SEscout - The affiliate marketers SERP tracker. Now live and open for sign-ups!

[backlinkgurus]

That blog post is confusing. Are you filtering out multiple results from a domain or not? It doesn't look like it from what I'm seeing.

So if a #1 listing has sublinks below it those are counted towards the ranking, which is kinda stupid, but it doesn't always do this so then it becomes confusing and inconsistent. eg. #3 will go to #6 and then back again a few hours later.

M0rtal, the old method for rankings 50+ would filter out multiple results from a domain as it used the 100 results per page method. Any ranking above 50 uses the standard Google 10 results per page with no filtering for the most accurate results possible.

The only affect you will see on rankings is a higher accuracy from 1-50 and maybe a few rankings difference anything after that.

Make sense?

 

[Choller]

sescout down?

 

[Choller]

sescout down?

nvm...

 

[greyaisha]

It seems to be about half-working for me right now. Lots of KWs stuck on "gathering data" for a few hours...

 

[Dresden14]

Thanks and yes do keep me posted. I think you can make this a rather profitable business; and I have no problem being a life long recurring member of your site. I found that the rankings were usually off (+/- about 5); that was rather frustrating. Another thing is that on the right; the traffic #s were not providing accurate local or global numbers. Anyhow, yeah do keep me posted and weed threw these posts to get back your customers when all is well. I'll throw in (I think 10 right) on the free package and keep tabs on it, then upgrade when all is well; thanks and fight threw this - dont let google beat ya! lol

 

[lukep]

^You do know that the word "threw" means that you throw something in the past tense, right?

 

[Berto]

I don't mean to be a dick, but you know what happened when DFB had lots of problems (that weren't even their faults!)?? They gave REFUNDS. They gave FREE shit back.

I would completely upgrade this account if the account was stable OR you guys took more responsibility for all of your mishaps and hooked us up once in a while. These are two reasons why I stay at $30/month.

Why would I upgrade to a more expensive plan when I know that I'm not gonna get a refund or some extra keywords WHEN (not IF) shit goes wrong?

 

[andredewaal]

Too bad things went to shit lately. I was actually planning on upgrading as i need more than 10 keywords to monitor (doh).

I am not going to upgrade any time soon. Unless you get everything fixed real soon..
For me this is currently unusable. I haven't had good reporting in 2 weeks. Gathering Data, strange serps, etc.

Maybe later. Good luck working out your issues. The product itself looks great. If only it functions as good you have a lifetime customer here.

 

[backlinkgurus]

sescout down?

Our host had a hardware failure around 11:30 PM our time last night, unfortunately both Josh and I had already went to bed by this time (yes we do sleep occasionally). Servers came back online about an hour later, but unfortunately we need to recover some data before updates will resume normal schedule.

I don't mean to be a dick, but you know what happened when DFB had lots of problems (that weren't even their faults!)?? They gave REFUNDS. They gave FREE shit back.

I would completely upgrade this account if the account was stable OR you guys took more responsibility for all of your mishaps and hooked us up once in a while. These are two reasons why I stay at $30/month.

Why would I upgrade to a more expensive plan when I know that I'm not gonna get a refund or some extra keywords WHEN (not IF) shit goes wrong?

Sadly there is no "how to run a SERP tracker for dummies" manual with every unknown variable laid out for us to expect. Yes we have made some changes in the past that messed up things temporarily for users (and taken full responsibility for those), but the latest mishaps have been completely unpredictable and beyond our control. What I can say is that we work our asses off to get things back to normal when these mishaps due arise.

I don't know what DFB is, so I can't compare our service to theirs. We've always told our customers that if they are unhappy they may cancel and request a refund. I would love to give everyone a free access for a month, unfortunately the side affect of that would be us out of business. We aren't selling backlinks here, this is a certified startup company with real (expensive) costs to cover. We don't have 9-5 jobs on the side, this IS our 9-5 job. We aren't catering to a handful of high-profile names on Wickedfire, we have thousands of customers and are tracking millions of keywords each and every day. To be completely honest, I don't know what sort of "free shit" our users would even want (10 keywords? A week of SEscout after you cancel?).

Too bad things went to shit lately. I was actually planning on upgrading as i need more than 10 keywords to monitor (doh).

I am not going to upgrade any time soon. Unless you get everything fixed real soon..
For me this is currently unusable. I haven't had good reporting in 2 weeks. Gathering Data, strange serps, etc.

Maybe later. Good luck working out your issues. The product itself looks great. If only it functions as good you have a lifetime customer here.

Passed two weeks have been rough, strange google results, yahoo made changes to site explorer, now hardware outages. I assure you we don't sit around twiddling our thumbs when this happens, we take these things seriously and work around the clock to get things running again.

I look forward to having you as a customer in the near future.

 

[Berto]

Sadly there is no "how to run a SERP tracker for dummies" manual with every unknown variable laid out for us to expect. Yes we have made some changes in the past that messed up things temporarily for users (and taken full responsibility for those), but the latest mishaps have been completely unpredictable and beyond our control. What I can say is that we work our asses off to get things back to normal when these mishaps due arise.

I don't know what DFB is, so I can't compare our service to theirs. We've always told our customers that if they are unhappy they may cancel and request a refund. I would love to give everyone a free access for a month, unfortunately the side affect of that would be us out of business. We aren't selling backlinks here, this is a certified startup company with real (expensive) costs to cover. We don't have 9-5 jobs on the side, this IS our 9-5 job. We aren't catering to a handful of high-profile names on Wickedfire, we have thousands of customers and are tracking millions of keywords each and every day. To be completely honest, I don't know what sort of "free shit" our users would even want (10 keywords? A week of SEscout after you cancel?).

I want you to be honest and ethical. I want you to give 5% refunds for when your service sucks ass 5% of the time (and I'm being conservative here).

That's the kind of "free shit" I want. Some kind of responsibility.

So basically, your response is telling me that you don't care about WickedFire users - the guys who fucking PAID TO BETA TEST YOUR SERVICE. You give me attitude and tone when all I want from you is a bit of respect and cordiality.

And you still don't propose any true customer service solutions besides "you're welcome to leave our broke ass service" (which I guess is a fair enough response).

Thanks. I get it now. I'm now in the market for a new SERP tracking solution.

 

[ContentGorilla]

Damn berto. I don't know what it is, but for that statement alone - good shit. I don't know why internet companies always forget about where they started. You started on WICKEDFIRE. You sold some shit around in the BST area, then basically (i'm guessing) you either saved up some loot to do this service, or got a pretty good investment once you told the type of money you're making on the internet.

Whichever it is, you should always respect your customers first. Seems like a ton of people around here kept giving you chances to fix the issues. But, when issues keep arising, you either shoot yourself in the foot by making a post like this, or grinding out in the background until the shit is fixed. If it's not fixable - say it's not fixable.

This is just my 2 cents, but as big as you say you're company is, maybe you should hire some customer support that'll actually give a damn about the way they talk to your customers.

+ rep to berto for telling like it is.

P.S. - This statement comes from another startup company to another. We also have backed funding behind us, but we would never make stupid remarks like the above post. We have several teams - writers, investors, upper management, and the best thing SUPPORT. Maybe you guys need to hire a few members into your support team, because you're forgetting a very important lesson: Customer is always right.

**Mods if this post is out of line, just delete it. I just completely agree with what's Berto is saying, and they should take that as a lesson to improve.

 

[backlinkgurus]

I want you to be honest and ethical. I want you to give 5% refunds for when your service sucks ass 5% of the time (and I'm being conservative here).

That's the kind of "free shit" I want. Some kind of responsibility.

So basically, your response is telling me that you don't care about WickedFire users - the guys who fucking PAID TO BETA TEST YOUR SERVICE. You give me attitude and tone when all I want from you is a bit of respect and cordiality.

And you still don't propose any true customer service solutions besides "you're welcome to leave our broke ass service" (which I guess is a fair enough response).

Thanks. I get it now. I'm now in the market for a new SERP tracking solution.

We are always honest and open about issues that occur with our service. Unfortunately that simply isn't enough for some people. Instead of suggesting a 5% refund for service downtime, people demand 30 days of free usage or full refunds (and continued service). I could spend two full weeks refunding hundreds of customers 5% in paypal, or spend two full weeks making SEscout a more stable and respectable product. Which would you prefer? This is the reason any sort of "mass" refund or crediting of some sort is unjustifiable at this point. This is also part of the reason for the switch to a new payment system.

The logistics of running an hourly based service are extremely complicated. People don't realize that in actuality the downtime is rather small. When a daily SERP tracker goes down, you lose days of service, not hours (yes it happens all the time, why do you think we created SEscout to begin with). Even at our rockiest times, you still get more SERP updates a day then you do with the best daily SERP tracker.

In no way am I saying we don't give a shit about wickedfire, for obvious reasons we wouldn't be around if it weren't for most of our users here. I'm simply stating that providing complete refunds or free months of usage for all of our users isn't a viable option as we aren't a small forum based service anymore.

I wish you the best of luck in finding a new SERP tracker, really I do. People are quick to shout at us and call us dishonest, unethical or pathetic, yet simply canceling their account and requesting a refund seems to be the last thing on their minds. We aren't a cell phone company, you have no contract of usage with us. The joy of an open market is that you are free to leave and find something better at any time.

We aren't here to kiss peoples asses and beg for forgiveness. To everyone that has been with us since the beginning we thank you, as you are the type of customers that make what we do a joy, and the reason we are still around.

 

[backlinkgurus]

Damn berto. I don't know what it is, but for that statement alone - good shit. I don't know why internet companies always forget about where they started. You started on WICKEDFIRE. You sold some shit around in the BST area, then basically (i'm guessing) you either saved up some loot to do this service, or got a pretty good investment once you told the type of money you're making on the internet.

Whichever it is, you should always respect your customers first. Seems like a ton of people around here kept giving you chances to fix the issues. But, when issues keep arising, you either shoot yourself in the foot by making a post like this, or grinding out in the background until the shit is fixed. If it's not fixable - say it's not fixable.

This is just my 2 cents, but as big as you say you're company is, maybe you should hire some customer support that'll actually give a damn about the way they talk to your customers.

+ rep to berto for telling like it is.

I know where we got our start, you don't need to remind us, nor do you need to be in our thread pretending like you are someone on here.

I have mad respect for a ton of members on this forum as, yes, they are the reason why we are at where we are now. You aren't one of them.

 

[Enigmabomb]

Sorry guys, this thread has really helped make me decision.

 

[m0rtal]

M0rtal, the old method for rankings 50+ would filter out multiple results from a domain as it used the 100 results per page method. Any ranking above 50 uses the standard Google 10 results per page with no filtering for the most accurate results possible.

The only affect you will see on rankings is a higher accuracy from 1-50 and maybe a few rankings difference anything after that.

Make sense?

Ok I get it but I don't see how you see that as more accurate? What do I care if there's 4 results from the 1st domain and the tracker shows me at #5 meanwhile in the SERPs I'm actually in #2 and those other 4 are just site links of the #1 result? I want the tracker to show #2 in this case. Get what I'm saying?

Also, I'm gonna have to go with Berto here...I wish you'd say something else other than you are free to cancel if you want. I don't know what that is but it basically feels like a slap in the face since there's been tons of people who have supported you from day 1 here and still do. I'm not sure how much more I can take of things being messed up with the tracker, my patience is running rather thin. Just too busy with other things to explore other options at the moment tbh... You make it seem like things are out of your control and you're doing your best and that's fine. But if you're going to claim to be THE #1 tracker on the market, you're still going to have to try harder.

 

[ContentGorilla]

I know where we got our start, you don't need to remind us, nor do you need to be in our thread pretending like you are someone on here.

I have mad respect for a ton of members on this forum as, yes, they are the reason why we are at where we are now. You aren't one of them.

And you're basing that on my post count? There's a lot more that goes into business besides have 6k posts on this forum. People respect other businesses, as well as their knowledge. Yea, I just signed up, but I do plan to post often.

The funny thing: I came into your thread to look at your software purchase for our upcoming site. How it's so easy to lose a sale to an ignorant remark about respecting post count over business sense.

 

[zdmyn]

(yes we do sleep occasionally)

As a paying user I really do appreciate the fact that when something goes wrong you guys do your best to have it fixed as soon as possible. But you have to see the error in making sarcastic comments like this to your user base.

We know SERP tracking is hard. That's why we pay someone to do it. You don't have to throw it in our faces every time someone shows a little frustration at paying money for something that goes down several times a week.

Tell us what's wrong, how you plan to fix it and when you expect it to be fixed. Anything beyond that is just going to piss people off because like m0rtal just said, it feels like a slap in the face.

 

[backlinkgurus]

Ok I get it but I don't see how you see that as more accurate? What do I care if there's 4 results from the 1st domain and the tracker shows me at #5 meanwhile in the SERPs I'm actually in #2 and those other 4 are just site links of the #1 result? I want the tracker to show #2 in this case. Get what I'm saying?

Also, I'm gonna have to go with Berto here...I wish you'd say something else other than you are free to cancel if you want. I don't know what that is but it basically feels like a slap in the face since there's been tons of people who have supported you from day 1 here and still do. I'm not sure how much more I can take of things being messed up with the tracker, my patience is running rather thin. Just too busy with other things to explore other options at the moment tbh... You make it seem like things are out of your control and you're doing your best and that's fine. But if you're going to claim to be THE #1 tracker on the market, you're still going to have to try harder.

M0rtal, maybe I'm explaining it badly. You will see the exact results as if you were to do a manual search on google from a fresh ip with no personalization, period. There are no if and's or buts. These will be as accurate as possible.

 

[backlinkgurus]

And you're basing that on my post count? There's a lot more that goes into business besides have 6k posts on this forum. People respect other businesses, as well as their knowledge. Yea, I just signed up, but I do plan to post often.

The funny thing: I came into your thread to look at your software purchase for our upcoming site. How it's so easy to lose a sale to an ignorant remark about respecting post count over business sense.

No you've been a member since....June.

As a paying user I really do appreciate the fact that when something goes wrong you guys do your best to have it fixed as soon as possible. But you have to see the error in making sarcastic comments like this to your user base.

We know SERP tracking is hard. That's why we pay someone to do it. You don't have to throw it in our faces every time someone shows a little frustration at paying money for something that goes down several times a week.

Tell us what's wrong, how you plan to fix it and when you expect it to be fixed. Anything beyond that is just going to piss people off because like m0rtal just said, it feels like a slap in the face.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with this sometimes. I think it's important to remind people that we are human at times. We aren't a super human robot that works endless hours always catering to every persons needs and wants. We are two people working our asses off to make the best SERP tracker we possibly can.

I have no patience for people that are utterly rude or disrespectful to us, however.

 

[zdmyn]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with this sometimes. I think it's important to remind people that we are human at times. We aren't a super human robot that works endless hours always catering to every persons needs and wants. We are two people working our asses off to make the best SERP tracker we possibly can.

I have no patience for people that are utterly rude or disrespectful to us, however.

That's understandable. But you made that particular comment to a guy who asked "sescout down?"...

That's not acceptable, I'm sorry. He didn't ask why you weren't working around the clock to fix it. He was looking to see if it was down for everyone or just himself.

If someone is outright rude to you, of course you're going to defend yourself. But some of these long winded and snooty replies are just causing more frustration for people.