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gotham--fc · 3 years

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You Win My Love - A Lindsey Horan Imagine

A/N: The second installment in my Shania Twain series! Based off “You Win My Love”

Lindsey, Sonnett, Rose, Mal, and Sam stepped out of the van and looked around.

“Who’s supposed to be meeting us here?” Sam asked.

“One of the execs, I think. I’ve never met him, so I don’t know what he looks like,” Mal answered. Just then a tall man in a suit appeared in front of them.

“Hello, ladies! We’re so glad you could make it,” He shook each of their hands, “I’m Jack Bolton, I trust you’re all aware of what is going to happen today?”

“You’re giving us a tour and introducing us to some drivers and then we’re watching the race, all while the media crew films us so that they can post a video that’s going to bring everyone publicity,” Lindsey said.

“Yes, exactly,” Jack said, “It’s all rather exploitative, I know, but sponsors, CEOs, you know the deal. They say jump and I say yes sir.” Lindsey grinned a little. She was already enjoying herself.

Jack led them through the clubhouse and showed them the common areas and the specific sections for each crew. He led them outside to the racetrack, where some drivers were practicing for the upcoming race.

“This is where the pit crew stays during the race when they’re not needed at the pit stops,” Jack gestured to an area a little ways back from the track, “During a race, they’re monitoring their driver and making sure there’s no problems with their cars or their tires, and when a driver enters the pit, they’re responsible for changing the tires, filling up gas, fixing any engine problems, and making sure the driver is okay and good to continue.”

“You’re boring them, Jack,” A voice came from behind them. Jack turned around and grinned.

“Do you want to take over, Y/N?” Jack asked. Y/N laughed and shook her head.

“Nah, gotta get ready for tonight.”

“Ladies, this is Y/N Y/L/N, one of our best racers.”

“One of?” Y/N asked, “What is this? Jack, I’m the best racer, or do you need to see all my trophies again?” Jack laughed and shook his head before he introduced the group.

“Ah, soccer players,” Y/N said, “Pleased to meet you all.”

“You’re the best?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, for sure. Especially tonight. This race is full of rookies and oldsters, I’m pretty much guaranteed a win.”

“So why are you bothering to race? Why aren’t you at the… Indy 500?” Lindsey asked. Y/N laughed.

“Because that’s not for a couple weeks,” Y/N said, “I’m just here because Jack asked me to, I don’t normally come to these races, but apparently big racers bring more viewers and… honestly I’m just looking for some practice before I take on the real competition.”

“We’ll see about the competition,” Lindsey said. Y/N laughed before she said goodbye and left the group with Jack.

“Now, if you’ll come this way, ladies…”

***

“Looks like I won after all.”

Lindsey turned around and saw Y/N heading toward her, trophy in her hand. Lindsey crossed her arms.

“You got lucky,” Lindsey said, “That other guy was totally gonna win if he didn’t hit the wall in the last lap.” Y/N laughed.

“While that may be true, I did still win,” Y/N held the trophy out, “Wanna hold it? Maybe get a picture for your Instagram or something?” Lindsey agreed, trading her phone for the trophy and letting Y/N take a few pictures.

“You live in Portland, right?” Y/N asked after she handed Lindsey’s phone back. “You play for the Thorns, I mean.”

“Yeah, I live there during the season, but I live in Denver during the offseason. If I have one.”

Y/N laughed. “I feel that. I live in Portland too. I’m supposed to live in Portland, but I travel so much it feels like it’s just another stop on the road.”

“It’s hard to settle down in a city when you’re constantly being taken somewhere else,” Lindsey said.

“I know, right? Man, one thing I’m looking forward to when I retire is just staying in one place for longer than two weeks.”

Y/N and Lindsey kept talking, about Portland, about traveling, about their careers, families, everything. Lindsey wasn’t expecting to like the seemingly cocky racer, but Y/N, up close, away from the cameras and the fans, was genuine and down to earth and clammed up when Lindsey brought up her prolific career. Lindsey thought she might actually… like Y/N, maybe.

“Yo, Linessi!” Sonnett yelled, “We gotta go! Quit flirting!” Lindsey blushed furiously.

“I’m so sorry about her, she’s an idiot,” Lindsey said.

“No worries, we all have friends like that,” Y/N said, “It was nice to meet you Lindsey,” Y/N touched Lindsey’s arm lightly, sending tingles up Lindsey’s arm, “I hope I get to see you again.”

“Let me know the next time you’re in Portland,” Lindsey said.

“Will do.”

***

Lindsey posted the photo as soon as she got back to the hotel. She didn’t tag Y/N, but she did tag Jack and the racetrack. A few minutes later, Lindsey heard her phone ding. She looked at it and saw that Y/N DM’ed her on Instagram.

yourusername: What? No tag? You do know who’s trophy you’re holding

Lindsey laughed before she replied.

lindseyhoran10: didn’t want it to go to your head

also its been what? 5 minutes? eager to talk to me again or something

yourusername: Something like that

what are you doing next week? I’m in Portland for a couple of days

lindseyhoran10: I might be free

have to check my schedule

yourusername: Great! It’s a date

***

Next week, Lindsey was sitting in her apartment, waiting for Y/N to come pick her up. She didn’t know what to expect. Y/N told her to dress casual, but other than that, Y/N hadn’t told her anything about what they were doing. So, Lindsey was wearing jeans and a tank top, with a jacket on top. Y/N had said it was a date, but Lindsey wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. She didn’t have time to overthink before there was a knock at her door. She quickly opened it to reveal Y/N, wearing jeans and a leather jacket.

“Hey there,” Y/N said, “You ready?” Lindsey nodded, following Y/N outside and to her car. Lindsey snorted when she saw what Y/N was driving.

“What?” Y/N asked.

“You’re a big fancy race car driver and you’re driving a pickup truck.”

“Well, yeah. Sorry we don’t all drive BMWs like you soccer players,” Y/N said, “If you don’t like it, I can switch to another car. I’ve got a Ferrari sitting in my garage collecting dust.”

“You have a Ferrari and you’re driving this piece of junk?”

“It’s not a piece of junk! It has character!” Y/N insisted, “Look, I put on new hubcaps, a new bumper, I really spiced up the engine and the stereo in this baby is like nothing you’ll find in those BMWs, trust me,” Y/N looked up at Lindsey who was still looking unimpressed. “Fine, I’ll go get the Ferrari. But if I’m driving her, I’m gonna show you some tricks,” Y/N grinned.

Lindsey didn’t know what Y/N meant by “tricks”, but she wasn’t expecting Y/N to turn into an empty, gated, dark parking lot after they switched to one of Y/N’s fancier cars. Y/N was quick to unlock the gate and drive them in. Lindsey looked around suspiciously, not sure what she had gotten herself into.

“Okay, hold tight, I’ll be right back,” With a flash, Y/N was out of the car and running across to a small shed. Soon, the parking lot was flooded with light, Y/N gave Lindsey a thumbs up and then ran back.

“I was thinking you brought me here to kill me,” Lindsey said when Y/N was back in the car.

“Nah, just wanna show off for you,” Y/N said, “It’s illegal to do tricks on public roads, so that’s why we had to come here.”

“Isn’t this trespassing?”

“It’s not trespassing when you own it,” Y/N grinned, “Now hold tight.”

Lindsey didn’t have a chance to ask what Y/N meant, before Y/N was speeding off in the parking lot, doing donuts and other high-speed maneuvers. Lindsey was gripping the handle above her door as tight as she could, but Y/N was laughing, seamlessly transitioning from one trick to the next and soon, Lindsey’s grip relaxed and she started laughing too. Finally, Y/N slowed to a stop.

“How was that? Did you have fun?” Y/N eyes shone as she looked at Lindsey.

“Maybe we should’ve just driven the truck,” Lindsey said.

“Oh, come on, admit it, that was fun!”

Lindsey rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. It was fun, once I realized we weren’t gonna die.”

“Then come on, hop out and I’ll teach you some,” Y/N said.

“What? No, Y/N, I–” Lindsey tried to protest was Y/N was already out of the car and holding the keys for Lindsey to take. “Look, I really don’t think I should do this, I’m really not that good of a driver,” Lindsey said as she got behind the wheel.

“It’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll tell you what to do, okay?” Y/N said, “Nothing bad is gonna happen, trust me, I’m a professional. We’ll start off on the easy ones, just follow my instructions.”

Lindsey, as she expected, was not a very good driver. She was fine driving like a normal person on city streets, but this was something else. For some reason, even the simple instructions Y/N was giving felt like the most complicated thing in the world. Lindsey wanted to give up when Y/N convinced her to give it one more try. Lindsey felt a surge of adrenaline as she made (almost) one full donut. She stopped and looked at Y/N, who was grinning as much as she was.

“I did it!”

“You did it!” Y/N high-fived Lindsey. “You wanna try any more?” Suddenly, the keys were out of the ignition and thrown on Y/N’s lap and Lindsey was at the passenger side door waiting for Y/N to get back in the drivers seat. Y/N laughed as she moved over.

“Okay, that’s a no.”

***

“Linds, why are you dragging us into the middle of redneck country? I don’t wanna get hit on by some sexist jerk,” Rose complained as she followed Lindsey through the entrance.

“It’s not that bad, Rose,” Lindsey said, “NASCAR is cool, it’s not just rednecks anymore.” Rose grimaced as a drunk man wearing an American flag tank top ran by, screaming.

“Right, not just rednecks,” Rose muttered.

“Oh, come on Linds, we all know you’re here for that hot racer chick you’ve been flirting with,” Sonnett said.

“It’s not just for her,” Lindsey said defensively, “And we’re not flirting.”

“Don’t lie to us Linds, we know you and that hottie–”

“Look! Our seats are this way!” Lindsey said loudly as she pushes through the crowd.

“Is this supposed to be interesting?” Rose whispered to Sonnett as they watched the cars circle the track.

“I don’t know,” Sonnett whispered back, “I don’t even know which one Y/N is.”

“Whichever one Lindsey’s staring at,” Rose mumbled, watching as Lindsey leaned closer to the edge as one car drove by, “That one.”

“Why couldn’t she have just invited her to a game rather than drag us down here?”

“I can hear you two,” Lindsey said.

“So why did you bring us here?”

“I’m not sitting in the middle of redneck country by myself.”

“I told you it was redneck country!” Rose said, “I told you!”

“Whatever Rose, I– Look! She’s about to win! Go! Yes!” Lindsey jumped to her feet as Y/N’s car crossed the finish line before the others.

“Great, she won, can we go now?” Rose asked.

“We have to go meet up with her and say congrats, come on,” Lindsey grabbed Sonnett’s arm and pulled her out of her seat, and Sonnett grabbed Rose’s arm so she would be pulled along too.

Lindsey pulled the two through the crowds, pushing everyone out of her way. Sonnett and Rose stumbled behind her, apologizing to everyone Lindsey pushed over. Finally, Lindsey stopped in front of a security guard, and Sonnett and Rose doubled over behind her, trying to catch their breath. Lindsey flashed a VIP pass to the guard and Sonnett and Rose were being pulled again.

“Hey!” Y/N said as the three came into her sights.

“Hey,” Lindsey said, blushing.

“Congrats on the win,” Sonnett said.

“Thanks!” Y/N said, “I’m glad you guys could make it.”

“Oh yeah, real glad,” Rose muttered.

“Hey,” Y/N turned to Lindsey, “I won.”

“You did.”

“Does that mean I can get whatever I want?” Y/N raised her eyebrows.

“That depends on what it is,” Lindsey said.

“I think I should, I won so I should get a reward,” Y/N said, “You wanna hear what I want?” Lindsey nodded. “I want you to be my girlfriend.” Lindsey grinned.

“I guess it’s only fair, I mean you did win, so I guess I can be your girlfriend,” Lindsey said.

“You seriously dragged us all the way here in the heat and the humidity and… Southerners, just to pick up a girl? You owe me big time Lindsey Horan! You owe me!”

#lindsey horan #lindsey horan x reader #uswnt imagines #uswnt imagine #lindsey horan imagines #uswnt #woso imagine

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toplinetommy · 4 years

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You Bring the Moon and Stars to Me (Part Six) - Tyson Jost

Synopsis: A Soulmate!AU where your soulmark only appears once you fall in love with your soulmate

Words: 5.6k

Warnings: none

a/n: thank you so much to @pizzasloot for proofreading!! as always, feedback is always welcome :-)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

March 2019 - Denver, CO

Planning a 21st birthday party for Tyson was way harder than you thought it would be, plain and simple. You thought your college days, when everyone was turning 21, would’ve prepared you for a few more, but boy, were you wrong. When girls turn 21, they want the big balloons and the cake with the Barbie on it, but what about guys? Not to mention, Tyson wasn’t even American, so the anxiety made you think he wouldn’t care as much as a typical�� 21-year-old American would.

Nevertheless, with help from JT, Kerfy, and Sammy, you were able to pull it off. You were able to corral a good chunk of the Avalanche roster to attend the party, plus some of Tyson’s friends outside of the team. Tyson knew you were planning something big for his birthday, but he was unsure of what it was exactly other than throwing a pregame at the Rookie House and then going bar hopping downtown.

While he and the rest of the Avs were at practice this morning, and while you and Caitlyn were on your lunch break at work, you snuck into the Rookie House to lightly decorate the place. You decided to get the typical big ‘21’ balloons in silver, alongside a hefty lineup of alcohol. You somehow convinced yours and Caitlyn’s boss to take a longer lunch, in exchange for not taking lunch the next day, so you were able to take your time and be there when Tyson got home from morning skate.

You had just finished laying out his birthday present on his bed when you heard the garage door opening, causing a flight of anxiety to course through you as you rushed up the stairs taking them two at a time. As you settle next to Caitlyn in front of the decorations, Tyson, JT, and Kerfy walk through the garage door together, still caught up in their previous conversation.

“Happy birthday!” The two of you yell excitedly, causing Tyson to turn his head from his friends and to the two of you in the living room. His face erupts in a smile, eyes moving back and forth between you and Caitlyn and the decorations that are set up. He’s in awe as he looks at the array of silver balloons, the small birthday cake placed on the coffee table, and the ‘finally 21 and legal in America’ banner.

He reaches the two of you, giving Caitlyn a quick hug while thanking her before he embraces you in his arms tightly, “Thank you.”

He pulls away, and you rub your hands along his shoulders and biceps as he moves completely away. “You guys didn’t have to do this.”

“We know, but we wanted to,” you say, gesturing between you and Caitlyn. She smiles at you, hiding the fact that you essentially had to beg her to come help and that all of this was 100% your idea. Both JT and Kerfy comment on the decorations before disappearing into the rest of the house.

“Where did you get this banner?” He chuckles, pointing to the black lettering being held up by a string. You and Caitlyn both laugh, knowing it was a funny and somewhat dumb addition to the decorations.

“This shop on Etsy does custom ones,” You answer. “I thought it’d be funny.”

“I love it,” He smiles, wrapping an arm around your shoulder and bringing you into his side. You check your watch to see the time, noticing that you and Caitlyn need to head back to your office soon.

“We have to get back to work, but I did get you a present. It’s in your room if you want to go open it?” You ask. He nods his head excitedly and the two of you go downstairs, leaving Caitlyn in the living room.

He sees the medium-sized gift bag sitting nicely on the edge of the bed, grabbing it, and sitting down. He opens your card first, reading it to himself. You watch as his eyes move left-to-right on the card, seeing a smile forming on his face from both the card and the extra note you wrote on it. He sets the card down next to him while patting the same spot for you to take a seat beside him.

You sit down, eyes on him as he pulls the tissue paper and the contents from the bag. His eyes scan over the small package of ukulele strings, setting them down to the side and digging in the bag again. He pulls each item out one by one, his smile only getting bigger as he sees a shot glass that says ‘legal as fuck, eh’, a pair of diamond-patterned dress socks, and a framed Polaroid of the two of you from Gabe’s wedding last year.

“Where did you get this photo from?” He asks, closely examining it. It’s a candid picture of the two of you that he had never seen before. Tyson’s shirt was unbuttoned showing his torso, much like the rest of the guys there, the both of you mid-dance and he’s holding your hands in the air. Even with how blurry and small the photo is, yours and Tyson’s smile are clear as day.

“Sydney gave it to me after the wedding,” You answer, looking up at him. “I kinda forgot I had it because I found it the other day when I was cleaning. It got under my dresser somehow.”

“Y/n, this is amazing,” He admires, setting the items down and turning to look at you. “Thank you, so much, really.”

You smile sheepishly, your cheeks warming at the extra attention. He’s looking into your eyes when you turn to face him fully and he leans in to wrap his arms around you, bringing you in for yet another hug. A loud yell of your name from upstairs causes the two of you to pull away slightly.

“I gotta get back to work,” you whisper. Even as you started to pull away, getting ready to leave, Tyson doesn’t let you go as quickly. He dragged the arm that was around your back to where your neck met your shoulder. It feels like time is moving in slow motion as his eyes glance to your lips before back to your eyes.

“y/n! We have a meeting in 35 minutes, let’s go!” Caitlyn shouts once again, snapping the two of you back to reality. You stand up, hugging Tyson once more as he thanks you again for the gift.

By the time most of the Avalanche roster had made their way through the front door of the Rookie House, Tyson was already four shots and a mixed drink deep. He had insisted he take one with you the second you got back to his house after work, and had convinced you and his roommates to take a shot before anyone else arrived.

Knowing he was going to start feeling the effects of the alcohol soon, you pulled him aside to take photos in front of the balloons and banner you had set up earlier. You hand your phone to Caitlyn and lean into Tyson’s side, him squeezing you impossibly close, causing a laugh to slip from your lips. You pose for a few more photos before having some other people join in for group shots.

Once you get your phone back you look through them all, finding the best ones to post on Instagram. You choose two: one where Tyson’s arm is wrapped tightly around your waist and you’re leaning into his side, your hand splayed in his lower abdomen. The second one is more on the candid side. Your eyes are squinted close and your mouth is open, mid-laugh from Tyson pressing his fingers harshly into your side. Tyson continues taking photos while you edit them and open up Instagram typing out a caption before hitting post. Tyson feels the vibration of the notification in his pocket and pulls it out reading the caption and swiping through the photos.

yourusername: happy 21st to my superstar of a best friend. glad you finally dont have to use your big-shot hockey player status to get into bars now! cheers to you💥

He laughs before typing out a comment and sliding his phone back into his pocket.

josty17: thx for exposing me🙄

The pre-game is in full swing by the time everyone’s finally arrived. As Tyson’s best friend and designated drinking buddy, you give yourself the duty to make sure he always has a drink in his hand. As you’re making him his final drink before heading out to the bars, his large body collided with yours.

“Hey best friend,” he greets, teeth shining under his wide smile under the kitchen lights.

“Hey best friend,” you laugh, putting the cap back on the bottle of New Amsterdam in front of you. You grab the lemonade, opening it and filling the rest of the glass. “Here’s your refill.”

“Can we do another tequila shot?” He asks with pleading eyes. Luckily, he had an optional morning skate before their game tomorrow, while you on the other hand had an 8-5 job. The pleading eyes on Tyson’s face give you little room to say no, so you grab the bottle of tequila dramatically and the lime slices next to it.

He grabs two shot glasses and you pour the shots, sprinkling salt onto yours and Tyson’s fists. You raise your glass to cheers his and give a quick toast,

“Here’s to being way more successful than I was at 21 and to this year being the best year yet. I love you and happy birthday superstar!” You cheer, clinking your glass with Tyson’s and downing the shot.

Once Tyson finishes swallowing his shot, he cheers loudly, drawing the attention of those surrounding you. Tyson pulls you in for a hug, which is probably at least the thirteenth time he’s hugged you today, but you’re not complaining.

“Thank you again for all of this, and for my gift earlier. This all means a lot.”

You laugh and shrug off the compliment, “it wasn’t just me, but you know I’d do anything for you and besides, you wouldn't have done anything big unless I took it over.” He laughs in agreement, knowing that he wasn’t one to pass up a party like this but would’ve never been the one to plan it for himself.

Once he finishes the drink, the large group all starts ordering their Ubers or heading out in their own cars if they have someone to drive. Your group, consisting of Tyson, JT, Sammy, Gabe, and Tyson, all piles into the Uber that you ordered minutes ago. You’re all the first to leave, everyone in tow, all in agreement on the first bar to meet at.

As the night gets later, the rowdiness of the group of men you’re with only increases. It was a lot for you to handle at the start, the pressure to make this a good birthday for Tyson and being around so many of his friends in a larger than normal group only adding to it. The time was nearing last call at the last bar you were all at. The large group of broad hockey players had started to dwindle as guys headed home to get rest for tomorrow.

Tyson is starting to hit that stage of drunk where if he sits for too long, he’ll want to go to sleep, but at the same time, you can’t seem to keep him in one spot for more than a few minutes. Throughout the night, the boys had been feeding him shots, making sure that if they saw Tyson’s hands empty, they wouldn’t be for much longer. In order to keep him out for a little longer, you drag him to his feet from where he's sitting at the booth to the edge of the dancefloor where some of the guys are located.

As you approach Tyson, Gabe, and Nate, Tyson takes ahold of your hand, interlocking your fingers together, he leads you through the crowd. He looks back at you, with a wide smile as his expression is the only thing you see, the large crowd and bright neon lights turning into a blur. It was like he was trying to pull you closer to him with nothing but a subtle smirk and a twinkle in his eye; the twinkle in his eye causing you to match his smile with an equally wide one.

His shoulders are slouching and you’re somewhat surprised that his light blue button-up is still on over his black t-shirt and not tied around his waist, knowing he easily got overheated when he drank. Gabe embraces him in a bro hug, cheering loudly about how he’s still alive and that he better be ready for the game tomorrow. Tyson was well aware of tomorrow night’s game and made you promise him that you wouldn’t let him get too drunk, in hopes of his hangover being bearable in the morning.

Because of this, you decide to leave the small group of guys to go get him water in hopes of clearing his head a little. When you get back to the group, Tyson doesn’t take notice of your sudden presence, even as you shove the water into his hands. “I think I’m going to invite her to Canada this summer,” he yells in a slur over the music to his teammates.

“Who’re you inviting to Canada?” you ask, sticking your body fully into the circle. You stand next to him, hesitantly reaching for his free hand with one of yours to connect them again. He interlocks his fingers with yours without a thought and stares blankly towards you once the question has left your mouth.

“Uhhh, no one,” he brushes off with a stutter. You look at him quizzically before ignoring what you heard, assuming the alcohol is what caused you both confusion.

“Y/n, this is water,” he complains once he takes a sip. You laugh and roll your eyes at your friend. It was nearing one-thirty in the morning and he had already consumed more drinks than you could keep count of. He was clearly past the level of drunk, with how he was stumbling when he walked and slowly slurring his words as he spoke.

“Drink it and we can get you another drink before we leave,” you negotiate. You assume he agrees to your negotiation as he chugs his water faster than you’ve seen him chug anything before. With his triumphant look as he shows you the now-empty glass, your plan failed you, and the guys surrounding you laugh knowingly.

“How about this? Nate and them will go get refills for all of us,” You eye Nate, Tyson, and Gabe as you speak. “And we can go get some fresh air outside and meet them back here in a few?”

They all understand what you’re getting at, nodding their heads and saying they’ll see you in a bit before heading towards the bar. You tug on Tyson’s hand, heading for the front exit of the bar, maneuvering between the drunk and sweaty bodies. Once the Denver winter air hits both of your faces, you slyly pull out your phone to order an Uber back to his house.

You had let go of his hand once you got outside, and crossed your arms over your chest, phone still in hand. Tyson’s teeth chatter a little from the cold and he rests his head on your shoulder in hope of pulling any sort of warmth from your body.

Minutes pass by full of incoherent conversation from Tyson, most of it him telling you he’s cold and that he wants to go back inside, to which you respond with that you’ve only been outside for a few minutes. He easily believes the lie as another five minutes pass by and you’re shoving him into the backseat of an Uber.

Once the door is closed behind you, he whips his head towards you, “Y/n! Where are we going? I thought we were just taking a break.”

“I’m taking you home, Tyson,” you explain. “It’s really late and you have a game tomorrow.”

He pouts at your explanation, but he stops complaining anyways. The bumpiness from the potholes on the ride home has him focusing on his breathing and leaning his head on your shoulder once again until you’re pulling him out of the car and to his garage.

He tries entering the code and after the fourth failure, you shove him aside, “What’s the code?”

“It’s 3717.” He mumbles.

You try the code and it doesn’t work and after your third attempt, it’s still not working. “It isn’t working, are you sure it’s 3717?”

“Nope,” He enunciates.

You look at him with a deadpan expression, “Are you going to make me call your roommates to figure it out?”

“No, let me do it.” He asserts, throwing his arm over your shoulder and punching in the code, and the creak of the garage opening makes you let out a sigh.

“What the fuck was the code?”

“A secret I’ll never tell,” he salutes, making his way to the mud-room door. As you walk behind him, you clench your fists in annoyance at your friend's actions, giving him the benefit of the doubt from his drunken state.

He stumbles up the small flight of concrete steps, walking inside and instantly heading to the kitchen to find some sort of snack to soak up the alcohol. The rustling of packages stops as Tyson whips around,

“I want a grilled cheese. Will you make me one? Please?”

You drop your shoulders in a groan, silently saying yes as you move to the fridge to grab the ingredients. You chuckle at the organic cheeses in the fridge and the weird oat nut bread he has. Tyson hops up onto the counter beside his stove, swinging his legs as he watches you prepare his sandwich.

As you go to put the sandwich in the pan, his hand grabs yours pulling it back. “You forgot the pickles!” He exclaims, jumping from his spot to the fridge and pulling out a jar of bread and butter pickles.

“That is the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen,” you fake gag. He places a handful of pickles on the sandwich and then moves back to his previous position on the counter. “I don’t think I can ever see you as the same person again.”

Tyson’s face fills with hurt, and you’re not quite sure if he’s faking it or the alcohol in his body actually makes him think that.

“I hate pickles.” You state, eyeing him as you flip the sandwich over.

“I feel like I’ve seen you eat one before.” He responds, dipping his fingers into the pickle jar and snacking on one.

“Have you not noticed how I always give you my pickles when we eat out?” You ask, thinking back to the countless diner and sports bar trips where the first thing you’d do when you got your plate of food was give him your pickle.

“Well, yeah,” he answers quickly with a shrug. “I just thought you did that because I like them so much.” He smiles at the memories, biting into one more pickles chip before clasping the lid back onto the jar. You smile softly at the thought, too, before turning off the stove and sliding the sandwich out onto a plate for your friend.

He grabs the plate and instantly drags you down the stairs to his room where he plops on his bed, criss-cross applesauce, white Adidas still on his feet, causing you to rip his feet from underneath him.

“Tyson, your shoes are disgusting from the bar,” You puff, taking them off his feet since he was too preoccupied with his sandwich. He thanks you through a full mouth before you join him on his bed, folding your legs underneath you to mirror his position.

“Slow down there, killer,” you joke as you notice how fast he’s eating and how many extra large bites he’s taken. He swallowed the last piece harshly before setting the plate on the ground at the foot of his bed.

“Are you sleeping over?” He lays down, eyeing you with droopy eyes waiting for an answer.

“I can, but I have work early,” you remind him, shuffling to stand up from his bed as you itch the back of your arm.

“So then you’re sleeping over,” He states matter of factly. His eyes are closed now as he senses the movements of you standing up from the bed. With it almost being two in the morning and you having work early in the morning, you really should get home but with the added time of needing an Uber from your alcohol consumption, you decide staying is best. You set a handful of alarms on your phone, making sure you leave enough time for you to drive back to your place, get ready, and then get to work, all before 8:30 am.

“Let’s get you changed. You want shorts?” You start. “They’re in your dresser, right?” You ask for clarification. You hear him say yes tiredly, and you start shuffling through the chestnut drawers.

“You know, I really wanted to kiss you earlier when you were giving me my gift,” Tyson thinks aloud in a mumble as he sits on the bed. The admission causes you to halt your movements in your search for shorts for him. “Would you have let me kiss you? Wait, no, don’t answer that.”

Him telling you not to answer pushes a wave of relief through your body, thankful for not having to answer that question. As you open the third drawer you think to yourself, would you have let him kiss you? You didn’t see the harm in it, knowing that most guy and girl best friends shared at least one kiss throughout their friendship. Even Caitlyn and Tucker had asked you on multiple occasions if you had kissed to which you always replied with a harsh no.

You finally locate a pair of shorts and walk back towards Tyson, helping him stand from the bed to get changed. He’s just coherent enough to strip out of his button-down and white t-shirt; where he starts to struggle is when his hands reach the button of his jeans. He pushes them down his thighs, he gets stuck at his knees he starts to stumble, falling into the bed and you laugh lightly at your best friend’s movement.

He curses out a sigh, before sitting up and finally getting them off and pulling shorts on.

“You good there?”

“Yes, bedtime.” He huffs decidedly, shuffling up the bed and throwing the covers away so he can get under them.

You stand up, moving back to his dresser and closet to find clothes to wear when you hear a whine from behind you. “Hurry up, I want cuddles.”

You laugh at his newfound neediness, something he always was around you but it came out much more than normal tonight. Whether it was from the level of drunk he was or just the new shift in the comfort the two you felt in your friendship. You reemerge from his bathroom, changed into a pair of his sweats and his Colorado Eagles shirt.

“I like the shirt,” he chirps, smiling from his spot in bed. He continues to watch you as you lay down next to him and text Caitlyn, asking her to call you in the morning just in case your alarm doesn’t wake you. He’s on his side facing you, one hand tucked under his head and the other moving to rest in the air as he makes grabby hands. “I said I wanted a cuddle.”

“Fine,” you huff, even though you’re smiling and scooting your body down and underneath his arm. Your fingers find their way over his rib cage, lightly scratching at the bareness of his back, just underneath his shoulder blade.

“I know I said thank you a million times, but thank you for such an amazing birthday.” He speaks, voice quiet for the first time in hours.

You flick your eyes up to where his are a few inches higher, “I loved doing it for you, Tys. I’m glad you had an amazing day.”

He stares into your eyes a moment longer before shuffling up the bed a few inches so he can rest his cheek on your forehead. “Can you scratch my elbow?”

You move your fingers from his shoulder blade to his elbow, lightly scratching at the muscles in his triceps. He softly groans at the feeling and you bite back a laugh in reaction. Soon his breath is heavy over your face and you're trying to force the smile off your face so you can focus on going to bed. But it’s hard, being this close in proximity at such a high level of intimacy with your best friend is causing an explosion of feelings in your heart and a warmth occupying your body. You think to yourself how light you’ve felt all night by his side and you think back to his earlier comment about how he wanted to kiss you. Not even an hour ago the attempt would scare you away, but now, you’re not so sure.

When you turn over to get in a more comfortable position, your eyes land on the new decoration on his bedside table. You squint your eyes to get a better look and you recognize it as the Polaroid you gifted him earlier in the day. The soft smile on your face nearly triples in size at the thought of him putting your picture near his bed and a little part of you wants to steal it back just for you to place it near your bed in your own home.

At the feeling of Tyson’s heavy breaths at the back of your neck, you close your eyes and let out a content sigh. Sliding your head deeper into the pillow, you play with Tyson’s fingers on the arm that’s laid over you before interlocking them and falling asleep.

The ringtone of your phone is what pulls you from your sleep the next morning. You try to find your phone with your eyes closed, but with no luck on your side, you squint open your eyes and grab your phone. Seeing as it’s a phone call from Caitlyn and not your alarm, also seeing that it’s already 7:45, you jolt awake.

“Fuck,” you curse into the phone as you pull it to you ear, sitting up against the pillows. Tyson’s arm tightens around you, his figure Shull heavy with sleep.

“Dude, I saw your car across the street. Please tell me you’re home and like getting a ride to work.” Caitlyn rushes out.

“I fucking wish. You literally just woke me up, shit.”

“Y/n!”

“Please tell me you have clothes I can borrow and that we can carpool to work. I’ll owe you big time, please.”

All of the commotion doesn’t wake Tyson to your surprise, but as you sit up further in the bed as he starts to stir next to you.

“I’ll be over in like ten, you’re literally a life saver.”

“It’s so early, shhhhh,” Tyson mumbles next to you, turning further into your body. You want to scream out of anxiousness and stress but Tyson resting his head onto your chest stops you and you lift your hand to comb through his hair.

“I have work in like, 30 minutes,” and that statement jolts him awake just as much as the phone call not a minute prior did for you.

“Oh, shit, sorry,” he rubs his eyes. He rolls over onto his back and you miss the warmth of both his arm and his chest against you instantly. You throw the comforter over you, standing up from the comfort of his bed. You stumble to find your socks and grab your outfit from the night prior, moving to the bathroom with the intention of changing back into it before changing at Caitlyn’s.

“You can just keep the clothes,” Tyson starts, his eyes open now as he sits further up against his headboard. “I can get them back eventually.”

“I promise you’ll get it back, thank you,” you speak, turning back to the man in bed and going to hug him goodbye. It’s an awkward hug with how you’re standing and how he’s half laying down but he gives you a kiss on the forehead before bidding you goodbye.

“Text me when you’re alive,” you shout as you finally exit his room.

Once you’re ready and buckled into Caitlyn’s passenger seat, the two of you speed through the short commute to your offices.

“Caitlyn, before we get there I need to like, unload on you.” You start shakily, playing with your phone in your lap.

She glances at you before turning her attention back to the road in front of you.

“So, remember yesterday when I gave Tyson his gift and I was kinda taking a while? Well, it’s uh, he almost kissed me that’s why.”

“What?!” She exclaims, whipping her head to face you as she comes to a stop at the stoplight. “You cannot be serious!”

“Yeah and then when I took him home, it was just a lot with what was going on.”

“Please tell me you guys did not hook up,” she groans, stepping on the gas as the light turned green. “You guys can’t finally decide to get together and have it happen when you’re drunk off your asses.”

“God, Caitlyn, no we didn’t ‘finally’ hook up or whatever,” you stress in confusion. “I just made him food and it was just, really domestic, and then when I was finding him clothes to change into, he was like ‘I wanted to kiss you earlier’ and asked me if I would’ve let him if he did.”

“And? Did you say yes?”

“First of all, why would you assume that I would’ve said yes? And secondly, no because he told me not to answer.” You brush off.

“Y/n,” she starts, pulling into an empty parking spot. She puts the car in park and turns to face you fully. “Before I give you my speech, answer this: you would’ve let him kiss you, correct?”

Even though you barely have to think before answering, the question oddly carries a lot of weight and it scares you. “I think so, yes,” you nod your head slowly.

“Okay, hear me out. You and Tyson are best friends and not just like normal best friends, you two are inseparable. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because it’s not, but I think you need to start noticing the small changes you two have been making recently. You wouldn’t just let a friend kiss you, you’d only want that if you felt something more.”

Her rant makes you sink back into your seat, making you feel cornered in the small confines of the passenger seat of her car. The combination of your hangover, her speech, and it not even being nine in the morning makes your stomach churn.

“Yeah, I guess so, I don’t know.” You ramble, grabbing your purse from the floor in front of you and opening the car door. “It all happened in one night, it’s a lot to take in.” You defend yourself as you meet her at the end of the car.

“You guys have been going through some change for a while now, Jack and I have noticed it. Hell, I think some of the guys on the team have started to see it, too.” She insinuates with exaggerated hand movements. “Like I said back when you were with Aiden, you obviously waited to tell Tyson about him for a reason and that was almost six months ago. Think about why you did that, and I think you’ll know what’s going on.”

The two of you ride up the elevator from the parking garage to your office in silence after that. The statement by your friend doing circles inside your brain as you try to figure out the real reason behind all of your previous actions with Tyson. As the elevator doors ding open and the white lights of your office shock you, you opt for a closing statement.

“I think it’s just hard because I’m clearly attracted to him, and I have been for three years now. Usually, with friendships, I lose that interest pretty early on and like, build a wall if that’s what you want to call it,” you start as the two of you make way down the hall to the break room in need of coffee.

As you select a K-Cup for both you and Caitlyn a smile grows on your face as you continue.

“But with Tyson, every time I see him I feel the physical attraction with him, which sounds kind of shallow since that’s all I’m emphasizing right now, but it’s not just that. He’s such a good human and a good friend and knows exactly what to say to me even if I don’t want to hear it and all of that coupled with how handsome he is makes me feel a lot of different things that I still can’t exactly put my finger on.”

You turn your focus to Caitlyn, who has a knowing look playing on her face, her arms crossed over her chest as she leans against the fridge,

“See, I think you’re starting to figure it out.”

You smile, grateful for your friends words of wisdom. Even If you wanted her to just spell it out for you, her talk still helped as the two of you go your separate ways a few minutes later once your coffees are poured and after you ramble on about your night with Tyson a little bit longer.

tag list: @reavenedges-lies @oilers2997 @quinnsbxtch (let me know if you wanted to be added!)

#tyson jost imagine #tyson jost #ybtmastm fic #alex writes #nhl imagine

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justwritethatdown · 5 years

Text

I know I know, it's been 84 years... I'm sorry

Road Trip - Part 2

“We should stop somewhere on the road for Kansas City since it’s more than eight hours...” suggested Chloe looking at the map open on her iPhone “yeah... if it’s not another creepy motel...” replied Beca with a chuckle. The two girls were sitting at a nice café planning their road trip, both of them looking down at their phones with focused expressions.

A little less than an hour ago they decided to take a road trip to New York, the idea came from the fact that Beca had to drive Chloe to Denver due to an odd airport strike taking place in the whole state of California, but once they reached the airport none of them had wanted to say goodbye to the other and decided it was a good idea to drive for 1.795 miles just to stay together for a little longer. It didn’t make sense, they both knew that, but none of them objected about that.

“What are you looking for anyway?” asked the redhead curios of why Beca was focused on her phone instead of their itinerary “a car.." said the brunette without looking up from her phone “a car? But we already have a car” “my car can’t make it to New York and back Chlo, we need a proper car!” explained the pop star “But I’m listening to you planning the trip and honestly we can go wherever you want" she added looking at her friend with a soft smile “I don’t mind" “okay, so we're stopping for the night halfway to Kansas City... then we could drive to Chicago that-" “oh no, we’re not going to Chicago” interrupted her Beca “why not?” asked Chloe furrowing her brows “because I don’t wanna go there” “you literally just said you don’t mind... is this about my Chicago? Do you really hate him so much?” she asked and the brunette grimaced at that “what? No. What? It’s not about him" of course it was about him, she hated him so much that just hearing that name made her sick even if whatever he had with Chloe ended the moment she left Europe “found it, this is perfect!” she squealed getting up “can- can we split up? You go grocery shopping while I go rent the car and we meet here in like one hour?” asked Beca biting her bottom lip “why can't we do both together?” asked the redhead curios “because we'll be quicker this way... and because I have a surprise. Give me a lift and then you keep this car" ended the brunette handing the car keys to Chloe who had a curious smile on her face.

One hour later Chloe arrived at the café to find Beca leaning on a red Jeep Wagoneer waiting for her “Becs this car is huge” gasped the redhead “we don’t need all of this space, we literally have two bags... I bought you some stuff for the trip by the way" “oh I didn’t think about that! I don’t know what I would do without you” said Beca with a soft smile.

The whole car was old stile, it had two rows of leather seats which reminded the seating booths of an old diner, the wheel was very thin and way bigger than a normal one and there was an odd stick shift coming out of it's right side, it also had the largest trunk Chloe had ever seen, where she couldn’t help but notice laid a very large bag.

“So what's in the bag?” asked Chloe after two hours of driving “told you, it’s a surprise” answered Beca cryptically “you'll know in about three hours... I think” she added a little unsure, which did nothing but feed Chloe’s curiosity “oh come onnn, I wanna knowww" whined the redhead but with now results. After what seemed like an eternity Beca decide it was finally time for her surprise and pulled over in the middle of nowhere “Becs? Is everything okay? Why are we stopping here?” asked nervously the redhead “you scared Beale?” joked Beca smirking at her but noticing that her friend was a bit tense she quickly added “it’s time to show you my surprise, but it’s gonna take a while... can you promise me you won t look?” “look what? It’s dark outside, I can't see anything” complained Chloe but Beca put a hand on her left thigh “trust me" and she did, she trusted Beca no matter what, always. But as soon as the brunette moved to get out of the jeep she got nervous again “where are you going in the middle of the night?” “its nine o’ clock Chlo, don’t worry I need to grab that bag in the back of the trunk, just... don’t look okay? Please" asked the singer a little awkwardly, when she thought about doing this she didn’t think about how hard it would have been to arrange it without Chloe seeing her “okay I’ll just scroll trough Instagram, but you have to keep talking to me okay?” “deal".

“okay I’m done, come back here. You can climb over the seats if you don’t wanna get out of the car but take off your shoes first" called Beca from the inside of the truck and Chloe locked her phone putting it in her bag, when she turned around her heart stopped; Beca had arranged many blankets and pillows on the trunk ground and placed some lights strings all around. It looked beautiful “oh my god Becs, this is amazing" breathed out Chloe once she reached her, the backdoor of the truck was open and Beca was sitting on it dangling legs, the cold air making her breath come out in little clouds. Chloe stopped to sit a little bit more on the inside of the jeep to stay warm but she could spot the starry sky her friend was looking at “this is something I’ve always wanted to do" she confessed “to make a fort in a truck like this and sit watching the stars" her face looked so peaceful and happy that Chloe fell in love with her all over again, a smile spread on her face while she scooted closer to rest her head on the brunette's shoulder “I’m glad you’re sharing this with me” she whispered taking her hand “I wouldn’t share it with anybody else” whispered back Beca intertwining their fingers.

Truth was that Chloe was indeed part of her fantasy, she'd always wanted to stay in the middle of nowhere stargazing and cuddling with Chloe. This was insanely romantic and it was both killing her and giving her life. To make everything better, or worse maybe, there was music coming out of the Bluetooth speaker linked to Beca’s phone, a cheesy playlist the brunette made thinking about Chloe. Beca knew she was going too far, she knew she should have stopped and put some space between them, but when Chloe suggested to close the truck's backdoor and lay down in their fort the brunette couldn’t help but comply. So she let herself enjoy the moment, laying down with Chloe under a blanket, their heads on the opened hatchback; she showed her the constellations while the redhead used the chilly air as an excuse to cuddle up closer to her.

“You know, I have enough blankets for us to sleep in here, I mean not here in the middle of nowhere but like there’s a campers park nearby" suggested the brunette gently stroking Chloe’s hair and she let out a laugh “so you are too afraid to sleep in a motel but it’s okay to sleep in a park, inside a car?” asked Chloe in disbelief “it is safe, okay? Before my parents’ divorce we used to go camping, it’s not that bad" complained the brunette “but we can go in a motel if you want to" she added “yes I do” answered Chloe shocked that Beca would really sleep in a car “but let’s stay here for a little longer” she added snuggling closer and falling asleep.

When Beca felt herself drifting to sleep too, she decided it was time to find one of those creepy motels Chloe insisted on sleeping in so she gently tried to wake the sleepy girl beside her stroking a lock of hair from her forehead and whispered “Chlo, we gotta go find a place to sleep” but the redhead mumbled something in her sleep and turned on her side, she looked so peaceful that Beca decided to let her sleep while she drove until the nearest motel. Once she found a place that didn’t seem the location for a horror movie she parked and went back to wake her friend up “Hey sleeping beauty" she called from the outside of the truck “I found us a place to spend the night” she said climbing inside “come oon" she added trying to shake Chloe “mmh... Don’t you know that to wake the sleeping beauty up you have to kiss her?” mumbled the redhead without opening her eyes and Beca froze, her heart fell in her stomach and her palms became sweaty. The sudden silence that fell in the car was Chloe’s clue to get up and try to fix the mess she just made, it was easy for Beca to freak out about things like this, she shouldn’t have been so reckless “didn’t yok watch the movie?” she tried to laugh it off and could see the tension leaving the brunette's body, Beca uffed and cleared her throat before climbing out of the backdoor and say “I’m far from being a prince though" “they never said it had to be a prince...” mumbled Chloe under her breath.

The inside of the motel was filled with crucifixes and sacred paintings and Beca though it was the creepiest one they stayed in until then. Chloe noticed that and squeezed her hand to comfort her before walking straight to the reception desk with a bright smile, still holding Beca’s hand “hi, we were looking for a room to spend the night-" “I cannot help you" interrupted her the landlady, a grumpy old woman dressed up like a maid from an old movie “but there are some room keys on the hooks behind you" stated Beca furrowing her brows “those rooms are not for you" answered the woman looking at them severely “why so?” dared to ask the brunette starting to lose her calm “those are for married couples, there is only one bed in them" explained the receptionist and Chloe jumped in the conversation “oh but that’s okay, we don’t mind, it’s... It's really late and we need a safe place to sleep” she explained trying her best to look innocent “you cannot sleep in the same bed, we do not accept homosexual couples in here-" “but we’re not a couple!” clarified quickly Beca, too quickly maybe. The woman grunted and Chloe added with a fake smile “we just need to spend the night somewhere" the receptionist reluctantly gave in and assigned them a room.

“What a bitch!” exclaimed Beca entering the room “some people still refuse to live in this century” breathed out Chloe unpacking her pyjamas and toothbrush “I am so mad right now" continued the brunette sitting on the bed “we could be a couple! And there wouldn’t be anything wrong with that.” she stated and the redhead smiled at her and added “a pretty hot one" with a wink. Beca felt chills running down her spine at that and swallowed loudly, but Chloe was already on her way to the bathroom and didn’t seem to notice.

The night went by pretty slowly for Beca who couldn’t sleep due to the traffic in her brain. Chloe’s warm body curled up against her felt like a reminder of everything she wanted and couldn’t have; her scent, the way her red hair fell loosely on her forehead, the peaceful way her body rose and fell with every breath, even the tiny snorts coming out from her nose every once in a while sounded like perfection to her, and it was that perfection that was driving her insane. She was torn, between wishing for this to end and wishing it could last forever, she knew that with every second she spent in awe of Chloe Beale she was digging her own grave deeper and deeper, she knew the best thing for her would have been to stay away from her, she always run away from complicated situations build up a wall and hide behind it, but in this case she couldn’t, she couldn’t help the pull she had towards the redhead, the need to spend every moment with her, always. Chloe was the high she couldn’t give up and she was well aware it would destroy her one day, she just got to the point where she wasn’t sure she cared anymore.

The morning after Beca was still mad about that old woman’s behaviour so Chloe decided to do something about it.

They were in the hall waiting for the woman who went in the back to get their change. As soon as Chloe spotted her grey knitted woolen jacket she threw herself at Beca, whose hands wrapped on autopilot around her waist “what are you doing?” whispered in confusion the brunette “follow my lead" intimated Chloe pressing her body into Beca’s with purpose, her arms were loosely wrapped around the smaller girl's neck and here face mere inches from the brunette's. Beca felt sparks in every part of her body that was smashed against the redhead and her heart stopped when she moved to press her forehead against hers, their noses brushed together and Beca felt like she was about to pass out “you were amazing tonight” fake whispered Chloe making sure her comment was audible through the room and smirked when she heard the old lady clear her throat. The girl turned with a bright smile and dragged Beca to the cash desk by her hand “thank you” she beamed taking the money “oh and... the bed is a little creacky, you might wanna fix that" she added with a fake smile before leaving the motel still holding Beca’s hand.

Beca’s brain felt fuzzy, she could steel feel Chloe's body on her, the ghost of her breasts pressed up against her, her sweet smell, her lips so so close to hers. Her heart was racing way too fast. “Did you see her face?” laughed Chloe shaking her arm “she was horrified! I bet she's gonna burn the bed now" she giggled and all Beca could do was hum in agreement, still trying to recover “can you drive?” she asked “I’m still half asleep" “sure" answered Chloe with a shrug, she expected Beca to be more enthusiastic about pranking the unpleasant landlady, did she hate pretending to be intimate with her so much? It's true, Beca wasn't a hug person and for sure she didn't like pda, but it was all for show, it was a joke, was the idea of someone thinking they were together so bad for her? Chloe sighed and started the engine.

#beca mitchell #bechloe #chloe beale #bechloe one shot #bechloe oneshot #pitch perfect

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orangeoctopi7 · 5 years

Text

A Familiar Hero

Part 1

Part 2

Seeing the Spider Man in action, Ford’s previous theory that this was a visiting extraterrestrial seemed ludicrous. His every movement, his posture, even his voice exuded familiarity. How could he be anything but human?

But at the same time, how could any human do these things? The Spider Man disarmed two gunners before either of them could fire, pulling the guns out of their hands without even closing his fingers around them. Their male attacker swore, and in one swift motion tried to stab the Spider Man. No one could have seen that coming, and yet the Spider Man pulled away and to the side, easily dodging it as though the assailant had clearly telegraphed the move. He retaliated with a powerful left-hook, knocking the man to the ground like a sack of potatoes. When he turned his attention to the woman, she was already running back out the alley-way. The Spider Man shrugged, obviously deciding chasing her was not worth it. He picked up the man like he was nothing more than an awkwardly shaped sack of flour, and not a sack of flesh and bones coming close to thee hundred pounds.

“What were you idiots thinkin’?!” The Spider Man demanded. “Are you trying to get yourselves killed!? I’m lucky– I mean you’re- you’re lucky I was nearby. What would I have– uh, what would you have done if I wasn’t here?”

The two researchers were too stunned to say anything. They just stared at him with slack jaws.

“I-I gotta dump this guy someplace the cops’ll find him.” He made to leave.

“It’s really you!” Ford blurted out, finally finding his voice. He thought they’d be lucky if they just got to see the Spider Man, and not only had he saved their lives, he was talking to them now!

“You… you know who I am?” The Spider Man tugged nervously at his mask.

“Of course I do! I’ve been following you since the beginning!” Ford grinned. There was something nagging at the back of his head, something about that familiarity, but he was too excited to stop and really think about it right now.

“Wait, seriously!?”

“Ah, well, not literally following you!” The researcher backpedaled, realizing that may have come off as stalkery. “But ever since that first article I found in Peculiar Pennsylvania, I’ve been following every publication and story about you I could find! I can’t believe we were lucky enough to find you!”

“You’ve been looking for me?”

“Well, just since you were sighted here in Portland, it’s the first time there’s been a sighting near enough for conducting a search to be feasible.”

“But… why? Why would you bother lookin’ for me?”

“Are you kidding? You’re amazing! All those people you’ve saved, all those criminals you’ve apprehended, you’re a hero!”

The Spider Man made a sound half-way between a laugh and a sob. “Ford, you really do still care!”

The second Ford heard the Spider Man say his name, that nagging familiarity in the back of his head clicked into place, and he realized who he was talking to just a split second before his brother pulled off the mask.

“Stanley!?”

Stan’s expression of euphoric joy quickly dropped to annoyance. “You said you knew who I was!”

“I was talking about the Spider Man! I know all about the Spider Man!”

“Well obviously not, if you didn’t know he was me!”

“What are you even doing here?”

“What am I doin’ here? What are you doin’ here!?”

“I already told you, you knucklehead!”

“What in the name of Charles Babbage is going on here!?” Fiddleford finally shouted, interrupting the brothers’ argument. “Why does the Spider Man look like you? How do you know him!? This ain’t some, I dunno, shape-shiftin’ sorta thing-a-ma-bob, is it?”

“…Oh. Right. Sorry.” Ford apologized.

“Yeah, that’s another question, who the heck’s this yahoo?” Stan demanded.

Ford gestured towards McGucket, “Stan, this is my research assistant, Fiddleford McGucket.” he then pointed to Stan, “Fiddleford, this is my twin brother, Stanley.”

The two of them just stood there, looking the other over.

“I thought you said you hadn’t talked to yer brother since you was a teenager.” McGucket eventually said.

“I hadn’t, until just now.”

“Well, ain’t that just the craziest coinky-dink you ever heard of.” Fiddleford gave a low whistle.

“Research assistant, huh?” Stan scratched the back of his head with his free hand. “What, uh, what’re you studying?”

“You”

“The Spider Man”

McGucket and Ford said simultaneously.

“Huh. Well, uh, you want me to, I dunno, pose for a photo or somethin’?”

“Yes!” Ford said quickly. “Mask on, of course.”

“An’ then I can dump this guy someplace the cops’ll find him.”

“And we’ll go our separate ways.” Ford nodded.

“Really!?” Fiddleford exclaimed, “We jus’ randomly ran into yer brother who ya haven’t seen in over a decade, he saves our lives and turns out to be the very cryptid we came here to study, an’ yer jus’ gonna go yer separate ways? Jus like that?”

“There’s a reason we haven’t spoken in so long, Fiddleford.” The young researcher said stiffly. “Besides, I’m sure Stanley has his own life to get back to

Stan harrumphed, folded his arms and looked away. “Yeah. Yeah, sure I do.”

They walked a few blocks until Stan found a dock he said the Coast Guard frequented. McGucket asked him to pull his mask back on and Ford took a few pictures, one of the Spider Man carrying the unconscious man like he was nothing, and a few of him climbing up the warehouse walls. Unfortunately, Ford didn’t get the thrill out of it he’d been expecting. Maybe it was because all the pictures were posed. Maybe it was because, now that he knew who the Spider Man was, there was no longer the thrill of the mystery.

“…Thanks…” Ford said awkwardly when they were done.

“Don’t mention it.” Stan grunted in reply.

McGucket glanced between them, his expression stuck somewhere between perplexion and annoyance. “Well, I guess we’d better head back to the hotel.” He finally sighed.

The two groups had walked maybe ten feet away from each other when Stan turned around and shouted. “Wait! Uh… how far’s your hotel?”

“Downtown, just off the interstate.” Ford replied. “Why?”

“You yahoo’s aren’t gonna walk that whole way yourselves, are ya?”

“We’re taking the bus.”

“That’s still far enough you two could get mugged. What’s the point of me savin’ your lives if you just go an’ get in trouble again?”

“I-is that likely?” Fiddleford stammered nervously.

Stanford sighed in irritation. It didn’t matter how likely it was, because now that the idea was in Fiddleford’s head, the inventor’s anxiety would latch onto the possibility and send him spiralling until he would jump at any little sound or movement.

“My car’s parked not too far from here. Lemme just give you guys a lift back to your hotel.”

Ford sighed. “Fine.” For Fiddleford’s sake, he told himself.

***

“I thought you said your car was close!” Stanford complained ten minutes later.

“It is close, if you can climb straight up an’ over buildings.” Stan defended.

“Well how much further is it?”

“Uh, I think another block.”

“You think?”

“Hey, I don’t usually take the street!”

Ford huffed. “It would have been faster to head for the bus stop.”

“Yeah, and you would’ve wandered through the roughest part of town at 11pm.”

Fiddleford shivered and took a step closer to Stanley. “Let’s talk about somethin’ else! Say, this gives us a chance to ask ya some questions, Stanley! Like, uh… how d’you stick to walls?”

“Uh… I don’t really know. I just sorta think about it, I guess.”

“Well, how’d you know that thug was gonna pull a knife on ya?”

“I dunno, sometimes I just sense danger.”

“How would you describe this sense?”

“I don’t know, ok? It’s like tryin’ to describe colors to someone who was born blind. Look, I don’t really get how my powers work, ok? I just know that they do.”

“Ok, that’s fine.” Fiddleford assured him. “I can ask some different questions. Like, hmm, where’d ya come up with that nifty outfit?”

Stan laughed awkwardly. “Heh, what, this? Just some stuff I’ve slapped together from thrift stores, honestly. Like, these pants’re just workout sweats. They got pockets an’ fleece linin’ and everything. I got another pair that’re lighter for the summer. An’ the mask? Got it at a yard sale in Mazatlan. Just cut some eyes out of an old black basketball jersey I picked up at the same time. Don’t really remember where I picked the gloves up at, probably some bargain bin at like, Walmart or something. And they gave me the coat at this homeless shelter I stopped at in Denver.”

“What?!” Ford exclaimed, turning to face his brother suddenly.

“What?” Stan repeated innocently.

“You said something about a homeless shelter!?”

“Oh! Ha!” Stan forced a laugh. “Did I say homeless shelter? I don’t… I don’t know why I said that. What I meant was– Look, there’s my car!”

Sure enough, across the street behind a gated chain-link fence was the familiar red El Diablo Stanford remembered from his teenage years. It even had the old STNLYMBL license plate. They reached a gate that was closed not with a chain and padlock, but a stout copper pipe bent around the end of the chain-link fence and the side of the gate. Stan grabbed the pipe and unbent it as easily as a normal person would unbend a paperclip. He pulled the gate open wide enough to allow the car to drive out and motioned for the two friends to enter.

Stanford struggled with a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts as he got in the car. Stanley had been in a homeless shelter!? No, no, Stan said that wasn’t what he meant! But he was obviously lying, wasn’t he? Or maybe not. Maybe Stan was helping someone else get to the homeless shelter? Stan was the Spider Man, and the Spider Man helped people, after all. And even if Stan had spent some time in a homeless shelter, it was his own fault, right?

“Hey, uh, sorry it’s such a mess.” Stan apologized, quickly grabbing as much junk as he could out of the front passenger seat and shoving it into the trunk. “I don’t normally give rides.” He moved to the back seat and shoved everything to one side, trying to make room for someone to sit back there.

“You go ahead and sit shotgun McGucket.” Ford insisted. “I’ve at least lived in Stan’s mess before.”

“Hey, I don’t remember you bein’ any cleaner!” Stan protested.

McGucket chuckled. “Yer cabin was a disaster area when I showed up, even fer a bachelor pad.”

Ford rolled his eyes and got into the back of the car without further comment. Sure, he often got so caught up in his research that he forgot to clean, but at least he didn’t leave his clothes laying around in the back seat of his car! Or towels or toothbrushes or… was that a pillow? Then it dawned on him: Stan had been living out of his car. He really was homeless!

The young researcher immediately tried to rationalize things. It made sense, really, with what he knew about the Spider Man. The Spider Man had been traveling all over North and South America, moving from one city to the next, with little rhyme or reason, never staying in one place for too long. It made sense that the Spider Man would live out of his car if he was traveling around so much! …Or was he traveling around so much because he had to live out of his car?

Ford was about to ask his brother if he was homeless, but McGucket beat him to the punch with another question.

“So how’d ya come to be the Spider Man?”

“Well, I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to become a superhero, I can tell ya that much.” Stan replied. “It kinda just happened. I got spotted by a few obsessive nerds like my brother here, sent a few jerks to jail, saved some innocent people, and the next thing I know I’m hearin’ AM radio shows and readin’ obscure articles about my exploits, callin’ me ‘The Spider Man’. And, y’know, I decided to just run with it.”

“Ah. Suppose that makes sense.” McGucket nodded. “But I mean, how’d ya come to have these powers? Obviously ya weren’t born with ‘em, or else Stanford woulda known about ‘em.”

Ford perked up, listening intently. He’d been wondering that himself, but hadn’t quite had the courage to ask. He had an uneasy feeling he wouldn’t like the answer.

Stan stared Ford down through the rear-view mirror for a long moment, almost as though he expected his brother to say something, before finally answering. “What, y’mean the almighty genius Stanford Pines hasn’t figured it out yet?”

“Enlighten us, Stanley.”

“It’s drivin’ you crazy that I know something you don’t, isn’t it? Y’know, I might just revel in this moment a little longer, really let it sink in.”

“Stanley!”

“Alright, alright, fine, but only ‘cuz your friend here’s on the edge of his seat.”

Fiddleford was indeed giving Stan his full attention, a notebook and pen already in hand. “Golly, I wish I had my portable computer with me. Ah well, go on!”

Stan took a deep breath and fixed his brother with another hard look through the rearview mirror. “My brother ever tell you about his senior science fair project?”

“Uh, only that it was an unqualified disaster.” Fiddleford murmured awkwardly. He knew it was a touchy subject for his friend.

“What on earth does that have to do with your powers?” Ford growled.

“Just lemme finish! Anyway, Ford had genetically mutated a bunch of spiders using radiation.” Stan explained. “An’ it was winnin’ all the awards! Best in the school, best in the district, the works. Once it got to state, it got the attention of some big wigs from this fancy school called West Coast Tech. They wanted to offer Ford a full-ride scholarship if his project lived up to the hype when they came to see it. And I… I was scared ‘cuz my bro was movin’ on without me an’ I was statin’ to feel like I was gonna be stuck in Glass Shard Beach forever. I needed someone to blame, so I blamed the spiders.”

“Ahah!” Ford exclaimed, “So you admit it! You sabotaged my project!”

“That’s not what I said!” Stan defended.

“You blamed the spiders, so you smashed their containment unit and killed them all!”

“That’s not what happened! It was an accident!” Stan pleaded.

“How do you accidentally smash a containment unit?”

“Just hear me out!” Stan shouted, slamming on the breaks as they came to a red light. Ford glared at him, and McGucket just watched them both like they were a particularly volatile mixture of chemicals just waiting for the right activation energy to explode.

“Like I said, I was mad.” Stan continued. “And I blamed the spiders. I went into the gymnasium and ranted about everything I was feeling to them. I shoulda talked to you instead, but I didn’t. Once I was done gettin’ all that off my chest, I slammed my fists down on the table to let off some steam. But I hit it too hard. The containment unit tipped off the table and cracked open when it hit the floor. I picked it up right away and tried to cover the crack with my hand to stop them from escaping, but one of the spiders bit me. It startled me, so I dropped it again. And I guess the shock of gettin’ dropped twice in such a short amount of time must’ve killed ‘em or something.

“I shoulda found you and told you right away, but I panicked, and I was already startin’ to feel weird. My vision was swimmin’ and I had a killer migraine, the kind where you feel like all your senses have been turned up too high. So I ran home. After that… well, you remember.”

“I don’t.” Fiddleford reminded them.

“When the representatives from West Coast Tech arrived, all I had to show them was a broken glass globe full of dead spiders.” Ford growled. “I looked like a fool in front of the people I was supposed to get a scholarship from! And what’s worse, when I returned home, Stan tried to shrug it off like it wasn’t a big deal! Like it was a good thing I missed out on the scholarship because now we could go treasure hunting like we’d dreamed of when we were kids! And he had the gall to fake sick so Dad wouldn’t kick him out! Not that it worked.”

“I wasn’t faking it!” Stan insisted indignantly.

“And I still don’t understand how this has anything to do with your powers!” Ford glared at Stan through the rear-view mirror.

“You seriously still haven’t figured it out!?” Stan huffed exasperatedly. “What kind of idiot genius are you?”

“I’m not seein’ the connection either.” Fiddleford admitted.

Stan rolled his eyes. “I get bit by one of those radioactive spiders. Right after that, my vision starts swimmin’ an’ I get a headache like my senses got turned up.” He repeated. Still all he got were blank stares. “The next morning I realized I didn’t grab my glasses when Dad kicked me out. But I didn’t need ‘em.”

“Because you never wore them anyway?” Ford asked flatly.

“I didn’t need ‘em 'cuz I didn’t have eyesight problems anymore!” Stan corrected. “An’ less than a week after that, I started stickin’ to stuff! All my powers developed within a year of that day I got bit by one of your spiders.”

“Sweet sarsaparilla! Stanford, this is unprecedented!” Fiddleford exclaimed, “Do ya still got the notes on them spiders? Imagine if’n we could replicate these results!”

The inventor continued to prattle on excitedly, but Ford was barely listening. He’d just been presented with evidence that completely changed his world-view. Whether or not Stan had been lying about the 'accident’ at the science fair, this was proof that Stan hadn’t been making up his sudden illness. It hadn’t been an unsuccessful attempt to garner sympathy, it had been the early stages of a major postnatal genetic mutation. And that meant Stan had gone through all these probably horrifying changes alone, with no idea what was happening to him. And probably homeless.

Ford was struck with a sudden sense of guilt. All these years he’d held a grudge against his brother, but now he realized Stan had just as much a reason to hold a grudge against him! But… could he really have made any difference? He imagined what would have happened if he’d known his brother was really sick; if he’d tried to stand up to their dad. At best he would have been sent to his room, and at worst he would have been invited to join his brother on the street. No, he couldn’t have changed things then… but maybe if he hadn’t held a grudge for so long, if he’d tried to reach out to his brother as soon as he left home himself, maybe he could have helped his brother then.

“Alright, we’re downtown near the interstate.” Stan said as he stopped at another stop light. “You two see your hotel from here, or is it further down the road?”

“It’s that one with the big green sign.” Fiddleford pointed to a building to their left.

Stan pulled into the drop-off zone and parked in front of the door. “Glad I could help you two get back here safe. I know it’s hard for you, but try not to get into any more trouble for a while.”

He was rolling up the window and putting the car back into drive when Ford made a split second decision.

“Stan, wait!” He raced forward and grabbed the closing window.

Stan stopped cranking the window up and shifted back to park. “What?” he asked apprehensively.

“I-I think we could have a mutually beneficial situation here.”

“English, Sixer!”

“W-we could help each other! You’ve gained remarkable control over your powers on your own, but you don’t really understand how they work, correct?”

“Yyyyeah….” Stan said slowly, not quite catching on to where his brother was going with this.

“Think how much more you could do if you learned the ins and outs of what your body can do now! There might be things you’re not even aware you’re capable of yet! And even beyond your powers, we could help you become a better crime-fighter! Fiddleford’s a real whiz with gadgets, and just a while ago I was working on a device I couldn’t quite get to work, but I think it’d be perfect for you.”

“You… you want me to come back with you guys? So you can do experiments on me?” Stan asked warily.

“Not like that!” Ford assured him. “We’d just like to study you and run some tests…. Ugh, there really isn’t any way to make that sound better. What I’m trying to say is, I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable with.”

Stan still looked skeptical.

“And you’d have some place to stay! I might even be able to pay you if the grant committee accepts my proposal for another research assistant.”

Stan sighed forlornly, and for a terrible moment Ford was afraid his brother would turn him down, but instead he asked. “What time are you leaving?”

“Around 11am tomorrow morning.”

“And where is it we’re going back to?”

“Gravity Falls, Oregon.

“Never heard of it.”

“Well, most people haven’t. It’s a small logging town in the backwoods.”

“Alright. I’ll meetcha back here at 11 tomorrow an’ follow you back to Gravy Falls.”

“Gravity Falls.”

“That too.”

Ford tried to stop himself from grinning. “Thank you, Stanley.”

“Yeah, well, I’m only goin’ so I can keep an eye on you an’ your scrawny friend. Last thing I need is a postcard from Ma sayin’ you’ve been eaten by bigfoot.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Stanley, the largest prey a Sasquatch will bother with are beavers.”

Stan quirked a small smile. “See you tomorrow, nerd.”

#Gravity Falls #Fanfiction #Spiderstan AU #Stanford Pines #Stanley Pines #Fiddleford Mcgucket #spider Stan au #My writing

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magicanuniverse · 6 years

Text

News about my sister!

Two months ago, at midnight, I received a call from my younger sister, Samantha. Now, for the record, I do NOT call my sister. We text or I BS with her on facebook. So immediately, I knew something was wrong.

Our older sister, Amelia, (Ame, not to be confused as FF Ame,) had been complaining of a headache for a few days and had to go to the ER because the pain was so bad. A few tests later showed that she had a minor stroke, which caused her to have an Aneurysm the size of a pea, right in the middle of her eyes.

Naturally, I panicked. I didn't sleep for a week, kept my phone right next to me at all times and we... that is to say, my whole family on my dad's side, where flying to Denver to see her.

For me, Ame and I are really close. Ame is a full 10 years and 9 days older than myself and has always been my voice of reason. When I had a panic attack after moving in with my dad, she was there, telling me what I needed to hear. When I was scared to show my family the kind of art I made a living off of, she was the one that said "You should never be ashamed of your art, even if you are drawing porn." When I was hesitant to be with my (now ex) Husband? She explained to me how I should admire myself and my partner; how I should feel comfortable loving my own body to love his. She was my teacher, my mentor, and my older sibling that I never had until later on in my life. She had a serious impact on my adult life and taught me the difference of being professional and casual. Being an adult, verses a spoiled teenager. Basically, being me.

For two weeks, I scrounged up as much money as I could. Saving it in my bank and getting as many commissions and donations as i could, to save up for tickets to take myself and my wife to visit my sister in the hospital. I wanted to wait until she had her surgery, so I could be sure that if worse came to worse, I would either see her for her surgery... or her funeral. Luckily, she had her surgery to place a stent behind her Aneurysm.

My grandparents helped me even though my grandfather was REALLY reluctant for me to go, but... I needed to see her. For a month her oxygen was completely ONLY ventilator. We were scared, thinking she wasn't going to make it. they couldn't remove the Aneurysm while she couldn't breath on her own, cause she couldn't survive the surgery. When she did have it, she did extremely well through her surgery. That was the time to see her.

So my wife and I spent a week in Denver. Spending time with my dad and sister, and older brother, EJ. We only visited her once while I was there... but that was all I needed. Since she was in the ICU, we had to put on gloves and a gown/smock thing to cover our clothes.

I gotta tell ya; no amount of preparation could have been given. She was on a throat ventilator, was on her back and had her hand wrapped up. She was just... a sad state. She was crying, and when she saw me specifically, she took a moment to see who I was and started crying harder. She mouthed something like "Why are you here" or "Why are you seeing me like this", something to that effect. I told her "I saved up as much money as I could to come see you." She reached out and touched me and held my hand. I told her I was so glad to see her, and glad that she was doing so well (which she was,) It was distressful, really. And I couldn't stop thinking of how awful it was for her that day.

When I finally came home, I kept in touch with my dad and everyone to keep up on her progress. Shortly after I left, she went into recovery hospital a week after. And now, on October 22nd, she's come home. I got a text about an hour ago from my dad saying she's home, and has spent the last few hours cuddling her son on the couch.

All in all, she's made a full recovery and I can't be happier. I wanna thank everyone once again for all the donations I got and to help me see her. What money I had left, I wanted to give to Doug, but he demanded I keep it for when my dad drive us home.

So I thank you all, once again. I'm gonna give Ame a call a bit later and see how she's doing, and if she remembers Moni and I going to see her. Again. I thank you all for helping me visit her, and I'm super glad my sister made a full recovery.

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rrrawrf-writes · 6 years

Note

6 or 21 or 49? or two of three? or all?

THIS IS SO FREAKING LONG AND I ONLY DID TWO OF THEM

49. “Safety first. What are you? FIVE?”

6. “I need a place to stay.”

for this thing from like a month or more ago (i’ll take more requests if anyone wants to send me some :K). hey so jess, remember when we were talking about how eli would recruit an ex-KGB dude and make him an honorary uncle?

you’re welcome.

“Get your seatbelt on, Tati,” Eli said, working to strap Nikita into her booster seat even while she kept trying to float away. “Nikita, this isn’t funny, you need to stop.”

Her snickers stated that she clearly thought otherwise. By the time Eli was done securing one girl, though, his other still hadn’t put her seatbelt on. He frowned at Tatiana from the other side of the car.

“I don’t want to, the seatbelt hurts my neck,” Tati complained, kicking her feet against the driver’s seat in front of her.

“Use the, uh, the frog thing. The seatbelt adjuster.”

“That hurts my neck too!”

“Everything hurts your neck,” Eli muttered under his breath, in Russian so that Tati wouldn’t understand. “The frog is all we have, sweetheart. Safety first, remember? What are you, five?”

“I’m eight!” Tati shouted, far louder than necessary.

“I’m five!” Nikita said eagerly, sticking five fingers into Eli’s face.

“No, you aren’t,” Tati huffed, “you’re six.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Eli grinned and leaned his elbow on the back of the seat in front of Nikita. “Well, if you aren’t five, you need to get your seatbelt on, ‘cause otherwise I’m gonna have to put you back in a car seat. Like a five-year-old.”

“Noooo!”

While Tatiana scrambled for her seatbelt, Eli reached across Nikita’s lap to triple-check Siope’s carseat, jiggling to make sure it was secure in the middle seat. It still astonished him how quiet the eighteen-month-old was, even a year after adopting him. Siope sat there in his car seat, staring at his adopted sisters and sucking on his fingers.

Eli finally backed out of the SUV, pushing the back door close on Nikita trying to put a neon green barrette in her thick black hair. He moved around the front of the car, and stopped short at the sudden view of a man leaning against the driver’s side door.

He hadn’t been there a second ago.

Alexei was a grey, grizzled older man, and yet, Eli knew from experience that he, himself, could never keep up with the veteran agent. About six inches shorter than Eli, Alexei had salt-and-pepper hair and a short-cropped beard, and a sly, crooked grin Eli had been wild about when they worked together.

Right now, though, his first instinct was to punch it off Alexei’s face, and then throw him on the first plane back to Moscow.

“What are you doing here,” Eli hissed. Alexei shouldn’t be here - he shouldn’t even know Eli was here -

Alexei crossed his arms over his chest. “Wow. The pink hair looks good on you, Sasha.”

“Get out of here.”

“I just got here.”

“And now you’re leaving.” Eli stormed forward, even though he knew it was fruitless. Alexei’s ice-blue eyes - which were never still, always on the lookout for danger - flicked back to Eli, and then Alexei flashed out of existence.

He reappeared just a couple feet away, near the end of the SUV, and grinned cheekily, leaning his elbow against the vehicle. “I have some business to do here, Sasha, and you’re going to help me.”

“No, I’m not.”

Alexei’s smile was warm and indulgent, as if speaking to a small child. He had to look up to meet Eli’s gaze, and yet, Eli felt like a rookie all over again, scrambling to keep up with the veterans who knew what they were doing.

“…You crossed a line,” Eli said flatly, breaking the short silence. “Our lives are our own, Alexei.”

“You told me to look you up if I ever ended up here in America,” Alexei reminded him, bracing a foot against the care tire.

“I told you to call, not track me down like this!”

“Eh.” Alexei gave an expressive shrug. “Semantics. With an attitude like that, I would have expected you to be living in a castle with a moat, Sasha, not this cute little neighborhood.”

His Russian accent was heavy, and Eli could already feeling his own thickening in reply. “I won’t tell you again, Alexei. Leave.”

Alexei cut him a look, then placed a hand on one hip, nudging the edge of his open jacket back. Eli caught a perfect glance of a pistol, comfortably nestled on his hip, and then Alexei disappeared.

He didn’t need Tatiana’s sudden shriek to know where Alexei had disappeared to.

Eli wrenched the back door to his car open again. Alexei sat in the last row of seats, his elbows propped on the back of the middle row. He flashed Eli a grin.

“Daddy, who is that?” Tati demanded, at twice her normal volume - which was already pretty close to unbearable. Eli wanted to yell, too.

“Get out,” he snarled, and not even he was sure who he was talking to: Alexei, or his kids.

“Don’t be like that.” Alexei gave Eli a warm look. “I didn’t know you had such a full house, Sasha.”

He spoke in Russian now.

“Alexei,” Eli started, his voice a low growl, but the other man cut him off.

“Get in the car and drive, Sasha.”

Eli got in the car.His hands shook as he gripped the steering wheel. “What’s wrong?” Tatiana kept asking, and soon Nikita began to pick up on her sister’s fretting and started pulling at her booster seat straps. Siope just chewed on his stuffed puppy.

“It’s fine, Tati,” Eli finally gritted out, pulling away from the curb. “He’s -”

Eli could not even force the word friend out, even though he and Alexei had been surprisingly close, for a Russian agent and a bodyguard-for-hire. This was why people were always telling him to stop making friends, Eli thought. “We’re just giving him a ride.”

Eli’s phone, sitting in the cupholder, jingled with a text message. Alexei glanced in Eli’s rearview mirror, and said, “Please hand that here.”

Eli set his jaw. One of Alexei’s hands disappeared from view, and swearing under his breath, Eli grabbed the phone and awkwardly held it out towards the back when they reached the next stop sign. Alexei leaned forward to grab it with a benign smile and a cheerful “Спасибо, Sasha.”

“Daddy,” Tatiana whined for the thousandth time in the last two minutes. “Dad, I gotta go to school, I got a project.”

“No, I know, we’re going there first,” Eli said, and then shifted gears back into Russian. “Are you alone?”

“Yes,” Alexei said, but Eli didn’t really trust him. He left his stomach behind as he drove down the street.

When they pulled up to the school, Tati had abandoned her fears, and was enthusiastically explaining all about her school project to Alexei.

He listened gravely, his arms crossed neatly along the back of the seat, hands always empty, and always in sight. Had the circumstances been different, Eli would have been pleasantly surprised and even heartwarmed by Alexei paying such serious attention to Nikita reciting all the states (that she could remember), and even applauding her at the end of it. But now, all Eli felt was a sickening rage.

He barely kept his voice level when they reached the school. Alexei whistled as Eli curbed the minivan, earning a sour look from a nearby mother dropping off her own child. The — Russian’s arrival had made them almost late - the warning bell rang as Eli buttoned up Nikita’s weighted jacket.

“ByeDadloveyou!” Tati blurted, all in a rush. She gave Eli’s knees a quick hug, then grabbed Nikita by the hand and dragged her towards the school. Eli didn’t have a chance to stop them, to speak, to do anything more than hope desperately that Alexei would leave them alone.

“Private school,” Alexei noted, as Eli got back into the car, slamming the door shut. “Interesting.”

Eli glared at him in the rearview mirror. Alexei was leaning over Siope’s carseat with half a smile. He reached down to brush a lock of Siope’s curly black hair out of the toddler’s eyes.

For a moment, Eli couldn’t breathe.

“Alexei,” he said softly. “If you touch my children again, I will kill you.”

Alexei looked up, startlement on his face for a split second. After a moment, he nodded.

“Get in the front seat.”

Obediently, Alexei flickered himself into the shotgun seat, his blue eyes shooting Eli a quick, wary look.

“Where are we going?” Eli bit out, staring straight ahead. Alexei slouched in his seat, making himself comfortable.

“Denver.”

Eli sent him another look. “Alexei - I can’t go that far, I gotta pick up the girls -”

“It’s been handled.” Alexei held up Eli’s phone. “Your husband is picking them up.”

“You texted Daniel?” Eli yelped, and very nearly ran a stop sign. He slammed on the brakes, driving a surprised oof out of Alexei. A couple joggers crossing the street shot him a dirty look.

“Was that wrong?” Alexei asked innocently. “I thought -”

“We’re getting divorced!” Eli kept his foot firmly on the brakes and snatched at his phone. “Give that to me!”

Alexei stuck his hand out the window, holding the phone out of reach. “Who should I contact, then?”

Eli seethed. How did Alexei even know about Daniel? “Text Rebecca. Tell her -”

“I got it,” Alexei said, already tapping away at the phone. “I do not need you sending out any secret messages to your compatriots, Sasha.”

Eli clenched his jaw. “Make sure you tell Daniel he’s not needed.”

“Specifically like that?”

Eli glared at him.

“He wants to go out for dinner on Sunday,” Alexei added.

“No.”

“I told him six was fine.”

Siope fell asleep during the drive. Eli, who, according to everyone else at work, drove like a grandma, went even slower than usual. The drivers whipping around him seemed far more upset about his snail’s pace than Alexei, who merely followed Siope’s lead.

He woke up the instant when Eli slowed to take the next exit to Denver. Eli glanced sidelong at him, then said, “You need to tell me what’s going on.”

Alexei sighed. “I am tracking someone,” he said, taking off his grey cap to run his fingers through his hair. “Some…thing.”

“In Denver?”

Alexei shrugged. “Eh, probably.”

“Probably?” Eli repeated. “What if it’s not?”

“Then we’ll go find it.”

“We?” Eli stared at Alexei. “What if I don’t want to be your driver?”

“What makes you think you have a choice?” Alexei replied in a warm tone. He turned his head just enough to glance into the backseat, and Eli forgot how to breathe again.

He didn’t say another word to Alexei as they reached the city. Alexei reached down into the bag at his feet, pulling out a weird device that looked like a handheld game console cobbled together from decades-old computer pieces. He kept the screen angled from Eli, and hit a button along one side.

A quiet, but piercingly high, tone emitted from the device. It slid higher in pitch, until Eli could no longer hear it - but then Siope suddenly jerked awake and started whimpering.

“What is that thing?” Eli demanded. He reached down between the front seats, rummaging blindly through a diaper bag for one of Siope’s other toys. “What’s it doing?”

“He can probably still hear the tone,” Alexei mused. “Take a right.”

“What is it doing?” Eli repeated, leaning back and driving with one hand as he tossed the toy into Siope’s lap. “Is it hurting him?”

“Tracking,” Alexei grunted, “but it must be activated to be trackable. Go faster, Sasha, you drive like my great-aunt.”

Eli scowled. “What are you tracking?” he asked, but Alexei’s only answer was, “Go left.”

They meandered through the city for some time. Siope’s fussing finally calmed, and Alexei had just directed Eli onto a quiet street when he said, “We are close. Get ready.”

“For what?” Eli complained. “You haven’t told me anything, Alexei.”

It was a very nice section of the business district: office buildings surrounded a tiny park that was barely more than a median for the cul-de-sac. Parking lots were hidden from view, and only a scattering of vehicles parked along the curb. Alexei stuck to his tradition of keeping information to himself, his eyes fixed on the screen of his device.

“This is a sluggish one,” he commented, as Eli crawled the minivan down the street and towards the exit to a busier section of town. An unmarked moving van sat along the curb just ahead of them. As Eli drove closer, it exploded.

He slammed on the brakes. The car skidded to a stop, and Eli’s first instinct was to throw it in reverse and back up.

“Alexei,” he snarled - but Alexei was gone. Stomach dropping, Eli looked into the back seat.

Siope was gone, too, carseat and all. Eli swore viciously, just as something massive dropped onto the hood of his vehicle, crumpling it into scrap metal.

Eli had no idea what he was looking at. A massive - thing - crouched on the front of his car, a bristling mass of machinery, flesh, and fur.Eli blankly thought it might have been a bear, once.

The might-once-have-been-a-bear smashed its giant paws through the windshield and ripped Eli out of the car.

He hit the ground, hard, on his back, and stared up at the blue sky for one stunned moment. He’d reflexively changed to metal sometime before impact, but there were gouges in his skin around his collarbone, from where the monster had grabbed him. He hadn’t been quite fast enough.

The monster was still smashing about on top of his van, reducing it to nothing more than a heap of trash.

“I’m gonna kill you, ‘Lex,” Eli muttered, picking himself up off the ground. He brushed his titanium earring, switching from steel, and then threw himself at the weird animal/machine.

The two of them tumbled off the car and onto the sidewalk that ran along the park. Eli rolled away from the beast, scrambling to his feet. Ignoring the sharp flashes of pain from the scratches on his chest, he barrelled into the monster again, before it could properly right itself.

This time, instead of blindly using himself as a wrecking ball, Eli grappled for a handhold, and found one in a bunch of wires looping out of the beast’s arm.

“This is disgusting,” Eli muttered, as the bear-machine roared at him and tried to shake him off. He tore the wires out of the thing’s skin.

Blood and oil spurted out. The awful machine-flesh beast let out a tremendous roar of pain that rattled Eli’s brain in his skull, before it reared up on its back legs and threw him off.

He landed on his side, cracking the cement on impact, but rolled up to his feet before he had even lost momentum. Eli brushed his fingers over his bloodied chest, grimacing, but the cuts weren’t deep, and it seemed like the bear-machine couldn’t cut his skin in this form, even when Eli was pretty sure the thing had serrated knives for claws.

The beast roared at him again, its voice tinny and unearthly. It lumbered towards him on all fours, dripping blood and glistening black oil all down its forearm. Eli braced himself to meet it - but then a peppering of gunshots rang out, smattering against the beast’s side.

It reared to face this new threat, snarling, but even bullets didn’t seem to have much effect. Alexei stood across the street, a pistol in each hand, and grinned at Eli before he disappeared.

He flashed back on the other side of the bear, under a tree, and shot at it again. It turned in confusion, and snarled again. While it changed direction to chase after Alexei instead - thankfully it couldn’t seem to go even half as fast as an actual bear - Eli barreled into its side.

He didn’t realize that the freaky machine had gotten bigger until they were rolling over each other in the grass, the monster roaring and trying to carve him to pieces. Its sharp claws scraped against his metallic skin, slicing through his jacket like butter. Eli ended up beneath it, and struggled for breath as the bear took his arm in its mouth and bit down.

It did nothing except make Eli incredibly grossed out, as blood and saliva coated him. He struggled to shove the thing off, and then he found himself being lifted off the ground. The beast stood on its hind legs, swung its head, and threw Eli into the third floor of an office building.

He smashed through the glass windows, several cubicles, and a ceiling support. People were screaming and scrambling to get out of the path of destruction; one woman cowering behind a water cooler asked in a shrill voice, “Are - Are you okay?”

“M’ fine,” Eli growled. He really was - he might have a few bruises, but nothing worse than that. He swiped some of the blood and grease off his face, then moved to the gaping hole in the wall of glass windows that he had created.

He could see Alexei below, infuriating the beast with scattered gunshots. It didn’t seem to be very useful, and Eli wanted to throttle him. How could Alexei drag him and his son on a hunt like this, without even a plan to stop whatever this damn thing even was!

He was about to drop out of the building, when the shards of glass all around him suddenly lit up with brilliant rainbow lights, almost blinding.

“Gemglow!” someone said behind him. Eli could see her, after a moment of searching: Diamonique stood on someone’s car, now looking a little dented from the fight between the monster and the constantly-disappearing Alexei. Her trademark spears of crystal hovered around her in the air, glowing vibrant colors. The shards of broken window around Eli’s feet soon joined them, one particularly large piece of glass slicing carelessly along his jacket sleeve and ripping it open.

Alexei must have seen Diamonique, too, because he stopped his constant flickering, right in front of a thick-boled tree in the middle of the little park. The monster - it was definitely bigger now, as big as Eli’s van used to be - rushed him. Alexei emptied both his guns into the monster’s face as it barreled towards him, but the thing didn’t so much as flinch. Alexei teleported at the last second.

The monster crashed into the tree. Diamonique’s horde of crystal and glass shards came down upon it like a guillotine.

“What just happened?” Diamonique demanded, storming up to Eli. He meandered across the street, listening to the sirens in the distance, and brushed stubborn bits of glass still caught in his jacket. “What the freak is that? Who’s that guy? Did you do this!”

“I dunno,” was Eli’s tired answer to all of the above. He ran a hand through his hair, and eyed the harness Diamonique wore, studded with crystals that could allow her to lift herself in the air. “You off cape probation, then?”

“Don’t change the subject,” she snapped up at him. “I’m totally authorized to arrest you now, you know that? What’s he doing?”

Alexei was on top of the massive heap of fur and bones and chunks of machinery, a wicked-looking pocketknife in hand. The beast bristled with the bloodied chunks of glass and crystal Diamonique had used to kill the thing; she’d had to strike it several times. As they watched, Alexei leaned down to slice open several thick tubes looping out of the beast’s spinal cord and neck.

He hopped down and glanced at them over his shoulder. “Get back,” Alexei advised, flapping a hand at them. He clicked open a lighter with the other, and Eli understood.

“What are you doing?” Diamonique snapped, in her best I’m the cape and I know what I’m doing voice. Eli turned on his heel, grabbed the back of her repurposed climbing harness, and dragged her back several steps.

The bear-machine erupted into flames. The heat washed over them, and Eli turned his head from the sight, and a sudden gut-wrenching stench. Alexei teleported away from the fire before it could reach him, and made the fatal mistake of reappearing within Eli’s reach.

Alexei was too busy admiring his handiwork to escape before Eli laid hands on him. He slammed Alexei up against the side of the nearest building, while Diamonique shouted at them in confusion and anger.

“Where’s Siope!” Eli shouted in Alexei’s face, holding the smaller man well off the ground. Alexei blinked down at him, and when he didn’t immediately answer, Eli snarled and pulled him away from the wall. Only to slam him against the bricks again.

Alexei gasped for breath, wrapping his hands around Eli’s thick wrists. Diamonique skidded to a stop next to them, her mouth opening.

She disappeared. So did everything else around Eli, except for Alexei. Before he could register the absolute nothingness surrounding them, the world snapped back into place.

Eli dropped Alexei, nauseous and woozy. Staggering back, he knocked over a dumpster that definitely hadn’t been there before, and caught himself on a rusty chain link fence. They were in another alley, or sorts, but it was neat and clean, the sort of tiny sidestreet homeless people were evicted from with prejudice. Even before Eli’s brain could register the fact that Alexei had whisked him clear across the city, Eli recognized Siope’s crying.

He whirled around so quickly that he almost fell over. Eli bumped up against the wall of an apartment building, and found Siope’s car seat tucked between the wall and an overgrown, half-dead bush.

Siope was a very quiet eighteen-month-old, most of the time - but when he cried, he howled. He was screaming now, terrified sobs that stopped Eli’s heart as he pulled the car seat out of the bush.

“You left him here?” Eli snarled over at Alexei. He lifted Siope from the seat, fumbling at the buckles, and the toddler’s cries turned from wordless sobs to “Dadadadadadadada-”

“I was keeping him from danger,” Alexei defended himself.

“You left him out here alone!”

“Would you have preferred he died in that car?”

Eli was about to shout back that he’d prefer that Alexei had never shown up in the first place, but then Siope took a deep breath and shrieked. Furious, Eli turned his back to Alexei and dropped down onto the curb. Siope wrapped his hands in Eli’s shirt, heedless of the blood and oil that covered it, and sobbed.

Daniel was right, Eli thought in despair. He was right, Eli was going to get his children killed. He shouldn’t be a father, he’d done too much wrong, and any family he had would suffer for it -

Alexei sat down next to him. Eli turned his face away, but not before Alexei had seen the tears rolling down his cheeks.

“…You were scared,” Alexei murmured, once Siope’s wailing had dwindled to an occasional whimper. Eli closed his eyes.

“I am scared,” he said, finally. “Terrified.”

“I have never seen you scared.”

Alexei had never seen Eli with his children, either. Eli rocked Siope back and forth, dully aware that he really shouldn’t let the toddler get all this grime all over him. One more way he was an awful excuse for a parent. He wished Alexei would do what he was best at, and disappear. It was another long moment before the other man asked, “Did you really think I would hurt them?”

Eli shot him a withering look, too angry to even speak. Alexei winced and looked down at his hands.

In a strained voice, Eli said, “You don’t - You never make threats you don’t follow through on, Alexei.”

“Well.” Alexei looked away. “What a monster I have become.”

Eli didn’t answer. Siope was finally starting to calm down, enough for Eli to dig out the packet of diaper wipes. He started to scrub some of the gunk and blood off of Siope’s hands and face that the toddler had smeared all over himself. In another few minutes, Siope had cried himself more or less to sleep. He slept a lot, and sometimes Eli worried. But right now, it was a blessing for his eardrums.

He leaned over to settle Siope in the car seat once more. Eli’s intention was to leave - but before he could stand, he felt a tap on his arm, and looked over. Alexei handed him one of his pistols.

Eli stared at it. Alexei said, voice hollow, “You should always follow through on your threats.”

If you touch my children again, I will kill you.

A wave of exasperation crashed suddenly over Eli. “I’m not going to shoot you, Alexei,” he snapped. Regarding him through narrow eyes, Eli added, “You never followed through on your threat.”

Alexei gave him a haggard smile. “I never threatened your children, Sasha. I implied.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“Eh.” Alexei shrugged one shoulder. “Semantics.”

Eli stared at him, then abruptly let out a bark of laughter. It was a ragged, hysterical sound, one that even he didn’t recognize as a laugh. Alexei looked alarmed. Eli clamped a hand over his mouth and screwed his eyes shut, hunching over. He suddenly hurt. All his bruises and scrapes made themselves individually made themselves known, but more than that, he felt exhausted.

“Sasha.” Alexei placed a hesitant hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Why are you so scared?”

Eli looked down at the car seat between his feet, and the child inside it, quietly whimpering himself to sleep. Alexei followed his gaze. This close, Eli felt his sigh, more than heard it.

“What was that thing?” Eli asked, rather than voice his fears aloud. Alexei accepted the change of topic with a nod.

“Some idiot genius,” he said, with extreme disgust. “He lost his funding, but his experiments were continued. And,” Alexei rubbed his eyes with one hand, “they were all stolen.”

Eli arched his eyebrows. “You’re hunting them down?”

Alexei gave one short jerk of his head.

“Shouldn’t they have given you some backup?”

“They,” Alexei said, enunciating his words very carefully, “are the ones who stole them in the first place.”

Eli looked at him. “…You’re kidding.”

A shrug. “I saw what one of those things did before. We are very lucky this one was still small.”

“It crushed my van.”

“Yes.” Alexei ran a hand over his hair. “I am very sorry for that. I cannot compensate you.”

“Of course not.” It wasn’t Eli’s only car, of course, but it had loads more room than his sedan. He sighed and propped his chin in his hand. “You should’ve given me some warning. You should’ve called, Alexei. I would’ve helped, even without the implied threats.”

It was Alexei’s turn to hunch up his shoulders. He looked away again, digging the fingernails of one hand into the back of the other. Eli looked down at the pistol he still held, then set it down next to Siope’s car seat, and reached over to push his fingers through Alexei’s wringing hands. The man stiffened, but then he let Eli hold his hand.

“So, you’re here on some suicide mission? How many are there, anyway?”

“Five more, now.”

Eli let out a low whistle. “D’you have any assets for this?”

Alexei lifted one shoulder. “Some,” he said. He hesitated, then admitted, “I… I need a place to stay.”

Of course he did. Eli stared at the ground, slowly rubbing his thumb over the back of Alexei’s hand.

“If you don’t mind rooming with my boss and my gun-crazy coworker,” he said slowly, “I have space in the basement.”

Alexei looked at Eli, but the bigger man was determinedly staring at nothing in particular, his face a little red.

“With your children?”

“My non-implied threat still stands. Besides, Kawai’s the worst nanny, but the best security. She’ll murder you before I ever get the chance.”

Alexei let out a shaky laugh. “I thought I told you to stop being so soft.”

Snorting, Eli bumped his shoulder into Alexei. “Yeah, so did everyone else.”

#asks #gingerly-writing #iwrite #eli #alexei #mi #mercury independent #superpowerverse

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ryukogo · 7 years

Text

cozy

Summary: Bunny’s missing. The solution? Interrogate her squad until they crack.

Prompt: Jacket - While everyone’s ready to jump outside at the soonest day with a temperature above fifty, it’s not always in your muse’s best interest to forgo their coat so soon. Did they think it would be significantly warmer and get unpleasantly surprised? Or do they want to risk the cold simply because they’re excited to potentially go outside without feeling like they’re freezing their extremities off? Did a friend forget their jacket and your muse wants to share? Did one get left behind somewhere?

Words: 1996

Link is in the title if you wish to read it on AO3!

“Ladies and gentlemen.”

Creek Tweak-Tucker, despite his usually indifferent, done-with-the-world demeanor, trembled like a leaf on his chair, genuinely terrified. Next to him, Kyan Marshlovski had his arms and legs crossed, an eyebrow raised, and on his left, Candy Cartman yawned, looking bored as she twirled a lock of hair with her finger. There were lights glaring down on all three of them from above their heads, leaving each of them with their own personal spotlight.

At the sound of what was most likely a ruler hitting an open palm, Creek openly flinched, shaking harder. Concerned, Kyan reached over to place a hand on his shoulder, trying to get him to calm down, and Candy rolled her eyes, mumbling something about Creek needing to calm down.

In front of the trio, a light shone down on another person, who was scowling as he stepped forward, slamming his palms on the table in front of the trio.

Leopold Stotch McCormick.

Or, as the trio knew him...

“Uncle Butters?” The three of them all asked simultaneously, incredulously.

“Where are we?” Kyan asked.

“Did you do this?!” Creek wailed.

“How much did you pay my dad to make him let you do this?” Candy asked, looking like she wanted to be anywhere else but here.

Butters pointed at all three of them. “I’ll be doin’ the question askin’ ‘round here, thank ya kindly! You’re all here today because of one thing - you are all my daughter’s friends.”

“Everyone is Bunny’s friend,” Kyan pointed out, brow furrowed. “She’s the friendliest of the bunch.”

“But out of all of you losers, she picked me to be her best friend,” Candy declared with pride, feeling a small sense of achievement that the sweetest girl in their age group picked her, of all people, to be her best friend. It was a personal victory, and it was good for the both of them - Candy mellowed out, and Bunny became more assertive. It worked out.

Butters’s hands tightened into fists. “As I was sayin’, y’all are my daughter’s friends. And here’s the thing: my daughter is missing.”

“Bunny’s missing?” Now here, all three of them looked at each other in alarm, genuinely terrified now.

“Yes, my sweet baby is missin’,” Butters leaned forward until he was almost nose to nose with Kyan, who tried not to flinch back. “And you three were the last three people she was with. That means...” His scowl grew darker.

“I get ta interrogate ya until ya crack.”

-=-=-=-=-

It took around an hour before Eric called up Kenny to inform him about what exactly Butters was up to, and when he found out, Kenny just facepalmed.

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner, Cartman?” He asked, exasperated.

Eric’s voice sounded disinterested. “Butters couldn’t torture children until they cracked if his life depended on it. At best he’d scare them shitless, because I will admit, he has a terrifying scary face.”

“So he literally did pay you to get you to allow him to borrow your daughter for interrogation? And what about Craig and Tweek? Stan and Kyle?”

“We’re just having dinner with my wife next Sunday at the new restaurant in Denver. That’s payment. It’s a buffet. And those four gays know their sons are with Butters. They’re joining us for dinner.”

Despite himself, Kenny licked his lips. “Nice.”

“He drives a hard bargain, McCormick. You netted yourself a smart one.”

“Okay, okay, hold on, though-” Kenny considered the situation again before asking, “So do you know where my daughter is? She really must be missing if Butters is throwing a fit.”

“There’s always checking Hell.”

“I’m not due for another Pip and Damien dinner until next next Monday.”

“So? Just drop in for a visit, say hi, that bullshit. Pip will eat it up.”

“Damien is sick of my face.”

“I’m sick of your face too, but you don’t see me complaining that often.”

“Oh, fuck you, Cartman,” Kenny grumbled before an idea suddenly occurred to him. “Oh, holy shit.”

“What?”

“The Delorns! Er, the Sinclairs? Gregory and Christophe!” Kenny’s eyes brightened considerably. “Why didn’t I think of this before? Gristoph must know something!”

Eric’s voice sounded curious over the phone. “Tall, dark, and deadpan? Know something about your barrel of sunshine?”

“They bonded - what can I do?” Kenny shrugged. “Anyway, gotta go, Cartman. I’m gonna pay the boy a little visit. Tell Wendy she’s still gorgeous.”

“Stop hitting on my wife McCormick, you have your own.”

“Love you too, Cartman, you fat bastard.”

“AY!”

-=-=-=-=-

“Gristoph?” Gregory looked surprised at Kenny’s inquiry. “The boy is just upstairs, I believe. He came home an hour ago and hasn’t left his room since. Why, what’s the matter?”

“Bunny’s missing and Butters has Kyan, Creek, and Candy captive until he finds out where she is,” Kenny explained, as though this was the most normal thing in the world. And it isn’t, really - but their daughter was on the line, and Butters’s mind worked in the strangest ways.

Gregory made an ‘ah’ of understanding. “Well, alright, you can come in. Mind the cat toys, wipe your feet on the welcome mat, and take off your shoes. It’s much safer to walk around in socks around here.”

“Jesus, Greg, it’s freezing in here,” Kenny grumbled, pulling his parka tighter. It resembled his parka in his younger years, yes, but it was brand new - Butters had gotten it for him on their anniversary two years ago. “It’s not even summer, man.”

Gregory sighed, apologetic. “I know, I’m sorry, but it’s necessary. Gristoph thrives in the cold.”

“Why the fuck.”

“I try not to question it,” The man mumbled before he led Kenny to the staircase. “His room is two doors to the right, decorated in bunny and rainbow stickers.”

Kenny gave him a long hard look.

“That was your daughter’s doing, I believe, years ago,” Gregory stared right back at him, looking unimpressed.

“Ah.”

“Those are heavy duty stickers, I’ll give her that,” Gregory stated as an afterthought before heading back to the kitchen. “If you don’t find out where Bunny is, I’ll go call Christophe. He’s bound to know something.”

“Thanks, Greg,” Kenny said appreciatively before ascending the stairs, immediately zeroing in on the door decorated with the bunny and rainbow stickers. Yikes, Bunny. You have this boy wrapped around your little finger if you can stick these on his door, of all things.

Summoning up all of his fatherly courage, Kenny knocked on the door three times, and, after a minute or so, Gristoph opened the door, looking like he had a horrible, horrible hangover. The boy, at 17, was taller than Kenny by a few inches, which made it jarring for him to look at the boy. “... Mister McCormick, sir?”

“Gristoph, you look terrible,” were the first words Kenny managed to say, staring at the way the boy seemed to move sluggishly, a little disoriented, but otherwise fine. His teeth chattered at the sudden burst of cold air that had come from Gristoph’s room - Jesus fucking Christ, the boy had his own personal air conditioner? It’s a wonder he’s not half frozen all the fucking time!

The boy managed to crack a smirk at his words. “I always look terrible, sir.”

“Anyway-” Kenny paused, peering into the room behind Gristoph could react. His eyes zeroed in on a familiar pink backpack, and his gaze narrowed.

“Gristoph.”

“Sir.”

“That is my daughter’s backpack.”

“I am well aware, sir,” Gristoph answered coolly.

“Where is Bunny?” Kenny asked, feeling his temper rise. Had he done something to his daughter? Had he- no, Kenny, don’t think about that, Gristoph is a respectable kid, raised by two respectable, sort of, parents. He wouldn’t. “Son-”

“Don’t call me son.”

“- Gristoph, my husband is about ready to strangle one of your friends if Bunny isn’t found soon,” Kenny explained, groaning. “So please, save me the pleasantries, and tell me where-”

“Daddy?”

Kenny blinked.

Bunny’s head popped out from behind Gristoph’s back, and it was then that he noticed the little bumps under his jacket that signified something wrapped around his torso - Bunny’s legs - and his shoulders - Bunny’s arms.

“Bunny?” Kenny stared in incredulity. “What the hell?”

Bunny, to her credit, flushed a light pink. “It was freezing in here!”

“And you decided to crawl into Gristoph’s jacket for warmth? Did you even-”

“Yes, Daddy, I asked permission!” Bunny whined, scooching up so she could rest her chin on Gristoph’s shoulder. The boy looked unfazed as she added, “We do this all the time - I curl up inside his jacket and we get all warm and cozy! It’s big enough for the both of us!”

Kenny, taking a leaf out of Stan’s book, pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, “And you didn’t think to text me or your father about this.”

“I did though!” Bunny protested before checking her phone. “... Oh. It didn’t send.”

“And there it is,” Gristoph commented offhandedly.

“Shut up, Gris, you could’ve let me text on your phone for a guaranteed sent message!”

Despite himself, Kenny cracked a smile. The way his daughter bickered with him reminded him ever so slightly of his own friendship with Christophe - during his good days, anyway. With a laugh, he told them, “Okay, that’s enough. Bunny, we have to go home before your father breaks your friends.”

“Can Gristoph come too?” Bunny pleaded. “I’m too lazy to walk.”

“What? I’m not your personal steed.”

“Yes you are, now come on!”

Kenny couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud. “Ask your dad’s permission first before we go, then.”

“Do I have to?” Gristoph groaned.

Bunny nibbled at his earlobe, and Kenny witnessed the tallest boy in his daughter’s age group do a full body shudder, eyes wide. He raised an eyebrow as the boy shoved his hands into his pockets, cheeks burning bright red as he stomped his way out of his room and down the stairs.

... Holy shit, she really is my daughter, Kenny thought to himself. ... And I’m not sure if that was a good thing.

-=-=-=-=-

“Butters?”

“UNCLE KENNY!” The trio practically shrieked at the sight of their blond savior, Kyan openly weeping in joy as Butters turned to face his husband, looking frazzled. Candy, on her end, gave Gristoph a confused look.

“Hi, Ken,” Butters greeted before sighing. “Guess I gotta let ‘em out now, huh?”

“Please,” Candy begged. “I can’t take any more polar bear sugar cookies, they’re good but I’m already full! It’s torture!”

“Polar bear sugar cookies?!” Bunny’s head popped out from behind Gristoph again. “Where?!”

“BUNNY!” Butters screamed, running over to Gristoph’s side, gesturing for him to crouch down. Obliging, the boy knelt down so that Butters could pepper his only daughter in kisses as she whined, “Papaaaaa, stoooop!”

“She was at Gristoph’s house,” Kenny explained when Butters turned to him. “They were... cuddling.”

Creek choked on a polar bear sugar cookie. “Cuddling?!”

“It was cold!” Bunny defended again.

“Cuddling, my ass,” Candy mumbled, mostly to herself, but she did waggle her eyebrows at Bunny, who, to her credit, turned a bright red before hiding herself in Gristoph’s jacket again.

“Didn’t you text any of us?” Butters scolded. “We were so worried!”

“I did... but the text didn’t send...”

“Oh, sweetie,” Butters shook his head before turning to the other three children. “I’m sorry, you three. Tha’ was mighty inappropriate of me t’do, even if I did ask your parents first.”

“DAD AGREED TO THIS?!” Kyan yelled.

“I fucking knew it,” Candy grumbled. “Hey, can I take home some more polar bear sugar cookies, Uncle Butters?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you!”

“I think I’m going to just... take a quick nap, like, right now,” Creek held up one finger before falling over, passing out on the floor, the adrenaline from panicking over the interrogation coupled with the sugar rush he got from the cookies finally dying out.

“... Oh dear.”

Kenny just took out his phone, sighing. “I’ll call Craig.”

“Thank you, Ken.”

#south park #kenny mccormick #butters stotch #sp bunny #bunny mccormick #eric cartman #gregory of yardale #gristoph delorn #kyan marshlovski #creek tweak tucker #creek tweak-tucker #candy cartman #classo's fanfics #spdrabblebomb

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beyondvapepage · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we’re just gonna, we’re going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Adam: Well, with that, thanks for being here, and we’re going to jump right into it and just say, first of all, thanks for watching Hump Day Hangouts. Whether you’re catching this as a replay, whether you are joining us live, if you are live, go ahead. If you got any questions, pop them on the page. Say hello. Help post your favorite GIF. Do whatever you want to do. Let me take that back. Don’t do whatever you want to do. At least like PG 13 maybe.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Yeah, well, real quick. Let’s go down the line. Say hello to everybody. We got everybody here today. I think Chris is hanging out so he doesn’t die of heat exhaustion. But so we’ll start with him before he passes out. How are you doing Chris?

Chris: Yeah, then good. had to move forward to the seller because like I don’t know the heat wave is like quite unbearable for me. I still don’t know why people love summer that much. More of a person. Yeah, rest. Life is good. Otherwise.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You’re kind of the opposite, right?

Hernan: Yeah, dude, I’m freezing my ass. But on the good note. I think that if I’m the Hangout goes away. We can do like you porn type of streaming, you know, and embed that in the page. Now I’m pretty cool. Yeah. Anyways, I’m great. Dude. I’m awesome. I’m just really looking forward to POFU Live 2019. That’s coming. He’s coming in hot. We had a really cool. We had a really cool event last year. And we are going to make it cooler this year. So it’s going to be pretty cool. So

Adam: yeah, definitely. We’re going to talk some more about that. But if you’re not sure what it is, one, stay tuned. And then secondly, go over to pokey live.com which will actually work now I got the domain resolve so you can actually they type in hopefully live and get there. So go check that out. Marco, How about yourself? How are you doing, man?

Marco: What’s up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I’ll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Bradley: I took off last week because I had a meeting that I couldn’t get out of. And I feel I felt like something was missing the entire damn week because this is Episode 242. And this is only the second episode I’ve missed out of 242. And so it’s you know, it’s Wednesday’s aren’t the same without Hump Day Hangout. So no, we’re not taking them away. We’re just saying that Hangouts On Air is going away. So we’re going to have to figure out a new way to stream and answer questions, which is fine. We’ll adapt. We always do.

Marco: Yeah. Anyway. Life’s good. Costa Rica is good. the weather’s good. Have a nice little earthquake last night. 66263 woke me up at around one-two in the morning. You know, shaken and bacon. But otherwise? Things are good.

Adam: That’s good. I’m glad you guys are all right. That’s getting up there. That’s not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You’re still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

Bradley: Everything’s good man. Life is good. Can’t complain. A lot of good things going on. Right now. We’re doing some pretty cool stuff in the mastermind, which by the way, guys, we have a mastermind webinar tomorrow, we’ll be covering some stuff in there. I’m also starting a small group training inside the mastermind for some select members that it’s going to be really cool for they’re going to be kind of learning the new business model that I’m into. Because it’s so lucrative. So that’s a lot of fun. Just got a lot of exciting stuff going on right now. Oh, do want to talk about something else though. GMBs are certainly on a rampage. Google is on a rampage right now suspending shit, that’s even 100% legit for no reason. I actually had my first client site or GMB suspended just two days ago for doing nothing other than uploading a photo. And it was dumb. It was just it’s stupid. And I’ve got it in the reinstatement request going on. And they sent a message back to said originally that they’ll you know, reply within 24 hours. Then within 24 hours, I got a follow-up reply that said we have a huge backlog of reconsideration, reinstatement requests that we’re trying to work through, and it will be we’re backlogged up to three or two to three weeks. So my clients pissed, but he understands I didn’t do anything. You know, it’s spammy. It’s just, it’s just Google My Business is broken right now, guys. So now we have to switch strategies up, I would recommend staying out of them as much as possible, try not to edit them at all, if possible, until they get their shit together. It’s just, it’s a bloodbath out there right now. So just keep that in mind. So I didn’t want to give that update. We gotta shift our strategy to adapt with whatever, whatever comes. And this is, um, this is not a very good time for Google My Business stuff for sure.

Adam: Cool. Yeah. There are more questions about that, too. If anyone watching has some questions, go ahead and pop that in there. I mean, obviously, it’s a big topic we’ve been covering. It’s a great way to conduct lead gen like we’ve been talking about. And just because this is happening doesn’t mean this is the way it’s always going to be things change, just like it became, you know, a great tool to use and it may swing back that way. So real quick to just want to say if you’re new to Semantic Mastery, thanks for joining us for Hump Day Hangouts. Again, whether you’re live or watching the replay. If you’re here, you’re in the right place, you can always go to https://www.semanticmastery.com/hdquestions and ask your questions ahead of time, in case you can’t watch it live. So each week, you can pop those on there will answer them or point you in the right direction. If we can’t get you a specific answer. Other than that, though, the next thing people ask us is, you know, hey, where should I start with Semantic Mastery besides coming home to hang out What should I do? Go get the Battle Plan, go to https://www.battleplan.semanticmastery.com and if you’re ready to move on from that, take things up a few notches come join our MasterMind, alright, if you’re looking to form a strong network, if you’re looking to either start or grow your own digital marketing agency or if you’re a business owner that wants to grow it as well that I’ll also comprise a number of our members. Come check out the mastermind https://www.mastermind.semanticmastery.com. You can find out more about that. And then if you’re looking for Done For You services like syndication networks, RYS drive stacks, links, embeds all that good stuff, go to mgyb.co for your premium done for you SEO services. And last but not least, hook us up, subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you guys are over there, you’re watching clips or whatever, just check, just click the subscribe button. Stay update helps us and helps us stay on top of important questions whether it’s SEO, its other digital marketing questions, funnels, Facebook ads, whatever it is that’s going on, we put out a ton of content and we love that people watch it. So help us out and subscribe over there.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

So real quick, we mentioned POFU Live, I want to touch base on this real quick for everyone. We just tomorrow or for if you’re a subscriber, you’re going to see an email about that. And I just wanted to talk real quick because we just got that up and running. We’re just starting ticket sales mastermind members got the first crack at getting their tickets. And we’ve got two out of the three speakers that we can announce there on the page. So it’s no secret if you go there, but I wanted to touch base on this. Jeffrey Smith is going to be joining us again. All right. He was Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so he’s going to be joining us again, really pumped to have Jeffrey back. He joined us last year for the first POFU Live gave a killer talk. He was a blast. He was there all weekend, hanging out talking to people dropping some bombs and some great gold nuggets, there are some information. And he’s going to be coming back and doing it again. So really looking forward to that. And then Adam Benjamin is not only a because he’s got a great first name. But also He’s the founder of Brain Hickey, this guy is a killer copywriter. He’s got a lot of real-world experience dealing with clients both at scale and with high ticket, high-end clients, tons of information, tons of knowledge he’s going to share. So looking forward to having him he’s a Colorado local. So he’s going to come down and help us in Denver and be pitching in and dropping some knowledge there too. And then we are going to have potentially a third and maybe even a fourth guest speaker who we will be announcing in the coming days. But the reason I bring this up to you is if you want to go to poker, you live in Denver and October 11 12th and 13th of this year, you’re going to want to get your tickets in the next week or two, shortly after the Fourth of July week, the prices are going to be going up, we want to offer you an early bird discount. It’s our way of saying thank you if you get the tickets now helps us plan accordingly. And we can do this a lot easier. So as again, our way of saying thank you is we offer you a lower price for that. But as soon as that’s over, prices are going to go up. There’s no you know, special offers coming. There’s no you know, last-minute sale, anything like that.

Bradley: Yeah, the way just quickly to clarify, our events are not pitched fest guys, it’s not like you’re going to come to our event, we’re going to pitch you additional training and products and the speakers are going to be pitching training and products. It’s not how it works with it’s a training event. You know, if you want to reach out to any of them afterward, and you know, pursue what they have available, that’s perfectly fine. It’s up to you. But it’s not about that it’s about training. It’s going to be a really good event. You know, we talked about holistic business building, right. So it’s not just about SEO or this or that it’s about the overall building a business, scaling a business, sustaining a business, all of that. So again, we would highly recommend if anybody’s interested to Get your tickets now because it’s going to go up after the Fourth of July ish area timeframe. So now would be a good time to get them at their lowest price.

Adam: Definitely. And I mean, I will just say to it’s a good time, you know, you can go These are real people on the pages, the real attendees from last year, you know, we can tell you about it. And if you have questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected] will answer them. Or you can ask them here on Hump Day Hangouts. But you can go and see what other people had to say about the event. You know, a lot of really good points, people got a lot out of it and a lot out of each other the networking that happened there, just like being in the mastermind, a lot of the power comes from the people you meet there the connections, you meet the ideas that are generated in that kind of smaller group setting. So really looking forward to doing that again, and narrowing down the list for the VIP day. That last time was a blast, we did a kr a chartered brewery tour in Washington, DC. And this year, we’re going to be in Denver. So I’m looking at something else I’ve got it narrowed down to a couple but I think it’s going to be just as fun. It’s a good way to get to meet everybody, relax, to have fun, get introduced, get up speed and then hit the ground running the next day for the main event.

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let’s talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Okay, uh, if you guys didn’t see it on Monday, we had Jeremy, the developer or one of the codeveloper of press advantage on and you guys know, we been pitching or using press advantage I have been for many years actually. But we did a promotion for press advantage when they when he kind of relaunched it as two dot o at the end of September last year. And so we’re talking, you know, eight months ago, and he was gracious enough to come on on Monday to open up a very, very good offer. Again, for people that want to subscribe have their own subscription to press the advantage, which there were two different levels, there’s one level which is three done for your press. So written for you press releases on a monthly basis for 350 bucks, which gives you the ability to have an organization page, which, if you followed any of our training, that is an integral part of what we do, we use that organization page as a very powerful tier one property branded property. Very, very powerful. And a lot of things that you can do with it are powerful as well. Then there’s the other offer, which was amazing that he swore up and down, he wouldn’t open up again, the previous time that he in September when we did the webinar, but I did twist his arm and he opened it up again. And that was for 497 a month you get six written for you press releases and unlimited, write them, write it yourself, press releases, or submit yourself. But here’s the catch that I mean, there’s no catch. But you can buy additional press release writing services from press advantage for 50 bucks. So essentially, you get six for 497 a month. And then you can buy each additional one for 50 bucks, or you can go out and get your own writer and all that. But I’m telling you the best and most efficient way to run it is to just use the writers. And anyway, we did a webinar with him and ended up going two hours. Again, there’s a lot of new and additional features that have been implemented since September when we did it the first time. And so we cover all here, he covers all of that. And I you know, I comment along in the webinar, if you want to watch it. Otherwise, just skip to the end or, you know, go to the sales page or the checkout page, I should say and subscribe. If you’re doing anything for your your own business, a light like a court press releases are incredibly powerful content marketing through press releases are incredibly powerful. So even if you’re your own business owner, as opposed to like an agency or a marketing consultant, using press releases, frequently and often is going to be very, very powerful for your business, we’ve seen it time and again. So I would say if even if you’re a business owner, or definitely if you’re a consultant or an agency that you should look at to get your own subscription, you can buy press releases from us at in our store, mgyb.co, and they’re one-off press releases for a very good price. And you still get the benefit of having that press release published, which drives a lot of links. It can get a lot of traffic and all that kind of stuff. But if you’re going to be doing volume, which you should be doing because they are so powerful, it should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy, you should have your own subscription period. And we stand by that statement. So it’s a great service, I highly recommend you go check it out. Check out the webinar if you want to see all of what it can do for you. Otherwise, just go straight to the checkout page and subscribe.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don’t.

Bradley: I don’t have any. I’m ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I’m taking the screen. Let’s do it.

Bradley: Okay, cool. We probably have some new listeners or watchers, viewers, audience members, whatever. Because I did a podcast with Tommy, Tommy Mellow has a podcast, which does handle a whole bunch of home service type contractors and got a really good response from that. And so anybody that’s here from Tommy mellows podcast, welcome. Come back, post off, you know, post questions here often about anything that has to do with your contracting businesses as far as marketing, getting better results, lead generation, that kind of stuff, we’re happy to answer them. And again, definitely, you know, engage with us, and we’ll try to help you out as much as we can.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

So Alright, so the first question I see comes from Scott n, and I’m assuming this may be one of them. I have a hardwood floor and staircase renovation business, my main point of interest is to learn how to best utilize the Google My Business Page to get the most out of the account. So that’s really good. Now, there are a few things that I would recommend, number one if you heard the beginning of this webinar, or today’s Hump Day Hangout right now is not really a good time to be doing a whole lot of editing of your Google My Business Page, right. So if you’ve got it already, and it’s running, that’s great. I would recommend that you really stick to just doing Google My Business posts or GMB posts right now, and not do a lot of editing of the page itself or the profile. because things are being suspended. Right now Google is on a rampage to eliminate spam listings, in part because of some high profile people running their mouth, to high profile publications and getting a lot of unnecessary attention to them. And so anyway, my point is, even if you’re a legit business owner, with a legitimate business with the physical location that you can verify, I recommend that you stay the hell out of it. As far as making edits to the actual profile, at least until Google fixes its itchy trigger finger so to speak, because right now, barely, I mean, for no rhyme or reason that I know of. You go in and you make an edit of any kind and boom, it can get it can be suspended. And it’s a crapshoot every time, right? You roll the dice every time because you never know what’s going to suspend the listing or not. And, as I mentioned before, their backlog for reinstatement requests are two to three weeks currently at the moment. So if it gets suspended, you’re going to be shut out, you know, dead in the water di Tw until you can get it reinstated if they’re going to be gracious enough to reinstate it. So that’s just the caveat, I want to you know, disclaim everything here with that, number one. Number two, it really one of the best things that you can do is to Google My Business posting, right, do that frequently and often. Look for the keywords that you want, or search queries that you want to get more traffic from. Also, look at the GMB insights. And you’ll see what kind of search queries are actually bringing your maps listing exposure, and start using those search queries that are relevant more often in posts. Okay, that’s really important. And in something else, we you know, we talked about our store mgyb.co. And just for anybody that doesn’t know what mg yc stands for, that makes Google your bitch. So mgyb.co is our store. If you go there, we’ve got some products that will help help you to actually really boost your Google My Business profile. As far as you know, getting better results from it. Number one would be a syndication network. Number two would be a drive stack. And we can know, we can offer assistance as to how to get the best use out of those. For people that don’t know, those of you that are not in the SEO industry. Some of that may seem foreign to you. But really, it’s not difficult, the concept is quite easy, I’m actually going to walk through a brief example of how you can gather the type of links that you would want to promote. So your profiles within a drive stack. Drive stacks are incredibly powerful, especially for Google My Business stuff or maps ranking. So I’m going to walk through that here in just a moment. But first, I just want to say, for your Google My Business Page, really again, I would stay out of trying to edit it right now. But I would take advantage of the Google My Business posting feature. Post often, post regularly, use the search queries or the keywords that you want to get traffic from. So for example, in this case, like it might be flooring, floor restoration or floor renovation or flooring, contractors or gills notice a lot of near me keywords. near me type search queries are driving a lot of traffic to maps. So flooring contractors near me flooring restoration near me variations of near me like nearby in my area close to me, that kind of stuff. So mix and match the keywords, the types of service keywords that you want to rank for, along with near me and variations of near me. Also, if you cover a wide surface area, you want to start including some of the locations that within your service area. So location names, do it be via city names, even neighborhoods, things like burrows, districts, things like that if you have different names that you can start to include. That’s why I said there’s really no way that you can do too many posts in my opinion. That’s really important and that as far as I know, is not getting GMB suspended. I haven’t had that happen from a post yet, but I have from doing editing the profile at all. That makes sense. Okay. Marco, do you want to comment on that while I pull up some examples?

Marco: No, no, I agree. Totally. I mean, we have the train Local GMB Pro, which could be the next step. In the process except in gi in local GMB Pro, we do tell you to go and make edits and all of these other things which you shouldn’t be doing when you submit it, especially if you have a real business, right? A real, whether it’s service area, brick, and mortar, whatever it is that you have, fill it out as thoroughly as you can right at the beginning before you send for that pin. So that you don’t have to go back and mess with it. Because it’s when you start going back and messing with it that you get into problems. So that the only change that I would recommend right now is if you’re doing some that’s legitimate. Do it right the first time get you to know, use the guidelines that we set up in local GMB Pro. But do it right the first time send for that pin, make sure all the information is correct. And then it’ll come back to you. It’s your business. And if something happens, you can always go back in and get that business reinstated. Right that GMB whereas others are the problem that they’re having. And why it is a problem, to begin with, is we were just spamming in and getting a ton of businesses that didn’t really exist. But if yours does that, then you right now, the second problem is Bradley mentioned is that you’re in a queue. And until they can get to you because of spammers like Bradley. You’re waiting for three four months and excuse me weeks. And right now, whatever it is that the summer businesses, right? Well, the summer businesses, like a pest control Tree Service, anything having to do with outdoors, are in the queue, and this is like the top of the season. So they’re moving a whole lot of money. And they shouldn’t be because they have legitimate businesses. So that’s the only thing that I would add.

Bradley: Yeah, that’s my client is an outdoor pest control company. And he’s, you know, this is the peak of their season. And it’s just, it’s just really shitty. And, you know, again, we didn’t do anything spammy or wrong, it just suspended, it’s dumb. Anyways, I’m going to use home remodeling as opposed to floor restoration only because I know this industry a bit better. So I’m going to use it just as a quick example, for those of you that are, we get questions all the time about how to how to order a drive stack within MGYB. And I’m going to cover that just briefly, guys, because I’m telling you, it’s one of the very most powerful things that you can possibly do. And you can get it 100% done for you on our store. And I say that because it’s absolute truth. I started a new business about two months ago, a brand new business. And all I have done is three press releases and a drive stack. That’s it, I haven’t even done anything else to it at all is a one-page website with a drive stack and three press releases. And I’m on the number three position for the state of Virginia for my very top keyword. So and that’s just and it’s been two months. So I’m telling you, it’s incredibly powerful, you’re going to see results if you use it. So my what I want to just walk through very quickly is just give an example here. So for home remodeling, Fairfax, I use Fairfax because I’m in a rural area called Cole pepper, there’s not a lot of activity around me, but Fairfax is a very busy area in Northern Virginia. So let’s just say that your business was Daniels design and remodeling general contractor. Well, what I would do is to figure out which URLs which links you want to include or submit when you order a drive stack. You know, if you’ve been following us, you know that we recommend getting a syndication network first, and then ordering and drive stack and including your syndication network URLs, profile URLs in the or the links that you submit when you purchase the drive set. So that’s the number. But if you’re just coming to us, and you don’t know what a syndication network is, well, we’ll cover that at a different time. We’re covering drive stacks right now. But what I would do is just go to Google and use another search for Google. In this case, I was just looking for a brand that I could use as an example. So I’m going to take Daniels design and remodeling as my example. Okay, so all I’m going to do is a copy. So let’s say whatever your company name is just go to Google, paste it in, and also pasting your phone number to so not just your name, but also paste in your phone number. Alright, so this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to say that this is your business, we’re going to do a quick Google search on your brand name and your phone number. And then what we’re going to do, and apparently they got some shitty Yelp reviews, but that’s probably because of Yelp filters out all the good ones, right unless you’re a paying advertiser. So what I would do is come in here, and I would just open up these links, all the links associated with your first two pages that are, you know, obviously that are relevant links to your business.

Bradley: I would just go through and over up every single one of those links, they’re also plugins that you can use guys that will that are called like link grabbers that will actually scrape all the links off a Google search page and put them into a text file or a notepad file. But you can do this manually, just go through and click right click, open Lincoln new tab, and then just go collect all of those links, put them into a notepad file, because that’s how you submit them inside our dashboard. Anyways, once you place your order, and go through the checkout process, then you go submit your order details. And what you can do is submit a text file with all the URLs that you want including in the drive stack. So that’s all you do, I’m not going to go through this guys, you understand the point, just go through the top two pages, select all of your URLs that you want to be included in the drive stack, and put them into a text file, save it and then upload that text file as your target URL or for the order. Right, then the same thing goes for keywords. for keywords, you’re going to want to take your top level keywords that you know, including your brand name, and use those as the keywords, create a nice little text file with your keywords in there. So your top level service products and or services, some of the location names that you want to include. Also your brand name, use, make sure that that’s included in your keyword list and upload that. And then our team will go out and build you a very, very, very powerful drive stack, which are Google Drive properties that are going to be branded and themed and have your profile URL, or excuse me, your profile logo, your logo as the profile image, your header images, it’s just going to be a very, very powerful thing. And now that becomes your insulator, your SEO firewall, all of the other stuff that you can do an SEO that we would never recommend you do directly to your money site, you can now due to the drive stack, and the drive stack pushes all of that relevance back to your money site will help in your maps listing. And we’ll help you to rank that makes sense. So that’s a quick down and dirty way to figure out how to get the URL was that you’re going to submit is just go to Google use Google to tell you and just go through the top two pages. That’s all you need. What are the most powerful or authoritative branded profiles or citations in this case that Google thinks for that particular brand your brand, right, so put your brand name in your business, your phone number and click Search. just collect all the URLs from the top two pages, put them into a text file, save them, then work on your keyword lists. Again, you can find out the keywords that are bringing your traffic through your GMB insights and just select the relevant keywords. And then also if you have some search queries that you desire more traffic from add those in as well. Mark, do you want to comment on that before I move on?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

Bradley: That’s correct. And I said step one should be a syndication network but for those people are coming to us from the podcast. I just wanted to talk about the drive stacks first networks maybe we’ll cover that the beginning of next webinar. But that’s correct. Alright, so anyways, welcome Scott Scott Walker says I guess he’s asking where he’s at. Okay, cool.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

And thanks, guys. given us a shout out Gordon says, Hey, guys, thanks again for your hump day out. Hump Day help, as usual, greatly appreciated it. Thank you, Gordon. He says this may be a dumb question, but I’ll ask anyway. When using a press release for boosting the rank of A GMB listing, is the URL that you use? Is it backlink in the PR the same as the one that you get by going to the GMB dashboard and clicking the Info tab and going to view on search or view on maps? Or is this something else? Yes. That’s the link that we suggest. I’ve shown a kind of a funky way to get that URL in the past. If you go into your info tab, and you right click on the view on maps, and copy link address or right click copy link address and paste it into a notepad file. It’s going to be an HTTPS www.google.com slash maps, question mark. See ID equals and then that’s going to be a string of numbers. And that’s the maps URL. But that’s actually a 302 redirect to the final, the correct URL for maps, which is instead of, excuse me, it’s going to be that this is what it’s going to look like. I’m just going to give you an example real quick. So it’s going to be maps google.com, forward slash maps, question mark, see ID equals and then it’s going to be a string of numbers, right? It’s going to be several numbers, something like that. Right. That’s what Google is going to give you. When you right click view on the view on maps and copy link address. All you want to do though because if you put that in a redirect checker, you’re going to see that it actually redirects with a 302 to this. That’s it, it doesn’t change anything except that it changes that map subdomain to dub dub dub. And now that’s the URL that you want to use right there. Right. And what happens is, when you actually take that URL and check it in a redirect checker, it’s going to say test, okay, there’ll be a 200. htm, code 200, which says test, okay. But if you actually go to view that URL in your address bar, like paste and go, it will, once the page loads, it actually switches to that really long, stupid, ugly URL that maps gives you when you’re viewing your map in the browser. Does that make sense? So again, it’s a straight URL, and that’s the best URL to use. So you can get it that way. By the way, by going in and getting it from your GMB dashboard. Right click, go to the Info tab, right click view on maps, and then copy link address the other way which one of our mastermind members shared this with us is to go to standby I’m looking for it now. I think it’s. Where the hell is it? Shit guys, give me a minute. Damn, somebody gave me a tool the other day. Maybe that’s it? Is that it? Let’s see this is it? Yes, that’s it. Use this one right here, guys. So this is https://www.GMBreviewsmaker.com. I’m going to paste this on the page for you guys real quick. And then I’ll show you how this works. Okay, so if you go to this, this will make it so much easier. All you gotta do is start searching. So if I say like, excuse me, guys, I got a should have muted notifications.

Adam: Oh, no, it’s fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Bradley: Alright, sorry about that. All right, let me grab the screen a green screen. Again, this is the actual pretty cool tool that somebody posted from our group if I just start typing in Semantic Mastery. And it’s not going to show me now. It’s okay. You can type it you can paste in the URL as well. So let’s just go let’s go Semantic Mastery. And why is it not showing our knowledge base? Wasn’t that some shit? Let’s do it over here. Let’s just use this guy. So let’s go to his map. We’re going to grab the share URL here. Paste that in. And let’s see why is it not? Okay, so for some reason, we can’t find your business and drop down hit to code, place it Okay, there we go hit the code place ID and then enter in your map URL, wherever that goes are right there and click the code place ID. And what it does is it brings that URL back right here, the same one. That makes sense. So it’s this is the same one.

But like I said if you grab that URL right there, and you go to a redirect checker, so let’s go to like https://www.redirectdetective.com, for example. And you’ll see that that’s what I was talking about. This actually does a redirect through a 302 to the same version of the URL, but it’s just www.google.com as opposed to maps. google.com. Does that make sense? So if all you got to do is take this URL here, and swap that this out with the www, and it ends up being the URL that you want to use, right? So again, or Here we go. You can always copy it from the redirect checker. And that’s what it looks like. Does that make sense? And now if we take this URL, and we put it in the browser bar, click paste and go, you’ll see that once the page loads, it’s going to automatically switch to this long, ugly thing. That makes sense. So again, that which is a cleaner URL to use this one, certainly as much cleaner than this one. So this is the URL that I used to build links to. Okay. That’s a good question.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

Bradley: Moving on. Okay, Gordon says when you post a backlink on an embedded page, on an embed page of a video you’ve uploaded to the GMB listing. When you post a backlink on an embed page of a video you’ve uploaded to the GMB listing is the same URL used for PR a different URL. Thanks. I don’t understand that question. Gordon, sorry. Does anybody can anybody decipher that question? For me?

Marco: If he’s talking about the video for PRs, it’s I don’t know if you could use a GMB URL for the video. I think they’re using it. They said Vimeo and YouTube, the other page right now about embedding on a press release. Is that what you mean? Yeah, I think that’s what this means. I don’t know. You’ll have to clear it up. Yeah, I’m just taking it as that what it means to be talking about the video that you can embed, the URL that there may be is that any YouTube video URL or a Vimeo URL. That’s what they’ll embed.

Bradley: Yeah, I’m not sure I understand the question. I’m not sure if that was it or not. But thanks, Marco for attempting. So yeah, if you can clarify, Gordon, that’s great. If not, that’s fine.

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

So Muhammad’s up, he said, What’s up, mom? And by the way, he said, Hey, guys, what do we do with a client that has a Wix site run away? Now? I’m kidding. I’m pretty close to signing a national insurance leads provider, but I’ve just noticed the site was Wix. What’s the best course of action here? Can I still follow the battle plan and SM methods in general on wigs? Would it have the same effect? Yeah. I mean, it can, yes. Um, you know, there’s not much you can do about that, if that’s what they’re on. I believe Wix has an RSS feed. So you can still use that for blogging and everything else. I am personally not crazy about wigs. But as far as I know, you can still do everything pretty much that we recommend with WordPress, via Wix. It’s just a different type of, uh, you know, user interface and all that kind of stuff. I don’t know that Wix has any benefit, or is any worse as far as SEO stuff that you can do with it? Like the coding of it? Maybe Marco or somebody else can comment on that. But as far as I know, Wix can still be used for all the stuff that we do because it’s similar to WordPress.

Marco: Yeah, I’ve never even I think I built one. But I never followed through with it. Because it’s just learning a new platform, just as isn’t. I don’t know. There’s nothing in it for me and learning a whole new platform. So I stick with WordPress. And I’m trying to even get away from that. And what we recommend this if it doesn’t have the same functionality as WordPress, then install up a WordPress on a subdomain. Yeah, and blog from there. That’d be it. That’s that’s been our constant recommendation, since forever, when people come up with HTML or whatever else what other whatever other a CMS that you’re using outside of WordPress, or if it’s ecommerce or something, yeah, just whatever it is just do a WordPress install on a subdomain.

Bradley: Yeah, I totally agree with Marco could be like a blog.or, a news.or, something like that subdomain that you could use as the content distribution engine, essentially. You know, as I said, my new business that I was just talking about earlier, I’ve got a single page. It’s just a Click Funnels landing page. And that’s my, that’s on the root of the domain. So it’s a one-page site. So I had installed a WordPress on blog dot domain. com, essentially, and I’m using that as the blog, but I’ve only done two or three posts. So anyway, but yeah, you can do that. That’s what I would recommend.

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

But he says, following on from the previous question, is consistent content creation necessary? Still? I know, of course, it helps a ton. But assuming I still have a syndication network may do I lose a lot by not doing it? Well, I mean, we certainly recommend that you do market yours do content marketing. As like I said, If Wix has an RSS feed, but I’m pretty sure it does, you should be able to do it directly from Wix. But if you don’t like the interface, then just use the blog write blog, dot subdomain with WordPress installed. And then you can still do the same thing. I do recommend content marketing. I mean, again, guys for it. Google loves that they love the freshness, the updates the activity. You can automate, obviously, you know this mom and syndicating your network. You can automate syndicating to GMB, there’s a lot of things that you can do. So I do recommend that you get on somewhat of a content a consistent and regular content marketing schedule, although that you don’t, depending on the industry, you know, some you don’t have to do it three times a week, you could do it once a week or once every two weeks. It really just depends on the industry. But I do recommend that you are updating the blog regularly with content. The frequency is going to really depend on your competition that you’re dealing with as well as what industry you’re in. Okay.

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Marco: But I mean, you can.I haven’t seen it from everything that we’ve done add that much to the to whatever iframe you’re embedding, whether it’s map or video. I mean it could I’ve seen it a Google will read anything before the closing iframe tag. And so if you’re adding information in there, whether it’s schema keywords or whatever, Google will read it. The thing is, like, only SEOs do that. And it’s a really good way to get picked out. I mean, at some point, if they ever come after iframes, that would be the first thing that I would pick out anyone adding any information before that closing iframe tag because it’s mostly just SEOs that add information in there doesn’t work. I’ll be Scott nothing beats a try but fail so so we do allow you to submit keywords and Dadea will add it before the closing iframe tag. So try it out. That’s all I can tell you. Do I do it? No, I’ve hardly ever done it. We tested with it. And since we get similar results without we just don’t add extra information.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It’s pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google’s Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Bradley: KenManich.e What’s up, Kenny says I have a new GMB. It’s a real business and above-loaded pics, logo description, etc. I haven’t built the GSB site. What do you thoughts about completing the site? Do you think that might kick off a suspension? Yeah, it may I mean, the thing is, is I haven’t had any issues with real client businesses like real bona fide businesses, GM bs until this week, and it was Monday. And that was one of those. All I did was I head up, I deleted one photo because it was showing up as a, like the primary image and mobile and the client said that he wanted a different photo. So and I don’t know how to force Google to select a different photo. So I said, Okay, well, let’s delete that one. And then I uploaded some new photos because he had some new photos recently of some of his technicians and such. And then I published the GSB website because for whatever reason that that he never had published that website for his GMB. And so I went in and publish the website, but I didn’t even add any content. It was just straight publishing. Before adding any content to it or anything. All I did was published a website and I don’t know if you know this can but when you publish the GMB website, it forces the change of the main URL for the GMB profile. From the money site to the business site GMB website URL, it forces the change with the UTM code on it to its really long and ugly, and you have to go in and then once you publish the site, you have to go edit the Info tab and change the website to back to the money site URL. And that’s all I did was I published the website didn’t even edit it. Right. All I did was then go to the Info tab. And I had to I changed the URL from the business site, which is the GMB website URL back to the money site URL. So to the branded domain, and immediately it’s suspended. And that’s where we’ve been we’ve been at ever since. You know, it’s only been a couple of days, but still, it just sucks because I didn’t do anything spammy. And it’s a legitimate business. You know, we can certainly can’t confirm and verify that, but that’s the case. So yeah, I don’t know. Honestly, I can’t tell you if it’s the GMB site that does that. Or it could have been a combination of doing both photos that day and the GMB site, I have no idea. I haven’t had any issues with legitimate businesses until this week. And now that I’ve experienced it, I’m skittish, right, I’m a bit gun shy, I don’t want to, I don’t want to really poke the bear, so to speak, you know what I mean? So I recommend and you know, until this shit settles down, which who knows when that’s going to be, I would say, try to stay out of that as much as possible and only do stuff that, you know, you can do either via API, like, posting GMB posts. Or you can probably post manually, I haven’t heard of anybody losing it from just doing the GMB post inside you know, the dashboard. But even then I might even want to do that through a manager account or content. What do they call it a site manager or something like that? Now, there are a couple of different levels that you can add additional users on one that would make more sense to be like a, I think it’s called a site manager used to be called content or communications managers or something like that. But I think they’re called site managers now. So

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It’s Treated As A Silo?

Okay, next is? And no, man, I guess he says, Hi, thanks for a wonderful webinar. My question is, if I use a subdomain, Google will treat it as a separate brand, or just like a silo? No, you know, it depends on how you set it up. But if you’re setting it up as a branded subdomain, you know, for example, like using what we talked about earlier, setting up a blog on a subject, you’re going to want to brand it the same. But you can also like, for example, I’ve got a lot of multi-location clients or stuff that I do, where each subdomain is we have separate subdomains for different locations. So each city has its own subdomain, so to speak, right? And that, that they’re all the same brand, but they each have their own WordPress installation or subdomain that is city specific. So but you can set up subdomains to treat them as two completely different entities if you want. So it really just depends on how you theme it and how you interlink between the subdomain and the root domain or other subdomains or all of them. Does that make sense? So the good thing is that Google does treat subdomains as separate web entities like another, in other words, separate websites, you can create the relationship, the association between the subdomain and the room if you want or the from, you know, the association with the brand. But the actual, the web asset itself, the domain itself, the subdomain is treated as a separate website if that makes sense. So that way, that you know, that’s why we do what we’ve been talking about using subdomains for like multi-location stuff for a long time because it’s a bit safer. If you put separate landing pages as internal pages of a website for multiple location stuff, and any one of your location pages catches the penalty for some reason, then it will, it can pull down the entire domain, right, it can affect all of the other locations because it affects the route as well. However, if you do stuff on subdomains, and you like, for example, have separate subdomains for each location, if anyone location gets hit by a penalty for some reason, then it will be isolated to that particular subdomain. It won’t affect the route and it won’t affect what I call sip the other sibling subdomains. So that’s why we tell you to do that. But again, it just depends on how you enter LinkedIn and what type of associations you make.

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

Jordans up, he says, related to a man’s question and reciprocal links, the blog subdomain should link heavily to the money site, right. Also, is there anything we can do to schema wise on a subdomain or rel canonical to tie it super tight to the main money site? domain? Yeah, that’s what I would do. Yeah, I mean, if you’re using a blog on, like what we talked about, for Mohammed, above, we’re like an e-commerce site or whatever. So if you’re using a subdomain name for blog, yeah, you’re gonna be using that to do like content marketing and link building from the subdomain up to the money site, typically, you’re not going to want to link back from the money site back down to the blog, it’s, you know, I mean, other than perhaps a navigation link that says blog, right, or whatever that links down to the root, or excuse me, the subdomain, but from within the individual pages and posts, now you’re going to use the subdomain to link up to the pages on the site that you want to rank. Okay. And then yeah, can article are always very powerful? You know, you can do that. It’s up to you. That is the blog link heavily to money site, but the money site not Yes, correct? That’s correct. Right, that as far as the money site, linking down, the only thing I would do is a subdomain, or excuse me, a navigation menu link that says blog that links down to that. And you know, you could do some sort of like sidebar widget for if you have, you know, for silos and things like that to show like related content and things like that you could do that on the money site. But typically that stuff that you would isolate to the blog anyway.

All right. Look, Gordon’s clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Hernan: I’m here. I’m here. Hey, can you hear me? Yes. The info and ads? I think so let me see. The adding for information is still available on Facebook pages. I’m working on the 30-day challenge and can find any info on certain business pages? Yes, I mean, they have switched that. So if you go to facebook.com/ads/library. So facebook.com/ads/library, you will be able to get like a public library of all of the ads that are being run right now. So on certain business pages, if there are running ads and whatnot, it’s still available. But some templates are like hiding it. But you know, all of the ads are being run on the platform can be found on facebook.com/ads/library. If you go there, you type in the Facebook page, and even the niche, you will be able to get a lot of intelligence out of that. So yeah, that’s basically how I do it.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Bradley: So Gordon’s clarifying his questions. He says if you have time, here’s what I was trying to ask if I upload a video to a GMB listing and use that same video with an empty Why be in bed job is the backlink URL that is posted on each page of wherever the video is embedded the same URL used for press releases or as a different hope that clarification makes more sense. Okay. Remember in an embed, it’s not a backlink. Right? So you’re not linking to the video, you do not paste, you’re not posting the URL to the video, it’s an embed, so it’s not going to be the same. And if you’re if you upload a video to a GMB listing, then you’re going to get a GMB post URL. Not an embed code now, am I unless Marco, you said that you can embed a GMB post the correct you absolutely can. Okay. Now, I haven’t tested that where if you were to upload a video to GMB, then grab the as a GSB post, then grab the post URL, turn that into an embed, and then ask for an embed campaign for that I haven’t tested that that would actually be kind of an interesting test. Because then you’re doing an embed blast to a GSB. Post video. Does that make sense? So you could do that. Now if that’s what you’re talking about Gordon, then the URL, the iframe is going to be the same on all of the video pages or the embed pages. But you’re not going to be able to use that for press releases, not as an embed. You can use because the press releases for press advantage. You can embed a Google map, Google My Business map, and a Vimeo or YouTube video. And the way that you do it in the press release, and the press release is that for you? Well, first of all, if it’s a GMB map that you want to embed that’s how I select if you have your own subscription, when you go to submit the details for the press release to be written, there is a drop-down menu at the bottom that says, Do you want a Google Map embedded? And if you say yes, then it’s going to embed the GMB map that you have associated with the organization page. You say no, then it won’t. If you want to embed a video, then the way that you do it is you put the YouTube URL or Vimeo URL on its own line with a line break above and a line break below within the content body of the press release. Okay, and then when it publishes, it will publish as an embed. But you can’t do that with the GMB post URL. Like if you put the GMB post URL on its own line, it’s going to publish as just a URL. And unless you hyperlink that URL, it would literally just be a text URL, not hyperlinked, so just keep that in mind. Now, if you want to embed a YouTube video, then like I said, that’s, that’s all you do is put it on its own line. And then that’s going to be an embed code, it’ll convert to a competitive excuse me convert to an embed code when it publishes. That makes sense. So you can take a video that you upload to YouTube though, and upload that same file to GMB as a post as a video post. And now you’ve got the video uploaded as a GMB post. And you also have it embedded or uploaded to YouTube, which now you can use that in press releases. Ok. Ok, says I was talking about a video upload to the profile, not embedding it in a GMB post. I use such a video and Emma, can I use such a video and again, I don’t know how what you’re talking about. If you upload a video directly to GMB as like a photo, which you can do that to not a post, but you can upload it as a photo in the photo section, you can upload videos, it doesn’t give you an embed code. As far as I’m aware, it doesn’t give me an embed code. Does anybody can anybody clarify that?

Marco: You can actually embed a video in the photos section. It does overview but customer photos only up to texture, and video. So you can upload a video, then that video will have a URL. And if that video has a URL, you should be able to get an embed unless Google has a frame breaker on it. So I mean, I would have to test that and see if you could embed. I think I have one. But you’d have to test it. And then yes, you can submit that to mgyb.co. And Dadea will take that and he’ll run an embed gig on that. That URL as long as it’s an embeddable URL. Right.

Bradley: Okay, I think that’s complicating Gordon a bit. I don’t understand exactly what it is that you’re trying to do. But I do know that you can upload a video to GMB directly as not a post, I get that that’s fine, you can do that. I don’t know that you can get a share URL for it, but I didn’t know that you could get. I don’t know that that is embeddable.

Marco: I’m checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I’m checking right right now and I’m saving the file, hang on a second.

Bradley: Because like clicking the photos, for example, just click on that photo, and we click Share. This is the share URL here. I don’t know if that would actually embed. So I’m it’s the same type of link that you get from uploaded videos my point. And I don’t know that that would embed. So you’d have to play with it and see. And that’s what Marco said he’s doing now.

Marco: No, no, it’s not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn’t it?

Marco: It’s Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Bradley: yeah. So you’re better off uploading it as a GMB post, video post, and then taking the post URL and turning that into an embed. Right. So anyway, all right. Well, looks like there are no more questions. So if we don’t have any more questions, we can wrap it up about five minutes early. I’m okay with that. Are you guys okay with that?

Adam: I’m going with it in the woods.

Bradley: Okay. All right. All right. Well, everybody. Thanks. Thanks for being here. We’ve got mastermind webinar tomorrow. Don’t forget if you’re in the mastermind, 3:30 pm. We’ll see you all there. Thanks for everybody being here. Thanks, guys.

Hernan: We’ll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we’re going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I’m gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Bradley: That’s right. That’s why you asked to edit that. Today, I was wondering why I was like what’s going on with that? Now? I remember so I’ve got to prepare for that. I appreciate you mentioning that.

Adam: Yeah, no problem. Yeah, Mastery, everyone else mastermind members can get a little inside look into how we do sales individually. Since everyone’s a little bit different. And you know, there’s a lot of templates out there. But it’s a different thing, I think to hear people say exactly kind of what they do in order to, you know, move from prospect to actually close deals. So looking forward to chatting with you guys about that tomorrow. Yeah, definitely.

Marco: That’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y'all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242 posted first on http://beyondvapepage.blogspot.com

0 notes

daynamartinez22 · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we’re just gonna, we’re going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You’re kind of the opposite, right?

Marco: What’s up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I’ll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Adam: That’s good. I’m glad you guys are all right. That’s getting up there. That’s not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You’re still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let’s talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don’t.

Bradley: I don’t have any. I’m ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I’m taking the screen. Let’s do it.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

Adam: Oh, no, it’s fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It’s pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google’s Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It’s Treated As A Silo?

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

All right. Look, Gordon’s clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Marco: I’m checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I’m checking right right now and I’m saving the file, hang on a second.

Marco: No, no, it’s not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn’t it?

Marco: It’s Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Adam: I’m going with it in the woods.

Hernan: We’ll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we’re going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I’m gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Marco: That’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y'all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

angelagiles18 · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we’re just gonna, we’re going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You’re kind of the opposite, right?

Marco: What’s up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I’ll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Adam: That’s good. I’m glad you guys are all right. That’s getting up there. That’s not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You’re still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let’s talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don’t.

Bradley: I don’t have any. I’m ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I’m taking the screen. Let’s do it.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

Adam: Oh, no, it’s fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It’s pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google’s Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It’s Treated As A Silo?

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

All right. Look, Gordon’s clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Marco: I’m checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I’m checking right right now and I’m saving the file, hang on a second.

Marco: No, no, it’s not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn’t it?

Marco: It’s Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Adam: I’m going with it in the woods.

Hernan: We’ll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we’re going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I’m gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Marco: That’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y'all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242 published first on your-t1-blog-url https://ift.tt/1WMpNvB June 28, 2019 at 11:55AM Semantic Mastery https://ift.tt/2YeHIxM

0 notes

youngwinnertragedy · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we’re just gonna, we’re going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You’re kind of the opposite, right?

Marco: What’s up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I’ll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Adam: That’s good. I’m glad you guys are all right. That’s getting up there. That’s not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You’re still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let’s talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don’t.

Bradley: I don’t have any. I’m ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I’m taking the screen. Let’s do it.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

Adam: Oh, no, it’s fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It’s pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google’s Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It’s Treated As A Silo?

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

All right. Look, Gordon’s clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Marco: I’m checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I’m checking right right now and I’m saving the file, hang on a second.

Marco: No, no, it’s not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn’t it?

Marco: It’s Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Adam: I’m going with it in the woods.

Hernan: We’ll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we’re going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I’m gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Marco: That’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y'all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

pledje · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we’re just gonna, we’re going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You’re kind of the opposite, right?

Marco: What’s up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I’ll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Adam: That’s good. I’m glad you guys are all right. That’s getting up there. That’s not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You’re still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let’s talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don’t.

Bradley: I don’t have any. I’m ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I’m taking the screen. Let’s do it.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

Adam: Oh, no, it’s fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It’s pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google’s Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It’s Treated As A Silo?

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

All right. Look, Gordon’s clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Marco: I’m checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I’m checking right right now and I’m saving the file, hang on a second.

Marco: No, no, it’s not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn’t it?

Marco: It’s Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Adam: I’m going with it in the woods.

Hernan: We’ll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we’re going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I’m gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Marco: That’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y'all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

oasisoptimization · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we're just gonna, we're going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Adam: Well, with that, thanks for being here, and we're going to jump right into it and just say, first of all, thanks for watching Hump Day Hangouts. Whether you're catching this as a replay, whether you are joining us live, if you are live, go ahead. If you got any questions, pop them on the page. Say hello. Help post your favorite GIF. Do whatever you want to do. Let me take that back. Don't do whatever you want to do. At least like PG 13 maybe.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Yeah, well, real quick. Let's go down the line. Say hello to everybody. We got everybody here today. I think Chris is hanging out so he doesn't die of heat exhaustion. But so we'll start with him before he passes out. How are you doing Chris?

Chris: Yeah, then good. had to move forward to the seller because like I don't know the heat wave is like quite unbearable for me. I still don't know why people love summer that much. More of a person. Yeah, rest. Life is good. Otherwise.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You're kind of the opposite, right?

Hernan: Yeah, dude, I'm freezing my ass. But on the good note. I think that if I'm the Hangout goes away. We can do like you porn type of streaming, you know, and embed that in the page. Now I'm pretty cool. Yeah. Anyways, I'm great. Dude. I'm awesome. I'm just really looking forward to POFU Live 2019. That's coming. He's coming in hot. We had a really cool. We had a really cool event last year. And we are going to make it cooler this year. So it's going to be pretty cool. So

Adam: yeah, definitely. We're going to talk some more about that. But if you're not sure what it is, one, stay tuned. And then secondly, go over to pokey live.com which will actually work now I got the domain resolve so you can actually they type in hopefully live and get there. So go check that out. Marco, How about yourself? How are you doing, man?

Marco: What's up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I'll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Bradley: I took off last week because I had a meeting that I couldn't get out of. And I feel I felt like something was missing the entire damn week because this is Episode 242. And this is only the second episode I've missed out of 242. And so it's you know, it's Wednesday's aren't the same without Hump Day Hangout. So no, we're not taking them away. We're just saying that Hangouts On Air is going away. So we're going to have to figure out a new way to stream and answer questions, which is fine. We'll adapt. We always do.

Marco: Yeah. Anyway. Life's good. Costa Rica is good. the weather's good. Have a nice little earthquake last night. 66263 woke me up at around one-two in the morning. You know, shaken and bacon. But otherwise? Things are good.

Adam: That's good. I'm glad you guys are all right. That's getting up there. That's not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You're still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

Bradley: Everything's good man. Life is good. Can't complain. A lot of good things going on. Right now. We're doing some pretty cool stuff in the mastermind, which by the way, guys, we have a mastermind webinar tomorrow, we'll be covering some stuff in there. I'm also starting a small group training inside the mastermind for some select members that it's going to be really cool for they're going to be kind of learning the new business model that I'm into. Because it's so lucrative. So that's a lot of fun. Just got a lot of exciting stuff going on right now. Oh, do want to talk about something else though. GMBs are certainly on a rampage. Google is on a rampage right now suspending shit, that's even 100% legit for no reason. I actually had my first client site or GMB suspended just two days ago for doing nothing other than uploading a photo. And it was dumb. It was just it's stupid. And I've got it in the reinstatement request going on. And they sent a message back to said originally that they'll you know, reply within 24 hours. Then within 24 hours, I got a follow-up reply that said we have a huge backlog of reconsideration, reinstatement requests that we're trying to work through, and it will be we're backlogged up to three or two to three weeks. So my clients pissed, but he understands I didn't do anything. You know, it's spammy. It's just, it's just Google My Business is broken right now, guys. So now we have to switch strategies up, I would recommend staying out of them as much as possible, try not to edit them at all, if possible, until they get their shit together. It's just, it's a bloodbath out there right now. So just keep that in mind. So I didn't want to give that update. We gotta shift our strategy to adapt with whatever, whatever comes. And this is, um, this is not a very good time for Google My Business stuff for sure.

Adam: Cool. Yeah. There are more questions about that, too. If anyone watching has some questions, go ahead and pop that in there. I mean, obviously, it's a big topic we've been covering. It's a great way to conduct lead gen like we've been talking about. And just because this is happening doesn't mean this is the way it's always going to be things change, just like it became, you know, a great tool to use and it may swing back that way. So real quick to just want to say if you're new to Semantic Mastery, thanks for joining us for Hump Day Hangouts. Again, whether you're live or watching the replay. If you're here, you're in the right place, you can always go to https://www.semanticmastery.com/hdquestions and ask your questions ahead of time, in case you can't watch it live. So each week, you can pop those on there will answer them or point you in the right direction. If we can't get you a specific answer. Other than that, though, the next thing people ask us is, you know, hey, where should I start with Semantic Mastery besides coming home to hang out What should I do? Go get the Battle Plan, go to https://www.battleplan.semanticmastery.com and if you're ready to move on from that, take things up a few notches come join our MasterMind, alright, if you're looking to form a strong network, if you're looking to either start or grow your own digital marketing agency or if you're a business owner that wants to grow it as well that I'll also comprise a number of our members. Come check out the mastermind https://www.mastermind.semanticmastery.com. You can find out more about that. And then if you're looking for Done For You services like syndication networks, RYS drive stacks, links, embeds all that good stuff, go to mgyb.co for your premium done for you SEO services. And last but not least, hook us up, subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you guys are over there, you're watching clips or whatever, just check, just click the subscribe button. Stay update helps us and helps us stay on top of important questions whether it's SEO, its other digital marketing questions, funnels, Facebook ads, whatever it is that's going on, we put out a ton of content and we love that people watch it. So help us out and subscribe over there.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

So real quick, we mentioned POFU Live, I want to touch base on this real quick for everyone. We just tomorrow or for if you're a subscriber, you're going to see an email about that. And I just wanted to talk real quick because we just got that up and running. We're just starting ticket sales mastermind members got the first crack at getting their tickets. And we've got two out of the three speakers that we can announce there on the page. So it's no secret if you go there, but I wanted to touch base on this. Jeffrey Smith is going to be joining us again. All right. He was Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so he's going to be joining us again, really pumped to have Jeffrey back. He joined us last year for the first POFU Live gave a killer talk. He was a blast. He was there all weekend, hanging out talking to people dropping some bombs and some great gold nuggets, there are some information. And he's going to be coming back and doing it again. So really looking forward to that. And then Adam Benjamin is not only a because he's got a great first name. But also He's the founder of Brain Hickey, this guy is a killer copywriter. He's got a lot of real-world experience dealing with clients both at scale and with high ticket, high-end clients, tons of information, tons of knowledge he's going to share. So looking forward to having him he's a Colorado local. So he's going to come down and help us in Denver and be pitching in and dropping some knowledge there too. And then we are going to have potentially a third and maybe even a fourth guest speaker who we will be announcing in the coming days. But the reason I bring this up to you is if you want to go to poker, you live in Denver and October 11 12th and 13th of this year, you're going to want to get your tickets in the next week or two, shortly after the Fourth of July week, the prices are going to be going up, we want to offer you an early bird discount. It's our way of saying thank you if you get the tickets now helps us plan accordingly. And we can do this a lot easier. So as again, our way of saying thank you is we offer you a lower price for that. But as soon as that's over, prices are going to go up. There's no you know, special offers coming. There's no you know, last-minute sale, anything like that.

Bradley: Yeah, the way just quickly to clarify, our events are not pitched fest guys, it's not like you're going to come to our event, we're going to pitch you additional training and products and the speakers are going to be pitching training and products. It's not how it works with it's a training event. You know, if you want to reach out to any of them afterward, and you know, pursue what they have available, that's perfectly fine. It's up to you. But it's not about that it's about training. It's going to be a really good event. You know, we talked about holistic business building, right. So it's not just about SEO or this or that it's about the overall building a business, scaling a business, sustaining a business, all of that. So again, we would highly recommend if anybody's interested to Get your tickets now because it's going to go up after the Fourth of July ish area timeframe. So now would be a good time to get them at their lowest price.

Adam: Definitely. And I mean, I will just say to it's a good time, you know, you can go These are real people on the pages, the real attendees from last year, you know, we can tell you about it. And if you have questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected] will answer them. Or you can ask them here on Hump Day Hangouts. But you can go and see what other people had to say about the event. You know, a lot of really good points, people got a lot out of it and a lot out of each other the networking that happened there, just like being in the mastermind, a lot of the power comes from the people you meet there the connections, you meet the ideas that are generated in that kind of smaller group setting. So really looking forward to doing that again, and narrowing down the list for the VIP day. That last time was a blast, we did a kr a chartered brewery tour in Washington, DC. And this year, we're going to be in Denver. So I'm looking at something else I've got it narrowed down to a couple but I think it's going to be just as fun. It's a good way to get to meet everybody, relax, to have fun, get introduced, get up speed and then hit the ground running the next day for the main event.

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let's talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Okay, uh, if you guys didn't see it on Monday, we had Jeremy, the developer or one of the codeveloper of press advantage on and you guys know, we been pitching or using press advantage I have been for many years actually. But we did a promotion for press advantage when they when he kind of relaunched it as two dot o at the end of September last year. And so we're talking, you know, eight months ago, and he was gracious enough to come on on Monday to open up a very, very good offer. Again, for people that want to subscribe have their own subscription to press the advantage, which there were two different levels, there's one level which is three done for your press. So written for you press releases on a monthly basis for 350 bucks, which gives you the ability to have an organization page, which, if you followed any of our training, that is an integral part of what we do, we use that organization page as a very powerful tier one property branded property. Very, very powerful. And a lot of things that you can do with it are powerful as well. Then there's the other offer, which was amazing that he swore up and down, he wouldn't open up again, the previous time that he in September when we did the webinar, but I did twist his arm and he opened it up again. And that was for 497 a month you get six written for you press releases and unlimited, write them, write it yourself, press releases, or submit yourself. But here's the catch that I mean, there's no catch. But you can buy additional press release writing services from press advantage for 50 bucks. So essentially, you get six for 497 a month. And then you can buy each additional one for 50 bucks, or you can go out and get your own writer and all that. But I'm telling you the best and most efficient way to run it is to just use the writers. And anyway, we did a webinar with him and ended up going two hours. Again, there's a lot of new and additional features that have been implemented since September when we did it the first time. And so we cover all here, he covers all of that. And I you know, I comment along in the webinar, if you want to watch it. Otherwise, just skip to the end or, you know, go to the sales page or the checkout page, I should say and subscribe. If you're doing anything for your your own business, a light like a court press releases are incredibly powerful content marketing through press releases are incredibly powerful. So even if you're your own business owner, as opposed to like an agency or a marketing consultant, using press releases, frequently and often is going to be very, very powerful for your business, we've seen it time and again. So I would say if even if you're a business owner, or definitely if you're a consultant or an agency that you should look at to get your own subscription, you can buy press releases from us at in our store, mgyb.co, and they're one-off press releases for a very good price. And you still get the benefit of having that press release published, which drives a lot of links. It can get a lot of traffic and all that kind of stuff. But if you're going to be doing volume, which you should be doing because they are so powerful, it should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy, you should have your own subscription period. And we stand by that statement. So it's a great service, I highly recommend you go check it out. Check out the webinar if you want to see all of what it can do for you. Otherwise, just go straight to the checkout page and subscribe.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don't.

Bradley: I don't have any. I'm ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I'm taking the screen. Let's do it.

Bradley: Okay, cool. We probably have some new listeners or watchers, viewers, audience members, whatever. Because I did a podcast with Tommy, Tommy Mellow has a podcast, which does handle a whole bunch of home service type contractors and got a really good response from that. And so anybody that's here from Tommy mellows podcast, welcome. Come back, post off, you know, post questions here often about anything that has to do with your contracting businesses as far as marketing, getting better results, lead generation, that kind of stuff, we're happy to answer them. And again, definitely, you know, engage with us, and we'll try to help you out as much as we can.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

So Alright, so the first question I see comes from Scott n, and I'm assuming this may be one of them. I have a hardwood floor and staircase renovation business, my main point of interest is to learn how to best utilize the Google My Business Page to get the most out of the account. So that's really good. Now, there are a few things that I would recommend, number one if you heard the beginning of this webinar, or today's Hump Day Hangout right now is not really a good time to be doing a whole lot of editing of your Google My Business Page, right. So if you've got it already, and it's running, that's great. I would recommend that you really stick to just doing Google My Business posts or GMB posts right now, and not do a lot of editing of the page itself or the profile. because things are being suspended. Right now Google is on a rampage to eliminate spam listings, in part because of some high profile people running their mouth, to high profile publications and getting a lot of unnecessary attention to them. And so anyway, my point is, even if you're a legit business owner, with a legitimate business with the physical location that you can verify, I recommend that you stay the hell out of it. As far as making edits to the actual profile, at least until Google fixes its itchy trigger finger so to speak, because right now, barely, I mean, for no rhyme or reason that I know of. You go in and you make an edit of any kind and boom, it can get it can be suspended. And it's a crapshoot every time, right? You roll the dice every time because you never know what's going to suspend the listing or not. And, as I mentioned before, their backlog for reinstatement requests are two to three weeks currently at the moment. So if it gets suspended, you're going to be shut out, you know, dead in the water di Tw until you can get it reinstated if they're going to be gracious enough to reinstate it. So that's just the caveat, I want to you know, disclaim everything here with that, number one. Number two, it really one of the best things that you can do is to Google My Business posting, right, do that frequently and often. Look for the keywords that you want, or search queries that you want to get more traffic from. Also, look at the GMB insights. And you'll see what kind of search queries are actually bringing your maps listing exposure, and start using those search queries that are relevant more often in posts. Okay, that's really important. And in something else, we you know, we talked about our store mgyb.co. And just for anybody that doesn't know what mg yc stands for, that makes Google your bitch. So mgyb.co is our store. If you go there, we've got some products that will help help you to actually really boost your Google My Business profile. As far as you know, getting better results from it. Number one would be a syndication network. Number two would be a drive stack. And we can know, we can offer assistance as to how to get the best use out of those. For people that don't know, those of you that are not in the SEO industry. Some of that may seem foreign to you. But really, it's not difficult, the concept is quite easy, I'm actually going to walk through a brief example of how you can gather the type of links that you would want to promote. So your profiles within a drive stack. Drive stacks are incredibly powerful, especially for Google My Business stuff or maps ranking. So I'm going to walk through that here in just a moment. But first, I just want to say, for your Google My Business Page, really again, I would stay out of trying to edit it right now. But I would take advantage of the Google My Business posting feature. Post often, post regularly, use the search queries or the keywords that you want to get traffic from. So for example, in this case, like it might be flooring, floor restoration or floor renovation or flooring, contractors or gills notice a lot of near me keywords. near me type search queries are driving a lot of traffic to maps. So flooring contractors near me flooring restoration near me variations of near me like nearby in my area close to me, that kind of stuff. So mix and match the keywords, the types of service keywords that you want to rank for, along with near me and variations of near me. Also, if you cover a wide surface area, you want to start including some of the locations that within your service area. So location names, do it be via city names, even neighborhoods, things like burrows, districts, things like that if you have different names that you can start to include. That's why I said there's really no way that you can do too many posts in my opinion. That's really important and that as far as I know, is not getting GMB suspended. I haven't had that happen from a post yet, but I have from doing editing the profile at all. That makes sense. Okay. Marco, do you want to comment on that while I pull up some examples?

Marco: No, no, I agree. Totally. I mean, we have the train Local GMB Pro, which could be the next step. In the process except in gi in local GMB Pro, we do tell you to go and make edits and all of these other things which you shouldn't be doing when you submit it, especially if you have a real business, right? A real, whether it's service area, brick, and mortar, whatever it is that you have, fill it out as thoroughly as you can right at the beginning before you send for that pin. So that you don't have to go back and mess with it. Because it's when you start going back and messing with it that you get into problems. So that the only change that I would recommend right now is if you're doing some that's legitimate. Do it right the first time get you to know, use the guidelines that we set up in local GMB Pro. But do it right the first time send for that pin, make sure all the information is correct. And then it'll come back to you. It's your business. And if something happens, you can always go back in and get that business reinstated. Right that GMB whereas others are the problem that they're having. And why it is a problem, to begin with, is we were just spamming in and getting a ton of businesses that didn't really exist. But if yours does that, then you right now, the second problem is Bradley mentioned is that you're in a queue. And until they can get to you because of spammers like Bradley. You're waiting for three four months and excuse me weeks. And right now, whatever it is that the summer businesses, right? Well, the summer businesses, like a pest control Tree Service, anything having to do with outdoors, are in the queue, and this is like the top of the season. So they're moving a whole lot of money. And they shouldn't be because they have legitimate businesses. So that's the only thing that I would add.

Bradley: Yeah, that's my client is an outdoor pest control company. And he's, you know, this is the peak of their season. And it's just, it's just really shitty. And, you know, again, we didn't do anything spammy or wrong, it just suspended, it's dumb. Anyways, I'm going to use home remodeling as opposed to floor restoration only because I know this industry a bit better. So I'm going to use it just as a quick example, for those of you that are, we get questions all the time about how to how to order a drive stack within MGYB. And I'm going to cover that just briefly, guys, because I'm telling you, it's one of the very most powerful things that you can possibly do. And you can get it 100% done for you on our store. And I say that because it's absolute truth. I started a new business about two months ago, a brand new business. And all I have done is three press releases and a drive stack. That's it, I haven't even done anything else to it at all is a one-page website with a drive stack and three press releases. And I'm on the number three position for the state of Virginia for my very top keyword. So and that's just and it's been two months. So I'm telling you, it's incredibly powerful, you're going to see results if you use it. So my what I want to just walk through very quickly is just give an example here. So for home remodeling, Fairfax, I use Fairfax because I'm in a rural area called Cole pepper, there's not a lot of activity around me, but Fairfax is a very busy area in Northern Virginia. So let's just say that your business was Daniels design and remodeling general contractor. Well, what I would do is to figure out which URLs which links you want to include or submit when you order a drive stack. You know, if you've been following us, you know that we recommend getting a syndication network first, and then ordering and drive stack and including your syndication network URLs, profile URLs in the or the links that you submit when you purchase the drive set. So that's the number. But if you're just coming to us, and you don't know what a syndication network is, well, we'll cover that at a different time. We're covering drive stacks right now. But what I would do is just go to Google and use another search for Google. In this case, I was just looking for a brand that I could use as an example. So I'm going to take Daniels design and remodeling as my example. Okay, so all I'm going to do is a copy. So let's say whatever your company name is just go to Google, paste it in, and also pasting your phone number to so not just your name, but also paste in your phone number. Alright, so this is what we're going to do, we're going to say that this is your business, we're going to do a quick Google search on your brand name and your phone number. And then what we're going to do, and apparently they got some shitty Yelp reviews, but that's probably because of Yelp filters out all the good ones, right unless you're a paying advertiser. So what I would do is come in here, and I would just open up these links, all the links associated with your first two pages that are, you know, obviously that are relevant links to your business.

Bradley: I would just go through and over up every single one of those links, they're also plugins that you can use guys that will that are called like link grabbers that will actually scrape all the links off a Google search page and put them into a text file or a notepad file. But you can do this manually, just go through and click right click, open Lincoln new tab, and then just go collect all of those links, put them into a notepad file, because that's how you submit them inside our dashboard. Anyways, once you place your order, and go through the checkout process, then you go submit your order details. And what you can do is submit a text file with all the URLs that you want including in the drive stack. So that's all you do, I'm not going to go through this guys, you understand the point, just go through the top two pages, select all of your URLs that you want to be included in the drive stack, and put them into a text file, save it and then upload that text file as your target URL or for the order. Right, then the same thing goes for keywords. for keywords, you're going to want to take your top level keywords that you know, including your brand name, and use those as the keywords, create a nice little text file with your keywords in there. So your top level service products and or services, some of the location names that you want to include. Also your brand name, use, make sure that that's included in your keyword list and upload that. And then our team will go out and build you a very, very, very powerful drive stack, which are Google Drive properties that are going to be branded and themed and have your profile URL, or excuse me, your profile logo, your logo as the profile image, your header images, it's just going to be a very, very powerful thing. And now that becomes your insulator, your SEO firewall, all of the other stuff that you can do an SEO that we would never recommend you do directly to your money site, you can now due to the drive stack, and the drive stack pushes all of that relevance back to your money site will help in your maps listing. And we'll help you to rank that makes sense. So that's a quick down and dirty way to figure out how to get the URL was that you're going to submit is just go to Google use Google to tell you and just go through the top two pages. That's all you need. What are the most powerful or authoritative branded profiles or citations in this case that Google thinks for that particular brand your brand, right, so put your brand name in your business, your phone number and click Search. just collect all the URLs from the top two pages, put them into a text file, save them, then work on your keyword lists. Again, you can find out the keywords that are bringing your traffic through your GMB insights and just select the relevant keywords. And then also if you have some search queries that you desire more traffic from add those in as well. Mark, do you want to comment on that before I move on?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

Bradley: That's correct. And I said step one should be a syndication network but for those people are coming to us from the podcast. I just wanted to talk about the drive stacks first networks maybe we'll cover that the beginning of next webinar. But that's correct. Alright, so anyways, welcome Scott Scott Walker says I guess he's asking where he's at. Okay, cool.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

And thanks, guys. given us a shout out Gordon says, Hey, guys, thanks again for your hump day out. Hump Day help, as usual, greatly appreciated it. Thank you, Gordon. He says this may be a dumb question, but I'll ask anyway. When using a press release for boosting the rank of A GMB listing, is the URL that you use? Is it backlink in the PR the same as the one that you get by going to the GMB dashboard and clicking the Info tab and going to view on search or view on maps? Or is this something else? Yes. That's the link that we suggest. I've shown a kind of a funky way to get that URL in the past. If you go into your info tab, and you right click on the view on maps, and copy link address or right click copy link address and paste it into a notepad file. It's going to be an HTTPS www.google.com slash maps, question mark. See ID equals and then that's going to be a string of numbers. And that's the maps URL. But that's actually a 302 redirect to the final, the correct URL for maps, which is instead of, excuse me, it's going to be that this is what it's going to look like. I'm just going to give you an example real quick. So it's going to be maps google.com, forward slash maps, question mark, see ID equals and then it's going to be a string of numbers, right? It's going to be several numbers, something like that. Right. That's what Google is going to give you. When you right click view on the view on maps and copy link address. All you want to do though because if you put that in a redirect checker, you're going to see that it actually redirects with a 302 to this. That's it, it doesn't change anything except that it changes that map subdomain to dub dub dub. And now that's the URL that you want to use right there. Right. And what happens is, when you actually take that URL and check it in a redirect checker, it's going to say test, okay, there'll be a 200. htm, code 200, which says test, okay. But if you actually go to view that URL in your address bar, like paste and go, it will, once the page loads, it actually switches to that really long, stupid, ugly URL that maps gives you when you're viewing your map in the browser. Does that make sense? So again, it's a straight URL, and that's the best URL to use. So you can get it that way. By the way, by going in and getting it from your GMB dashboard. Right click, go to the Info tab, right click view on maps, and then copy link address the other way which one of our mastermind members shared this with us is to go to standby I'm looking for it now. I think it's. Where the hell is it? Shit guys, give me a minute. Damn, somebody gave me a tool the other day. Maybe that's it? Is that it? Let's see this is it? Yes, that's it. Use this one right here, guys. So this is https://www.GMBreviewsmaker.com. I'm going to paste this on the page for you guys real quick. And then I'll show you how this works. Okay, so if you go to this, this will make it so much easier. All you gotta do is start searching. So if I say like, excuse me, guys, I got a should have muted notifications.

Adam: Oh, no, it's fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Bradley: Alright, sorry about that. All right, let me grab the screen a green screen. Again, this is the actual pretty cool tool that somebody posted from our group if I just start typing in Semantic Mastery. And it's not going to show me now. It's okay. You can type it you can paste in the URL as well. So let's just go let's go Semantic Mastery. And why is it not showing our knowledge base? Wasn't that some shit? Let's do it over here. Let's just use this guy. So let's go to his map. We're going to grab the share URL here. Paste that in. And let's see why is it not? Okay, so for some reason, we can't find your business and drop down hit to code, place it Okay, there we go hit the code place ID and then enter in your map URL, wherever that goes are right there and click the code place ID. And what it does is it brings that URL back right here, the same one. That makes sense. So it's this is the same one.

But like I said if you grab that URL right there, and you go to a redirect checker, so let's go to like https://www.redirectdetective.com, for example. And you'll see that that's what I was talking about. This actually does a redirect through a 302 to the same version of the URL, but it's just www.google.com as opposed to maps. google.com. Does that make sense? So if all you got to do is take this URL here, and swap that this out with the www, and it ends up being the URL that you want to use, right? So again, or Here we go. You can always copy it from the redirect checker. And that's what it looks like. Does that make sense? And now if we take this URL, and we put it in the browser bar, click paste and go, you'll see that once the page loads, it's going to automatically switch to this long, ugly thing. That makes sense. So again, that which is a cleaner URL to use this one, certainly as much cleaner than this one. So this is the URL that I used to build links to. Okay. That's a good question.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

Bradley: Moving on. Okay, Gordon says when you post a backlink on an embedded page, on an embed page of a video you've uploaded to the GMB listing. When you post a backlink on an embed page of a video you've uploaded to the GMB listing is the same URL used for PR a different URL. Thanks. I don't understand that question. Gordon, sorry. Does anybody can anybody decipher that question? For me?

Marco: If he's talking about the video for PRs, it's I don't know if you could use a GMB URL for the video. I think they're using it. They said Vimeo and YouTube, the other page right now about embedding on a press release. Is that what you mean? Yeah, I think that's what this means. I don't know. You'll have to clear it up. Yeah, I'm just taking it as that what it means to be talking about the video that you can embed, the URL that there may be is that any YouTube video URL or a Vimeo URL. That's what they'll embed.

Bradley: Yeah, I'm not sure I understand the question. I'm not sure if that was it or not. But thanks, Marco for attempting. So yeah, if you can clarify, Gordon, that's great. If not, that's fine.

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

So Muhammad's up, he said, What's up, mom? And by the way, he said, Hey, guys, what do we do with a client that has a Wix site run away? Now? I'm kidding. I'm pretty close to signing a national insurance leads provider, but I've just noticed the site was Wix. What's the best course of action here? Can I still follow the battle plan and SM methods in general on wigs? Would it have the same effect? Yeah. I mean, it can, yes. Um, you know, there's not much you can do about that, if that's what they're on. I believe Wix has an RSS feed. So you can still use that for blogging and everything else. I am personally not crazy about wigs. But as far as I know, you can still do everything pretty much that we recommend with WordPress, via Wix. It's just a different type of, uh, you know, user interface and all that kind of stuff. I don't know that Wix has any benefit, or is any worse as far as SEO stuff that you can do with it? Like the coding of it? Maybe Marco or somebody else can comment on that. But as far as I know, Wix can still be used for all the stuff that we do because it's similar to WordPress.

Marco: Yeah, I've never even I think I built one. But I never followed through with it. Because it's just learning a new platform, just as isn't. I don't know. There's nothing in it for me and learning a whole new platform. So I stick with WordPress. And I'm trying to even get away from that. And what we recommend this if it doesn't have the same functionality as WordPress, then install up a WordPress on a subdomain. Yeah, and blog from there. That'd be it. That's that's been our constant recommendation, since forever, when people come up with HTML or whatever else what other whatever other a CMS that you're using outside of WordPress, or if it's ecommerce or something, yeah, just whatever it is just do a WordPress install on a subdomain.

Bradley: Yeah, I totally agree with Marco could be like a blog.or, a news.or, something like that subdomain that you could use as the content distribution engine, essentially. You know, as I said, my new business that I was just talking about earlier, I've got a single page. It's just a Click Funnels landing page. And that's my, that's on the root of the domain. So it's a one-page site. So I had installed a WordPress on blog dot domain. com, essentially, and I'm using that as the blog, but I've only done two or three posts. So anyway, but yeah, you can do that. That's what I would recommend.

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

But he says, following on from the previous question, is consistent content creation necessary? Still? I know, of course, it helps a ton. But assuming I still have a syndication network may do I lose a lot by not doing it? Well, I mean, we certainly recommend that you do market yours do content marketing. As like I said, If Wix has an RSS feed, but I'm pretty sure it does, you should be able to do it directly from Wix. But if you don't like the interface, then just use the blog write blog, dot subdomain with WordPress installed. And then you can still do the same thing. I do recommend content marketing. I mean, again, guys for it. Google loves that they love the freshness, the updates the activity. You can automate, obviously, you know this mom and syndicating your network. You can automate syndicating to GMB, there's a lot of things that you can do. So I do recommend that you get on somewhat of a content a consistent and regular content marketing schedule, although that you don't, depending on the industry, you know, some you don't have to do it three times a week, you could do it once a week or once every two weeks. It really just depends on the industry. But I do recommend that you are updating the blog regularly with content. The frequency is going to really depend on your competition that you're dealing with as well as what industry you're in. Okay.

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Marco: But I mean, you can.I haven't seen it from everything that we've done add that much to the to whatever iframe you're embedding, whether it's map or video. I mean it could I've seen it a Google will read anything before the closing iframe tag. And so if you're adding information in there, whether it's schema keywords or whatever, Google will read it. The thing is, like, only SEOs do that. And it's a really good way to get picked out. I mean, at some point, if they ever come after iframes, that would be the first thing that I would pick out anyone adding any information before that closing iframe tag because it's mostly just SEOs that add information in there doesn't work. I'll be Scott nothing beats a try but fail so so we do allow you to submit keywords and Dadea will add it before the closing iframe tag. So try it out. That's all I can tell you. Do I do it? No, I've hardly ever done it. We tested with it. And since we get similar results without we just don't add extra information.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It's pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google's Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Bradley: KenManich.e What's up, Kenny says I have a new GMB. It's a real business and above-loaded pics, logo description, etc. I haven't built the GSB site. What do you thoughts about completing the site? Do you think that might kick off a suspension? Yeah, it may I mean, the thing is, is I haven't had any issues with real client businesses like real bona fide businesses, GM bs until this week, and it was Monday. And that was one of those. All I did was I head up, I deleted one photo because it was showing up as a, like the primary image and mobile and the client said that he wanted a different photo. So and I don't know how to force Google to select a different photo. So I said, Okay, well, let's delete that one. And then I uploaded some new photos because he had some new photos recently of some of his technicians and such. And then I published the GSB website because for whatever reason that that he never had published that website for his GMB. And so I went in and publish the website, but I didn't even add any content. It was just straight publishing. Before adding any content to it or anything. All I did was published a website and I don't know if you know this can but when you publish the GMB website, it forces the change of the main URL for the GMB profile. From the money site to the business site GMB website URL, it forces the change with the UTM code on it to its really long and ugly, and you have to go in and then once you publish the site, you have to go edit the Info tab and change the website to back to the money site URL. And that's all I did was I published the website didn't even edit it. Right. All I did was then go to the Info tab. And I had to I changed the URL from the business site, which is the GMB website URL back to the money site URL. So to the branded domain, and immediately it's suspended. And that's where we've been we've been at ever since. You know, it's only been a couple of days, but still, it just sucks because I didn't do anything spammy. And it's a legitimate business. You know, we can certainly can't confirm and verify that, but that's the case. So yeah, I don't know. Honestly, I can't tell you if it's the GMB site that does that. Or it could have been a combination of doing both photos that day and the GMB site, I have no idea. I haven't had any issues with legitimate businesses until this week. And now that I've experienced it, I'm skittish, right, I'm a bit gun shy, I don't want to, I don't want to really poke the bear, so to speak, you know what I mean? So I recommend and you know, until this shit settles down, which who knows when that's going to be, I would say, try to stay out of that as much as possible and only do stuff that, you know, you can do either via API, like, posting GMB posts. Or you can probably post manually, I haven't heard of anybody losing it from just doing the GMB post inside you know, the dashboard. But even then I might even want to do that through a manager account or content. What do they call it a site manager or something like that? Now, there are a couple of different levels that you can add additional users on one that would make more sense to be like a, I think it's called a site manager used to be called content or communications managers or something like that. But I think they're called site managers now. So

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It's Treated As A Silo?

Okay, next is? And no, man, I guess he says, Hi, thanks for a wonderful webinar. My question is, if I use a subdomain, Google will treat it as a separate brand, or just like a silo? No, you know, it depends on how you set it up. But if you're setting it up as a branded subdomain, you know, for example, like using what we talked about earlier, setting up a blog on a subject, you're going to want to brand it the same. But you can also like, for example, I've got a lot of multi-location clients or stuff that I do, where each subdomain is we have separate subdomains for different locations. So each city has its own subdomain, so to speak, right? And that, that they're all the same brand, but they each have their own WordPress installation or subdomain that is city specific. So but you can set up subdomains to treat them as two completely different entities if you want. So it really just depends on how you theme it and how you interlink between the subdomain and the root domain or other subdomains or all of them. Does that make sense? So the good thing is that Google does treat subdomains as separate web entities like another, in other words, separate websites, you can create the relationship, the association between the subdomain and the room if you want or the from, you know, the association with the brand. But the actual, the web asset itself, the domain itself, the subdomain is treated as a separate website if that makes sense. So that way, that you know, that's why we do what we've been talking about using subdomains for like multi-location stuff for a long time because it's a bit safer. If you put separate landing pages as internal pages of a website for multiple location stuff, and any one of your location pages catches the penalty for some reason, then it will, it can pull down the entire domain, right, it can affect all of the other locations because it affects the route as well. However, if you do stuff on subdomains, and you like, for example, have separate subdomains for each location, if anyone location gets hit by a penalty for some reason, then it will be isolated to that particular subdomain. It won't affect the route and it won't affect what I call sip the other sibling subdomains. So that's why we tell you to do that. But again, it just depends on how you enter LinkedIn and what type of associations you make.

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

Jordans up, he says, related to a man's question and reciprocal links, the blog subdomain should link heavily to the money site, right. Also, is there anything we can do to schema wise on a subdomain or rel canonical to tie it super tight to the main money site? domain? Yeah, that's what I would do. Yeah, I mean, if you're using a blog on, like what we talked about, for Mohammed, above, we're like an e-commerce site or whatever. So if you're using a subdomain name for blog, yeah, you're gonna be using that to do like content marketing and link building from the subdomain up to the money site, typically, you're not going to want to link back from the money site back down to the blog, it's, you know, I mean, other than perhaps a navigation link that says blog, right, or whatever that links down to the root, or excuse me, the subdomain, but from within the individual pages and posts, now you're going to use the subdomain to link up to the pages on the site that you want to rank. Okay. And then yeah, can article are always very powerful? You know, you can do that. It's up to you. That is the blog link heavily to money site, but the money site not Yes, correct? That's correct. Right, that as far as the money site, linking down, the only thing I would do is a subdomain, or excuse me, a navigation menu link that says blog that links down to that. And you know, you could do some sort of like sidebar widget for if you have, you know, for silos and things like that to show like related content and things like that you could do that on the money site. But typically that stuff that you would isolate to the blog anyway.

All right. Look, Gordon's clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Hernan: I'm here. I'm here. Hey, can you hear me? Yes. The info and ads? I think so let me see. The adding for information is still available on Facebook pages. I'm working on the 30-day challenge and can find any info on certain business pages? Yes, I mean, they have switched that. So if you go to facebook.com/ads/library. So facebook.com/ads/library, you will be able to get like a public library of all of the ads that are being run right now. So on certain business pages, if there are running ads and whatnot, it's still available. But some templates are like hiding it. But you know, all of the ads are being run on the platform can be found on facebook.com/ads/library. If you go there, you type in the Facebook page, and even the niche, you will be able to get a lot of intelligence out of that. So yeah, that's basically how I do it.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Bradley: So Gordon's clarifying his questions. He says if you have time, here's what I was trying to ask if I upload a video to a GMB listing and use that same video with an empty Why be in bed job is the backlink URL that is posted on each page of wherever the video is embedded the same URL used for press releases or as a different hope that clarification makes more sense. Okay. Remember in an embed, it's not a backlink. Right? So you're not linking to the video, you do not paste, you're not posting the URL to the video, it's an embed, so it's not going to be the same. And if you're if you upload a video to a GMB listing, then you're going to get a GMB post URL. Not an embed code now, am I unless Marco, you said that you can embed a GMB post the correct you absolutely can. Okay. Now, I haven't tested that where if you were to upload a video to GMB, then grab the as a GSB post, then grab the post URL, turn that into an embed, and then ask for an embed campaign for that I haven't tested that that would actually be kind of an interesting test. Because then you're doing an embed blast to a GSB. Post video. Does that make sense? So you could do that. Now if that's what you're talking about Gordon, then the URL, the iframe is going to be the same on all of the video pages or the embed pages. But you're not going to be able to use that for press releases, not as an embed. You can use because the press releases for press advantage. You can embed a Google map, Google My Business map, and a Vimeo or YouTube video. And the way that you do it in the press release, and the press release is that for you? Well, first of all, if it's a GMB map that you want to embed that's how I select if you have your own subscription, when you go to submit the details for the press release to be written, there is a drop-down menu at the bottom that says, Do you want a Google Map embedded? And if you say yes, then it's going to embed the GMB map that you have associated with the organization page. You say no, then it won't. If you want to embed a video, then the way that you do it is you put the YouTube URL or Vimeo URL on its own line with a line break above and a line break below within the content body of the press release. Okay, and then when it publishes, it will publish as an embed. But you can't do that with the GMB post URL. Like if you put the GMB post URL on its own line, it's going to publish as just a URL. And unless you hyperlink that URL, it would literally just be a text URL, not hyperlinked, so just keep that in mind. Now, if you want to embed a YouTube video, then like I said, that's, that's all you do is put it on its own line. And then that's going to be an embed code, it'll convert to a competitive excuse me convert to an embed code when it publishes. That makes sense. So you can take a video that you upload to YouTube though, and upload that same file to GMB as a post as a video post. And now you've got the video uploaded as a GMB post. And you also have it embedded or uploaded to YouTube, which now you can use that in press releases. Ok. Ok, says I was talking about a video upload to the profile, not embedding it in a GMB post. I use such a video and Emma, can I use such a video and again, I don't know how what you're talking about. If you upload a video directly to GMB as like a photo, which you can do that to not a post, but you can upload it as a photo in the photo section, you can upload videos, it doesn't give you an embed code. As far as I'm aware, it doesn't give me an embed code. Does anybody can anybody clarify that?

Marco: You can actually embed a video in the photos section. It does overview but customer photos only up to texture, and video. So you can upload a video, then that video will have a URL. And if that video has a URL, you should be able to get an embed unless Google has a frame breaker on it. So I mean, I would have to test that and see if you could embed. I think I have one. But you'd have to test it. And then yes, you can submit that to mgyb.co. And Dadea will take that and he'll run an embed gig on that. That URL as long as it's an embeddable URL. Right.

Bradley: Okay, I think that's complicating Gordon a bit. I don't understand exactly what it is that you're trying to do. But I do know that you can upload a video to GMB directly as not a post, I get that that's fine, you can do that. I don't know that you can get a share URL for it, but I didn't know that you could get. I don't know that that is embeddable.

Marco: I'm checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I'm checking right right now and I'm saving the file, hang on a second.

Bradley: Because like clicking the photos, for example, just click on that photo, and we click Share. This is the share URL here. I don't know if that would actually embed. So I'm it's the same type of link that you get from uploaded videos my point. And I don't know that that would embed. So you'd have to play with it and see. And that's what Marco said he's doing now.

Marco: No, no, it's not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn't it?

Marco: It's Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Bradley: yeah. So you're better off uploading it as a GMB post, video post, and then taking the post URL and turning that into an embed. Right. So anyway, all right. Well, looks like there are no more questions. So if we don't have any more questions, we can wrap it up about five minutes early. I'm okay with that. Are you guys okay with that?

Adam: I'm going with it in the woods.

Bradley: Okay. All right. All right. Well, everybody. Thanks. Thanks for being here. We've got mastermind webinar tomorrow. Don't forget if you're in the mastermind, 3:30 pm. We'll see you all there. Thanks for everybody being here. Thanks, guys.

Hernan: We'll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we're going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that's right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I'm gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Bradley: That's right. That's why you asked to edit that. Today, I was wondering why I was like what's going on with that? Now? I remember so I've got to prepare for that. I appreciate you mentioning that.

Adam: Yeah, no problem. Yeah, Mastery, everyone else mastermind members can get a little inside look into how we do sales individually. Since everyone's a little bit different. And you know, there's a lot of templates out there. But it's a different thing, I think to hear people say exactly kind of what they do in order to, you know, move from prospect to actually close deals. So looking forward to chatting with you guys about that tomorrow. Yeah, definitely.

Marco: That's gonna be a good one. I'm looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y'all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

#Semantic Mastery

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jenniferbowley · 5 years

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242

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Click on the video above to watch Episode 242 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: Alright, well hangouts are still here. We are going to be live on hangouts with Hump Day hangouts Episode 242. Yeah, we’re just gonna, we’re going to switch to tin cans and strings and how.

Hernan: There you go.

Bradley: At least keep it relevant.

Adam: Coco Hernan, How about yourself? You’re kind of the opposite, right?

Marco: What’s up, man? Just to get the question out of the way. Our Hump Day hangouts going away?

Adam: No, oh,

Bradley: no. No.

Marco: Before we get asked 1000 times on be the first person to ask it. I’ll be done with Hump Day hangout on my watch. Just making sure I took

Adam: That’s good. I’m glad you guys are all right. That’s getting up there. That’s not a tiny one.

Marco: Now I was off on the coast. No worries.

Adam: Good deal. Bradley, you. You’re still with us too I guess weather and everything treating your it.

POFU Live 2019 Guests

Press Release Advantage Webinar

Bradley: Sweet. Yeah. Are we going to let’s talk briefly about the press advantage webinar? If we can,

Adam: Oh, definitely. Yeah, you want to fill people in case they missed that brother.

Bradley: Did you drop the link? Adam? I assume you did.

Adam: Yeah. Did the webinar replay page is on there. And I think we are good to go. Are there any other announcements? Yes. I don’t.

Bradley: I don’t have any. I’m ready for questions.

Marco: Yeah, I have a comment. Our shit works, period.

Bradley: Boom. All right, I’m taking the screen. Let’s do it.

How To Use Google My Business Page To Promote A Hardwood Floor And Staircase Renovation Business?

Marco: Yeah, the only thing that I would add to this is that they do get a spreadsheet when they order that their syndication network. Those should also be included.

What URL Do You Use In The Press Release When Boosting The Rank Of A GMB Listing?

Adam: Oh, no, it’s fine. A Bradley. Just take the call will listen to.

Bradley: Yeah. Standby. I gotta hang up on that.

Do You Use The Same URL For Press Release And Video Embeds On A GMB Listing?

What SEO Strategies Would You Apply For A Wix Site OF A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Is Consistent Content Creation Necessary For A Wix Site Of A National Insurance Leads Provider?

Wayne, Clayton, you prick. Keep moving.

Do You Recommend Adding Keywords Into The iFrame?

Scott says I am in the process of placing an embed order with mg Why be question do you recommend adding keywords into the iframe? Marco? let you answer that one.

Bradley: Yeah. Correct. Alright, so the next several comments are Adam to spamming the comment box

Adam: and I roll.

Bradley: So doings got a nice meme about the bloodbath. It’s pretty cool.

Should You Complete A GMB Site Amidst Google’s Rampage Of GMB Suspensions?

Will Google Treat A Subdomain As A Separate Brand Or It’s Treated As A Silo?

How To Use Schema And Rel=Canonical To Boost Ties Between A Reciprocal Link And The Money Site?

All right. Look, Gordon’s clarifying his question, good.

30-Day Click Funnel Challenge Update

Hernan, is the ad info information still available on Facebook pages? Is Hernan still here.

Bradley: Cool, thank you.

Clarifications On The URL Used In Press Release & Video Embeds For Boosting GMB Listing

Marco: I’m checking right now.

Bradley: Okay, cool.

Marco: I’m checking right right now and I’m saving the file, hang on a second.

Marco: No, no, it’s not coming up.

Bradley: It breaks it, doesn’t it?

Marco: It’s Yeah, it has a breaker. Yeah. Oh, fuck,

Adam: I’m going with it in the woods.

Hernan: We’ll see you guys.

Adam: And before we hop off, Bradley, we’re going to be going over some sales stuff with mastermind tomorrow.

Bradley: Yes, that’s right. Each one of us is going to chime in on that.

Adam: Awesome. I’m gonna get my slides out. Get that stuff and the slides, but I got some good stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Marco: That’s gonna be a good one. I’m looking forward to definitely.

Bradley: see y’all then take it easy, guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 242 syndicated from https://medium.com/@SpanishFly

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