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Star Trek Episode 1.4: The Naked Time

AKA: Everyone Has A Real Bad Day Except For Sulu

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains an onscreen suicide in which a man stabs himself in the stomach and dies later in surgery. No blood or gore or details of the surgery are seen. This recap covers the first scene but does not contain any images of it. There is one screencap of the surgery scene, which does not show the body, and is only there to point out a particularly ridiculous prop.

Here's a story about The Naked Time for you: one year when I was in college I had a Star Trek wall calendar. Each month had a picture from an episode on the top half, with the name of the episode underneath it, and then some trivia about it on the bottom half. The picture for February was shirtless Sulu posing on the bridge, naturally captioned The Naked Time. So one day a friend of mine who didn't watch Star Trek was over hanging out when she saw my calendar, and I wound up having to explain to her that yes, that was an actual Star Trek episode, no it was not a porn parody of Star Trek, yes it was really called The Naked Time, no, no one actually got naked in it. Which was quite the conversation. You try explaining shirtless Sulu with that caption completely out of context.

February was a good month that year.

Our episode begins with the Enterprise orbiting a planet called Psi 2000, because 2000 is the coolest number (except for 3000). Psi 2000 is an old planet, now little more than an arctic wasteland, which is near the end of its life. So near, in fact, that it's about to fall apart completely, and the Enterprise is there to watch (for science). Before they do that, though, they've got to pick up a research team that's been stationed down on the planet surface.

But all is not well, for we soon see that the inside of the research lab is just as much of an arctic wasteland as the outside, complete with a dead person sprawled over a console. Spock and some dude beam down wearing snazzy orange bubble wrap suits and Spock examines the stiff with his Pringles can gun.

[ID: Spock and another man wearing textured orange hazmat suits, faces only barely visible, standing in a room covered with dubiously realistic snow and ice. A body is slumped over the table in front of them, also covered in snow. Spock is pointing a cylindrical device at it.]

The two of them split up, the dude to check out the life support systems and Spock to examine the horrible scene of a shop window mannequin half-buried in snow. His Pringles can tells him that she's been strangled. The dude comes back and reports that all life support systems are off and there are four more dead people, including the engineer frozen apathetically at his post and another man taking a shower fully-clothed. Well, maybe his clothes were dirty too.

As Spock goes to check out this spectacle for himself, the dude wanders back into the main room and gets out a device of some sort that makes whirring sounds. But then his face itches, so, like the competent Starfleet officer he is, he carries on and ignores this. Ha ha, no, I'm just kidding. He takes his glove off, puts it on the dead guy's head, then sticks his bare hand up his helmet to scratch himself. As if that wasn't bad enough, he then leaves the glove off while he messes around on the floor. When he puts his hand on the side of the desk, we see an ominous red spot in the ice. To give the guy the very little credit he deserves, he doesn't put his hand directly on the red spot, but this doesn't matter much because some of the liquid crawls upward and splatters onto his hand anyway. And he obviously notices this, because he shakes his hand, sticks it back into his helmet to sniff it, then puts his glove back on like nothing happened.

Immediately afterward, Spock comes back and tells him to be certain they expose themselves to nothing. Well, have I got some bad news for you.

Spock calls up to the Enterprise to tell them what's going on, and when Kirk asks what caused all this, Spock says it's like nothing they've dealt with before. The drama of this is a bit undermined by two things: one, everything they deal with is like nothing they've dealt with before, and two, Spock says this in a complete and utter deadpan, even by Spock standards.

After the titles, Kirk recaps what just happened, and says that despite it all they're still going to hang out and watch the planet implode because hey, why waste a trip. Spock and the dude—whose name is now revealed as Tormolen—beam aboard and Scotty decontaminates them by making the transporter lights flash on and off for a few seconds. Then they go over to Sickbay to get checked out just to be double sure. This consists of a brief examination which I don't think is going to be much good for revealing any contaminants they might have picked up, but at least we get to see the cool Sickbay examining tables that flip up and down.

Here's an interesting point: in this scene both Spock and Tormolen are wearing black t-shirts instead of their usual colored tunics. We saw this earlier with McCoy wearing the same kind of shirt when he was chilling back in The Man Trap, and he also seems to be wearing one under his short-sleeved blue shirt, which suggests that it's a standard uniform undershirt (especially since Spock and Tormolen put their blue shirts back on over them after they get done with the examination). So...where the hell is Kirk's? Because we're going to see Kirk with his shirt ripped or off many, many, many....many, many times throughout this series, and he's never wearing anything under it. So what gives? Are these not part of the uniform and these three random people just enjoy wearing them? Are they part of the uniform for everyone but goldshirts? Is Kirk exercising some kind of captain's privilege to not have to wear an undershirt? I don't know, man. Star Trek uniforms have never made any sense to me. Also, I’m sorry I introduced that as interesting. I don’t know why I did that.

Anyway, Spock and McCoy snark at each other a bit, but on a less cheerful note we see that Tormolen is rubbing his forearm anxiously. Which presumably means more in this context than it does when I do that about thirty times a day. Kirk comes in to see what's up, and Tormolen mournfully describes how terrible the scene was. That leads to this bit of dialogue from him and Kirk: “I keep wondering--” “You keep wondering if man was meant to be out here. You keep wondering, you keep signing on.” So either Kirk is a mind reader, or this sentiment is old ground for Tormolen.

Spock says he has no idea what happened down there, but maybe they could find something on the record tapes. Kirk tells Tormolen to go get some rest since he keeps going on about how many dead people there were down there, and he and Spock go off to check those tapes. We see Chapel (yay!) and Tormolen looking at his hand while a sinister rattling sound plays (not yay).

In the briefing room, everyone's looking over the tapes. Spock identifies one as a spectro-analysis tape, but it turns out to just be a slow pan of the room where they beamed down. I would say that's not what spectro-analysis is, but spectro-analysis (as opposed to spectral analysis) isn't a thing, so I guess you can have it mean whatever you want. Kirk muses over how bizarre and macabre this situation is, with everyone just frozen and uncaring, and asks for theories. McCoy says it couldn't be drugs or intoxication since the bio-analysis tapes, which were apparently more useful than the spectro-analysis tapes, rule that out. Spock suggests it may be some new form of space madness, which is like regular madness but in space, but he doesn't know what could have caused it since they didn't pick up anything unusual on their sensors. Scotty points out that that just means they didn't pick up anything unusual that they were designed to pick up, so this could still be something entirely new.

Kirk's main concern is this: they have to get the best readings they can of Psi 2000's breakup, and to do that means maintaining a really precise orbit, so they need absolute efficiency and no one getting space madness and randomly dying. He asks if there's any chance that what happened to the science team could affect the crew of the Enterprise. There's a conspicuous lack of any answer to this, which annoys Kirk, but hey, if they don't know what happened, how can they know what effects it's going to have? Anyway, the bridge calls in to report that the expected erratic changes are beginning to happen to the planet, and the meeting ends on that note.

In the rec room, or whatever, some people are playing space checkers (like regular checkers, but in space) and Tormolen is getting some food. He's still staring at his hand and rubbing it against his shirt like there's something on there he can't scrub off. Which I guess there is.

Sulu and friend come in to get some coffee, chatting about Sulu's latest passion: fencing. His friend complains that Sulu has a habit of picking up intense interests every week or so, which I guess is kind of thrown in there as a justification for why Sulu was in the botany lab a couple weeks ago but never shows up there again. The two of them sit down next to Tormolen and Sulu, noticing his buddy's new compulsion, asks if everything is alright, causing Tormolen to snap at him violently.

The two goldshirts get called to the bridge, but Sulu makes one last effort to check on Tormolen before they go. This really sets Tormolen off, making him jump up, knock his chair over, and go on an impassioned rant about how mankind doesn't belong in space. When his friends try to calm him down, he grabs the knife from his plate and points it first at them, then at himself. They get into a tussle, trying to take the knife from Tormolen, while everyone else in the room watches dispassionately. Thanks, guys.

Sulu and his pal aren't successful getting the knife away and all three of them take a tumble to the floor, and as they get up it's revealed that Tormolen stabbed himself in the stomach. I'm...not sure how he managed to do that with a butter knife. Sulu's friend runs over to the intercom and yells that they need medics. Then we hear another sinister rattle and he starts rubbing at his hands like Tormolen did.

After the break, Kirk gives a log saying that unbeknownst to them, a new disease has been brought on board. But this one's not in the past tense, so it just kind of makes it sound like Kirk has precognition. On the bridge, Sulu and his friend—who we finally learn is called Riley—are keeping the Enterprise steady around the rapidly condensing planet. Spock waxes on a bit about how they may be seeing Earth's own future, since before its sun went dark Psi 2000 was very similar to Earth. I dunno what we're going to do with that information, but hey, science!

Everything seems to be going alright so far, except that both Sulu and Riley have caught that bad case of Out, Damn Spot that's been going around, complete with sinister rattling. Kirk can't hear the soundtrack, though, so he doesn't notice anything off. He goes over to talk to Spock about the strange case of Tormolen. Spock thinks Tormolen was too confused to be actively trying to kill himself, but he notes that the man's capacity for self-doubt has always been high and wonders what caused it to suddenly come to the surface like that.

In Sickbay, Chapel and McCoy are operating on Tormolen, but it's not going well, even when McCoy blowtorches Tormolen's wound shut.

[Image description: McCoy and Chapel, dressed in blue Sickbay scrubs, doing surgery on a draped body at a Sickbay table. McCoy is saying, “Closing,” while pointing a device at the patient. The device looks remarkably like a completely undisguised blowtorch. ]

We briefly cut away to the bridge, where there's been a sudden increase in gravity that causes the orbit to go all wonky. Riley's too busy looking at his hands to do his job, causing Kirk to have to do it while Riley sits there and sweats heavily. Back in Sickbay, Tormolen's vitals are inexplicably dropping, and despite McCoy and Chapel's best efforts, he dies. This really freaks McCoy out because Tormolen's wounds shouldn't have been fatal. He calls Kirk to Sickbay, and after taking a moment for a bit of exposition, Kirk heads down.

Sulu and Riley talk about how much they're both sweating, then Sulu abruptly suggests they head down to the gym for a bit of a workout to calm their nerves. Riley is understandably perplexed about this, but that doesn't stop Sulu from sneaking off the bridge unnoticed (somehow), leaving poor Riley with no idea what to do about it.

In Sickbay, McCoy is explaining to Kirk that Tormolen's wounds were not severe enough to kill him, and says that the only reason he died was because he didn't want to live. Um. I don't think you can will yourself to death. Especially not while you're unconscious. But McCoy can't come up with anything else, and he's especially baffled because he says that men like Tormolen don't give up. They can't be trusted to investigate inexplicable deaths without contaminating themselves and they're incredibly susceptible to ennui, but they don't give up.

Kirk wonders if this is a coincidence, with Tormolen dying after having been down on the planet where all those other people died. McCoy can't see how, since they checked everything they could and did everything that was possible. Kirk tells him to check the impossible too. What the hell does that mean? “Check if he was a vampire! See if he died from Kryptonite poisoning! Try sprinkling fairy dust on him!”

On the bridge, the orbit goes out of whack, causing Spock to finally notice that one of the helmsmen is mysteriously absent. He runs over and sets things straight, recruiting a guy called Rand (no relation) to take Sulu's place and demanding to know why Sulu isn't there. Riley is...not very helpful.

[Image description: Riley, a white goldshirt with brown hair and a very drunk look on his face, sitting at the helm on the bridge and proclaiming, “Have no fear, Riley's here!”]

Spock relieves Riley, replacing him with Uhura. That's right, Uhura can run communications and fly the ship. Uhura can do anything.

Spock sends Riley to Sickbay, and Riley goes happily enough, sauntering off through the corridors and opening the Sickbay doors by blowing on them. He goes in and pesters Chapel, first mournfully asking her what happened to Tormolen, then, without skipping a beat, starts hitting on her, causing more sinister rattling when he touches her chin. Then he says that Tormolen's mistake was that he wasn't born an Irishman. Because as we all know, Irish people are immortal. Then he leaves. Well, to be fair, Spock just said to report to Sickbay, he didn't say anything about what to do when Riley got there.

Riley's pretty quickly overshadowed though, because immediately afterwards we see Sulu burst through a door, shirtless, laughing, waving a rapier, and having the time of his life.

[ID: Sulu, wearing only his uniform pants and boots, standing in the middle of an Enterprise corridor, grinning and striking a duelist’s pose with a rapier. The subtitle reads [Music]. ]

Legend has it that the original script was undecided about whether Sulu was using a rapier or a samurai sword, and that the choice was up to Takei, who went with the rapier because he felt that the samurai sword was much too stereotypical for a Japanese character, something he really wanted to break away from because in the 60s it was really goddamn hard for an Asian actor to get any role that wasn't a pile of stereotypes. Legend—and by legend, I mean, George Takei—also has it that Takei spent the time up until the shoot frantically doing push-ups in his dressing room to prepare for his shirtless scenes. He really enjoyed this episode, and boy howdy can you tell by watching him.

Sulu encounters a couple of crewmen walking the other way, who have an astounding lack of reaction to being spontaneously menaced by a really sweaty guy with a sword. At least, up until he charges them, at which point they turn tail and run away. Sulu only finds greater amusement in this, calling them cowards as he climbs up a nearby ladder.

Meanwhile, Spock gets a guy to relieve Uhura, and Kirk comes on the bridge to discuss the strange case of the missing helmsmen. He tells Uhura to send a security team out to locate and confine the two of them, and Uhura responds with a report about Sulu's antics.

Spock proposes a pattern of hidden personality traits suddenly surfacing: Tormolen's self-doubt, Sulu's desire to be a swashbuckler, and Riley...being really proud of being Irish. I guess that's a personality trait.

Before they can go any farther with this theory, there's another disturbance from the planet, only this time the helmsmen can't compensate because their controls aren't working. Kirk decides enough's enough and orders them to warp out of there, but the warp drive also isn't responding. Neither are the impulse engines.

Kirk heads off to see what's up with this, but he's interrupted by Sulu bursting in on the bridge, waving his sword around wildly, and I don't think Shatner's expression as the rapier gets shoved in his face had much to do with acting. Uhura tries to get the sword away, but Sulu grabs her to his side, declaring, “I'll protect you, fair maiden!” To which she responds, “Sorry, neither.” Wow. Censors were asleep that day, huh.

A triple attack by Kirk, Spock and Uhura gets Sulu a Vulcan nerve pinch for his trouble, and Spock has him hauled off to Sickbay, with a surprisingly snarky comment from Spock about “D'Artagnan here.” Kirk goes back to trying to raise Scotty about that engine trouble...but it's not Scotty that replies. It's Riley. He says that he's relieved Scotty of his duties and also that he's the captain now. Apparently they can't shut him off, either, because he goes on to demand double portions of ice cream for dinner and then starts singing “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.” Kirk's face says it all.

[ID: Kirk, standing on the bridge next to the lift doors with one hand to his forehead, looking extremely frustrated, while Riley sings, “I’ll take you home again Kathleen...” over the intercom.]

Kirk's having a really bad day.

With nineteen minutes to go before they swandive into the collapsing planet, Kirk finally reaches Engineering, where Scotty is doing his best to get in. He says that Riley told everyone that Kirk wanted them on the bridge, then locked the door behind them. Wow. It is really easy to take over Engineering. Not only that, but Riley's hooked everything up to the main panel in Engineering, so they can't use auxiliary control. The only way they can get back into Engineering is to literally burn a hole through the wall, which is going to be tricky because the wall is full of stuff that you really don't want to burn through.

Riley's still singing, and I would comment on the quality of his singing, but that would be very hypocritical of me, so I won't. Besides, everyone else in the episode will do it for me. Uhura reports to Spock that various incidents among the crew are increasing, either because of the sickness or because they're all just worried they're gonna die, so Spock orders her to have the main sections sealed off so they can hopefully slow down the spread of this thing. But Uhura's alert is cut off by Riley, who's also overridden the alert channels. You can do anything from Engineering. Riley tells Uhura that she won't get ice cream since she interrupted his song. Awwww. He also says there will be a dance in the bowling alley later. Hang on, they have a bowling alley? Of all the things you could have installed for entertainment on your starship, you picked a bowling alley? No wonder they're so desperate for shore leave all the time.

Uhura says she can't do anything to cut Riley off, so Spock goes over and presses a bunch of buttons to confirm this. I've noticed a running theme in this show is that no one believes Uhura when she says she can't do something or something's not working. Then again, that happens to Scotty a lot too.

Just then, there's a big jolt, and everyone dutifully flings themselves across the set. My favorite part of this is the brief cutaway to Sickbay where we see McCoy doing a belly flop across Sulu's legs.

[ID: Sickbay tilting to the side, causing Chapel to fall backward onto a bed and McCoy to wind up horizontal on top of a passed-out Sulu.]

He calls up to the bridge to complain about this (apparently Riley didn't bother cutting that particular channel) and says that they're running tests on Sulu but haven't found anything yet. Kirk asks if there's anything he can do about Riley, but McCoy's got nuthin. Not even some tranquilizer gas to pump in there or anything. You're falling down on the job, there, Bones. Literally and metaphorically.

Riley calls in again to give the female crewmembers orders on how to look (thanks dude), including telling them not to wear too much makeup. You don't want too much makeup on this ship, Riley, you better take that up with Mr. Spock and his eyeshadow.

Then he starts singing “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” one more time. Which I guess is the only song he knows. You couldn't mix it up a bit there, Riley? Rocky Road To Dublin? Galway Bay? Thousands Are Sailing? No?

Scotty does something that gives the bridge enough power to keep the ship stabilized, but that's not that much help since their orbit is still decaying and they're now sixteen minutes away from faceplanting into the planet (faceplaneting). Kirk takes a moment to sign a PADD for a crewman. Kirk. Kirk, the ship is crashing. You can do paperwork later. He sends Spock down to help McCoy, but tells him to stop on the way to harangue Scotty to go faster.

On his way, Spock encounters a maniacally laughing man who's painted 'love mankind' on the wall, and a goldshirt harassing Rand, because harassing Rand is the main pastime on the Enterprise. Spock tells him to stop that, and he does...until Spock leaves, whereupon he immediately starts again. Helpful.

Spock finds Scotty, who says he's doing the best he can, dammit, and he can't cut through the bulkhead safely any faster, but Spock tells him they don't have time to be safe. This clearly perturbs Scotty deep in his engineer's soul. Not much anyone can do about it now, though.

In Sickbay, McCoy is yelling at the biopsy lab, but they're not responding, so he goes over to yell at them in person. Chapel is left behind with Sulu, who's coming out of the tranquilizer (we can tell because he's thrashing his head around and grunting). Unfortunately Chapel has the contagion from where Riley touched her, and she wanders off.

Things aren't going well on the bridge. Riley is still singing, various people are having to be shoved out of their chairs as they succumb to the contagion, and Kirk is about to lose it. He snaps at Uhura to cut Riley off, and she snaps back at him that she sure as hell would if she could. Kirk has the good grace to apologize, but it's understandable; I think anyone would lose it after that many renditions of “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.”

Spock finally makes it to Sickbay, where he encounters Chapel, who starts rubbing his hand and talking about how the men from Vulcan treat their women. Keep in mind that's the Vulcan equivalent of passionately making out, so Spock is understandably pretty perturbed by this, especially when she starts saying she loves him. Spock finally manages to disentangle himself, but it's too late: he's been infected too. He wanders out into the corridor, ignoring Uhura's attempts to get a hold of him, and starts sniffling, which is the Spock equivalent of attacking people with a sword.

Kirk stomps down to Engineering with some security guys in tow, where Scotty is finishing up cutting a Tetris block-shaped piece out of the wall. He reaches his hand right in the still-smoking hole (badass) and opens the door, letting Kirk and the redshirts rush in and apprehend Riley. Riley's a graceful loser, though; he just says, “No dance tonight,” and gets thrown into the redshirts while Kirk and Scotty desperately start pushing buttons.

Meanwhile, Spock finds an empty room to duck into, and tries desperately to get control of himself, collapsing into a chair and muttering some math as he breaks into sobs. This is an interesting scene, because it wasn't originally in the script; Spock was supposed to have a much more light-hearted encounter where he burst into tears after getting a mustache drawn on him by the mad graffiti artist. Nimoy objected, feeling that this was out of character for Spock and missing a great opportunity, so he pushed for the scene to be changed. He had to keep pushing, because the scriptwriter didn't initially want to do it, and then it came in at the end of the shooting day and no one thought they could get it done in time, but Nimoy persevered and did the whole thing in one take right under the wire.

The result is something special: a rare scene showing Spock in a moment of true, open vulnerability, confessing to the feelings he insists he doesn't have, the struggle to keep himself restrained and logical to the point that he can't confess feelings like love and friendship even to himself. It also stands out from the rest of the episode, as aside from Tormolen—whose arc, while tragic, is rather flat--most of the results of the affliction are much more Wacky Hijinks than anything seriously emotional.

There's bad news in Engineering: Scotty's found out that Riley turned the engines off completely, and it would take thirty minutes to start them up again. This is bad, since they're now starting to burn up in the planet's atmosphere and have got about eight minutes left...leading to one of Scotty's most famous lines: “I cannot change the laws of physics. I got to have thirty minutes!”

Well, Kirk isn't going to take the immutable laws of physics as an excuse. He suggests a controlled implosion of the engines, but Scotty says that's only a theory and has never been done. They'd need a row of computers working weeks to find the right formula. Speaking of which, where is Spock?

In Sickbay, Sulu has finally come round, which for some reason involves screaming at the top of his lungs while McCoy watches dispassionately.

[ID: Sulu sitting up in Sickbay and screaming, while McCoy watches him with a hypospray in his hand.]

When he's done screaming, Sulu seems back to normal and apparently doesn't remember anything since he left the bridge. That's enough for McCoy, who shoves Chapel out of her chair (there's a lot of shoving people out of their chairs in this episode) and calls the lab to tell them they've finally isolated the problem. He says that somehow on Psi 2000 water has changed to a complex chain of molecules (it what now) that's passed through perspiration and acts like alcohol once it's in the bloodstream. Except it doesn't cause anyone to lose coordination, or slur their speech, or throw up, or pass out, or have difficulty thinking, or have any effect aside from soul-baring and a lot of sweating. So...maybe not a whole lot like alcohol. McCoy tries to tell all this to the lab, but they just laugh hysterically at him, so he goes off to do it himself.

Kirk finds Spock (...somehow) and demands to know why he's crying in a side room while the ship is crashing. Spock starts talking about his mother and how he could never tell her he loved her. It's very moving, but we've only got five minutes before no one on the ship is going to be telling anyone anything ever again, so Kirk's got no time to listen. Not even when Spock says that he feels ashamed when he feels friendship for Kirk, a touching admission which is somewhat undercut by the fact that Kirk is currently expressing that friendship by smacking Spock repeatedly across the face.

Eventually Spock gets tired of this and backhands Kirk in return, sending him tumbling over the nearby table with such force I'm surprised Spock didn't break his jaw in the process. Kirk starts ranting about the about implosion process and then smacks the nearby console when Uhura tries to contact him, from which he intuits that he's got the infection. Then he starts going on about how the Enterprise consumes everything in his life and he can't have normal relationships. Now, when Tormolen, Sulu and Riley were affected it took considerable time for substantial behavior changes to occur, but Kirk has to one-up everyone so he managed it in about five seconds. Meanwhile, Spock calms down and starts talking about the intermix formula, because...I guess he just got over this by himself. Also, I'm pretty sure five minutes have passed by now.

Scotty comes in to try and get something useful out of somebody, and he and Spock go off to work on the intermix formula, leaving Kirk to angstily make his way up to the bridge. As he steps out of the turbolift, McCoy is waiting to give him the antidote, which he does by ripping Kirk's sleeve open. Even though hyposprays can go through clothing. And Kirk's exposed neck is right there. And a gentle tug at the fabric would have been more than sufficient. Look, McCoy's had a long day, alright, he needs to take it out on somebody.

[ID: Kirk standing in front of the bridge lift doors looking tired and annoyed while McCoy injects a hypospray into the bare skin on his arm exposed by Kirk’s uniform shirt sleeve being ripped open almost down to the elbow.]

While we're at it, the question must be asked: how did McCoy manage to not get infected this whole time? He was in ample contact with lots of people who were infected, while wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and somehow never once had the slightest bit of skin-to-skin contact with any of them? The only thing I can come up with is that he was infected but it was impossible to tell any difference.

On the screen, the planet is rushing past closer and closer while everyone stares silently. In Engineering, Spock and Scotty are cutting even more corners to get the intermix to work in time. They do...something, and the lights go dim on the bridge while everyone reacts dramatically; Kirk goes full throttle by throwing his head back in a silent scream, while McCoy is content to rub his ear and squint a bit.

Then it's all over: the lights come back up and instead of a rapidly approaching planet on the viewscreen there's an open starfield. Spock comes up to say that they were successful, obviously, but with a bit of a hitch: they overloaded the engines and now they're traveling faster than possible. Not only that, but the ship chronometer is now running backward. They're going backward in time! Why is this happening? Who knows. Maybe they just went so fast they came back around again the other way.

They hit the brakes, but not before traveling three days back in time. Well, could've been worse. Spock points out that this is all very intriguing, having, you know, access to time travel now, but Kirk isn't interested in repeating this experiment anytime soon. He tells Sulu to take them on to their next destination. Um. Are you sure it's a good idea to head to your next destination before you've technically departed your last one? You're gonna get some questions from Starfleet about why you're not on the mission you're supposed to be on.

Anyway, the episode ends there, leaving the whole time travel thing a bizarre non-sequitor that comes out of nowhere, adds nothing whatsoever to the episode, and is never mentioned again. This is because this episode was originally supposed to be a two-parter leading into Tomorrow Is Yesterday, which is a proper full-fledged time travel episode. For whatever reason that didn't happen, though, so we just have this weird little endcap that it's probably best not to think about too much.

TREK TROPE TALLY: Crew death count for this episode is one blueshirt (Tormolen), bringing us up to seventeen. We also have our first case of Space Diseases with the Emotions Virus, our first case of a Time Trek, albeit an extremely mild one with the Enterprise getting thrown back three days into the past, and our second case of Uniforms Unformed with Kirk’s tissue-paper sleeve being mercilessly destroyed by McCoy. Next time, we'll be looking at a tale of doppelganger woe in The Enemy Within.

#star trek #star trek TOS #star trek tos season one #1.4 The Naked Time #recap tag #star trek TOS recaps #1.4 The Naked Time recap

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wanderbitesbybobbie · 4 years

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REAL TALK: Inside a Bipolar Mind Amidst a Pandemic

Three nights ago, I sent an e-mail to my psychiatrist. The e-mail went this way…

Hi, Dra. Belle. How are you? I hope you’re doing well and good and most of all healthy. I’m doing OK, with all the Covid 19 things happening. I just had 1 breakdown so far which I would really like to discuss with you on our next consult if there’s any slot available. I was scheduled for April 6 appointment, but if there’s any slot left for May, I would gladly take it. I’m not that anxious at the moment as I’ve been trying to avoid stressful news. Over all, I’m OK, except that I find it really hard to sleep again. Probably because I’m just at home, and I don’t have that much activities compared to my usual routine. I do cardio exercises, I write a lot for my blog, but because there’s longer time to rest, I really find it hard to sleep at night. I keep waking up with the body twitches again, and because of lack of sleep I’m usually irritable. I badly need to take Clonotril again. However, I can’t seem to find your latest prescription of Clonazepam (Clonotril), I’m not sure if there was one issued last March. I tried to show Mercury Drug the Feb 3 prescription which has been unused, but they said it’s already expired. They said, they will accept E-Prescription, so I have to ask my doctor for it. May I please request another copy of the prescription for Clonazepam? I still have my Quetiapine prescription and I was able to use it, I just dunno where I placed the Clonazepam. I know you always hand me 2 prescriptions every time. 1 for Quetiapine and 1 for Clonazepam. I’m just not sure if I misplaced the other one, or if I forgot to get a prescription for it last time. If it’s possible, please send it here on my e-mail. I only have 1 left in my stash and I’m a bit panicking because I can’t find the latest prescription. I attached here the photo of the February prescription. Thank you so much. Hope to hear from you soonest. Keep safe and God Bless.

I stood in front of the counter at my local pharmacy. It took them around half an hour before they were able to dispense my medication. Though my psychiatrist have issued the latest prescription, the pharmacist had to call the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to verify how legit my papers were. Yes, it’s a usual practice. One of my medications is a controlled drug, and it is heavily regulated by PDEA. So I waited for the pharmacist until someone from PDEA answered their call. I kept calm. There was nothing I could do anyway.

SURVIVING THE QUARANTINE

It has been a month since the government decided to put the entire Luzon (northern part of the Philippines which includes Manila) on a community quarantine. All movements are limited. Mass transportation has been stopped. There are checkpoints everywhere. People from the private sector were asked to work from home. The government is badly trying to flatten the curve. Covid-19 has been winning for the last months. It has taken over the major economic centers of the world, USA, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, China, Japan, it did not spare anyone. It took the rich and the poor, the old and the young. As of this writing, there are 2,215,167 Cases in the world, 149,676 Deaths, and about 560,672 has recovered according to Worldometers Info. It does not look good, wherever angle you would look at it.

I honestly don’t know where I stand, but I have a lot of things in mind. It’s 2:15 AM. If you would notice, most of my articles are posted at wee hours like this. Why? BECAUSE I HATE SLEEPING. I have recently discovered this during the time of this pandemic. I hate it when the clock strikes at around 12 midnight, that means I have to put myself to sleep again. Sleep is essential I know, but for someone like me who has a massive trouble sleeping, it’s not a pleasurable process. It comes with my disorder. My brain is hyperactive (manic) at this time. I am not like a normal person, who simply lies down in bed, tuck themselves comfortably in, and instantly falls asleep. I have to take heavy medications to put my relentless active brain cells to shut down. I have to wait for hours until they take effect. If sleeping is a dilemma for me, the same goes with waking up. It takes the same amount of effort to put me to sleep to be able to get me up to function.

But conversely, I am somehow liking the quarantine. It gives me so much time to be away from my tiresome daily hustle. I don’t have to go out everyday for work. I don’t have to wake up early to get multiple things done in a day. I don’t have to force myself to deal with people. I wake up, prepare breakfast, watch Netflix, prepare food for lunch and dinner, take photos of the food I make, maybe write for my blog, watch more movies, send some replies to client inquiries, and then prepare to sleep again. It has been my routine. Sometimes, I do the laundry, clean the house parts by parts, insert some cardio exercises every other day, give my dog a bath, run through our supplies and make a list of what needs to be restocked. It’s on repeat, sometimes I even lose track of what day it is. Some days I go on a grocery run to buy stocks for 2 weeks. The long queues had never been my problem as I have a disability ID allowing me to go on the priority lane. Then again, I have always thought about the people around me. Some, computing their budgets while they read-through their grocery lists. Some, fidgeting on their phones, maybe posting rants about the unbelievable lines they had to go through just to get inside the supermarket. I never experienced any of it, and for the first time, I say thanks to my disability. My PWD ID itself is a powerful immunity. I am thankful that I wouldn’t have to wait in line, as it would definitely increase my exposure to the virus. I am at high-risk, I am asthmatic, with so many deficiencies (according to my last lab results) and I’m taking medications for my brain. There is little chance for me to survive it, so I am taking extra precautions. But because of Covid, I became thankful for a lot of things. Things that never mattered before the pandemic. I am thankful that supermarkets are always restocked with supplies. People wouldn’t have to worry about scarcity. After all, that’s what the President promised. “We have enough food and supplies.” I am thankful I could drive my car. I wouldn’t have to carry heavy supplies from Point A to Point B with the absence of public transport. I am thankful for God’s grace and that we have enough. I am thankful that I can share and I wouldn’t have to cry for help and rely on the government. This pandemic has made me grateful for so many things more than ever.

Somehow, I am surviving the quarantine. I managed to endure with only 1 anxiety breakdown. I cried my constant worries away all my what-ifs. I was angry, I was worried, I was stressed. But at that time, my anxiety was less of a concern. There was a bigger predicament lingering throughout the globe and that was to stay at home to avoid the virus. I know I have to cope by myself, mainly because a trip to my psychiatrist would potentially expose me to the virus. My medications kept me stable and I am functioning well (so far, so good). When boredom strikes, I turn to writing and cooking. I have known my disorder for more than a year now, and it is clearly triggered by stress. A pandemic like this is an obvious trigger. I know I have to carefully eliminate things that would cause me to react.

REACTING TO SOCIAL DISTANCING AND ISOLATION

But there’s always a downside to every situation like this. As I walk inside the supermarket, I watched how people behaved like dormant zombies slowly pushing their carts. Except, they don’t have any human triggers that would make them agitated. With the quarantine going on, only one person per household is allowed to go out. They become the “tributes” as they brave the great outdoors to restock their supplies. Social distancing has been implemented. No one is talking to each other as they keep a safe distance from one another. Everyone wore their “gears” of protection. Wearing a face mask is the new norm.

10 minutes of this for someone with a major anxiety disorder can easily trigger a meltdown. Isolation stimulates sadness and depression and reduces the feeling of optimism. That is a fact. How do I know? Because I have experienced this first-hand. I always thank the people who take their time to read what’s on my Disability ID. “Mental and Psycho-social”, meaning I can go from zero to maximum breakdown at any given time. Bipolar Disorder (depressed or manic) can sometimes be activated without any clear external factors. Therefore, I cannot be left alone for a long time.

GREATER DANGERS ASIDE FROM THE VIRUS

I am lucky because somehow, I can still control my thoughts and my moods. Fortunately, I have not gone hysterical in public (yet and I hope not). My history of breakdowns have been in the corners of my house or within the walls of my room. Crying on the train or in the bus in Sydney does not count. I wasn’t hysterical. I have been applying everything from my therapies, from breathing exercises on how to calm down and talking to the people around me. I air out every feeling and emotion whether it’s happiness, sadness, excitement, fear, or whatever that comes in between. I still have a full-stock of my medications. Also, reading and writing has been my outlet. My extremely active mind has been converting somewhat manic thoughts to productivity, hence my multiple blog entries. I have a lot of things to say, so much in my mind, but I was taught in therapy that not everything needs a reaction.

Having a look around, there is no lucid conclusion with what lies ahead. Everything is not as stable as it seemed to be. No one was prepared. Everybody, including the most powerful are being challenged. It has become inevitable. But you know what greatly affects the world that seems to be unforeseen? People like me, diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, are facing additional challenges. According to Psychology Today, only 2.5 % of the population share these challenges: MOOD ELEVATION AND FULL BLOWN MENTAL BREAKDOWNS. 2.5 % of the world is Bipolar, and God knows what kind of cognitive and behavioral efforts for stress management we undertake amidst a crisis like this. Let’s take everything into consideration, not only Bipolar Disorder, but the list of other Mental Disorders can go on and on.

What is equally concerning is the amount of people suffering from anxiety even without having a proper diagnosis. The pandemic has brought this upon us. More people have become anxious. For some reason, I find myself very lucky. I was already geared with coping mechanisms before this happened. What happens to those who cannot manage?

Looking into the vast expanse of uncertainty and seclusion leaves people to mull over things that could possibly transpire in the future, at the mercy of their confused train of thoughts. The world feels further away, with everyone having their own sets of worries. Fears become louder. It has become a very unhealthy environment.

General access to uninterrupted screen time increases the pressure on the mental health even more. Social media, the news, anything that frequently suggest or conveys to your conscious or unconscious mind that you might be in danger are considered “threats” to your sanity and causes more fear. Leaving our vulnerable minds bare to a steady stream of these keep us all in an anxious mode. The accumulation of stress-triggers to our brain can develop more pessimistic thought patterns, and unnecessary emotions towards our current circumstances.

I am reaching out to all my fellow Mental Health Advocates, and to everyone who can possibly read this post. These are indeed out of the ordinary times for us. As we come to the point that we impose measures to protect our physical health, how about we do the same for our mental health? Try to listen to ourselves in a deeper context. Remember, we don’t have to go through this alone. Seek help if you must. You might be required to keep a safe distance from people, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to disconnect.

KEEP CALM, KEEP SAFE AND MOST OF ALL HEALTHY, NOT JUST PHYSICAL, BUT MENTAL TOO. YOU ARE ALL IN MY MIND AND PRAYERS.

With Love From Quarantine,

REAL TALK: Inside a Bipolar Mind Amidst a Pandemic was originally published on WanderBitesByBobbie

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banquetrecords · 7 years

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the worst pub crawl ever...

it’s been some time since i last tumbled. our new site is live and is working really well, too well perhaps and we’re super stretched. but it’s a good problem. I still wanna write a Black Lives Matter post, but first, while it’s fresh in my mind...

Yearly, the Kingston Town Neighbourhood (that’s the near-to-town-centre) councillors and some of the Licensing Committee (who decide policy on Kingston clubs and venues (but also off licenses and restaurants)) councillors do a tour of the town to try and get a handle on what happens at night in town. Now it’s no secret that my route into Council was via the belief (that i still have) that RBK doesn’t care or value night-time entertainment as much as it should. I’m pretty familiar with the venues we went to. I work in two of them weekly, and used to run events in another. Yet, as a Licensing member and a Kingston Town councillor, i was happy to go. Not least to make sure i was a part of the conversations. My dumbed-down approach to this is i think the Lib Dems on council (of which I’m one) are minded to think “ah, let the young people have fun, but let’s make sure we minimise trouble.” I think a significant number - but not all - of the Tories in administration have more of a “young people going clubbing are probably up to no good, but we have to put up with them”. This year’s event, a kinda terrible pub-crawl, got upgraded a little with the London mayor’s Night Czar coming round to see what goes on, and the new KingstonFirst boss coming to view what the big percentage of Kingston BID payers do for a business.

I'm visiting #Kingston tonight with @RBKingston #KingstonFirst & @metpoliceuk for my latest #NightSurgery- come say hello! #LondonIsOpen

— Amy Lamé, Night Czar (@nightczar) 3 February 2017

Partly cos of the above the Kingston Council Chief Exec and Leader both came along, so there was quite a weird gang of us walking around town. I was happy Kevin was coming. His views on night time entertainment in the past have been ill-informed at best.

silly appointment by labour mayor. Can manage night time economy without interference from divisive American https://t.co/WTkKW3OwHs

— Kevin Davis (@kevinjdavis) 18 November 2016

Strangely, we started off at 11pm looking at a closed Rose Theatre and talking about the merits of it. Now, I’m obviously a huge fan of the place, but i thought this was a weird thing to do. We shoulda been in The Mill or The Druids. We walked along the river in a sorta sight-seeing tour, again posing for pictures in front of the bridge... i was getting frustrated that this was turning into a tour of the town, rather than a tour of the night time venues.

When we did get to Viper Rooms (formerly McClusky’s) it actually turned into what it was sposed to be. The 20-strong group of us (which included a BBC filming crew) went around and were shown how the scanning and search work. Kingston has an exceptionally high level of safety at night and in general.. We were also reminded how much work the guys at Viper do on river safety. They literally pulled people out of the water. Last night a DJ saved my life is nothing compared to these proper life savers.

The tour then went to Pryzm. On the way i had quite the chat with the Council Leader about Kingstonian’s plight. Off topic, sure, but i swear people involved in the decisions of the town don’t have all the info. They do now! Time was spent with the Street Pastors. A bunch of volunteers who look after people who need it, associated to - often a bit too much drinking - problems at night.

Pryzm is the venue with the cash spent on it. I’m always impressed by the PA. It’s not a place i visit as a punter, but it IS a place that each bigger town needs.

current status: in Pryzm with Kevin Davis, Amy Lamé and a gang of Kingston councillors. shit's weird pic.twitter.com/CnS2XcucJK

— jon tolley (@JonTolleyTweets) 4 February 2017

i was keen to hear of what Amy had to say about The Agent Of Change. It's hard to know what power the czar will actually have, but even for there to be a voice is important. I'm no Labour voter, but what Sadiq is trying to do must be welcomed. There was too much to talk about between Amy and myself on the night so we’ll continue a lot of this “off-line” Anyway, at Pryzm, we were shown around the venue. Loads of the venues and councillors were so pre-occupied with talking about safety measures, which are obviously important, that not much time was spent on talking about the actual value of the places. the offer, the service, the atmopshere, the fun. I’m always worried even by the term Night Time Economy cos it makes everything seem like a black/red balance sheet, and not about the cultural benefit of these places. It’s been my criticism of the council and of Kingston First for years.

After leaving there, the gang went to The Hippodrome - the home of New Slang. I won't talk too much about there, cos i do so every week. I love the place and the shell it gives us for some of the best moments i've experienced. It was good to see Hippodrome security actually making the councillors and officers use their ID to get in. Every week i see people say "I don't need ID, I'm 40". Decision makers don't understand the conflict this creates. I’m always saying how people don’t like having their ID scanned, using breathalisers, going through airport security... I see the benefits, of course, and am not advocating taking it away (actually, I’d take away breathalisers right away - i dont accept that being too drunk to drive, is being too drunk to dance), but i think WAY more should be done on showing the benefits of this to the customer. Talk about encouraging safety, rather than presumption of danger. At this point i said a temporary goodbye as i had my day night job to get on with.

the crew went back to guildhall while the real highlights of Kingston nightlife went down at Bacchus pic.twitter.com/M2nAjLKSpN

— jon tolley (@JonTolleyTweets) 4 February 2017

I bloody love Bacchus. The Friday nights are easy and fun. You can knock Bacchus for being a small dive, but i love it BECAUSE it’s a small dive.

may there always be a club for the punks, grebos, goths, the shoe lace belts, the misfits, those with a different path. always Bacchus

— jon tolley (@JonTolleyTweets) 31 March 2016

At 3AM, i met up with the council crew again, to see kicking out time. Now, obviously I’m a big fan of night time entertainment, but i do see the hassles. Kicking out time is surely one of the most tense. We watched from over the road at Viper, Pryzm, and then at Hippodrome like parents waiting at the school gate. The security did everything you’d want them to. Stopping one scuffle before it started, making sure people weren’t wandering pissed into roads, sending people on their way. The police presence was there, in case anything got out of hand.

I feel everyone was suitably impressed. For me, the bigger problems with anti-social behaviour from clubs are in the residential streets on the way home, rather than the town centre itself.I absolutely reject the idea that it’s unsafe to walk around Kingston at night. This view has been expressed by many on the Licensing Committee but I’m sure that anyone from that committee who was out with us last night can no longer have that view. I’m not sure if the actual appreciation of the venues and the service they provide is there tho. I guess that’s my battle.

So shouts out to the councillors who came out of their comfort zone and went around the town. Less of a shout, but a “nice one”, to those who it’s in their comfort zone, but still spent the night walking around. Hopefully we can make more informed decisions now.

One final footnote. We’ve heard that homelessness in Kingston has gone up 26% on last year. But man, when you are actually walking around the streets you really DO see the number of rough sleepers quite vividly. And that’s just the ones in view. It’s really sad and it’s getting worse. I hope that our eyes were open to the homelessness problem almost as much as our ears were open to the joys of night time entertainment, and we treat people with real problems as real people, not just potential beggars

Quick Poll: Do you think homelessness/begging is a problem in Kingston Town Centre?

— Kingston Police TCT (@MPSKingstonTnC) 20 January 2017

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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30 Minute Experiment: The Scarlet Letter #30ME

No, I haven’t decided to turn this 30 minute daily experiment into a book report or review even though I borrowed today’s topic to a well known Hawthorne novel that I’m not sure I actually read even though we all generally know the basic concept: "The Scarlet Letter” in the title was the “A” that women had to wear when they committed adultery, a concept that’s been borrowed in so many different types of fiction over the years, as well as in historical contexts. Before we get too deep into today’s topic, I will say that this comes out of stuff that’s going on in the world today so this will be a rare COVID-inspired ramble/rant...

I think one of the biggest problems with the world right now is that there is so much confusion and disinformation even with the fact that New York is lucky enough to have a governor and a mayor who are fairly open with information and facts with what is going on right now... and when it might end if ever.

One of the problems I’ve been having lately is that I have a lot of close personal friends who are realists, sure, but they’re also deeply pessimistic, and anyone who read my #30ME about concerts knows how irate I got with all the negativity that was surrounding me, something that absolutely is not helpful with my own mental well-being. (Heck, I have quit jobs over this desire to stay sane and not constantly be upset, stressed or anxious, which is very hard living in NYC at the BEST Of times!)

While I don’t want to get too political, I’m just so confused about the latest narrative which is now all about testing... testing for covid, immunity tests, tracing cases, isolating those who have it. I don’t know about you but this is sounding scarily like a situation that might lead to some of the worst possible situations. Yes, even worse than death, Governor Cuomo.

Part of my issues with the current push for testing is that it is likely to create a situation where those who have tested to have immunity to COVID might start getting special treatment... or everyone will have to carry around some sort of COVID ID with their status so that they can go out in public and not be stopped or questioned as a possible asymptomatic spreader of this disease.

I hope it doesn’t come to that but sadly, there are a lot of scared and paranoid people out there who will only feel comfortable going to movies or concerts or the grocery store if they know that everyone there has been screened and passes rigorous tests to prove that they aren’t those asymptomatic COVID spreaders we keep hearing about. I mean, it’s not enough that everyone wears masks and gloves, which I’ve generally been doing anyway, but the politicians and news have now gotten everyone so on edge that I worry this testing might lead to really bad policies like the ones instituted by Hitler to make sure that all Jews would be easily identifiable for everyone who had become fearful and distrusting of them due to Hilter’s rants. (Yes, maybe there’s some irony that I’m writing this the day after Holocaust Remembrance Day but as I stated before -- probably in my review of Jojo Rabbit, I’m hyper-sensitive to these things having had both parents manage to evade and escape the worst of the Holocaust.)

I will try my best not to go on another rant about our President (despite my pal David suggesting today’s topic be “evil”-- don’t worry, we’ll get there) because this is about more than his policies to stave off immigration to make sure no outsiders steal American’s jobs.... at a time when there are no jobs to be had by anyone. No, I won’t go there, cause i really want to talk about testing and how it will be done and managed.

Right now, our Governor says that testing will be random but it also says that there will be isolating and tracing measure that could really compromise many people’s privacies and rights. It’s not like I have anything to hide. If you were to trace everyone I’ve been in contact the last month, you’ll find that it was maybe a few delivery guys for less than 10 seconds and maybe the clerk at the only deli in my neighborhood.

But let’s say that someone who gets one of these random tests and it turns out that they have COVID but are asymptomatic. They’ll immediately be put under the microscope of being isolated and having their lives infiltrated into... and that’s maybe just for wanting to go into a store or once they open, movie theater/concert, etc. Will it get to the point where those who prove to be immune to COVID have to carry a card saying so or having some sort of badge they need to wear? What will this mean for those who aren’t tested and don’t have these IDS/badges? Will this mean it will be even harder for us not to get jobs even though I already have so many strikes against me?

I only ask these questions -- and maybe you’re starting to see the connections to The Scarlet Letter, although in this case it’s in reverse -- because I just don’t see any scenario where I might get tested either for COVID or for the community. I mean, I’m not a health worker and I don’t work at any retirement home or assisted living (the people who really need to be kept healthy) and I see no reason i might be going to the hospital, so why or when might I get tested? I’m not one of those people who is particularly curious about whether I’ve contracted COVID or not. I feel fine and I’ve been relatively fine since this whole thing started in February, and that’s with six weeks of almost complete and total isolation!

The mayor has said that there will be more testing at NYCHA buildings which is essentially low income housing of which there is a ton in my neighborhood. Things haven’t gotten so bad financially that I’ve had to move into one of those buildings (plus they’re really hard to get into as there is a lottery system) but that pretty much rules me out of the testing for lower income NYC restaurants. Nope, I’m in this weird place where I have no particular interest in being tested and certainly not after six weeks to learn “Oh, you have asymptomatic COVID and now need to be isolated for two more weeks.” I would literally kill someone right now if I was told that after six weeks of following all the rules, I now need to be isolated for even longer. And that’s what’s really happening, so maybe I’m a little more sympathetic to those who are getting mad and (stupidly) congregating to protest the politicians since they’ve been put in such bad shape financially.

I’m not sure how much of my own financial hardships I can blame on COVID but it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier to find a job now and if jobs start asking questions about COVID (have you had it? Have you been deemed immune?) that just seems like one more hurdle that’s going to be put in my way.

The whole thing really just sucks and not knowing how testing will work and how it will be used to eventually reopen businesses --remember that I live in a neighborhood where EVERYTHING is closed including the cheaper pizza place, laundromats, and most market/restaurants-- but more importantly to me, how this will be used to reopen movie theaters and the movie business.

Sure, there will be people who will never feel comfortable going to the movie theater but you know what? Just like with concerts, a lot of these more pessimistic friends are the same ones who rarely go to movie theaters anyway. But I just don’t understand how this testing will affect me in anyway. I just know how not being able to go outside and going back to my job hunt and not being around people is starting to hurt me, mentally and emotionally, and it’s not good.

Unfortunately, I just don’t think I’m gonna get the answers I’m looking for because everyone sees my particular interests to be minor compared to keeping people alive but even without being tested, I know that I’m probably one of the lowest risk people in terms of spreading the virus. I don’t necessarily enjoy big crowds (even at concerts and movies) but I’m also not so driven by my social needs that I’m at risk at spreading a virus that I don’t have and may never have had.

I guess I just want more answers that might directly affect me because as much as I appreciate what health care workers, doctors and nurses are doing, it’s not like I can suddenly shift my entire focus into medicine at my late age to get a job in that field where people are needed (and less now than maybe a month ago).

I’m trying hard to be positive that we’re not heading towards some dystopian society where we all have to wear our COVID status on a badge like a Scarlet Letter, but I also can’t see how this can be avoided if we want people to stop being afraid to going out in public (as much for themselves as loved ones).

Hopefully this will be my last COVID-inspired ramble for a while because honestly, I hate having to write about it, but every week or so I’m just gonna need to rant a bit because I’m just really confused about everything going on around me.

And with that, my time’s up....

#30ME #30MinuteExperiment #TheScarletLetter

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carpostnet · 4 years

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‘Don’t be shy’ and other top tips of 2019

The F&I Report this 12 months revealed tips from business consultants about how dealership managers can keep attuned to compliance requirements, buyer expectations and stay worthwhile. Here’s a sampling of some of our greatest tips this 12 months and the month during which every appeared.

Prioritize accuracy the primary time (January)

Be so exact that it’s important to contact a deal solely as soon as within the F&I workplace, says John Tabar, director of coaching for United Development Systems. “Make sure that everything you have is accurate,” Tabar says. “You don’t have time to touch a deal twice, three times, and if you’re spending time cleaning up things you should have taken care of earlier, that’s a sign of a disorganized manager.”

Keep pricing in verify to construct belief (February)

Dealerships ought to preserve F&I product pricing constant to take care of their prospects’ belief, mentioned dealership marketing consultant Tony Giorgione. “If you keep the price reasonable, you will continue to sell,” he mentioned. “Sales depend on the velocity of finance, not going for a big hit with one or two people.”

Dividing the F&I menu (March)

Break the F&I menu into three classes of protection, suggests F&I coach Gerry Gould: mechanical protection, which features a service contract, key substitute, tire and wheel and upkeep; look protection, which incorporates paint and material and paintless dent restore; and monetary protection, which incorporates assured asset safety and theft merchandise. Gould mentioned, “Categorizing the products on the menu/option disclosure makes for a much smoother presentation and flow.”

Discuss financing early (April)

Especially as rates of interest rise, finance managers ought to become involved within the transaction earlier, mentioned Tony Dupaquier, director of The Academy, an F&I coaching firm. “Too many business managers wait for the deal to be completely done before they’re involved in the deal,” he mentioned. “If the business manager will go out and go talk to them … it increases the likelihood of capturing the financing in-house.”

Prepare for regulatory shifts (May)

Dealers and lenders ought to keep forward of potential regulatory modifications by consulting sources from business teams, suggests Cheryl Miller, senior vice chairman and basic supervisor for Dealertrack F&I and Titling Solutions. “The potential emergence of state-by-state consumer financial protection regulations starting with California could add a new layer of complexity to today’s compliance landscape, requiring more awareness on the part of dealers and lenders than ever,” she mentioned.

Look past the resume (June)

Look past the resume when hiring F&I managers; take into account candidates’ potential for development, advises Raheem Travis, buyer monetary companies improvement supervisor of AutoNation’s western area market. Prospective staff ought to display constant F&I efficiency, however they need to additionally be receptive to further coaching and steering. “As long as someone has the ability and they’re coachable, really strong teams can be built,” Travis says.

Always construct rapport (July)

Prioritize the client relationship, even when doing so takes extra time, mentioned Jason Hash, coach at EFG Cos. Building rapport is important to the F&I transaction, he mentioned. So do not drop the greeting and rapport-building simply to save lots of time.

Don’t be shy (August)

Don’t be shy about pitching each F&I product, each time, advises Tom Wagner, finance director at LaFontaine Buick-GMC in Highland, Mich. Failing to do this deprives prospects of the chance to buy these protections. “You never know what’s happened to them, what’s going through their mind,” Wagner mentioned. “There are going to be people that just say yes to your first pass because they’ve had experiences in the past.”

Flip the script (September)

Flip the script when prospects object to a product pitch, advises Jimmy Atkinson, CEO of F&I product and coaching firm AUL Corp. It’s not at all times straightforward for purchasers to grasp the worth of a service contract. Break it down within the easiest way potential — present them simply how a lot a small restore can price. “In the end, they’ll appreciate the honesty and the added savings every time they visit the mechanic,” Atkinson mentioned.

Web design for F&I (October)

Design the F&I web page on a dealership web site as if each single buyer will view it, advises Paul McCarthy, vice chairman of nationwide gross sales at F&I product firm AUL Corp. You do not desire a website that caters to sure shoppers, such because the younger, who you work will be your typical on-line customer. “Let’s assume 100 percent of the people are shopping on the Internet,” he says.

Listen earlier than pitching (November)

Take cues from the client earlier than reciting a script. Joe Opolski, pre-owned finance supervisor at Roy O’Brien Ford in St. Clair Shores, Mich., advises F&I managers to concentrate to what prospects are actually saying to ensure their argument is as persuasive as potential. “Sometimes we use the wrong close at the wrong time. Or maybe the right one at the wrong time,” Opolski mentioned. “Sometimes we’re in a hurry to use the latest greatest tool or close, but we should take a breath and get involved in a dialogue with our customers.”

Call after repos (December)

After a automobile is repossessed, name the client to search out out why, advises G.P. Anderson, finance supervisor at Thielen Motors in Park Rapids, Minn. It lately occurred to prospects of Anderson after a job loss. The couple is now coming again to finance a brand new automobile and rebuild their credit score. “Show empathy and your ability to understand and share the feelings of another,” Anderson mentioned. “They know I have their back.”

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Neil Lennon hails Celtic title success after his ‘toughest spell as manager’

Neil Lennon reflected on the achievement of guiding Celtic to an eighth consecutive league title and offered up the admission that his spell as interim boss has been the toughest of his managerial career.

Celtic ran out 3-0 winners over Aberdeen at Pittodrie to clinch the Premiership crown with something to spare.

Lennon was at pains to stress the contribution made by predecessor Brendan Rodgers for laying the foundations for the league win before moving on to Leicester City.

Neil Lennon admits his spell as interim boss has the toughest of his managerial career

Rodgers' exit gift Lennon the opportunity to return to the club he managed for four years. The Northern Irishman jumped at the chance and celebrated with supporters at the end of Saturday's game.

Despite remaining unbeaten in 11 competitive matches, he has neither oblivious nor impervious to criticism that has been thrown his way since taking charge in late February.

"I'm very proud," he said. "It's a privilege to manage this club, it's my second time doing it and these moments are for saving.

" It's been the toughest piece of management I've had in my 10 years of management.

'That's just with the scrutiny, agitation and discontent surrounding the club. We had to keep calm. I feel you need the hide of a rhino and big cojones. I'm not sure I've got those, but I've got the hide of a rhino!

'You just need to bat things away and concentrate. Some of the performances weren't great but they are unbeaten in 11 games, so the standard is very high and the expectation is very, very high.

'We need the fans, to take stock. This is eight titles. This hasn't been done for a very long time. So, it's a special group of players and the fans should engage in that, don't think about nine or 10. "

As well as being sequentially important, this latest title was also the 50th in Celtic's history and marks the eighth consecutive domestic competition secured since Rodger's first walk into the club in the summer of 2016.

The abrupt nature of Rodgers 'departure has led to some resentment but Lennon is still sentiment of captain Scott Brown, who believes the former boss should be revered and not reviled.

' I have to give Brendan a huge amount of credit, I can't forget that, "said Lennon.

Celtic ran out 3-0 winners over Aberdeen on Saturday to claim an eighth league title in a row

"I don't want to miss him out because he left the foundations and his legacy is very much intact here.

" From manager to manager I think we owe him a big debt or thanks. " Lennon led Celtic to three titles during his first spell in charge and there is a school of thought that he is ready-made to book the club's pursuit of achieving 10 in a row.

He offered no fresh insight into his future job prospects but did concede that satisfaction satisfying this title was not quite of the same levels he experienced during his first spell in the dug-out.

However, he also issued thanks to chief executive Peter Lawwell and major shareholder Dermot Desmond for granting him the chance.

"I came to do a job and see it through," he stated. "I can't thank Peter enough for his advice, and Dermot, the two of them trusting me to do the job.

" To people on the outside it probably looks easy but on the inside there was a lot

"It's credit to John Kennedy and Stevie Woods, Damien Duff as well, young coaches who have helped me through with the players."

The game was preceded by a minute's applause for club legend Billy McNeill, with European Cup-winning goalscorer Stevie Chalmers also remembered after his death earlier in the week.

'There were a lot of emotions and you want to pay tribute not only to Billy but Stevie Chalmers in the only way you can, 'added Lennon. "The players have done that today. These guys were the pioneers, they set the trends and Billy was an icon.

'I ran out of superlatives for what he meant to me as a boy growing up here and as a player and a manager.

'He was Celtic for me and it is still pretty hard to take in that he is not here. You could see the emotion, a beautiful service and a beautiful send off, then a great day today.

'I want to enjoy the moment, normally I would go and have a bottle of wine, but I might just have a cup of tea and take it all in, because it has been tough. I am not going to lie, it has been tough. "

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christophergill8 · 5 years

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Don't make these 10 tax-filing mistakes

Federal and most state, tax returns are due in few days. Don't panic! You still have time to finish your return (or get an extension).

If you do decide to just be done with your Form 1040 — new, but not necessarily improved this year under Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes — make sure you don't make any of these common filing errors in your rush to finish.

For the most part, tax software has helped eliminate a lot of mistakes. Still, we're not yet at the total tax automation point yet. And that old garbage in, garbage out adage about computer data definitely applies to tax returns.

In fact, it's more critical, since one wrong tax entry could be multiplied across several forms or schedules, producing a costly tax error.

So that you won't end up in such a situation, check out these 10 common tax mistakes that millions of taxpayers make every year. Some are directly from the Internal Revenue Service. Others are based on my and other filers' experiences.

1. Missing or inaccurate Social Security numbers: This nine-digit number was not intended to be our universal identifier, but, for better and in this age of identity theft often for worse, that's what the Social Security number has become.

There's been some talk about changing that for tax filing, but until that happens, you've got to include it on your annual return. The IRS won't process a 1040 without it. This identity number requirement extends to you as the primary filer, as well as the Social Security numbers for your spouse and any dependents.

These numerals are crucial because so many tax-related transactions, from income statements to investment earnings to retirement plan contributions and distributions, are keyed to this number.

A Social Security number also is critical when claiming several tax credits, such as the child tax and additional child tax credits, as well as ones for educational expenses and dependent care costs.

When you run your final tax software check, it should point out any missing Social Security numbers. But what it won't know is whether the digits are correct. So double check. A wrong tax ID number, when checked by the IRS against other data it has on you, will at best slow down the processing of your return. At worst, it could cost you valuable tax breaks.

2. Misspelled or different names: Sure, the bulk of the information on your tax return is numerical, but words — specifically names — are important, too. Spell all names listed on a tax return exactly as listed on the taxpayers’ Social Security card.

What's the big deal if you've gone by a middle or nickname all your life and enter that on your Form 1040? Plenty. When the names of a taxpayer, his or her spouse or their children don't match the tax identification number that the Social Security Administration has on record, the IRS processing machine likely will kick out or slow down the tax return.

Name issues often are a problem for the newly married. Many folks still change their surnames when they marry, whether the "I do's" are exchanged by a bride and groom or spouses in same-sex marriages, which the IRS now recognizes.

In these cases, if you didn't alert the Social Security Administration (SSA) of your name change after your wedding, your new name on your 1040 or other tax statements could cause a problem when you file your first joint tax return. Get in touch with the SSA ASAP to reconcile this.

The same issue also arises when marital bliss doesn't last and ex-spouses change names after a divorce. Again, make sure Uncle Sam's appropriate agencies know that, too.

3. Improperly claiming a dependent: Sometimes determining just who is your tax dependent can be messy. There are lots of rules about relationships and support earned or provided and who lives for how long in your house. You also must have the Social Security number of the person (see #1), either a child or qualifying relative, you're listing as a dependent on your tax return.

Sometimes the eligibility confusion leads to an innocent mistake as to who can be listed as your tax dependent. Other times, though, folks knowingly claim a person as dependent to get a tax break, such as the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit.

Faking dependents is not a good idea. This is willful disregard of the tax laws and your responsibility to meet them. Such intentional tax violations could lead to tough penalties, sometimes of the criminal nature, on top of the unpaid tax and interest added to it that you thought you were escaping with your fake dependent ploy.

Think the IRS might be too busy to catch your suddenly larger family? Think again. The IRS knows that filers sometimes add people, either real or imaginary or even pets, on their returns. That's why tax examiners look at who has and hasn't been listed before on your returns.

4. Using the wrong filing status: Some taxpayers unintentionally claim the wrong filing status. That innocent error could be costly, such as choosing single in the first tax-filing season since your divorce when you have primary custody of your children and really should be filing as the more tax-beneficial head of household.

Filers have five filing status options, and each could make a difference in your ultimate tax bill.

The IRS' online Interactive Tax Assistant can help you pick the proper filing status. E-file software also helps prevent mistakes here.

Advice from the IRS in Form 1040 instructions

5. Using whole, rounded numbers: Yes, round numbers are easier to add and subtract.

Yes, your tax software rounds entries.

And yes, even the IRS says you can round your dollars and cents on your Form 1040 entries.

But when it comes to deductions and business expenses, it tends to make the IRS think that you're, uh, making up amounts.

OK, I tend to add tip amounts so that business meal checks come out to even numbers. But I have those receipts to support my OCD.

Other financial transactions, however, rarely end in .00.

At best, all those rounded numbers make it look like you didn't keep good records showing precise amounts. And that could encourage the IRS to take a closer look at all your entries.

6. Entering incorrect bank account numbers: You can have your tax refund directly depositing into a bank account or accounts or retirement plan. That's easy for you and the IRS. Unless you enter the wrong account number and accompanying routing number.

The more numbers you enter on a tax form, the more chances you have to enter them incorrectly. And a wrong account or routing number could cause you to lose your refund entirely.

You can divide your refund deposit into three accounts by filing Form 8888 along with your individual return. It's not a difficult document to complete, but if you put in wrong account numbers, your refund could end up in someone else's account or be sent back to the IRS.

Incorrect account numbers aren't just a problem when a refund is split multiple ways. Even if your refund is going to just one account, make very sure you enter that account and bank routing numbers correctly.

7. Overlooking additional income: Did you have a side job this year? If so, as a contractor you probably received a Form 1099-MISC or maybe a 1099-K detailing the extra gig earnings.

What about savings and investment accounts? For these, you should have received Form 1099-INT and Form 1099-DIV statements.

In these 1099 situations, the IRS knows precisely how much extra money, either as wages or unearned investment income, you made because it got copies of those forms, too.

If you forget to include any of these earnings on your return, IRS examiners will let you know you that it knows and that you owe taxes on that money, too. And depending on when your oversight is discovered, you also could owe penalties and interest on the unreported earnings.

8. Making credit or deduction mistakes: Here's a non-news flash. The tax code is complicated. In fact, many of the changes made by the TCJA have, say many tax professionals and filers, have made things worse in this regard instead of better. That means there are lots of opportunities to make mistakes as you look for tax-saving credits and deductions.

Errors are frequently made by folks claiming two popular tax breaks, the additional child tax credit. Both of these credits are refundable, meaning they can get you a refund even if you don't owe any tax. That's part of the reason the IRS now must hold refunds related to these tax credits until mid-February.

But the IRS also sees each year errors by filers figuring their child and dependent care credit and even in selecting their standard deduction amount. For example, a taxpayer who's 65 or older and/or blind, can claim a larger standard deduction.

Follow the tax filing instructions carefully, either those in IRS publications and forms or as part of your tax software. Again, the IRS' online Interactive Tax Assistant also can help you determine if you're eligible for certain tax credits or deductions.

9. Math miscalculations: The IRS is all about the numbers. So it's no surprise that the most common error on tax returns, year after year, is bad math.

Arithmetic errors range from simple addition and subtraction to more complex tax items, like those credits and deductions just mentioned in mistake #8. Figuring things like the EITC or the taxable portion of a retirement account distribution, for example, is more difficult and results in more math errors.

The IRS' 207 Data Book, the latest available edition, shows that in processing 2016 tax returns, the agency caught more than 2.5 million math errors. Considering that most of us use tax software, in large part because it does the math for us, that's astounding.

Source: IRS 2017 Data Book

Again, the garbage in, garbage out factor comes into play here. The wrong number on one form's line produces a wrong calculation that gets transferred to another form, exponentially compounding the math error.

So pay close attention when you enter your numerical data into your tax return.

10. Missing the deadline: Finally, don't make the biggest tax season mistake of all, missing the filing deadline.

Millions of taxpayers put off filing until the very last minute. That's OK as long as your mailed paper return is postmarked by the April filing deadline or you hit "enter" to e-file your 1040 by midnight in your time zone on April 15.

This year, some folks get a couple of extra days. Thanks to the convergence of the Patriots Day and Emancipation Day holidays, taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts don't have to file their federal tax returns until April 17.

Get an extension: But regardless of your filing due date, if you just can't finish your forms by the deadline, get an extension.

Filing Form 4868 will give you six more months, until Oct. 15, to get all your tax return material filled out correctly and into the IRS.

The extra filing time is granted as long as you get your request to the IRS, either by mailing the paper form or electronically asking for an extension by, for most of us, Monday, April 15.

Remember, though, that this automatic extension applies only to filing your tax the forms. You still must send by your filing deadline any tax you owe with your extension request. If you don't, you could face late-filing or non-filing penalties.

Nobody wants to pay Uncle Sam a penny more than necessary, so don't make the mistake of missing the filing deadline. Or any of the 9 other potentially costly tax filing errors.

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from Tax News By Christopher https://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2019/04/10-tax-filing-mistakes.html

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blackpjensen · 5 years

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Mowers: Buying Cycles And Pricing Prowess

By Lindsey Getz From the Spring 2019 Issue

(Photo: Getty Images)

If mowing often feels like it is the most complex part of your lawn care business, you’re not alone. For as basic as a service that mowing is, a lot of lawn care operators say that everything from perfecting their buying cycle of mowers to pricing these jobs accurately feels as though it eludes them.

“Mowing is more complex than a lot of people realize,” says Scott Bierman, owner of Pro-Mow Lawn Care in Charleston, IL. “It’s a simple service but there is a lot involved in setting pricing, perfecting routing, and even mowing turnover strategy. And when these factors are overlooked, it’s easy for the service to start losing you money.”

Rounding Up The Fleet

When it comes to operating a successful mowing service, you need to be sure that you’ve rounded up the right fleet of mowers to get the job done well. The perfect mix of mowers is going to differ from company to company with factors such as the type of properties you’re servicing, size of the jobs you perform, and your budget leading the decision in what will work best.

Bierman says that for his market and the types of jobs that he performs, 60-inch mowers are ideal.

“When it comes to buying parts, and you have all 60s, it makes it a lot easier to service the mowers,” Bierman says. “Brand loyalty is also important to our ideal fleet. Our local dealer is really good to us, and that’s a huge factor in our buying decision.”

Joseph Holland, owner of Majestic Lawn Care & Landscape in New City, NY, says that he prefers to be brand loyal for simplicity’s sake, as well.

“When you are brand loyal, you can stock up on parts so much easier, and from a maintenance point of view that’s very helpful,” Holland says. “We like to keep all parts in stock so that we’re always able to stay up and running, and sticking with the same brand allows us to do that.”

Of course, when shopping for new mowers Holland says that he’s intrigued by new technology—but he prefers to “make sure it’s perfected” before buying.

“I’m an admitted gearhead so I love to get out there and see new technology,” Holland says. “But the one time I broke my own rule in waiting it out and bought a piece of brand-new technology, we had many issues with it. Our rule of thumb is to give it a couple of years and make sure all of the kinks are ironed out before we buy. But we still like to keep on top of what’s coming down the pipeline.”

Creating The Best Buying Cycle

In terms of when to buy, the best buying cycle is going to vary from operator to operator. But there are certainly some strategies to consider.

When it comes to operating a successful mowing service, it is crucial to assemble an equipment fleet that will meet the needs of client sites. (Photo: Kubota)

Brian Schoenthaler of The Grasshopper Co. says that many lawn care operators prefer to purchase mowers every two to three years in order to have a new warranty and to also operate equipment with the latest features. But some choose to run their mowers much longer—regardless of the warranty. Oftentimes, it’s a matter of personal preference. Even so, trade-in value should be taken into consideration when trading for new equipment, adds Schoenthaler.

Bierman says that his strategy is to buy mowers brand-new and run them for three to four years—or approximately 1,200 to 1,500 hours—before selling them.

“We’ve found that’s about the approximate life expectancy of mowers before they start nickel and diming us with repair costs,” Bierman says. “Beginning in February, we start going through our mowers and decide whether we’re going to fix them or turn them loose. We can usually still get a decent return on them at the 1,500-hour mark, and that’s a factor for us as well. We’re based in a rural area where some homeowners or local farmers have multi-acre properties and are interested in buying a commercial mower.”

Majestic’s Holland says that he aims to get about 2,500 hours or more out of his mowers and achieves this by religiously performing preventative maintenance on the equipment.

“Employing an in-house mechanic makes it easier for us to keep up with regular maintenance, which we think is the main reason we’re able to keep our mowers running as long as possible,” Holland says. “Even just failing to do a basic cleaning can start to take a toll on an engine very quickly. There’s nothing I dread more than a call that a machine broke down in the middle of a job. We do everything we can to prevent that from happening by making sure these machines are maintained on a weekly basis.”

Pricing Jobs

Beyond putting together the ideal fleet and creating an optimal buying cycle, pricing jobs accurately may be another source of contention—and confusion—for lawn care operators. After all, there is a lot to consider when it comes to pricing mowing jobs.

There are multiple factors to consider when pricing mowing jobs, and choosing ideal equipment for the business’ needs improves competitiveness. (Photo: The Grasshopper Co.)

“Pricing jobs is dependent upon a number of factors including the size and complexity of the areas to be landscaped or maintained, the type of equipment used, the number of employees, and the overhead costs,” says Schoenthaler. “Being competitive involves knowing what prices the local market will bear. Choosing the right equipment can improve your competitiveness.”

Schoenthaler adds that another way to gain a competitive advantage may be found in the purchase and use of diesel-powered mowers. He points out that some diesel mowers burn on average one gallon of fuel per hour compared to 1.65 gallons per hour with a similar-sized gasoline mower.

“Mowing 1,000 hours per year, this can amount to a savings of 650 gallons of fuel annually,” he says. “Because diesel-powered mowers have more torque, these mowers are able to complete jobs, especially in heavy mowing conditions, faster than a gasoline mower can. Consider this real-life example: An operator in Minnesota discovered that he was finishing jobs so much faster after switching to diesel that his day was finishing up by 3:30 [in the afternoon]. He chose to add more jobs rather than knocking off early. The combination of more jobs and fuel savings enabled him to pay for the mower in one year.”

In terms of what to set the price at, the mindset used to be $1 a minute. But the industry experts we talked to say that it’s more complex than this and that each job really does need to be priced out with all factors taken into account. For many companies, there is a minimum that their company won’t go below in regard to setting a price. At Majestic, for Holland, that number is gross earnings of $7,000 for the property for the year. If they’re not going to hit that mark, they’ll send out a new contract, and if the client doesn’t agree to it, they’ll drop them.

A lot of lawn care companies fail to take that hard line, and that’s where they start losing profits, Holland says. Of course, in order to know where they stand, Holland says that he is running numbers constantly.

“I’m in the office every single day doing that—it’s how we stay ahead of the curve,” he says. “I’m always analyzing our gross profit margin on every job. When you put off those numbers, you end up losing money”

Pro-Mow’s Bierman also has that minimum that he says they won’t go beneath.

“Even if the job is going to take us all of five minutes, after factoring in the drive time and other overhead costs, you just can’t go below that minimum number,” he says. “Everyone should know what that minimum is for their business. We use software to derive our optimal pricing. We’re aiming to be more on top of our man hours, equipment costs, and other numbers for accurate estimating.”

Like others, Bierman says he is always looking for ways to be price competitive and says that it all boils down to efficiency. For Pro-Mow, better efficiency has been achieved with smarter routing.

“There was a time when we would set up our mowing schedule based on what the customer wanted, but we just can’t be efficient that way,” Bierman says. “For instance, if we’re in Mrs. Smith’s neighborhood on Mondays, but she wants her lawn mowed on Fridays, then she’s not an ideal client for us and we’ll turn that work down. There was a time when we didn’t like turning work away, and I think a lot of landscape business owners feel that way, but it’s become obvious it’s necessary when it comes to the bottom line.”

Holland agrees that at the end of the day, the bottom line is what counts. “When you’re providing an industry service as competitive as mowing—in an extremely competitive market—you can’t get by without knowing your numbers,” he says. “It’s the difference between profitable mowing and mowing that drags down the rest of your business.” N

Getz is an award-winning freelance writer based in Royersford, PA.

Do you have a comment? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below or send an e-mail to the Editor at [email protected].

The post Mowers: Buying Cycles And Pricing Prowess appeared first on Turf.

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daynamartinez22 · 5 years

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Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 225

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 225 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

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

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

Announcement

Adam: We are live very quickly today. Hey everybody! Welcome to Hump Day Hangouts. This is Episode 225, two hundred and a quarter. Today is the 27th of February 2019. We have got some great announcements for you. But before we get into that, we’re gonna go down and say hi to everybody. Starting on the left, Chris, how are you doing, man?

Chris: Doing good. Exciting day today, especially with all the good stuff going on in Semantic Mastery.

Adam: Definitely, definitely. Hernan, how about yourself, how are you doing?

Hernan: I’m doing great. I’m super excited for today, super excited for Funnel Hacking live last week, it was awesome. We have a lot of good stuff coming up for you guys, so stay tuned. We have a lot of good stuff coming up for you guys today, actually. So it’s gonna be awesome.

Adam: Oh, I just have this T-shirt on, how random. All right. Well, anyways, moving right along. Marco, how are you doing?

Marco: I’m good, man. What’s up?

Adam: Nothing, just chillin’. I was hoping for a weather report. It’s kind of overcast and nasty here. How about you?

Marco: It’s over-sunny and sunny here.

Adam: Bradley, how are you doing? What have you got, snow, hurricanes? What’s going on?

Bradley: I don’t know. I haven’t been outside since about 6 o'clock this morning because I’ve been working all day. But it looks sunny, with the temperature. Anyways, hi!

Adam: Well, I see you’ve got your nightshirt on too.

Bradley: Yeah. We got the memo, apparently. Mine is fading now because I wear mine more than you, apparently.

Adam: Yeah, yeah. I might have just gotten one for the conference I was at. So shout out to Dan, if you’re watching, good to see you, man. We bumped into Dan and his wife at Funnel Hacking Live. It’s always good to see people. We met a few more people who knew us from Hump Day Hangout. It was really cool to see, Hernan, I think you met up with a few people, [inaudible 00:01:52] my mind while I’m talking I can’t remember anybody’s name.

Hernan: Yeah, for sure. Adam reached out to me and he was a big fan of Semantic Mastery. He had a digital marketing agency and he was listening to Hump Day Hangouts pretty much every week. So yeah, it’s good to see, “Hey, you’re from Semantic Mastery. I know you guys,” and that’s pretty cool. That is pretty cool.

Adam: Awesome. Well, I’d like to say this every time, if you’re new to Semantic Mastery, first of all, thank you very much for watching Hump Day Hangouts. This place gets your questions answered, you can just put them on the page. If you’re watching the replay, just go to semanticmastery.com/hdquestions and ask your question there. Then you can always come back, we timestamp the video so you can watch later whether you got client calls, you’re working, whatever it is.

Then the next thing we always tell you is, because people ask us, where should I start with Semantic Mastery? Well, you should start with the Battle Plan. Today, the Battle Plan 3.0, bigger, better badder, expanded, has landed and we have got all sorts of good stuff in there. We’re going to talk about that a little bit more, but I’ll be putting the link on the page. I highly suggest you grab that. We got some kick-ass bonuses. I’m not gonna read it to you. I want you to go check out the sales page. Personally, I like it because I made it, but secondly, we got just a like laundry list of some cool stuff we put together for you guys. So please go and check that out.

If you’ve already done that and you’re looking to take things up a few notches, if you’re wanting to grow or you want to start your own local digital marketing agency, then we would love to have you join the Mastermind and you can find out more about that at mastermind.semanticmastery.com.

Bradley: By the way, I wanna welcome Robert Nelson. He just joined today. Robert, I reached out to you via email to schedule your onboarding call with me. Welcome to the Mastermind. I hope to chat with you next week sometime.

Adam: Outstanding! Looking over things real quick, I wanted to tell you too, I’ve skipped this while I was excited about talking to the new people, but if you’re checking out the replay or you watch these on YouTube and you’re checking this out sometime in the future, click the subscribe button, stay up to date with all the Hump Day Hangouts, all the video clips we put out, all the training, all the good stuff. It’s great way and free way to stay up to date.

Let’s get into it. I need to pay some stuff on the page. Hernan, or you guys, can you tell them a little bit more about what’s going on with the Battle Plan?

Hernan: Yeah, for sure. The Battle Plan was born because, I think it was like two years ago and we have been putting out like, Bradley specifically, he’s a content machine, and we have been putting out a bunch of content, a lot of content pretty much every week, between Hump Day Hangouts, between the Mastermind sessions and whatnot, the groups and whatnot. So a lot of people are reaching out and saying, “Hey guys, you guys are awesome, but we need, or we feel we need something that we could actually grab and take a look at and say, all right, so I am at this stage, I have a new website, what step one, what would Semantic Mastery recommend? What would Bradley Benner do?”

Basically, we kind of developed that step-by-step framework so that we knew a lot of people that were coming that they would have like new websites and, bam, we developed a framework for them, each websites we develop a framework for them, YouTube videos, we developed a framework, local websites, we developed a framework. We have been adding up, taking out, subtracting, adding and updating to the latest and greatest stuff that we have been finding throughout these past few years.

Now, this edition, the 3.0, the SEO Confidential, we have added everything that goes into Google My Business, which is something that we didn’t have on previous versions. Now it’s there. So if you’re optimizing Google My Businesses for clients doing lead-gen and whatnot, this is the type of stuff that you wanna get. We have also added a bunch of additional bonuses.

Not only that, when you’re getting the Battle Plan, which is again of kind of a feel manual, you go through it, you know exactly what you do, where to order, what to do, in what quantity, in what power and whatnot, you also get access to a webinar that we recorded that is basically the Battle Plan in a webinar format. So I think that when getting the Battle Plan you’re sending yourself up for success with your local digital marketing agency. Even if you’re doing info products, if you’re doing affiliate, it also works as well just because of the fact of how specific it is.

If you want a million different things, that’s not your thing, that’s not what you wanna get. But if you want to simplify way of applying the Semantic Mastery knowledge over the past five years, then that is the guy that you want to get pretty much.

Marco: Can I just add that simply does not mean bad. We boiled it down. It’s a step-by-step instruction so that anybody could come in and follow what we do, how we apply our own training. Because Bradley does training, I do training, Hernan does his stuff, and we have to have a way for people to know, okay, so if I were to approach this, how would I tackle this step-by-step? So that’s what was done in the Battle Plan.

Just because it’s simplified doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work, that it’s bad. We’re hardly charging anything for it, anyway. But it’s just a way for you to go and take a look, okay, so these are the things that I need to do. If I follow this formula, does this guarantee me success? Oh, fuck no. Nothing guarantees anything. The thing that we can tell you is that this is what we do and the things that we apply to get our success online. These are the things that we have done.

If you apply it and if you follow everything in sequence, I mean, nothing’s guaranteed and in this world, especially not when you’re dealing with the 800-pound gorilla in the room, but this guy, there’s some absolute fantastic tactics in there that will help you overcome that 800-pound gorilla. I mean, you can go and do the Google tickle. When all is said and done and you’re still having trouble, you can go in and you can still hammer Google and make the needle move. It’s just how much work are you willing to put in towards your success? Because nothing in this world is free. I’m Christian, and so if you don’t work, you don’t eat. It’s very plain. So guys if you don’t put in the work, how can you expect to be successful on the web?

No magic pills. No magic formulas. Anybody telling you that you can make $100,000 overnight is blowing smoke up your ass. Stop listening. Put in the work.

Bradley: Yeah. He mentioned G tickle, that sounds a lot dirtier than it really is. Just check out the Battle Plan, you’ll see what we mean.

Adam: Yeah. I want to say real quick, I wanted to do something fun for you guys. If anyone is watching right now and hasn’t picked up the Battle Plan yet, one, you should do it, and two, we’ll give you a little push in the right direction here. Go to battleplan.semanticmastery.com. Buy it, grab it during Hump Day Hangouts and comment on the page and we’ll randomly select one person who does that, we’ll buy one of these nice fancy T-shirts for you and ship it to you for free.

Marco: Can we give someone a Battle Plan for the best question? I know we didn’t plan this ahead, but why don’t we do that?

Adam: Yeah.

Marco: Or if they bought it, we can refund it.

Adam: Yeah. We’ll do a free one, just because I don’t wanna screw up our stats. I’m not gonna lie. I’m looking at the numbers. But yeah, best question, Marco, we’ll pick someone, and then if you go and buy the Battle Plan during comment, leave a comment on the page, and we’ll randomly select. We’ll hop online, we’ll get one of these nice shirts, printed out for you and send it to you.

Bradley: Cool. Can we get into it?

Adam: Let’s do it.

Bradley: All right. I’m gonna tease the Mastermind just briefly because we’ve been working on building out GMB assets and all that. By the way, guys, if you’re in any other groups, you’ll probably are aware that there’s a lot of shit going on right now with GMB because Google’s trying to crack down on spam to Maps listings, which we all knew was gonna happen. I’ve been preaching that for months. That’s part of the reason why I’ve been pushing for months on building a scalable process for building these out. I kept hammering all of our Mastermind members especially with guys be building, building, building right now, well, monetize them later, right now build them, because I knew it was gonna be a loophole that was gonna get shut down or at least made more difficult. It looks like that’s what’s going on right now.

So there’s a lot of stuff going on, a lot of changes, Google’s cracking the whip, they’re tightening the noose, so to speak. So I recommend staying out of the GMBs, unless you have to go in them, work on off-page stuff. That’s really what my team is doing. My team has been completely prohibited from going in any new accounts or anything that’s been set up recently. So I’m having them just go back through and fine-tune our off-page strategies until we figure out what’s going on.

Also, a lot of times, guys, it’s just a matter of letting the dust settle, like letting everything calm down and cool off before going back in. We have some ideas, we’re not gonna share them here yet, but we do have some ideas as to what not to do in order to prevent suspensions and that kind of stuff.

But just know that you have options and opportunities to work on existing assets that may need additional pushes, like I’ve got a bunch of those. So we’re kind of working on the off-page stuff at the moment. Then once we nail down what we’ve determined is the proper procedure for going forward, obviously, we’re going to share that in our paid groups or the members that have bought specific products and things like that.

Just kind of wanna give everybody a heads up that, no, don’t panic, guys, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of stuff that you can work on while the process is calming down. Eventually, it will, it always does, and we’ll find other ways. That’s just the nature of the game. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. That’s what SEO is, really, digital marketing.

With that said, also I have recently released all my processed docs and everything to the Mastermind members because I had spent about four months really developing these processes in training and virtual assistant team to build out my assets and so that I could scale this and do exactly what I’ve been preaching and that was to build, build, build. I think we built-, well, I’m not going to mention how many, but a lot. We built a lot of different assets. I think it was two weeks ago I released, or maybe a month ago now, or three weeks ago, something like that, all the process docs that I developed with my team as well as some of our live event attendees to the Mastermind, which was invaluable.

I got a lot of really good responses and comments from that because we didn’t charge anything extra for that, guys, as part of the Mastermind. We always say Mastermind has its privileges. Well, because I’ve got my team doing off-page stuff right now and recently there’s been some developments. For example, we did a webinar with Lisa Allen. You might want to get this link ready, Adam, anyways for the RankFeedr webinar, if anybody hasn’t seen it yet. Lisa has this tool that’s a co-citation RSS feed creator, or a super feed creator, as I like to call it. It’s called RankFeedr.

It’s great for creating co-citation and adding geographic relevance, especially for some of the processes that we developed for the GMB asset building or the Local Lease Pro model. It’s something that you can set and forget. It’s a bit time-consuming to create these super feeds. Also, there’s a way that you can embed them in specific pages.

There’s a question specifically from our new Mastermind member Robert that I’m gonna answer in just a few minutes, but there’s a process that I taught on how to create an embedded feed using feed burner in Syndication Academy update webinar, which was the last update webinar. I just held that a few weeks ago, maybe two weeks ago, three weeks ago now. So if anybody’s in Syndication Academy, excuse me, if you haven’t seen, that go to the training area and go look at the update section. It’s the only replays or archived so far for 2019. So it’s in a specific section there in the replays or updates, module, whatever you call it.

In there I talked about specifically how to do that. Well, you can combine the two methods. If you’ve got RankFeedr, then you can actually embed the feed. It’s really powerful. So I’ve got my team, I actually was working on producing the process doc for my team today so that I can get my VAs, because I’m just having to do off-page stuff at the moment. So they’re gonna go back through and go through all the assets that we’ve created and start embedding these feeds and in very specific locations. It’s a bit of a process but I’m just gonna give you guys a quick preview of what my process docs look like. The Mastermind members already know, many of you probably don’t.

That in itself, guys, I’ve put a lot of work into this stuff. I’ve developed my processes over the years and how to create process docs and how I train my team. It’s a literal step-by-step process that they cannot make mistakes. As long as they follow, I mean, they don’t even need the training video. There’s always a corresponding training video with all of my process docs. But they could just follow, if they can read, you can take a VA, virtual assistant that’s cold right off the street, like essentially has no internet marketing skills whatsoever. But as long as they know how to read and navigate on a computer, then they can complete any process that I want them to complete. That’s essentially how we train our teams.

So I’m just gonna grab the screen before we get into it anyways. I’m gonna show you guys this really quickly. Take a screenshot if you’re smart. But this is it. This is me explaining what it is to my team, and then I go through and I tell them what we’re gonna be doing. I just started on part one, the training video will go here, there’s a step-by-step process as part two will be next, and then part three is how to create the feed burner feed and embed it.

So again, I just wanted to do it real quick, kind of tease on that, guys, because Mastermind members, as soon as I get that process training completed, I’m gonna add that to the process docs that I shared with you, guys, in the Mastermind just a couple of weeks ago. Okay. So be on the lookout for that, you’ll be able to put it to use. All right.

Also, we’re gonna get into questions, but I did wanna mention this very quickly, Ben had a great question last week, he’s also a Mastermind member, about how to get over shiny object syndrome and how to focus and how not to get carried away or swept away by other products or methods that are attractive? As entrepreneurs, we often chase opportunity because we see opportunity everywhere and, as the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, right?

So a lot of times we get involved with or started on a project usually a new method of some sort that we’ve been suckered into from an attractive marketing message. We start off with what’s called uninformed optimism, and then as we dig into it a little bit we realize the amount of work or the learning curve involved and all that kind of stuff, that’s where we go into this next stage of what’s called the emotional cycle of change. It’s called informed pessimism.

Anyways, I’m not gonna go through all that because I put a video on here that I found to be very helpful. I review it often when I find myself in this emotional cycle of change. So I posted this in the comment section, guys. Just bookmark it. Go back and watch it if you are the type that suffered, most of you are probably entrepreneurs and that’s why you’re watching this webinar, you’ve probably suffered from shiny object syndrome at some point or you currently still are. I’m a recovering shiny object syndrome, that’s like a recovering alcoholics. Do you know what I mean? I was talking about how I’ve unsubscribed from all the marketing emails message or lists and things like that specifically because I really want to stay focused on doing what I know is going to progress my business. I think this video may help you, guys, so just check it out when you get a chance.

Does Ranking YouTube Videos And Selling Lead For Local Business In Google Still Work In 2019?

Okay. We’re gonna get right into questions. It looks like Renee Wagner posted his question twice and it looks like she posted it last week probably after the webinar, so I’m gonna start with her. She says, “Does ranking videos for local businesses and Google using YouTube and selling the leads to local businesses still work well in 2019?”

Yeah, it can. The thing about ranking local videos for leads is they don’t convert typically as well as having a Maps listing would. They can, don’t get me wrong, depending on the message and if it’s a compelling video and that kind of stuff. Also, ranking videos, you can still do it, but I also recommend that you learn how to use YouTube ads because YouTube ads, you can get really targeted traffic from the very specific areas. You can set your geographic targeting. There’s so many targeting options as far as audience targeting inside YouTube now or the Google ads platform for video that you can get really good results.

And as a byproduct of having a video that is targeted and getting targeted views from people that are within a specific geographic area, that are known to Google to be in the market or interested in that particular product or service, those are heavily weighted views. And as a byproduct of that, the video will often rank. Again, this has been a trick up my sleeve for years now, but it’s gotten better and better recently, and that’s using YouTube ads to actually rank the video.

So if you know video SEO, you still apply all of the SEO methods to the video as well as the channel, you can still do off-page SEO stuff, but the magic, the real magic is using YouTube ads to run local relevant traffic to it. Because it’s not just about the traffic either, you actually get engagement and clicks to your offer or clicks to the landing page or leads for local businesses. You’ll actually get real traffic and real leads from a properly set up YouTube ads campaign.

Correct me if I’m wrong, Adam, but isn’t that training available is an order bump for the Battle Plan?

Adam: I’m not gonna lie I was looking at a spreadsheet, I missed the first part of that.

Bradley: The YouTube ads training I did for local videos?

Adam: Yep. Yeah. You can get that if you buy the Battle Plan on check out. It’s the killer ads for local, order bump, yeah.

Bradley: I would recommend you look into that. It is still a strategy that works. For the longest time, for years now, guys, like five years now I’ve been ranking videos or doing video SEO, selling a wholesale video SEO services to a local video production company that creates videos for local businesses. They would always just create the videos and then sell them, the client, their customers, they would sell them the video and the customers would put them on their website, maybe posted into Facebook, put them on a YouTube channel, but they never were getting leads from them or ranking them in Google.

For about five years, now I’ve provided wholesale SEO services to that company. So the company handles the sales, then they upsell my service to the client or the customer and so they make money off of my SEO service every month. That way I don’t have to deal with the customers and all that kind of stuff, all I do is provide reporting. However, with just in the last six months or so, I’ve actually went back to them, after four and a half years or so of just providing wholesale SEO services, and I said, “Look, I’m not going to provide the SEO service anymore. I’m going to provide local ads. I’m going to set up ad campaigns for the videos.” Because I can guarantee traffic that way. I can’t guarantee traffic or leads or clicks or anything from ranking in Google. I can’t guarantee rankings either.

I mean, I’ve always done that. I’ve always said, “Look, if it doesn’t rank, then I don’t refund the money, but we could cancel service.” They can always cancel anytime. I don’t ever put them on contract. I’ve always been successful at ranking them anyways, but I can guarantee traffic, clicks to the website or the landing page, whatever the destination or target URL is with the call-to-action of the video. I can guarantee that with ads. I tell them, “Look, you can still tell your customers as a byproduct of a well-optimized video and a well-optimized ads campaign. It’s likely going to rank anyways.” So I still apply the SEO techniques to the videos, but I set up the ads campaign now.

What’s also cool about that is the reporting is so much better. So I provide the video production company with the reports that then they send off to their customers or their clients. The reporting is so much more detailed. It’s so much more accurate because I can show where exactly the clicks are coming from. If you go into ads and you look, and you go into the ad group and then you go into locations, you can pool locations reports. You can do it by zip code or by city or by county and things like that. So I can literally show where the views are coming from specifically.

So my targeting can be extremely tight. I can show that “Hey, this is only local people looking at the video. I can also show the audience targeting options. I can show the demographics.” I can show an incredible amount of detail as to where the traffic and clicks are coming from the ad campaign, which you couldn’t do with regular YouTube analytics or with just a rank report if that makes sense.

Again, 95% of the time the video is gonna rank because of a proper YouTube targeting campaign, because of the traffic and the engagement is [inaudible 00:23:41] both geographically and topically. [Inaudible 00:23:49]. It’s available, like I said, as part of the quarter buff to the Battle Plan. All right. That’s a great question though.

Marco: If I may, run a test just to see. Because this is interesting, we ran the test over a two, three week period. We ran embeds and link building tests to see what kind of action that would do. Interestingly enough, that still it, not only moves the needle, it has a great effect on videos. Once they start hitting the first page and they move towards the top, you can start seeing the people start coming through to the channel and subscribing and liking and sharing, and doing all of the things that a video needs in order for YouTube and Google to keep giving it love.

So there are two things that play here, right? If you hit the top spot, you’re going to get traffic if, and now here’s a caveat, the video has to be engaging enough for real people to take action to like it, to share it, or to give you that thumbs down in YouTube and in comments and everything else.

There are two ways to do this, both ways are still viable. Bradley’s method, the ads training, that’s hyper-targeted people that are likely to convert into leads. Now on the other method where you’re doing the embeds and the link building, what you’re going to get is you’re going to get a more general viewership and so you’re going to need more in order to get the leads that you could generate through the video ads course. But both methods are still alive and well in 2019.

Bradley: Yeah. To be clear, guys, that’s why I mentioned, I still apply all the SEO methods. For example, I always live stream a video to a channel that’s connected to a bunch of syndication networks. So that’s the first step. Once the live stream is over, it literally cascades through all of the syndication networks that are attached to that channel. It’s automatically getting embeds. My syndication networks are well-themed and aged because I’ve been doing this for so long. So it gets a lot of super good traditional SEO power, or juice, or whatever you want to call it from that, which are traditional signals that Marco’s talking about, like embeds.

Even if you don’t have well-aged syndication networks or whatever, you can just use an embed service and embed it. So all of those are traditional SEO signals and they still work, there’s no doubt about that. What I’m saying is combining those two methods, guys, that’s where the magic happens. So still do all the SEO stuff, optimize on page, which means optimize the video, optimize your channel, use playlists, guys, playlists, YouTube Silo Academy is how you silo. Guys, even if you only have one video on a playlist, create a playlist and put the video on it. Because a playlist is also part of video SEO, right?

Again, on-page stuff for the video, on-page stuff for your channel, use playlists, use embeds, use some backlinks. But if you’re not getting the traction that you want, and like I said, for me, it’s just standard operating procedure, I do all that first and I immediately go set up the YouTube ad for it and start driving real engagement, real traffic from Google to the video.

Google knows who that traffic is, what they’re interested in, where they came from and where they’re located. So it’s super-targeted traffic which is highly weighted trafficked by Google, and that’s the magic that really kind of helps all that SEO work. It just flourishes, right? It just works. Everything comes surfacing. It’s almost guaranteed. Again, I don’t guarantee rankings now. I tell them if it doesn’t rank, they don’t have to pay me and we’ll cancel it. But I do guarantee views and clicks. I can’t guarantee a certain number of clicks, but I can guarantee targeted views because I can buy those views directly from Google. You know what I mean? Again, use both methods, guys. I’m not saying do one or the other, use both. All right.

Factors Contributing To Low Conversion/Leads Despite Having Many Views in GMB Insights

Alex is up. He says, “Hey guys, I’m ranking in the 3-pack and I have a couple of five-star reviews. The GMB Insight shows around 450 views per month, but the calls are around five to eight per month. Is there a reason why it might be getting so few phone calls? Could you explain some common mistakes that lead to that? Thank you.”

Yeah, Alex. It could be many things. First of all, what is your message? Do you have a compelling call-to-action? What are your calls to action? What are the images? Where are you sending people, by the way? For example, if your call-to-action is to click the button in the post and go to a landing page, or wherever you’re sending them, where are you sending them? If you’re sending them to just the homepage of a website that’s not set up for lead conversions, then it could be that you’re losing them there.

It could be that if you’re just using the call buttons, then you could be losing traffic from desktop searches because people aren’t clicking the call button from desktop search and some people won’t go actually click through to the website or go do another search for it. I mean, there’s a number of things that could be it. I would say that, typically, if you’re getting a lot of exposure but you’re not getting a lot of calls or leads, then I would look at your calls to action, what your offer is, and where you’re directing the traffic to, if it’s a click-through as opposed to just a call conversion goal.

Also, in your posts, if you’re doing posts regularly, which you should be, use some images that are relevant to the industry. Because I know a lot of people that use stock images in their GMB post, guys, people are almost blind to that, they almost are numbed to a lot of stock images, so try to get original images from the client if possible, also just relevant images. I talked about how to do that from YouTube. You can also local images, which is more for SEO purposes. We talked about that at some of our training, can’t talk about that here.

Those are some of the things that I would recommend. Marco, what do you say?

Marco: I’d say that that’s just about right with 450 views, between two and 10 calls a month. You have to get, this is for talking about locally and from our experience with Mario who had more phone calls and other locals that I’ve been doing. It’s not until you get the thousands of views that you start seeing movement upwards of 20 calls. I mean, the ultimate it’s calls or people going to your website or asking for directions, all of that are our actions that could turn into leads depending on where they’re going. It just means that you have to go and figure out. I’m not gonna get too deep into our training, but you have to know when to deliver the message. Right? There’s ways to know which days, what time, what message.

Bradley: And how often.

Marco: Correct. I mean, in some niches, you might only need two or three posts a week. In others, you might need two or three posts a day. In others, you might need just a whole lot more. It’s just constant, right? Because there’s people constantly looking for it. So there’s a whole lot of things involved. Just a general overall opinion on what’s happening, I would say from 450 views, you’re just about right on the calls.

Bradley: Yeah. That’s increased the views per month and it’s a numbers game. If you’re getting what looks like 1 to 2% of whatever your views are, it looks like that’s what’s actually converting in the leads based upon that number that you’re showing there, right? Four hundred fifty views per month, five to eight calls, that’s about 1 to 2%. So if that’s the case, even if that were to hold true, that number, then if you increase your views, if you doubled that to where you’re getting 900 per month at that conversion rate, then you should essentially get 10 to 16 calls per month. Does that make sense?

Well, how do you get more views? More activity, better images, more compelling images, those kind of things, video, start using video in your GMB post, guys. If you haven’t done that yet, go test it because you’ll see that a video post, just like it does on Facebook, will get a hell of a lot more exposure, therefore, it will get a hell of a lot more views. Okay?

Marco: I would also say to look at the posts and see which of the posts are getting the most action and then try to figure out why. Explore why those are getting the action and the other ones aren’t, and tailor your posts to the ones that are getting the most action.

Bradley: Test different calls to action in different messages. It’s just like split testing ads, guys. If you’ve ever done any pay-per-click search marketing, you got to split test copy, you split test your landing pages, all that kind of stuff. Again, you can fine-tune for conversions, which is called conversion optimization, right? That’s something that you may also want to look into.

Can You Explain The Siloing Process Of GMB Auto Poster?

All right. Olena’s up. She says, “Bradley, on the Local Lease post training you talked about siloing post. You said silo post based on tags.” Yeah, that’s just because there’s an auto post, like our GMB post scheduler or GMB Briefcase, depending on the level that you’re at with your business, gives us the ability to schedule posts within the dashboard of it, which is great. It’s great for my team. It just makes things a lot easier. Then the post siloing can be accomplished through tags. It just daisy chains post together. It’s a very simple process. It’s not difficult at all.

Let me carry on with the question. She says, “Silo post based on post tag. Assign each post in the Auto poster, then select to silo posts in the Auto Poster, which means it takes the previous post URL, and adds that link from the previous post to the new post.” That’s correct. “Your GMB websites turns posts into inner pages.” That’s correct. “The first post you do manually and then in Auto Poster, the second post links to the first, the third to the second, and so on. Can you please explain a little bit further what you meant?”

No, you’re right on track. The difference is … Look, when my team goes through to set up to optimize do on-page stuff of a new asset, a new GMB location, then they typically will do, and this is just our standard operating procedure, they don’t add or connect that location to the post scheduler first. That’s something that gets done after the initial on-page work gets done, and part of the initial on-page process is just posting a post manually.

I also recommend posting manually to it anyways instead of automatically connecting a new location to an API and using an automated tool, which is what the post scheduler is, because it’s very similar, guys, to syndication. I know Olena, you’re in Syndication Academy or have been, I know that for sure. It’s the same as the best practices that I’ve been preaching for years about syndication networks, is that you don’t go out and build or purchase a brand new syndication network and then hook it up to IFTTT and start posting to it through an automated way or right off the bat.

Because if you do, it’s likely that some of your web 2 accounts within the network will get terminated. It’s happened time and time again, guys. That is specifically why I tell you if you’re gonna build them yourselves, which I don’t recommend, you’re better off buying them already built from MGYB. But my point is, whenever you build them or buy them, I’ve always recommended that you post manually to, at least to the blog accounts, which are Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, post manually to them and allow that post to sit with for about seven days or so, I call that seasoning the network, before hooking IFTTT up and starting to automate post to it.

Because if you automate right off the bat, then a lot of the times one of those or a couple of those blog accounts will get terminated. Tumblr has been real like trigger-happy in the past, and it goes in waves, guys. WordPress too, WordPress will often get terminated if you try to automate posting to it too quickly. So that’s my process for GMBs as well. We don’t like to automate things right off the bat. I like to have my team go in and do all this stuff manually and then within a week or so, or a few days time, they’ll go back and connect through the API, which is through essentially that’s done within the post scheduler dashboard, and then they’ll start to automate the posts.

So just so you’re aware, if you’re posting manually first, which is what I recommend, then you’re not going to have a tag in that post. So when you start the posting, scheduling posts out using the post scheduler or the briefcase, depending on what level you’re at, then that first post that you create will be the first post in the silo. You can manually go link from within that first scheduled post to the post that you created. That’s why in the spreadsheet, the GMB assets sheet, which you guys have the template for that have joined Local Lease Pro, there’s a column for the first GMB post URL.

Again, my team, when they go to schedule the first post within the briefcase, we use the briefcase because we got a lot of locations, then they can just go copy and manually add that first post URL to that first scheduled post, and then that one will have the tag in it, and from that point forward they can daisy chain them together.

All right. Again, you’re right on track, Olena. I think you just needed a little bit of clarification.

Issues With Changing Appointment URL With Amazon S3 @id Page in GMB

All right. Ted’s up next. Ted says, “Hey guys, a heads up. My tree service GMB that’s been around and generating leads since LLP launched was suspended this weekend when I updated my appointment URL with the Amazon S3 @id page. Also, I was using the same Ghost Browser session since day one. I just wanted to get everyone heads up.” Yeah. That is one of the things that I would recommend. Well, first of all, like I said, I’ve told my team to stay out of them all together right now while we let things settle and there’s a lot of testing going on through various people and other groups as well. So once we have a better understanding of what it is that is triggering that, which can be a number of things, we’ve got to try to identify each one of them.

Again, I would recommend just staying out of them, but one of the things that I would recommend not doing, for those of you that still want to test with your own assets at the moment, is do not add the @id ID page to the appointment URL. If you want, you can link to it via anchor text link within the GMB website text, so it would be a contextual link. But I would recommend not pushing anything into the appointment URL at the moment, that section, other than an actual appointment app. Okay. That’s just one of the things that I think is potentially causing problems. So I would recommend not adding that URL right now to the appointment section URL, only adding a valid appointment URL or scheduling app there at the moment. Okay.

Again, you can still link to it, guys. You can link to it from your GMB post. You can link to it from an anchor text link within your GMB website content. Okay? I’m sorry for you, Ted, but that’s the nature of the game. The good thing is at least you’ve got quite some longevity out of that anyways. You said it had been producing leads for you and all that. You know can do it again, right?

Marco: Yeah. I told my VAs not to change anything, to just keep doing what they were doing it and not to start anything new, by the way.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: We just kept going because I don’t like changing, I don’t like sending Google mixed signals. Interestingly enough, I had one suspended, and I hadn’t had one suspended yet I was wondering what all the ruckus was about, and I finally had one suspended. Then when we started talking about it, when I went back and talked to the VA, she uploaded a video which we had never done on that one account. So veering from what we’re doing, just by a video was enough to get the account suspended.

Bradley: That’s crazy.

Marco: Yeah. It’s really interesting what’s going on. If you do anything different than what you’ve been doing, you’re setting yourself up to be hit. They’re just sniping anyone, left and right. I mean, third on the match and you’re done.

Bradley: Yeah. By the way, that’s something else. We had our live event and that was really where I started developing the scaling processes so that we could build, build, build. That was the goal for … We had our live event in October and so we had a 12-week period or a 90-day sprint where were our goal was to hit 50 assets built and optimize. So that ended about three weeks ago and so the next 12 weeks was gonna be all about monetizing assets.

It just worked out for us that we had built all these and now because of what’s going on, the timing is, it just happened that it’s a good time for us to stay out of building new ones at the moment, work on off-page stuff to get the ones that we built that aren’t performing well yet. We can work on all the off-page stuff now to get those to start performing better, ranking better, producing better.

I am developing the processes right now currently for, well, obviously, as I shared with you guys just moments ago, I’m still developing some of the off-page strategies and processes for my team, but at the same time I’m developing the monetization so that outreach prospecting and sales process for monetizing these assets, and that’s my next 12-week goal, which like I said we’re in about week three now of developing those processes out, which will be shared in the Mastermind. I’m gonna give everybody exactly what I’ve been doing and show real road examples of how the stuff that I’m doing, what works, what doesn’t work, all of that, like I always do in the Mastermind.

So that’s something that we just got started on this week. Now the POFU Live event attendees, I have a weekly accountability meeting with them and we did that on Monday. If anybody’s here on the Hump Day Hangouts that was there on Monday or watched the replay, you can comment, if you don’t mind, on the page and let people know how that strategy is going.

Because it’s a very powerful strategy, using video email. We’ve got a training protocol video call lead-gen system that I’m going to be updating with all of this prospecting training and processes that I’m developing right now for outreach in prospecting in sales essentially monetizing our assets specific to GMB stuff. I’m going to be adding all of that training and updating it in the video lead-gen system. That’s going to be something that we will launch probably at the end of this 12-week sprint, which is about nine weeks from now.

Again, guys, there’s a lot of stuff going on. If you’ve got stuff that’s already built but not monetized yet, now’s a good time to work on pushing them to get them to produce better and also working on developing your prospecting strategy to get them monetized. Let the dust settle on building new assets at the moment and within a few weeks, guys, will have some new methods.

What Are Some Of Your Ranking Strategies in Pinterest?

Anyways, the next question, from Dean. Marco, it’s gonna be directed at you because I don’t have any idea about anything on Pinterest. I’ll read it for you. “Question for Hump Day Hangout 225. Have any of you guys tried ranking in Pinterest? Their PPC system seems expensive compared to Google but they are a good fit for my home and garden client. Thing is with nearly 2,000 pins of furniture products and with hashtag optimized descriptions, only a few seem to pop up in Pinterest search. Old pins that have been saved a few times or more, that hints to me that pin saved by people may be the biggest ranking factor in Pinterest. Can you shed some light? If that’s the case, I wonder if some spam accounts can save pins and manipulate it somewhat?”

Marco: All right. I’m sorry I’ve spent about two years in Pinterest figuring out the algorithm and a whole bunch of different things that what makes it go and I’m not willing to give that up for free.

Bradley: Okay, fair enough. We’re gonna move on. Sorry, Dean. I’d help you if I could, but I don’t know a dick about Pinterest. I’ve never really done anything with Pinterest so I can’t help you anyways.

What Are The Reasons Why Verified GMBs Do Not Show Up In Google My Maps?

Jay Turner says, “Some of my service area business client’s verified GMBs do not show up in Google My Maps when searching for them in order to add their pin to a Google My Map. Why is that? Does adding KML file …? Again, it’s probably because it’s a GMB service area business. I don’t know that for sure because I don’t do a whole lot of My Map stuff. Is that something we can comment on? I know that’s kind of RYS stuff.

Marco: It is. If you hide the address you cannot expect to find it.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Because all you’re going to pull up is a service area. So there’s no way to do that.

Bradley: Yeah. You could use the city center for that area. I mean, that’s something that you could do. But I don’t do a whole lot of My Map stuff still. I just never really did. I know we have RYS Academy training that talks about that stuff, Jay. So if you’re in there, that might be a good question for the RYS Facebook group. Okay.

Will. Let’s see. This is similar to the one that Olena asked, but I’ll read it real fast and we’ll move on. He says, “When using the GMB auto poster and writing a month’s worth of post, are you saying that we should manually post the first post in the sequence of these 30 posts then use the GMB auto poster software so that we can link to the first post and the subsequent posts in the Auto poster?”

Well, no. Again, it’s not about always linking to that first post, guys. Again, you post manually because it’s a way to kind of season the asset without automating stuff right off the bat. Okay? That’s it. That’s all. It’s just part of the optimization process for my team. It’s not about always linking to that one post, guys. The siloing is more about theming. It’s just like a website silo, guys. I think too many of you guys are trying to over complicate stuff, and I’m not picking on you, Will.

But if you understand website silo architecture, for YouTube silo architecture, which you can accomplish with playlists, it’s the exact same with GMB post silos. Again, it’s the same principle, guys. It’s no difference whatsoever. As long as you understand website silos and how to build those correctly and theme your silos correctly, you just repeat that same process in either YouTube or GMB. It’s the same process, right? Again, it shouldn’t be over complicated, guys.

If you don’t understand website silo architecture, go search our YouTube channel. I’ve got several videos on there that I’ve talked about. They’re several years old, but the strategy has not changed a bit. Right? It’s one of those things that are timeless, that will continue to work. You can also go search Bruce Clay. Just go search on Google Bruce Clay website silos and it’ll be the first link at the very top of Google search results and click on it. It’s an old article. I think it’s from 2009 or ‘10. Read it, it’s still valid and relevant today. Okay.

Next, Robert Nelson. He’s our new Mastermind member. Welcome, Robert. He says, “Hey guys, excited! Just signed up for the Mastermind around an hour ago. Looking forward to getting to know you guys better over the next few months.” Yeah. I hope you schedule a call with me through my calendar link I sent to you, Robert, via email. So I hope to talk to you next week.

Is It Okay To Use RSS Authority Sniper On PBNs?

He says, “My question is, I’m wondering if you think it’s a good idea to use RSS authorities.” Oh, yeah. This is a great question, by the way, guys. This is a really good question. I’m gonna answer it. “I’m wondering if you think it’s a good idea to use RSS authority sniper on PBNs if it’s also been used to create feeds for the money site.” Okay. First of all, you’re using RankFeedr to create the feeds. RSS authority sniper just finds feeds, okay? So you’re using RankFeedr to create the feeds.

“Which my PBNs are linking to.” He says, “I’m a bit worried about a footprint if the domain they use for RankFeedr feeds has links to my money sites as well as my PBNs. Do you think that’s an issue?” All right. What I would recommend is that you would create separate feeds to embed in your money sites. Okay. If you’re using PBNs, and I don’t know if you’re populating content, in other words, are you feeding content to your PBNs through RankFeedr, which I don’t recommend because that would look like crap, but you can embed the feed.

Again, I just talked about that in Syndication Academy on how to do that, guys, and the Mastermind, you guys all have access to that anyways, which means, Robert, you’ll have access to that too. Again, that was the most recent Syndication Academy update webinar. I talked about how to embed a feed. Okay. So using the RankFeedr feed to embed is super, it’s great, it’s fantastic.

So what I would recommend is that you can use RankFeedr feeds on your PBN as an embedded feed which will create co-citation, but do not include your money site links either static or RSS feeds as part the RankFeedr feed that’s on the money site-, or excuse me, the PBNs. Just use that to add local and topical relevancy to the actual PBN. Then you can still use traditional links within the content to link back to your money sites because the RankFeedr feeds that are embedded aren’t going to be having any of your content sources in the feed itself, which would be kind of a footprint, because now you’d have an embedded feed that has links to your content sources like your money content sources as well as contextual links from your traditional PBN links back to the same destination. Yeah, that would be in a footprint I would worry about.

Plus, I would also have, if you’re going to be using RankFeedr to create co-citation feeds for your money site, those would be separate feeds. In other words, I’d have one RankFeeder feed that I would use is an embed on the PBN to just add geographic and topical relevancy to that PBN, then I would have separate RankFeedr feed where you would include your money side RSS feed, your GMB RSS feed if you’re doing it for local, you could also have your static items and all that so that you can create local and geographic co-citation relevance to your money site. Bt that would be separate and apart from what you’re using on your money site-, or excuse me, your PBN. Does that make sense?

Just keep that in mind, guys. Remember, with the top level subscription package, it’s like $47 a month, guys. It’s ridiculous. You can get up to 1,100 feeds. I would create two separate feeds in that case if you’re doing that, just like I said. Robert, we can talk about that in a little bit more on our call, if you want to go and do it a little bit deeper. Okay.

Also, you can post, by the way, Robert, the Mastermind Facebook group, we go real deep into discussions about anything that you want. So if you want to post that in there, we can comment on a little bit further, also on the mastermind webinar as we dig into that stuff, so you see over the shoulder training type stuff. Marco and I get real deep into that stuff all the time. We get into the weeds. Awesome. Glad to have you.

Greg, thanks for being here, man, as always.

Is There Some Type Of Google My Business Updates Going On?

Frankie says, “Hey guys, it’s my first time back,” what’s up, Frankie?, “since you moved off Google Plus. I would like to know if there is some type of Google My Business GMB updates going?” Yes, a lot. “There was a lot of talk about this in other groups. Is it all BS or GMB the same still?” No. They’re cracking down, which guys we’ve been talking about, we knew it was gonna happen, it was just a matter of time. It doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world. It just means that shit settles down, we’ll figure out the next method and we’ll produce training around it when it’s available, all right, once we figure it out. But glad to have you back, Frankie. Okay.

Jordan says, “Welcome back to WordPress sites, all GMBers.” Well, no, I wouldn’t say that yet. Maybe. We’ll see.

Marco: No. There’s still other ways that you can verify GMBs. All they’re trying to do is kill one loophole, but there’s quite a few others. The old stuff that we’ve always been preaching is still working. So no, I’m not planning on going back to WordPress sites anytime soon. If anything, I’ll just go back to G sites. Well, I never left G sites, right? Drive stacks and G sites.

Bradley: Yeah. Quit This House says, “Do we still get the bonus semantic webinar if we buy feed burner stuff today?” Yeah. Well, essentially, all I was gonna do was share some of my methods on how I’m using it and some of the results that I’ve gotten. Yeah, sure. I’m glad you mentioned that, by the way, because I almost forgot about it. So if you bought RankFeedr guys through us and you can prove it, then just reach out, what I’ll do is …

By the way, Adam, if you’re still, on can you do me a favor and make a note of this? Maybe in two weeks or three weeks something like that I’ll hold a kind of an update webinar for RankFeedr, and Mastermind will obviously be included, and maybe I’ll probably include Syndication Academy members too, because it’s precisely the method that I’ve shared in Syndication Academy, which is how to embed those feeds and create the feeds, and what I’m doing, and where I’m embedding them. I’ll even give you guys the process for, well, that’s only Mastermind members will get the process doc, guys. It has to be that way.

But I can share with you what I’m doing and the results that I’m getting specifically with those RankFeedr feeds and how to get really good results for local stuff. Okay. So, yeah, I will do just an update webinar and it’d probably be a short webinar. Again, the Mastermind, they’re going to get the process docs for this stuff too so that they can have their team do it as opposed to doing it on your own or developing the docs on your own.

But, yeah, that’s a good idea. I appreciate you reminding me about that. Absolutely, just reach out to us at support. We’ll create a small list on for people that we’ve known. Or just come join a Mastermind, you’ll get it anyways. Also, as I said, it might be part of the Syndication Academy update webinar is what I’ll do. It’s likely gonna be that too and we’ll just include the RankFeedr buyers into that also. Okay. It’s a good question though.

What URL Do I Use From The GMB Briefcase Auto Poster To Setup The RSS Authority Sniper?

Michael says, “Question about RSS authority sniper. What URL do I use from GMB briefcase auto poster to set up the sniper? Everyone I’ve tried got an error. Thanks.” I don’t know why that’s the case, Michael. Have you posted? You have to have GMB post or the RSS feed won’t register. It’s just like a WordPress site. If you try to add an RSS feed to IFTTT that contains no items, it won’t accept it. It will give you an error every time. So have you posted? If so, then what I …

By the way, inside the auto poster, guys, there’s an update RSS file button. You go to settings RSS feeds and that lists all of your locations that are connected to the auto poster or the briefcase, depending on where you’re at, and then it says, there’s a blue button off to the right column and it says copy URL or whatever. Well, that’s your RSS feed. If you’re having issues, just click that update RSS file button, it’s at the top of that column, it’s a yellow button, click that.

It’ll take a few seconds to reload. Once it read loads, all of your feeds will be updated and just check it then. Go check it in a Firefox browser. You’re gonna have to add, it’s called the RSSPreview Firefox add-on. RSSPreview is one word. Go open Firefox, go to Google and search RSSPreview Firefox add-on. It’ll be the first link at the time top of the search results. Click that, add it to your Firefox, enable it. That way you can start viewing HTML versions of an RSS feed in Firefox again. They disabled that a few months ago for whatever reason. The native RSS feed reader in Firefox is you have to create add the add-on now. Okay. But then just go check it.

If you have any other issues, contact support Shreepad, which is little support bubble is in the bottom right corner inside the briefcase or the post scheduler, he’s really, really good at replying to support requests, guys. If you have any issues, contact him. But I promise you, if you’ve got posts in there and you click the update RSS file button, it should work fine. Okay.

Should We Use SEO Ultimate Plugin Instead Of Yoast For The Battleplan Strategy?

John says, “Hey guys. I purchased the Battle Plan. Awesome. In the plan, it suggests using SEO ultimate plugin, but in the webinar Yoast seems to be the favorite.” Are we still linking to one of the older versions of the webinar, at that point maybe?

Hernan: Yep. Maybe we’re gonna be clipping and updating that really shortly. We have redirects over there.

Bradley: Okay. Yeah. SEO ultimate is way better, guys. It doesn’t have a bunch of loaded code. Jeffrey Smith knows his guys, I’m telling you. It is hands-down the best SEO plugin and get the SEO ultimate plus. It’s inexpensive and gives you a ton of additional functionality. The version 2 of SEO ultimate plus is coming out very soon. It’s been in beta for the last couple months but it’s going to be awesome.

Marco: Yeah. Just a short comment, Yoast is foot fungus get SEO ultimate. Please do yourself a favor.

What Are Some Top On Page And Off Page GMB Tips?

Bradley: Greg Derebret says, “Top on-page GMB tip.” I would say just complete the profile and post regularly. That’s the best on-page tip I can give you. Just completely complete the profile with well-optimized everything. Not stick spammy, just well optimized, well written stuff, and post regularly. Best off-page? That’s to be determined. Right now probably some of the stuff that we teach on Local Lease Pro and some of the stuff that I’m talking about with RankFeedr and that kind of stuff, Greg. Again, we’ll talk about that in one of the closed groups.

Marco: I would say top on-page silo, silo, Gregg. You’re with Gregg. I mean, that’s hands down, I mean, now with Jeffrey, hands down. The top off-page? Press releases, stack them.

Bradley: Yeah. Although the press releases in and of themselves are not as effective as they used to be, even six months ago, unless you’re varying distribution networks consistently or you stack, you publish press releases consistently and regularly-

Marco: That’s why I mentioned stack the press releases.

Bradley: Yeah. I had super good results with the Local PR program method with just as little as two press releases. I was able to rank in 3-pack a year and a half ago or two years ago whenever we launched that training. Now I’m finding to get the same kind of a result I have to publish six or eight press releases to get the same kind of a result, unless I’m varying the distribution networks and stacking to where I’m using three or four different distribution networks where still a lot of them share the same type of footprint, in other words, they share a lot of the same distribution sites.

But if you get some more link diversity from other distribution networks, because they distribute to different sites, in other words, and get picked up by other sites. If you do that, if you have access to a lot of different press release distributions, then that’s that can help. Or you have to stack consistently and regularly if you’re using the same sort of network and make sure that you’re …

Again, I’m not giving away too much here, but as I talked about in the Mastermind last week, I think it was Muhammad’s question about that, there’s not a set formula for how to stack, guys. You just need to constantly be varying what you’re linking to for to different tier one types of properties. It’s something that you need to do and it just seems like it’s taking more press releases to accomplish same thing. And that’s to be expected, guys. Anytime something works really well in SEO, it’s only a matter of time before it starts to become less effective. Right?

So don’t say the press releases aren’t effective. I’m not saying that at all it’s just the strategy has evolved a bit. Right?

Marco: Just to add just a quick thought, Greg. You have access to Dedia. Reach out to him because if you link build to your press releases he knows exactly what to do.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: That’ll set it on fire. Now I’m giving away too much. Drop some traffic in there, Greg

Where Can We Get Backlinks For Videos?

Bradley: Yeah. Marco, the next question, when does link building gonna be available in MGYB?

Marco: It’s being added as we speak.

Bradley: Okay. So there you go. Because, Greg, you can contact Dedia directly or you can wait, it should be available any minute because it thought was gonna be available last week. So that answers the next question, we he says, “Where can we get backlinks for videos?” Guys, our best link builder, he’s been working with me for six years now I guess and he’s awesome. We’re gonna have that service available in MGYB and it should be like at any moment. Okay? So check back often.

Is It Safe To Autopost To Lead Gen GMB Nowadays?

Guys, I got to run in a minute so I’ll try to get through the next one very quickly. Grant. What’s up, Grant? He was one of the POFU Live attendees. He’s been working very closely with the group. It’s awesome to have you here. He says, “Is auto posting to lead-gen GMB safe currently? Yeah, it is. As far as I know. I haven’t had any issues with that whatsoever. I have not had a single property terminated or suspended from that. Now I can’t swear that that’s the case for everybody. I’m just telling you I have not had any issues whatsoever it’s making on-page changes that’s been causing problems. It’s depending on what kind of change it is too, because I’ve actually been manually going in and changing on a lot of different stuff.

Like I mentioned earlier, guys, one thing I would not recommend doing is trying to add anything to the appointment URL section other than an actual bonafide genuine appointment app right now. That’s one thing that I see is triggering suspensions. Okay. I don’t know that for sure, but that’s a hunch of mine. I’ve heard that happen now from several different people. We lost six or seven assets just last week. But it’s the first six or seven out of like more than 10 times that we’ve built.

Again, I think a lot of it has to do with that one particular process. So my team’s not touching anything at the moment. I’m in their testing with different things right now. Something else is, and this is kind of using a manager account, I’ve talked about not doing that in the past, but I think using a manager account actually helps right now. So what I’ve been doing is I’ve been going in and adding a manager account to an asset and making some slight changes and then removing the manager. Still I’ve not had anything suspended like right before my eyes anyways, if that makes sense.

Google Starts To Ask For GMB Location Validation With Tax Invoice Or Business License

Gregg says, “Google is starting to ask for GMB location validation with tax.” Yeah, that’s one of the things I had predicted I thought would happen. Gregg, I’ve said that before that that was my speculation on what was going to happen, is that they were gonna start requiring either corporate doc’s or proof of mail being facts or photos taken with company letterhead or like bank statements, all of that stuff that I’ve had to do in the past to have verified GMBs moved to different locations. That’s what I assumed and I had speculated would probably happen.

The plan you outlined in your POFU group to monetize your GMB locations is brilliant and simpler, easier, and is the best method I’ve seen from all your optimization methods I’ve seen over the years that will be high converting. That’s awesome, Gregg. Yeah. I’m gonna be doing a lot of training over that next few weeks on that.

Last call to win the free Semantic Mastery T-shirt. Okay. “Bradley, is there a new press release program coming down the road soon?” Yes, there is. I can’t really announce that just yet, but I’ve been testing something that’s really kind of disruptive. I wouldn’t say that lightly, but it’s really, really cool technology that one of our very own Mastermind members has been developing it. He’s one of the code developers behind it. I’ve been on several calls with him and it’s actually very disruptive what they’re doing. Something that no other service out there has that I think would be a great addition to what we’re already doing. Again, that’s something that we’ll be announcing here in the coming weeks.

All right. Guys, pick the best question and all that so we can wrap it up.

Marco: Alex. One of the very first questions was excellent.

Bradley: Where was that? Right there?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Yep, Alex. Okay. So Alex is the winner for what, either the Battle Plan or what? T-shirt?

Hernan: Battle Plan.

Marco: Yeah. We said Battle Plan I think.

Bradley: Okay. Well, somebody else is getting a T-shirt, aren’t they?

Adam: Yeah. We did a random number generator and saw who bought and who posted back. Ted, you are the winner so just send into support from your normal email. I think we’ve actually had some back and forth between me and you, so just shoot an email into support. We’ll get to that large shirt and next time I’m in Sacramento I’m gonna find you for a beer, man.

Bradley: Don’t lie. The reason why he won is because of the beer emoji. Guys, I hope you all were paying attention. The next time you want to win something just put a beer emoji in there.

Adam: Yeah. Be within an hour’s drive of me and offer a free beer. No. We used a random number generator. It worked out, man. So we’ll get you your shirt just send them to support that’s semanticmastery.com.

Bradley: Awesome. I hope everybody got a lot out of this. No Mastermind webinar tomorrow, but we got one next week on what I’m working on, which I’ll be sharing with you guys, with the POFU members, and I have started developing this week, which is the outreach program using video email specific to the GMB asset stuff. We’re going to be going through that. So guys pay attention. Oh, and I’ll share the RankFeedr process doc with you guys in the Mastermind too. So see you all next week. Thanks guys for hanging out.

Hernan: See you, guys.

Marco: Bye everybody.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 225 published first on your-t1-blog-url

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howardkuester22 · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 225

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 225 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

Chris: Doing good. Exciting day today, especially with all the good stuff going on in Semantic Mastery.

Adam: Definitely, definitely. Hernan, how about yourself, how are you doing?

Adam: Oh, I just have this T-shirt on, how random. All right. Well, anyways, moving right along. Marco, how are you doing?

Marco: I’m good, man. What’s up?

Adam: Nothing, just chillin’. I was hoping for a weather report. It’s kind of overcast and nasty here. How about you?

Marco: It’s over-sunny and sunny here.

Adam: Bradley, how are you doing? What have you got, snow, hurricanes? What’s going on?

Bradley: I don’t know. I haven’t been outside since about 6 o'clock this morning because I’ve been working all day. But it looks sunny, with the temperature. Anyways, hi!

Adam: Well, I see you’ve got your nightshirt on too.

Bradley: Yeah. We got the memo, apparently. Mine is fading now because I wear mine more than you, apparently.

Let’s get into it. I need to pay some stuff on the page. Hernan, or you guys, can you tell them a little bit more about what’s going on with the Battle Plan?

No magic pills. No magic formulas. Anybody telling you that you can make $100,000 overnight is blowing smoke up your ass. Stop listening. Put in the work.

Bradley: Yeah. He mentioned G tickle, that sounds a lot dirtier than it really is. Just check out the Battle Plan, you’ll see what we mean.

Marco: Can we give someone a Battle Plan for the best question? I know we didn’t plan this ahead, but why don’t we do that?

Adam: Yeah.

Marco: Or if they bought it, we can refund it.

Bradley: Cool. Can we get into it?

Adam: Let’s do it.

Does Ranking YouTube Videos And Selling Lead For Local Business In Google Still Work In 2019?

Correct me if I’m wrong, Adam, but isn’t that training available is an order bump for the Battle Plan?

Adam: I’m not gonna lie I was looking at a spreadsheet, I missed the first part of that.

Bradley: The YouTube ads training I did for local videos?

Adam: Yep. Yeah. You can get that if you buy the Battle Plan on check out. It’s the killer ads for local, order bump, yeah.

Factors Contributing To Low Conversion/Leads Despite Having Many Views in GMB Insights

Those are some of the things that I would recommend. Marco, what do you say?

Bradley: And how often.

Can You Explain The Siloing Process Of GMB Auto Poster?

All right. Again, you’re right on track, Olena. I think you just needed a little bit of clarification.

Issues With Changing Appointment URL With Amazon S3 @id Page in GMB

Marco: Yeah. I told my VAs not to change anything, to just keep doing what they were doing it and not to start anything new, by the way.

Bradley: Right.

Bradley: That’s crazy.

What Are Some Of Your Ranking Strategies in Pinterest?

What Are The Reasons Why Verified GMBs Do Not Show Up In Google My Maps?

Marco: It is. If you hide the address you cannot expect to find it.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Because all you’re going to pull up is a service area. So there’s no way to do that.

Is It Okay To Use RSS Authority Sniper On PBNs?

Greg, thanks for being here, man, as always.

Is There Some Type Of Google My Business Updates Going On?

Jordan says, “Welcome back to WordPress sites, all GMBers.” Well, no, I wouldn’t say that yet. Maybe. We’ll see.

What URL Do I Use From The GMB Briefcase Auto Poster To Setup The RSS Authority Sniper?

Should We Use SEO Ultimate Plugin Instead Of Yoast For The Battleplan Strategy?

Hernan: Yep. Maybe we’re gonna be clipping and updating that really shortly. We have redirects over there.

Marco: Yeah. Just a short comment, Yoast is foot fungus get SEO ultimate. Please do yourself a favor.

What Are Some Top On Page And Off Page GMB Tips?

Marco: I would say top on-page silo, silo, Gregg. You’re with Gregg. I mean, that’s hands down, I mean, now with Jeffrey, hands down. The top off-page? Press releases, stack them.

Marco: That’s why I mentioned stack the press releases.

So don’t say the press releases aren’t effective. I’m not saying that at all it’s just the strategy has evolved a bit. Right?

Marco: Just to add just a quick thought, Greg. You have access to Dedia. Reach out to him because if you link build to your press releases he knows exactly what to do.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: That’ll set it on fire. Now I’m giving away too much. Drop some traffic in there, Greg

Where Can We Get Backlinks For Videos?

Bradley: Yeah. Marco, the next question, when does link building gonna be available in MGYB?

Marco: It’s being added as we speak.

Is It Safe To Autopost To Lead Gen GMB Nowadays?

Google Starts To Ask For GMB Location Validation With Tax Invoice Or Business License

All right. Guys, pick the best question and all that so we can wrap it up.

Marco: Alex. One of the very first questions was excellent.

Bradley: Where was that? Right there?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Yep, Alex. Okay. So Alex is the winner for what, either the Battle Plan or what? T-shirt?

Hernan: Battle Plan.

Marco: Yeah. We said Battle Plan I think.

Bradley: Okay. Well, somebody else is getting a T-shirt, aren’t they?

Bradley: Don’t lie. The reason why he won is because of the beer emoji. Guys, I hope you all were paying attention. The next time you want to win something just put a beer emoji in there.

Hernan: See you, guys.

Marco: Bye everybody.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 225 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

pledje · 5 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 225

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 225 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

Chris: Doing good. Exciting day today, especially with all the good stuff going on in Semantic Mastery.

Adam: Definitely, definitely. Hernan, how about yourself, how are you doing?

Adam: Oh, I just have this T-shirt on, how random. All right. Well, anyways, moving right along. Marco, how are you doing?

Marco: I’m good, man. What’s up?

Adam: Nothing, just chillin’. I was hoping for a weather report. It’s kind of overcast and nasty here. How about you?

Marco: It’s over-sunny and sunny here.

Adam: Bradley, how are you doing? What have you got, snow, hurricanes? What’s going on?

Bradley: I don’t know. I haven’t been outside since about 6 o'clock this morning because I’ve been working all day. But it looks sunny, with the temperature. Anyways, hi!

Adam: Well, I see you’ve got your nightshirt on too.

Bradley: Yeah. We got the memo, apparently. Mine is fading now because I wear mine more than you, apparently.

Let’s get into it. I need to pay some stuff on the page. Hernan, or you guys, can you tell them a little bit more about what’s going on with the Battle Plan?

No magic pills. No magic formulas. Anybody telling you that you can make $100,000 overnight is blowing smoke up your ass. Stop listening. Put in the work.

Bradley: Yeah. He mentioned G tickle, that sounds a lot dirtier than it really is. Just check out the Battle Plan, you’ll see what we mean.

Marco: Can we give someone a Battle Plan for the best question? I know we didn’t plan this ahead, but why don’t we do that?

Adam: Yeah.

Marco: Or if they bought it, we can refund it.

Bradley: Cool. Can we get into it?

Adam: Let’s do it.

Does Ranking YouTube Videos And Selling Lead For Local Business In Google Still Work In 2019?

Correct me if I’m wrong, Adam, but isn’t that training available is an order bump for the Battle Plan?

Adam: I’m not gonna lie I was looking at a spreadsheet, I missed the first part of that.

Bradley: The YouTube ads training I did for local videos?

Adam: Yep. Yeah. You can get that if you buy the Battle Plan on check out. It’s the killer ads for local, order bump, yeah.

Factors Contributing To Low Conversion/Leads Despite Having Many Views in GMB Insights

Those are some of the things that I would recommend. Marco, what do you say?

Bradley: And how often.

Can You Explain The Siloing Process Of GMB Auto Poster?

All right. Again, you’re right on track, Olena. I think you just needed a little bit of clarification.

Issues With Changing Appointment URL With Amazon S3 @id Page in GMB

Marco: Yeah. I told my VAs not to change anything, to just keep doing what they were doing it and not to start anything new, by the way.

Bradley: Right.

Bradley: That’s crazy.

What Are Some Of Your Ranking Strategies in Pinterest?

What Are The Reasons Why Verified GMBs Do Not Show Up In Google My Maps?

Marco: It is. If you hide the address you cannot expect to find it.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Because all you’re going to pull up is a service area. So there’s no way to do that.

Is It Okay To Use RSS Authority Sniper On PBNs?

Greg, thanks for being here, man, as always.

Is There Some Type Of Google My Business Updates Going On?

Jordan says, “Welcome back to WordPress sites, all GMBers.” Well, no, I wouldn’t say that yet. Maybe. We’ll see.

What URL Do I Use From The GMB Briefcase Auto Poster To Setup The RSS Authority Sniper?

Should We Use SEO Ultimate Plugin Instead Of Yoast For The Battleplan Strategy?

Hernan: Yep. Maybe we’re gonna be clipping and updating that really shortly. We have redirects over there.

Marco: Yeah. Just a short comment, Yoast is foot fungus get SEO ultimate. Please do yourself a favor.

What Are Some Top On Page And Off Page GMB Tips?

Marco: I would say top on-page silo, silo, Gregg. You’re with Gregg. I mean, that’s hands down, I mean, now with Jeffrey, hands down. The top off-page? Press releases, stack them.

Marco: That’s why I mentioned stack the press releases.

So don’t say the press releases aren’t effective. I’m not saying that at all it’s just the strategy has evolved a bit. Right?

Marco: Just to add just a quick thought, Greg. You have access to Dedia. Reach out to him because if you link build to your press releases he knows exactly what to do.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: That’ll set it on fire. Now I’m giving away too much. Drop some traffic in there, Greg

Where Can We Get Backlinks For Videos?

Bradley: Yeah. Marco, the next question, when does link building gonna be available in MGYB?

Marco: It’s being added as we speak.

Is It Safe To Autopost To Lead Gen GMB Nowadays?

Google Starts To Ask For GMB Location Validation With Tax Invoice Or Business License

All right. Guys, pick the best question and all that so we can wrap it up.

Marco: Alex. One of the very first questions was excellent.

Bradley: Where was that? Right there?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Yep, Alex. Okay. So Alex is the winner for what, either the Battle Plan or what? T-shirt?

Hernan: Battle Plan.

Marco: Yeah. We said Battle Plan I think.

Bradley: Okay. Well, somebody else is getting a T-shirt, aren’t they?

Bradley: Don’t lie. The reason why he won is because of the beer emoji. Guys, I hope you all were paying attention. The next time you want to win something just put a beer emoji in there.

Hernan: See you, guys.

Marco: Bye everybody.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 225 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes