuffed it in his mouth. His eyes widened, he finally understood why you loved these things.

A/N: Yup, the authors' note is down here. I hope you like it. I know how many people wanted more so I hope I did you justice. Feedback is much love. <3

#kylo ren #kylo x reader #kylo ren imagine #kylo ren imagines #kylo ren one shot #imagine #imagines #star wars imagine #matt imagine #tfa imagine #swtfa #matt #Matt the radar technician #matt the technician

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lawrenceseitz22 · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Adam: All right. We are live. Welcome everybody to Hump Day Hangouts episode 190. We are fired up and waiting on a special guest, but before we get into that, we’re going to run down, and say hello to everybody at Semantic Mastery, and let you know what we got going on today. Chris, we’ll start with you, and your wonderful, beautiful Semantic Mastery Mastermind shirt. How are you doing?

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Marco: I’m good, man. I’m again, excited, been working on this auto poster, which we’ll talk about in a little bit, YouTube views, the Google My Business Pro, Local GMB Pro, we’re just getting awesome results. People are getting hundreds of calls, man, and not ranking. I love it.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: I’m good, man. I’m almost tempted to take a screenshot of that Local GMB Pro thread in the Facebook group that talks about everybody that’s sharing the results that they’ve been able to achieve with it in just a couple of weeks time, just because it’s freaking amazing. I would need Marco’s permission to share a screenshot of that, though. I’m not going to-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Bradley: It’s crazy, and it just keeps getting better, it’s funny, but I set up a YouTube ad last week for it, and I showed how to do this in the training for one very specific keyword, and I’m driving the traffic to the GMB post, and it’s just crazy, because within one week we’re ranked number two in the three pack, now, for a keyword that we were number 14, like number 13, or 14, well, actually, no, sorry, that keyword I think it was number five, or six in the maps listing, but it jumped to number two in just a week from just driving a few clicks from YouTube to it, which is just insane. It just keeps getting better. Anyways, with that said, I don’t know if our guest is going to make it today, or not.

Adam: Yeah. We’re going to give it one last try. In the meantime, I got a couple of announcements, I wanted to let everyone know next week here in the United States it’s going to be fourth of July on Wednesday, so we will not be canceling Hump Day Hangouts, but we will be holding it a day early, so on Tuesday is when it will be, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, same time as usual. That’s when we’ll have episode 191. Emails will be reflected, so you’ll get an email on Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays. That’s it for that. I’m looking at my notes, and we got three things going on, trying to get our guest going on, so I’m getting a little confused. Marco, do you want to talk about the GMB auto poster? Because is definitely something that we want to announce today.

Marco: You know, we have a fantastic ninja coder programmer who gets shit done. All you have to do is tell him, “This is what we need,” and he does it, and it works, and of course you have Rob in there, who takes whatever our programmer does, and he tests it, and he makes sure that it’s working the way it’s supposed to, and if not, he goes balls to the wall testing it out, making sure that he can’t break it, and if Rob can’t break it, trust me, well, there’s probably someone who could possibly break it, but yeah, 99 out of 100 they won’t. That’s what Rob is doing.

What I’m most excited about is we actually have a playlist where people can go and take a look at how the tool works. I’m going to post it, the YouTube playlist for the auto poster. Then, what I’m going to do is post that in the actual landing page, so that you can order the tool, and order posts, and automate everything. It makes life so simple, because you just go in, you schedule your calls, you get your images in there, you get your CTA’s, and you get everything set up, and then you could do it for a month, two months, however long it is that you want to do it, and you could have that done.

If you have a VA, you could have that done inside of two hours for the whole month for two months, and then you move on to the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and it’s all set, I mean, it’s set, and forget, you don’t have to worry about it anymore. That’s how good this is, so I’m going to go ahead and post the auto-poster playlist on how to use it, and-

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Adam: Very good. Following in on this you guys, obviously, you should check out Local GMB Pro, I mean, if you want to get the real deal on the training behind this, and how to get the most out of this, that’s the place to do it. You know these guys have really nice shirts, they’re really nice Semantic Mastery shirts, but you know what, I think that we are apparently behind the scenes getting some hats made for Semantic Mastery with some nice Semantic Mastery logos. The next person who signs up for the live event, and we get a notification that you’ve signed up for the live event, we’ll give you a free Semantic Mastery hat, and I’ll get that made, and shipped out to you as soon as they’re created. They’re being designed-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Adam: Outstanding. This worked out really well actually with everything going on, and us back and forth trying to get you on, but since we’re live now we literally just got through announcements. In case anyone is watching and doesn’t know who this is, we’ve got Jeffrey Smith here with us today, and we just got a few questions, we wanted to talk to you about, and then talk obviously just kind of talk shop for 15, 20 minutes, answer some questions for people, and then-

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: Yeah. For myself, as well, because I actually don’t know this, and then for anyone listening too, as much or as little as you want to share with us, but how did you get started online, what’s your background, what’s the story?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s very funny, ironically, I was having coffee one day, it was like December 3rd, 1991, or something like that, and I literally had an epiphany in a coffee shop. It was totally unrelated to SEO whatsoever, it was literally I had this invention popped in my head, it was car fragrance diffuser that diffuses aromatherapy oils in the car, so I sort of set out just relentlessly trying to build this thing, and several years later I find I was able to write business plans, and finally get some funding.

We did a market test, sold a 100 units of this particular product, in two weeks, so we said, “Okay, we’ve got proof of concept,” so then we went into the marketing phase, got an investor, and then we essentially put all the money that we had into tooling the product, and after that we didn’t have any money. This is pre-Google. It was 1995 at the time. There were search engines like Lycos, and Hot Bot, Go, you know, Yahoo Director was big back then. It was all manually updated. It was pretty easy at that point to gain search engines, so I figured out a method that allowed me to get rank for certain keywords, and it was funny, because when the internet was new it was a crazy thing, I mean, I just had a hand shot of this product, plugging it, it said, “Dealer inquiries invited.”

Those three words in that ad as a result of SEO and positioning led to 17 countries of distribution for this product. After that, we just basically kept going, and kept tinkering, and kept building sites, and that company today as well in the eight-figure range, they’re doing very well, it’s an international global product development firm, now. It all started from that one idea, but if it wasn’t for SEO and just basically continually tinkering with things it wouldn’t have happened. We just didn’t have the money. It was the online positioning that allowed us to literally grow the business.

After that, I was actually able to retire for a few years, and then came out of retirement, the company is like, “All right. We’re cutting you off of the royalty, you got to do something, you’ve been hanging out for four years.” At that point, they’re like, “All right, get back to work,” and I’m like, well, I didn’t know what to do, so I was like, I’ll just start doing SEO again. In 2007, I created SEO Design Solutions, started blogging away, and within a couple of years. I think within two years we got ranked in the first page with the keyword, SEO, and had about 50 clients, was doing well, downtown Chicago, John Hancock Tower office, and all that.

But along the way we actually from the writing, it was funny, it sort of stumbled into this situation where one of the people that replied was from Time Magazine, they were like, “I don’t like the way you put images in articles.” I thought, okay, that’s weird, so one of my blog posts, I used to actually put the images, or text in the images, because I didn’t want people to steal my images, so I’d have them watermarked. This started a dialogue and conversation where I reached out to this person, and we became friends, this person ended up basically turning me on to Time, American Express, started working on sites like foodandwine.com, Travel and Leisure. Working on some really big notable brands like that, and doing SEO for them, as well as our client model.

It just allowed things to really sort of take off from there. Along the way, we started working on some stuff for WordPress, WordPress was relatively new in 2007, and so we started working on plugins and themes, and so the SEO design framework and the SEO ultimate plugin were really just things we used to save time for ourselves, so we didn’t have to start fresh, or start over with a new customer every time, and try to figure out how to take their Dreamweaver site, or whatever it was and try to make it rank, so we just built on a subdomain, or subfolder, created a WordPress installation and kick it off. Stop me at any time. I know I’m sort of going on this tangent here.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Jeffrey Smith: Okay. Cool. Yeah. Just along the way just started picking up more things, and played a lot with PBN’s back in the day, it was sort of a domain, and had some fun with building out 700, 800 sites as part of our network. For those of you who have been around for a while, you probably remember Revenge of the Mininet, by Michael Campbell. Where he really laid out a bunch of strategies on ways to do all types of topical internal linking, so we played around with a lot of stuff like that.

Played around with our own methods, and that way we had our own sandbox where we could just do things without having to worry about effecting clients, or things of that nature. Had a lot of fun in that space, and then just started to wind the client model down after 2012, started focusing more on the software side of things, so for those of you who are using SEO Ultimate we do have a new version coming out, it’s called Pro. It’s going to have some pretty sick features with schema, additional schema, some really cool stuff with questions and answers schema, generators, and a lot of fun new toys to play with.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s going to be some fun stuff in there, man, and you guys are welcome to continue to throw feedback, and I’d like to hear from the community, as well. What kind of features that they’d like. I know there’s a fiasco recently, not to diverge too much, but the whole scenario with Yoast’s latest update sort of impacting a lot of rankings for people from it doing some kind of a default reset on the image library. Whatever it was I know it reeked a little havoc. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for us to introduce a new model, new version I should say, rather. Hopefully get some feedback in what people like to see.

Bradley: For anybody, you know, we had this, there was actually just a thread in one of our Facebook groups within the last week of somebody asked about Yoast, and something, and everybody jumped in all of our members jumped in, and said, “What are you using Yoast for? You should be using Ultimate SEO.”

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Bradley: It was just like, dude it was crazy there was like several people jumped in, it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it was just like, “Yeah, use this, it’s the best plug in ever.” Awesome.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Adam: Something you were talking about, you know, I thought was interesting, and I wonder if you’ve seen it, and actually I’d be interested in anyone here what they’re seeing. You got started a long time ago, you know, at the time you said you were using SEO because you had to-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: Have a big corporate backing, do you still see, or thing that, that’s kind of way a lot of people get into this, or are you seeing more of a mix now of people like, okay, coming from other areas, and saying, “Now that I’ve got some backing I can do SEO on a larger, bigger scale?”

Jeffrey Smith: That’s a good point. I think that really it’s from necessity. I really feel sorry for the little guy out there right now. I mean, they’re getting beat up, you’ve got these large companies who have essentially infinite budgets for online positioning, so for me I think it as a way to essentially level the playing field, and show people how to disrupt the market, where they can literally go in, and out rank the Amazon’s, or these large authority sites that have these loose rankings by affiliation just for the fact that they’re sheer numbers that they have. Yeah. For me, at least, I see more of people just learning, because they have to, because they just don’t have the money to go pay somebody $5,000.00 a month to figure out if they are in fact doing what they say they’re doing.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: If nothing else, it’s just a matter for a business owner, I think it’s important to just protect yourself. To know enough, to know if they’re doing what they’re saying their doing. You can say, “Hey, what about the internal linking structures?” Or, “Are we using any kind of schema or structured data. What do our sitemaps look like? What’s our crawl frequency?” You know? Just arming yourself with a little information like that, I just think it’s important.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow. I’m glad. Honestly, I’m flattered. Thank you so much. I just literally was just trying to, okay, well, I’ve been doing this since the ‘90s, I’m sure I’ll just add some stuff that’s relevant, and thought about a logical progression, you know you got to do your keyword research, competitor analysis before you do anything to try to focus on that side architecture. We’ve seen wins all across the board just from, you know, no backlinks, topically created line sites that just rank by the way that you crank them, so that’s a big thing, so I really haven’t changed much.

I provided some links to Adam, earlier, and I was talking about this stuff in 2007, 2008, I really haven’t changed the message. The reason for that is that I’d rather focus on the basics that work really well rather than the flashy flowery stuff. If somebody starts talking about machine-readable, ID’s for Google, and this, I’m like, I don’t, I mean, that’s cool, you can go there, it’s very granular, so you can literally go and diverge into any area, but as far as I’m concerned when you look at it, it’s really about topical relevance, and that’s based on language, and if language isn’t changing any time soon, then we know that the way that you do topical modeling, and the way you structure your site, and the content creation.

If you just think about Wikipedia, they really sort of set the tone for how to create topical authority in any topic, I mean, or any market niche, whatever. They’ve got hundreds of millions of keywords ranking for just about everything under the sun, because of the way that they built their site to be useful for the end user, to be informative. It focused on expert quality in the content, and how it delivered that content.

As well as, it had some really amazing correlations between their site architecture and the way that they internally link. That created a very powerful effect that was literally unblockable by Google even to this day. If you just look at that, and you just use that as well as Amazon the way that they do topical modeling, it’s really just trying to take that, and unwrap that into the site architecture model, and that’s what we’re sort of laying out in the course.

Marco: What I like about the training, you know I’ve been in there back and forth, and up and down, and trying to learn all that stuff, trying to take it all in, it’s laid out in a very simple manner. I like simple, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Marco: We’re showing the exact step by step method that you need to take to get results, and that’s how we develop our training. I mean, when you look at any of our stuff, Local GMB Pro, RYS Academy, whatever you look at, it’s setup that way, this is what you do next, and then this. That’s how you built it up, so when I went in there, even though it’s a lot to take in, it’s reasonable, and it’s actionable, and it’s actually simple, because you look at a module, and you apply. You look at a module, and you apply. If you don’t, then why, I almost dropped an F-bomb, sorry, this is supposed to be PG, why in the world-

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Marco: Thank you, it’s great training, it doesn’t matter, and you know what I like even more? It’s not rehash bullshit, which is what we usually get in our space, is just people repackage the same crap over, and over, and over. Now, this is stuff that you can go, and you can look at, and even though you said you started it in 2007, and you worked it, the shit works.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Jeffrey Smith: Marco, thanks, man. Like I said, I’ve got to go back and add some new stuff, I just want to find where people are getting stuck, or if there’s some things that I could really just dig into a little further. I literally was just making this for business owners, like I said, I had no idea that it would have value for other SEO’s. I figured they’d be like, “Oh, man. Don’t tell me,” I mean, “How dare you tell me how to look for meta title ideas,” or something like that, but it goes a lot deeper than that, we’re talking about some other topics that really hit home.

At least, what we found, just working regardless of whatever market we’re playing in. You know? It’s like, we’re standing up sites in six weeks, and we’re knocking out Amazon, and Target, and all these kinds of sites. These are brand new sites, so you can’t say that it takes time, if you do it right, it takes a lot less time. Obviously, you’re dealing with the barrier to entry, which is different for any keyword in every e-market, but under that same token, you know, if you’re willing to put in a good year to chip away at a super competitive keyword, it’s not something that, it’s not pie in the sky, it’s actually attainable. You see results typically in three to four months for competitive stuff.

There’s always a barrier to entry, and it’s really about choosing the right battles, and winning that battle before you set foot on the field and you do that by looking at the conversation that’s online, determining where you want to enter that conversation, and where you want to dominate this thing. How you want to dominate that to get to the more competitive topic, or that crowning achievement of that market-defining phrase. It’s a process, man. You don’t just jump in, and you figure it all out, but it’s one of those things where we’re all learning.

What I love about this community is we can all learn from each other. You guys are doing stuff that just blows me away every time I look at it, man. The IFTTT stuff, we’ve been applying that for years, I’ve never seen how you apply the tiers, so its mutual respect in that regard. I’m so glad that you guys are constantly sharing what you have with the community. I know you’re on three years now doing this. I just want to say, thank you to you guys, because honestly [crosstalk 00:21:57]-

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:22:22] Bradley, take Christmas off, never again. I like starting with the past, and it makes sense, you know, we wanted to find out some, and it’s good for people to find out about it, but kind of looking forward now from where we’re out now, how do you see kind of the SEO, or greater digital marketing landscape going, like just anything, what do you see coming?

Jeffrey Smith: I think it’s really important right now to try to occupy as many data points as possible with linked data. That’s not going anywhere. I mean, honestly, as we move into a more automation with national language processing, and just how everything is literally about the bots at this point. You know? You’ve got neuro networks with YouTube, where it’s not even humans looking at stuff, it’s just, they’re looking at algorithms. As an individual, I think, it’s really important to own your entities, to claim your entities for your business, for your local, for anything that you can do to create as many data points as possible.

Linked data, also, is good because it’s going to go, it overlaps into a lot of these chatbots that are coming up now, and mobile search, so if you can occupy as many points, once again, with linked data as you can with schema, and those types of markup, and just making it super friendly to appeal to the bots, you’re going to bypass everybody who’s not working on that stuff. That’s the whole thing. It’s almost like it’s worth it, like RDF, and all these other types of languages that are still there that are the base of this whole network of the web 3.0, so to speak, it’s there. If you’re not paying attention to that, I think, that you’re going to be left behind.

Something else, just the ambiguation, sentiment, and sentiment analysis is big, which goes back to natural language. Looking at tools like Text Razor, and Watson API, you can actually add your URL to those pages, and find out if your sentiments .53 or greater, it’s really on topical to a theme. If it’s less than that, you might want to consider using different word choices, and things of that nature. Sentiment analysis is going to be really big for just determining the tone of your content, and sort of how it fits into the algorithm.

Marco, make it filtered out at some point. They’re like, “That’s Marco, he’s over here.” You know this is not the PG filter. But, yeah, I’m just saying it’s sort of cool like that, I think that’s going to be really important. Then, just word relatedness, it’s not going anywhere. I think it’s just as the technologies change, I heard a quote once, it said, “10 years ago we barely knew what a search engine was, 10 years from now it may not exist.”

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Adam: For some of these tools, I mean, some of this has to do with your on page, some of it actually has to do with the content itself, so setting aside some of the optimizations people can do on the backend, looking more at the content itself, is there anyone out there that you see, like this person is doing content writer, or the tools that you say, this helps me, I wouldn’t create content without it, anything along, I’m not thinking of anything in particular, I’m just wondering if, or are they just merged at this point?

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s a tool that basically looks at the top 18 ranked sites, and if you’re familiar with shingles, which are just like shingles on a roof, they’re just the phrases that you use that are overlapping on a page, and it looks at the word relatedness, does a calculation and says, oh, if you’re talking about the word luster, and diamond, and it knows you’re talking about a physical diamond, if it sees the word hotdog, and diamond, it knows you’re talking about a baseball diamond.

These kinds of algorithms are always at play with machine learning. If you understand that, this tool takes that and it literally grabs top 18 sites, it looks at all the different phrases, it looks at the percentage of times that these phrases are used in tandem, but it also shows all the synonyms and supporting relevant phrases that are part of that conversation, and that’s what people need to understand is that you’ve got topical depth, and you have topical breath. You need to have both in order to create that authority.

I would just suggest that it’s all about relevance, but also you can expand that beacon of relevance to find, you know, to rank for hundreds of keyword variations, just by the way that you craft your content. I think that I’ve always liked the way that Moz writes, and a lot of people like that, I mean, it’s some really in depth stuff. I would definitely say that the longer the content, the better, at this point. I’m seeing articles that are 7,000, 8,000, 10,000 words now. It’s broken up with, yeah, you’re going to spend months writing content like that, but you could actually-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Do a mashup like that and literally just crush it. There’s also another way, I’ll share a little technique, if you have SEO Ultimate Plus, there’s the rel prev, and next pagination option that’s inside the plugin. If you understand that, what you can do is you can actually write an entire section of supporting articles, and you can daisy chain them, so that your silo term is the main page, and that starts your rel prev, then it goes to the next one, and your next one might be the category, and the next one after that might be all your posts that are all daisy chained and linked, and at the end of that, at the bottom of the post, you link back to the silo with the last part of the chain, and now you’ve just created this ridiculous relevance loop that Google sees as one big page. That’s a-

Adam: Sexy.

Jeffrey Smith: Little tip I’ll give you guys to just basically, you don’t have to write one big article at one time, but you can take your entire archive, and then each one of those titles, and each one of those pages is dedicated to a very specific part of that conversation using your H1, your URL continuity, your internal link structures, but then use the rel prev, and next to create that daisy chain to sort of dominate the entire conversation [crosstalk 00:28:13]-

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Marco: Let me translate what Jeffrey just said, link wheels still work, and for those idiots, who can’t figure it out, or who are telling you that it doesn’t work, it’s bullshit. Link wheels are alive and well, you just have to present it in the right way so that the bots eat it up.

Jeffrey Smith: Yep. Exactly. Forbes does it, they’re like, hey, we’ve got five parts of this article just hit the next button to get to the next parts of the article just hit the next button to next part of the article, and they daisy chain it, they’re throwing in their ads, and it’s not uncommon, this was a technique that Google themselves suggested versus using a real canonical, which is very important. Rel canonical means that all the other pages themselves are omitted from the rankings, they’re not going to rank, but they’re going to pass their ranking authority-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Back to their set page, which is cool, if you want to do some deep links to those pages, and not show up. You know you can use rel canonical, but if you want everything to rank then just use rel prev, and next and it will go, okay, somebody’s typing in, they’re looking for some specific topic, and you know it’s on page three, well, guess what? Page three will appear in the search results, but it’s still considered one big article. That’s the kind of stuff that we sort of share in the course, and really cool experimenting.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Have a question come in, and then we’ve got one or two we want to finish up with Jeffrey. Jordan, was asking, “How much are you using the Digital Marketers toolbox? It’s not cheap, but it at a certain scale it seems worth it.”

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, yeah. This is something that Matt and myself have been sort of dreaming about for 10 years, so it’s finally ready, we joked about it, we used to call it the brain, I’ve never seen anything like it. Put it like this, we used to do this stuff the old way, and it took about 80 hours, we could charge clients 2500 bucks to build out blueprints, and now you can pretty much do that in about 15 minutes from start to finish. As well as, scrape all the competitors most cherished keywords with a database of over 450 million data points that you’re just able to access from API’s that put everything right there in a couple of clicks. Yeah.

I’ve been using it since it’s inception, and I’m basically doing tweaks daily, and that’s sort of where I’m going next, is I’m going to basically be deploying a ton of affiliate sites in various niches in tandem with click funnels, and using that type of silo architecture to do some overlays with click funnels on the sites that we rank. Yeah. It’s not cheap, but you know what, Jordan, honestly, you sell one blueprint, and it pays for itself.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Right now, I think I need to revisit Bootcamp, and do some more trainings, add another module to just basically look at where the questions are coming up, and maybe do something very specific in the business owner’s overview, I think that’d be cool. I got the SEO Ultimate Pro stuff coming out shortly. That should be exciting and fun. Then after that, like I said, I’m just going to be working in the background on some eCommerce sites that I’m putting up, and lots of affiliate stuff, and honestly I think it’s the way. It’s time for us to not only think about our clients, but to take time to actually crush a few markets ourselves, because they’re good case studies, if you ever need to show anybody that stuff. More importantly, it’s just good to keep active, and know that what you’re doing works. Learn knew stuff.

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Adam: All right. I think this is going to do it time wise. We could go here for an hour or two, I’m sure, easily, but Jeffrey, thank you again, and if we missed anything or if there’s anything else just let me know, and by all means you can hangout-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Bradley: Let’s do it. Whoops, wrong button. Cool. We got a few. Best local services, this is a question about URL permalink structure. “Hey, everyone, one question, when building out a national directory site, and targeting states, then cities within the states, should the URL structure be,” he listed out Florida for state, and then Florida slash Miami, for city within the state, so that’s basically category slash post name permalink structure just post name, is what he’s saying, guys. “Please let me know if it makes a difference, and which one will help rank better. Thanks.”

It really doesn’t make a difference, anymore, at all. I used to prefer a category post name, permalink structure where it would show physically in the URL itself, I liked that just because it was very logical, very easy to see where you are within the hierarchy of the content, but we’ve tested it, and it really doesn’t make any difference. I’d like to get Jeffrey’s opinion on it, but you can absolutely just keep post name, and that’s what’s called a virtual silo. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yep. Honestly, there are so many ways to answer this question, it’s funny, because you know you could even use hyphens, so you could literally get the first tier with a hyphen at that point, and then you could actually just attach subpages by using the apparent sibling page structure in WordPress, to go as deep as you want to. Yeah. Like you said, it really doesn’t matter anymore.

I mean, obviously, Florida forward slash Miami is good, and then if you had things that were related to Miami like sort of things to do, and if it’s relevant to your market, and you wanted to add another tier under that, if you’re going to add supporting articles to it, but I think at this point, they know what you’re talking about, and they’re going to look at all kinds of other things to determine, but that’s just one part of it, but it’s an exact match type of keyword that you’re going after like Miami plumber, or something like that, then you’d probably want to use that in that second tier.

Bradley: Right. The other thing about it that I want to mention is if you’re using a complex silo structure where you’re going to have top level categories and subcategories in supporting posts, then it can get, you can run into some interesting URL things, issues, that come up. Where if you’ve got a subcategory that could fit in two categories, it’s impossible to do that without WordPress automatically appending a dash two-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: To the category slug. That tends to look like shit if you’ve got the category post name permalink structure where you’re showing it. It creates some issues where it’s hard to reconcile those URLs to where they look nice. The easiest way to do it is just go to the post name. I used to literally spend, I mean, I used to agonize over trying to build out sites, or plan out sites that I would be building with complex silo structure, because of those URL, because I always wanted the physical, I wanted it to show in the permalink. Right? The category post name permalink. I would be banging my head against the wall trying to figure out, well, how do I build this out correctly to where I’m not going to run into those category issues with the URLs? Thank God, it finally dawned on me that it’s really not even necessary. It can be what it is as long as you’re using post name, nobody’s going to see it anyways.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Bradley: All right. Next one. Mark’s up, he says, “I purchased your material Silo Academy, and other services, my video is ranking great. It’s been a few years, and now I’m off the search engines, I want to get back into it, and buy whatever I need.” Oh, I love people that say they’re willing to buy whatever. Let’s throw the whole kitchen sink at him.

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Bradley: “Can you tell me what I have, and what I need to buy to move forward.” Yeah. I’ll tell you what, Mark, if you need specific information, just contact us at [email protected], you can also go to support.semanticmastery.com, which is our support site, and just fill in the little contact form there, so either way, we’ll give you some instruction, or direction based upon what it is that you need. If your video is down, though, like when you say it’s not in the search engines, you mean it’s not indexed at all? I would investigate that. Why was it de-indexed? Right? Is the channel still live, or what? Anyways, since I don’t have all the specifics I would say just reach out at support, and we’ll start a dialogue in there. Okay?

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Marco: And it’s a step by step guide on what you need to do, which is exactly what you’re asking. What do I need to use? What do I need to buy? And it’s all laid out in a very comprehensive manner, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Bradley: Paul says, “Hey, guys. I just wanted to give some feedback,” oh, this is awesome by the way, “I just wanted to give you some feedback on what you guys are doing with the GMB optimization. I took on a new client last week, auto repair service, I did nothing but verify his GMB, and made a post with all eight categories on his GMB, and the post as services. Before, this client was nowhere to be found on all but one auto repair,” I’m not sure what that means, “After the post, he is now in the maps ranking on all eight.” Okay. All eight categories. That’s interesting. “Three categories are now back in the maps pack. This past Saturday, and Monday he received 10 calls each day.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Bradley: I appreciate you sharing that, Paul. Again, I should have taken that screenshot I mentioned earlier about the GMB Pro results that people are getting from their Facebook group, but I didn’t. Sorry. Maybe we’ll share that next week. Gordon, and he says, “Hey, guys. Thank you very much. It’s always for your help on these Hump Day Hangouts, it’s greatly appreciated.” Well, we appreciate you, Gordon, coming and asking questions every week. Thank you. “You were kind enough to give us a heads up on how bad Yelp is with their constant solicitations if you use them as a directory profile for your client, so I ruled out ever using them.” That’s a wise choice. It’s interesting because there’s a lot of leads that can be had from Yelp. A lot of leads. However, they’re relentless, that’s the word I was looking for. They’re relentless in their hounding of trying to sell advertising services.

For that, I am almost considering just completely abandoning Yelp, because I’m so tired of having to answer phone calls from them, as well as my clients. Each one of my clients, as soon as I get a Yelp listing, a claimed Yelp listing, it’s three calls per week, every single week, indefinitely from Yelp, trying to sell them advertising services. It’s just an absolute nightmare. I can’t believe that they haven’t been hit with some sort of FTC fine, or some shit.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Bradley: Anyways. “Can you please give us a list of other directory sites that may be bad news with the same or other reasons, so we can avoid them?” Well, most of the big ones like Yellow Pages, like YP.com, and such, they’re going to call occasionally, but it’s not anywhere near like Yelp. Yelp is consistently spamming. Spam calls. Sales calls. But a lot of the other ones you’ll get a couple of calls, initially, when you first set up the listing, the citation, a claimed profile essentially. You’ll get a call or two, but typically all you have to do with the other directories, guys, is just tell them, answer the phone, and tell them literally, “I’m not interested in marketing services, right now. All I did was register my free listing, and that’s all I’m interested in doing,” and ask them to take you off the call list. That’s it.

Now, they’re not all going to honor that, but many of them do, or at least it’ll be months before you get another call, and that’s typically how I resolve that. But, Yelp is the one, again, they’ll have three different reps call you in the same week, and every single rep always says the same thing, “I’m your new Yelp rep. I’ve just taken over managing the listings in your area, and I’m calling to tell you how you can get more leads from your Yelp listing, more exposure for your Yelp listing.” They always say the same damn thing. It’s like you’d think they’d have a different script that they’d cycle through, but they don’t. They all say the same shit, every time.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Bradley: Yeah. It’s crazy, because I do a lot of lead gen, and all of my lead gen properties get filtered through, or routed to a call center, and I pay a lot of money for my call center every month, and many, and I mean, because of all the different lead gen sites I have, like we literally field 30, 40 calls a week from Yelp.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Bradley: Tony Camaro, what’s up Tony? He says, “With all the redirects in the Google network, how do I find the most authoritative URI for posting backlinks to?” That’s actually a good question. Marco, would you want to cover that one, while I see if the 301 redirects from Google maps is still working?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Marco: Jeffry. Tony’s a really cool guy. We’ve talked back and forth in Skype, and really we go to the algorithm, and what the algorithm is looking for. The algorithm wants page ranks, so it can build the ranking score for the entire page, or for your entire, let’s call it web project. The only way that, that’s going to happen according to the algorithm is through do follow links. As of what you need to do, is with all those redirects, you need to find the destination URL, and use that, or use any of the 301 versions of the website, so that you can pass page ranks, and you can pass it to build your ranking, and all of the other metrics that are going to pass through those do follow links.

I understand that no follow links work, they’re part of a natural link profile, but when you’re building a page rank, and you’re building that ranking score, and when you’re trying to trigger the distance graph, and you’re building seed sites, and seed sets, and you want all that juice flowing back and forth, the only way that’s going to happen is through a 301, or through the destination. Now, see, Bradley is showing it the screen. Bradley, just go ahead and show what I’m talking about, so the people can get a visual.

Bradley: Yeah. What’s interesting is yesterday I was doing, shit, Syndication Academy update webinar yesterday, that’s what it was, and I was showing one of the methods on how to get, for ever it was I was showing how to get a 301 direct to your maps listing, because what it has been all the way up until yesterday was when I discovered it, and I mean this must have been a change that just occurred within the last 48 hours, because I’m constantly doing stuff with maps all the time.

What Marco, just described I’m always doing, which is, for example, going to grab your shared URL for maps, they give you this short URL, and you copy the link, and then you can go to whereitgoes.com, that’s what we use, which is just a redirect tracker, or tracer, I should say. Anyways, you put the URL in there, and then you click trace URL, and what you would always see from any of the map shared URL’s was a 301 redirect, and then a 302 to the target-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: URL, and it would be this long funky looking URL with some additional code appended to the end of each version of the URL, but it would go through a 301, and then a 302. It was like the Google short URL, the maps share URL we would always go submit it through where it goes like this, and then we would copy the final target URL, or the target destination. Right? That’s what we would copy, and then we would shorten that, and use that as our maps URL.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Bradley: The reason why is because now we can push directly to the map without it going through a 302 and basically eliminating any link equity. Right? That’s what we were doing, but it was funny, because just yesterday I was demonstrating this for the Syndication Academy update webinar, and the first time I ever have seen a straight 301 redirect to the final target URL, and I was like, holy shit, this might be a fluke, so I went and checked on three or four other Google maps properties and they all look like they’re showing 301 redirects, now.

But, my point in telling you all that is when doing, like what Marco was talking about, which trying to push equity to where you want it to go. Just make sure, just run your URLs that you’re going to be building links to through a redirect tracer like this, and make sure there’s no 302 in the chain. Is what I’m saying. Typically, we will go to whatever the target destination is, and copy that, and then do a straight 301 redirect to that, if there is a redirect chain with whatever share URLs given, if that makes sense. Okay.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Marco: No. I mean in the long URL, yeah, just take the S out, and it should read redirect just fine. Now, that second, that long URL you could do the same thing take the dub, dub, dub out, and take the SSL certificate out, take the S out, and they will all redirect to the final destination. You could use any of those, Tony, to hammer the crap out of them in link building-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Bradley: But that’s what’s funny, because Rob was saying, Rob and I were chatting in Slack after the Syndication Academy webinar, and he was like, because I was pretty excited that the map share URLs are 301’s now, like straight 301s instead of doing that funky redirect thing. Rob was like, “Yeah. Can you imagine how this could end up damaging a lot of stuff for people, because they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing?” I was like, I thought about it, I was like, “Yeah. That’s kind of funny,” and I said, “Well, that’s okay, it’ll keep the riff raff out.” Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: It’s awesome. Great question, Tony. I got to Plus one that. All right. Next. Jordan, “I have a few do follow citations with decent DA,” okay, “That are showing as no index, in the past I’d throw suckers into SerpSpace indexing, but she’s gone. Other than tweaking them out, are there any tricks to get these citations sites to index? I know Google has slowed their roll.” I’ll let the other guys comment on that, but my thought is even if it’s not indexed Google likely knows it’s there. Right?

I mean, there are certainly reasons why you would want them to be indexed, too, but my point is the citations, because if they’re set to no index, you’re saying their showing as no index, so I don’t know whether you’re saying that their set to no index, or just they’re not indexed. Jordan, if you can clarify that, because if they’re set to no index then I don’t know that you can force Google to index it. I mean, I’ve seen that happen, but it usually doesn’t last, but if they’re just not indexed typically they will over time index. I know citations will have, a lot of citations have always been slow to index, anyways.

Again, just because they’re not indexed doesn’t mean they’re not being counted by Google. We know, because we’ve tested that, number one, but number two, I know that we have no indexed, like PBN stuff in the past, but the links would still show on the inbound links, you know, links to your site inside a search console. Does that make sense? Google knows they’re there, even if they’re not indexed. Right? Go, ahead, Marco, can you comment on that?

Marco: Yeah. What I would tell him to do is we’re throttled in the URL submit, right, I think it’s still the limit is around 10, 11, but what you could do, or I’m pretty sure Jordan has Browseo, if you have multiple profiles set up in Browseo then your VA should be submitting links like crazy through the URL submitter even though it’s throttled if you have 10 or 100 profiles inside Browseo, or let’s say Ghost Browser, then you’re bypassing kind of the throttling. There’s other things that I’m not going to give away here that we use to get our stuff indexed, and of course you can always reach out to [inaudible 00:50:55].

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Because he knows [inaudible 00:50:57] will get, what is it, over 40% indexed, so [inaudible 00:51:04] is doing really good. There’s ways to bypass it, talk to [inaudible 00:51:08] about getting your stuff indexed, and I mean there’s other ways and I’m not going to get into that in a free forum. Sorry, guys.

Bradley: Well, I got one more comment on that, and that’s you could also, I know, I’ve done fairly well with just linking to a site, especially citation sites with press releases. It’s a great way to boost a citation, especially if it’s got a do follow link. Whether it’s indexed or not, I don’t care, because if it’s got a do follow link, and I’m pushing a bunch of PR links to it, some of which will be do follow, most of which are no follow, but it still ends up working really well, because you’re going to end up pushing it through that do follow link from the citation, whether it’s indexed, or not.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Bradley: Jim says, “SM gang, and anyone else, what rate is everyone charging for using curated posts, one to four article curation posts?” Essentially, one to four pieces of content curated to create a curated post is what he’s saying. “I mostly use the methods outlined in the curation suite training,” shame, Jim, you should have used Content King, no I’m kidding, Jim, Content Kingpin is our curation training. “I only use this for my own projects, so I’m curious as to what others are charging their clients. Thanks to any or all that respond.” All right. It’s really what does the market bear, and what is typical in that industry?

Now, I could tell you for the vast majority of my clients, I’m charging them anywhere between $20.00 to $30.00 per post. Sometimes as much as 35, I’ve got a few clients that they pay as much as $35.00 for posts, curated posts. That’s not a lot of money. Then, I pay my VA anywhere between $10.00 to $15.00 per post, to curate. My curator, I’ve got several of them, but they all range somewhere in the neighborhood of $10.00 to $15.00 per post is what I pay them.

Basically, I just get paid a nice markup, and that’s what I love about content marketing as a service, that’s what Content Kingpin is, guys, our training about how, it’s hands free content marketing, and it’s a great service, because it can be a 100% outsourced, and all you have to do is manage it, and sell it. That’s it. It’s about a 100% markup is what I’m making, with some slight overhead, so it’s close to like I’d say probably about a 60% profit margin on that service. It’s a great service, it’s just an additional stream of revenue that doesn’t require any management, or very, very little management.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Bradley: That’s right. It’s great, because it’s an efficient way to produce content, and you don’t have to be a subject matter expert. A curator doesn’t have to be a subject matter expert, all they have to know how to do is locate good content, and compile it in a logical manner. That’s it. There you go.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Bradley: That’s absolutely right. Anyways, again, Jim, it’s going to vary depending on the client. Now, I know Kamar, he was, I went to a Network Empire certification event with him a long time ago, he does medical, excuse me, not medical, he’s in the law industry, he does content marketing, digital marketing services for a lot of lawyers. They do posts, not necessarily curated posts, but for example you have to be a paralegal, right-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: In order to be able to write for, like about law stuff, about legal stuff. His content marketing that he charges to clients to do content marketing for them is like $200.00, $300.00 per post, because he has to pay somebody, a very skilled writer that’s also a paralegal, or has a law degree as well. Does that make sense? That’s incredibly expensive, but in that industry they’re used to paying for that much for content. But in contracting industries, which are mostly the industries I work in, like I said, it ranges anywhere between I’d say $20.00 to $35.00 per post is what I’m getting from my clients, if that makes sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Bradley: Okay. We answered that one, as well. Thank you. Let’s see. Joe says, “Are you guys still using the hybrid traffic manual, traffic service?” I’m still testing it, Joe. It’s too soon to tell, I’ve only been testing, I started testing it on one property about three weeks ago, and I started testing it on another property two weeks ago, and I’ve got another property set up for it today, or excuse me the other day, but I haven’t actually ordered the service for it, yet, so I can’t really speak about it, yet, guys. I wouldn’t endorse it, yet, because I’m still testing it. I don’t recommend sending that traffic to your money site anyways, guys, I’m doing some referral traffic stuff, and some other real sneaky shit that I can’t talk about here.

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Bradley: Good question, Joe, ask me again in a couple of weeks, and I’ll happily provide some information. If it’s a good service, and it pans out to where it accomplishes what I want it to do, then I’ll certainly, I’ll probably try to become an affiliate for them, and then we’ll do a full blown promotion for it, because I’ll teach you guys how I’m using it, if it works, but the jury is still out. All right. We’re almost done. We’re almost out of time. It looks like we’re almost out of questions, so that’s-

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Bradley: Okay. “I’m a real estate agent, and my sister owns a mortgage business in Georgia, in Tennessee. I don’t know anything about SEO or ranking, but I can follow directions most the time. I live in Atlanta with six million people in a metropolitan area, what is the possibility of ranking in the three pack, or just getting leads with GMB Pro as a real estate agent, or in the mortgage lending space? Would GMB Pro be over my head? How about done for you services? First time participating. I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself.” Thank you, Eddy. No, absolutely not, Eddy, that’s what we’re here for, man, to ask questions, and no question is a stupid question. Right?

With that said, yeah, you could absolutely get results with GMB Pro, because it’s not an SEO thing. There is absolutely an SEO benefit from it, but we’re proving over and over again that we’re able to exponentially increase leads for the businesses by just using the GMB Pro methods, and it’s not dependent upon rankings. Again, there is a correlation, as the activity increases in the Google My Business ecosystem. Right? As the activity increases, you will start to see a correlation between your ranking. Your rankings will start to improve, as well.

However, we are generating leads where, like for example, some of the case studies that I’ve been working on, the rank trackers are showing not great SEO, like not in the three pack, yet we’re getting, the calls continue to creep up, the exposure in maps, the activity, which is like clicks to the website, requesting driving directions, and calls, all this stuff that’s being tracked by GMB Insights is showing week over week improvements, and increases. That’s even though the rank trackers aren’t showing any ranking increases, or much slower ranking increases than what the number of calls.

Where are these calls coming from? Where are these visitors coming from, if it’s not from ranking? It has to do with how GMB is providing exposure for businesses via mobile devices to businesses that are using all the tools that they provide to us within GMB, and again it’s like they’re rewarding us for it. There is a correlation between rankings, but what I’m saying, Eddy, is would you be able to do that on your own as a business owner, to increase leads? Absolutely.

Again, we also talk in the training I provide a lot of process training, so that you can hire assistants, you can hire remote workers like from the Philippines, for example, that you can pay $4.00 or $5.00 an hour, which is a great wage for them, they can handle most of this for you, and we totally encourage people to buy our courses to put their virtual assistants through the course. You don’t have to buy another copy of it, just put your VA through it, the course that you bought for you, let them learn the process, and let them do it, so that you can focus on generating revenue, not doing the grunt work.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Marco: I would add that he and his sister are way ahead of the game, since they’re actually working in the business, they’re out there in the field, so they’ll be able to take pictures, which when you add pictures with local relevance, GMB goes crazy. It just goes absolutely nuts, because you’re adding all of that relevance to the image, which Google has image recognition, and to the exit, according to the training, you won’t need to do it, all you need to do is have the settings on the phone, so that it geo tags-

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Bradley: You know, SEO’s we obviously promote this to people that are providing digital marketing services, but this will absolutely apply and benefit you as a business owner. Absolutely, there’s no question. It’s not just for digital marketers, it’s for business owners, as well. We haven’t really positioned it for that, which we probably should, but you don’t have to be an SEO to understand the training, is what I’m saying.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Bradley: All right, guys. We’re about out of time. Let’s see. Thanks, Scott. I appreciate you looking into those. He’s saying, some of the GMB posts share links now are also 301’s, which is awesome. I think that’s great if Google does that. I’m really surprised. It’s probably going to switch back, I can’t imagine why they would do that, I don’t know. I thought they had that redirect chain with the 302 for a reason.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Bradley: All right, guys. Last thing, I see that Adam posted a message that we’re supposed to be announcing that Jeffrey is going to be one of our featured speakers at the [inaudible 01:01:42] live event in October.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Bradley: That’s pretty cool, Jeffrey. I’m super pumped for that. Yeah. Just go to the link that’s on the event page, because if you want to come hangout with us, if you want to come hangout with Jeffrey, and we have some other amazing people coming to the event, as well. I think that’s one of the best uses of your time, by far. If you can get there, be there, because it’s going to be amazing. We have some really good stuff to discuss, and networking power that those kinds of events bring to the table are second to none, so yeah, go to the link over there, and make sure that you grab your tickets.

Bradley: Yeah. It’s going to be a really small event, guys. It’s our first live event. We wanted to keep it small, intentionally, so we’re only going to have 25 people there, which means, you’re going to get a lot better, like more-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Trained more intimately from all of us, if that makes sense. You’ll get to interact with all of us a lot more, and the other members there. Again, guys, there’s no way to describe the value of coming to events like these, and I think ours is going to be good. I hope it’s going to be a great event in many aspects, but I think just for the networking alone, and the amount of stuff that we want to kind of impart, we started in our mastermind Facebook group, each one of us have started posting little polls with like three different topics that we are trying to select what we’re going to be talking about as our topic at the event.

We’re actually getting input from our mastermind members, so they’re kind of helping us sculpt what our training is going to be about. This isn’t like what we think you should know. This is like we’re doing our homework, so that we can provide the members that come out to the event with just the top level training that we can provide. Anyways, we encourage you guys to come check us out. Jeffrey Smith is going to be there, enough said.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. No, it’s the beauty of the ask campaign, too, I actually did the same thing, where I was like, “Hey, these are the topics I’m thinking about, what do you think?” I got back 300 detailed questions the same way, and that’s where Bootcamp came from, same way. I’m really excited. I think I’m going to do a deep dive on SEO Ultimate, and just sort of show you how we really turned that bad boy out, and how we use it. At the time we’ve got some new stuff coming with the Pro, I think it’ll be a segue.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 posted first on your-t1-blog-url from Blogger https://ift.tt/2tNWYEF via IFTTT

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brendajhensonblog · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 posted first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

charlesswink19 · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

localwebmgmt · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

howardkuester22 · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they��re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

your-clarity-digital · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

liteblock · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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greaterhoustonleaders · 6 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 190 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 https://semanticmastery.com/humpday.

Announcement

Bradley: You know, like that.

Chris: Doing good. How are you doing?

Adam: I can’t complain. They’re tearing up the concrete outside, so hopefully, nobody else can hear that, because it’s driving me insane. Yeah. I’m doing well. Thank you.

Chris: Cool.

Adam: Hernan, what’s up, man? How’s soccer going?

Bradley: It’s going well-

Adam: Sorry [crosstalk 00:00:39]-

Bradley: I almost died yesterday in the middle of our [inaudible 00:00:44] meeting, but it was fine, it was good. I’m really excited for what’s coming for Semantic Mastery, as well.

Adam: Good deal. Marco, how are you doing?

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. We got some really good news today about that, but Bradley, last, but not least, how are you doing?

Bradley: Well, I got a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:01:48], yet.

Marco: We’ll just blur the people out, right, no names, or any of that stuff, but, yeah.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Share away.

Adam: [crosstalk 00:04:58].

Marco: Then the landing page.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:42].

Adam: Right now. What’s that?

Bradley: Let’s give them a shirt, too.

Adam: Yeah. Sure.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:05:45]-

Adam: Shirt and a hat, you’re going to come decked out, you’re going to look like a Semantic Mastery logo when you walk into the live event.

Bradley: Who’s that guy that just [crosstalk 00:05:53]-

Chris: Well, that’s only for mastermind members.

Jeffrey Smith: I don’t know, man. I have no idea.

Chris: [crosstalk 00:05:58] party, man.

Jeffrey Smith: I think Google hates me, dude, they’re like that’s the guy right there, man. They’re like, let’s block him. He’s not getting in.

Bradley: Let’s get him.-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It was like the Matrix move, man. It was like the agents just jumped up on me, I had to open Firefox [crosstalk 00:06:10]-

Bradley: You saw the woman in the red dress?

Jeffrey Smith: I did. Good work, man, I must say, good work.

Jeffrey Smith: Sure.

Adam: Do the Hump Day Hangout thing.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool. Yeah. I’m in, man. I’m ready. [crosstalk 00:06:43]-

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: I should say.

Adam: No. This is good. I think people are interested, and if not, we certainly are.

Bradley: Wait, it’s going to be better than it is now?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Wow. That’s quite awesome, buddy.

Jeffrey Smith: Sweet, man.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:12:53] black eye.

Adam: This is not planned at all, but Jordan just posted this, and said, “Man, Jeffrey, thanks. Our agency is killing on page with Ultimate SEO Bootcamp, and plugin.”

Jeffrey Smith: Yes. Oh, thank you, man. Yes.

Adam: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:13:08].

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: That was how you got started. I think a lot of people get started that way, they’re like, I have to use SEO, I don’t have a $10,000.00 a month PPC budget, I don’t-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Bradley: Yeah.

Adam: Got you.

Jeffrey Smith: And that’s been my mission. [crosstalk 00:14:51]-

Adam: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t gone through Bootcamp, I checked out some of the modules I needed, I passed some stuff off to VA’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, cool.

Adam: And went through them, but do you have a small course for business owners that just want to get up to speed and don’t need to do them themselves?

Jeffrey Smith: Well, I’ll probably go back, and just do like some kind of an advance track summary, and then if-

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: You want to jump in the modules. I mean I’ve got [crosstalk 00:15:13]-

Adam: Product creation on the fly, but that would be a great one for business owners-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: It’s like you need to know what you’re talking about, here’s the important stuff, you don’t need to know how to do it, but this is what you should know.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:15:23]-

Bradley: Instead of selling SEO Bootcamp to CEO’s-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Selling like a watered down, like a dumbed down version, but actionable items to the actual, direct business owner.

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny?

Adam: Yeah. CEO’s guide to SEO, or something.

Jeffrey Smith: You know what’s funny? It never was intended for SEO’s, I’m like, you guys should already know this stuff, man. I was like, I thought everybody knew this, I just kept it basic.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: But, honestly [crosstalk 00:15:47]-

Bradley: That’s crazy Jeffrey because when I went through it, I was blown away, and I thought I knew something about SEO, too.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Marco: Our training is set up that way, it’s over the shoulder, this is the shit you need to do, if you diverge from this it’s your problem not ours, because-

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: Heck.

Marco: Would you buy the training in the first place, if you’re not going to follow the training? It makes absolutely no sense.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s true.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: If something is working, why in the world change it. It works.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: It worked then, it works now. It’s going to keep on working as you said. It’s based on natural language processes-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Marco: And that’s not going to change. The way that we speak isn’t going to change-

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Marco: Any time soon. Man, thanks for the training. We loved the training.

Bradley: Yeah, dude, we’re 16 episodes, 16 weeks away from our fourth anniversary of Hump Day Hangouts.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Four years, man, and we’ve only missed one, and it was a scheduled missed Hump Day Hangout, so like four freaking years now. [crosstalk 00:22:13]-

Adam: Bradley decided to take one day off. It happened once.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: The community was upset, too.

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: They were probably like, I saw somebody saying they had tears.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:24:58]-

Jeffrey Smith: It’s just a matter of this is what’s working now, so we’ve got to play with it.

Jeffrey Smith: I mean, we have some cool tools that we go over inside the training that sort of lays out the process that we’ve used, that just plan works.

Adam: Cool.

Adam: Yeah.

Adam: Sexy.

Bradley: Is it [crosstalk 00:28:14]-

Marco: Let me translate it [crosstalk 00:28:15]-

Bradley: Hold on. Is it wrong to be aroused right now?

Jeffrey Smith: That one works like gangbusters, man. It’s particularly in local-

Bradley: Right.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. I think everyone got a few ideas off of that.

Jeffrey Smith: Hands rubbing.

Adam: I’ll be right back, I got to go.

Jeffrey Smith: Right.

Adam: Man, all right. We got to wrap it up in a few minutes to answer the questions, but we did-

Jeffrey Smith: True.

Adam: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s my solution to that one.

Adam: Good deal.

Jeffrey Smith: Everything else is free.

Adam: Yeah. Then this is good followup, like what’s going on with you right now? Anything you’re working on? Where should people go?

Adam: Yeah. Building your own assets. Definitely.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: Sweet.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:32:08]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Adam: We’re going to be on for another-

Jeffrey Smith: Yes.

Adam: 30 minutes.

Jeffrey Smith: I’ll just hangout, I love the questions, man. This is going to be fun.

Adam: Cool. Sounds good.

Bradley: Okay, guys, just so you know, I dropped the link to SEO Bootcamp, which is an amazing course.

Jeffrey Smith: Oh, thank you, man.

Bradley: Hands down the best on page, or SEO course that I’ve ever seen, and we fully endorse it, you guys know that. The link is on the page. All right?

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man.

Bradley: All right, guys. I’m going to grab the screen. We’re going to get into some questions.

Jeffrey Smith: Cool.

How Do You Silo Structure A National Directory Site That Targets States Then Cities Within The States?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Instead of a physical silo?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

What Semantic Mastery Course And Services Should I Purchase To Move Forward After A Hiatus?

Jeffrey Smith: There we go.

Marco: I would also direct them to buy the Battle Plan. Everything that he needs is in there, to get back, and get this back up to where it needs to be.

Bradley: Yeah. The Battle Plan is like seven bucks or something?

Marco: Yeah. It’s only seven bucks-

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: I love that Battle Plan. You guys, I can’t believe you’re giving it away for so cheap, man. That’s like, wow. Anyway, it’s powerful.

Adam: Good stuff. Thank you.

GMB Local Pro Course Testimonial

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Wow. “Before maybe one call per day. All of this with no branded network, or drive stack, so you know what I’m going to do next? As usual, your shit works, guys. Thanks.”

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: That’s awesome, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. Thanks, dude.

Marco: Yeah. Thanks, Paul.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Can You Give Us A List Of Directory Sites Like Yelp That We Should Avoid?

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Anyways. Enough coming about Yelp. I could go on a tangent for 20 minutes about [crosstalk 00:41:19]-

Jeffrey Smith: They got under your skin, I guess.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow, man.

Bradley: That’s a lot of money that I spend on my call center answering phone calls that are solicitation calls. It’s just crazy. It pisses me off, because it costs me a lot of money.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re getting spammed. That sucks.

How Do I Find The Most Authoritative URL For Posting Backlinks?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I mean, Tony, I think Tony works with-

Bradley: Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Bradley: Was that a clear description, guys?

Marco: Yeah. That was great. I’m going to go a step further. All right? Can you go back to that [inaudible 00:46:17]?

Bradley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marco: Because you see that HTTPS you see how it doesn’t have the dub, dub, dub? You can actually add the dub, dub, dub version to that shortened URL, and that’s going to be an additional 301.

Jeffrey Smith: Nice.

Marco: Or-

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:46:34]-

Marco: It should be.

Bradley: You’re saying, you can create a double 301 for like link laundering, and stuff, is that what you mean?

Marco: Yeah. Just add dub, dub, dub, dot, and trace. You see that? How it redirects to the HTTPS? Now, you have two that you can play with. You have the non dub, dub, dub-

Bradley: Got you.

Marco: And the dub, dub, dub [crosstalk 00:46:58]-

Bradley: It doesn’t create a double redirect, just a second 301 redirect?

Marco: What a minute. You’re right. That HTTPS dub, dub, dub, dot take that out.

Bradley: Okay. We can also get rid of the HTTPS [crosstalk 00:47:13]-

Jeffrey Smith: That’s nice.

Marco: You can iframe. I mean, there’s so much. You guys have access, I believe, to RYS Reloaded, or RYS Academy. You know what to do with all of those.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [inaudible 00:47:51]. Pure obfuscation of links. It’s purely obfuscated.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: That’s good.

Jeffrey Smith: Shoot their foot off. No puns intended, actually. I know what that feels about a little bit.

Any Tips On How To Index Citation Type Sites?

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. It’s a nice one.

Bradley: Okay. Cool. Let’s see. Next, would be Jordan, again. He was already talking about that, that was his comment from earlier, that’s awesome, Jordan.

Jeffrey Smith: Thanks, man. Thank you.

How Much Do You Charge For Using Curated Posts To Clients?

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah. I just got my VA trained upon it, he’s like 53 posts in, in two weeks.

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: He’s going to town on this stuff. It’s just pure value.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: We’re going to fire it up on an IFTTT network and just let it go to town.

Jeffrey Smith: And you’re giving citations back to the original post, so-

Bradley: Right.

Jeffrey Smith: You’re giving everybody everything they want.

Bradley: Yep.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 00:54:22]-

Jeffrey Smith: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: It’s sort of funny to see that lawyers are getting billed high rates, so they really can’t complain, because they do the same thing.

Bradley: You’re damn right.

Jeffrey Smith: One hour is like 500 bucks.

Bradley: [crosstalk 00:55:39]. Right?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly. A little buffer.

Are You Still Using The Hybrid Traffic Manual Service?

Jeffrey Smith: I like it.

Jeffrey Smith: There’s one about real estate from Eddy A.

What Is The Possibility Of Ranking A Real Estate Agent Site Into A Mortgage Lending Space Using the Local GMB Pro Technique?

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Does that make sense?

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: Oh, I’m giving away too much. Sorry. I got a head of myself. Eddy, come in the training, you can get all this shit from me, I’m there.

Jeffrey Smith: Exactly.

Bradley: Yeah, Eddy, I’m telling you, man, if you’re in-

Jeffrey Smith: Just sign up.

Jeffrey Smith: Definitely buy the course, and do yourself a favor.

Bradley: Thanks, Jeffrey. That’s awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: They know. They know why you’re doing it, that’s why they’re-

Bradley: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:01:30]-

Adam: Yeah.

Bradley: Right?

Adam: Yeah.

Jeffrey Smith: Absolutely.

Jeffrey Smith: Wow.

Bradley: Awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:02]-

Adam: I wasn’t sure if I was going to come to my own event, but now I’m definitely going to. I’m looking forward to it, this going to be awesome.

Jeffrey Smith: [crosstalk 01:04:10]-

Bradley: Yeah.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, guys.

Bradley: Five minutes over, that’s kind of good for us. Thanks, Jeffrey, so much for being here, man.

Jeffrey Smith: Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

Bradley: All right, guys.

Marco: Thank you, man.

Adam: Bye, everybody.

Bradley: Take care.

Jeffrey Smith: See you, guys.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 190 this post was syndicated

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