Page 3 - SEO Elite & Brad Callen!?

Hi

I do not have SEO Elite (did intend to purchase it later on - but now have serious misgivings). Your post certainly made me sit up and take notice - resulted in me joining this forum.

I do own a copy of Brad Callen's Keyword Elite and am a new user. I too have had trouble with his support (which would be the same support as for SEO Elite). I have submitted several questions and yes, they do reply immediately, but are generally rude and obnoxious and most unhelpful. They speak to me as they're 'rubbing my nose into something' and have now left me still un-helped and distressed by their treatment of me. Anyway, Keyword Elite does seem to be OK - cannot fully say since I've not used it a great deal, but don't expect courteous and genuine help.

I too have tried to find out how to contact Brad Callen - seems he's hiding behind his support desk.

I am putting together a website and Reviews will occupy a section of it - and Keyword Elite will be my first review, AND I will be giving it the thumbs down.

Brad, if you're out there somewhere, reputation is a precious thing, and so is integrity, and once lost, it is lost for good. And finally, you DO reap what you sow.

Just thought I'd let you know what I've encountered with them.

Genny2

Your review IMHO would be tainted and I can't believe you would make a very good reviewer if "others opinions" form your thumbs down review.

I guess the only thing you get when you purchase Keyword Elite is support - I would be extremely upset to if they didn't send the product...

Oh they did give you the product! Why not write a fair review then!

As I understand ongoing support "infinitely" get's a thumbs down with all companies 'unless' you intend to pay extra for better support services -- right?

Hi

I just intend to state what I have personally found - all the good, bad and the uglies. It was never my intention to use other people's opinions - I have enough of my own. The Reviews section is some distance away at the moment - I figure by the time I've reached that point, I will well and truly be qualified to give my own review on a product I've paid for and personally used.

As for support - some people find that very important. I've heard plenty of disgruntled vehicle owners who've bought a lemon and received very little help or are given the 'run around' whilst under warranty. After sales service can mean making or breaking the sale. I personally would like to know in advance before falling into this sort of trap. Good after sales service is part of the package.

Some time ago I heard a person mention a piece of software which he stated he could not use because of the poor support - he said what's the use if he's paid dearly for something but can't use it properly. He ended up buying a second but different one as result and he had no complaints about his new one - obviously support was fine. I was very glad to hear that because I was in the market for that type of product and was glad I didn't end up in the same boat as he. I was grateful for his advice.

In any case, you're right - my review would be tainted - it's tainted by the personal dealings I've had with them - the other opinions merely confirm what I have personally found. In all fairness my review would include the good things too - thus far I really like the product itself. But if I'd had the full story before I purchased, I might have made a different decision - perhaps others would like to have the benefit of my hindsight.

Thanks
Genny2

Brad used to be a frequent poster here. Many of us know and respect him.

His products, to my knowledge, get mostly positive reviews. He has on occasion had some disgruntled customers come on SEO Chat to complain about his service. He, Brad, will often take care of the mixup right here... Hey Brad... you around?

Hi

Thank you so much - it helps. I've never had dealings with Brad - it would be nice to have some recourse in these sort of circumstances for at present my problem is with support and not Brad, nor his product. He's so hard to contact. It would be nice if he stepped forward (and made himself available at times) and fixed things up.

Regards
Genny2

I sent Brad an IM... maybe he will respond or at least see what is occuring and contact you. Fingers crossed....

Hi

Just want to thank you for your kindness again - you're really pouring balm on a wound and it helps so much.

Regards
Genny2

I also know a few people that can't be bothered to read any instruction, and complain because they are too stupid... one example was a lady that called Dell for support and was dumbfounded that her computer didn't work... after a few minutes the tech ask her to go behind the PC and look to see if it was plugged in... that's when she informed the tech the building had a power failure and she could see anything behind the PC...

I guess these are the type of people you write for.



Personally I've never purchased any of Brad products - I have no preconceived views... accept this... how did you find the actual product?

Since Brad "responds" to this thread you can address "support issues" with him... but certainly no matter how you view the value of "support" you actually bought a product not a service -- correct?

I'd really like to hear about the capability and functionality of the software -- since IMHO "support" for software should be limited to "it doesn't load" on my 286 PC with Windows 3.1...

Support: Oh well Keyword Elite wasn't beta for 286 machines with windows 3.1 you should upgrade to a new PC -- thanks you for purchasing our products.

Hi

You are quite right - I have to confess I have been guilty of that and certainly felt bad afterwards. But since that one time I have scoured all the help and tutorials offered (and they're great). I guess I'm not highly intelligent, but I do rank equal to the 'average Joe', and I've found a few holes in the tutorials - and it is these that I've tried to have clarified.

You must understand that we all have to start somewhere and everyone will have areas where they're real 'dummies' - I imagine if that lady had never had or seen a computer before then she might well have not understood it needed to be plugged in and switched on. I can relate to her - I found that at the age of 50 I lost everything - home, possessions, life savings to fraud. I'd been out of the work force for 20 years and so had never seen a computer nor a fax machine before. And I've had to start from rock bottom - does that make me stupid?

Since then I've had to learn about the Internet, computers (and fax machines too) etc. I accidentally stumbled across an offer of free Internet marketing tips and subscribed. And you can guess what happened - they mushroomed. But I learned and have now just built my first website (have to start making money again). I must have come accross tutorials about keyword research - and this is where Keyword Elite came in. Brad made some great keyword research tutorials - he won me over.

About the product versus service - I can't agree with you - I do expect that the average Joe should be able to utilise an expensive product and if for some reason he can't, then support should be there to give a helping hand. If someone were to tell me beforehand there is no support for a product I would not buy it so it does come into the equation. I would look for another product that does offer support so that I could be confident that when I attempt to use it, help is available if I need it.

About Brad's Keyword Elite - I think it's great - it has 5 different main projects it will do:
1) Come up with a HUGE number of search terms from all the various keyword research resources
2) You can then export those keywords into Project 2 - will analyse those words for you - analysis includes Adwords bid prices, KEI, R/S value, number of search results, what competitors you're stacked up agains, plus a few others.
3) You can take the highest paying Adwords that you've identified in Project 2 and create Adsense pages with them in Project 3 - will find the content for you and also gives you the option of using Keyword Elite's default template or you can use your own template so that it blends perfectly with your current website (I like that option).
4) After you've finally identified what particular keywords you're really settling on, you can take them to Project 4 - will analyse your competition in Google's search results page - shows you page rank of each of the top ranking websites, if and where that particular keyword appears in title, text, alt tags, header tags etc so that you can see whether or not they've deliberately optimised for that keyword and if you have a chance when trying to compete.
5) Project 5 - spies on your Adword competitors - you can literally plug in when and how often you want the system to see and record changes the advertiser has made to his Adwords campaign - can learn a lot from this, and you can see which keywords are working for which products as well as the ad he's using to go with that particular keyword.

Project 4 and 5 are giving me some headache - and this is where support has let me down.

This is a long post - hope nobody thinks this is an affiliate ad - it's not.

Regards
Genny2

There you go!

The problem isn't Brad lack of response to support enquiries or rudeness the problem is you want to be an SEO because (for lack of inside knowledge I am assuming) you desire not to pay thousands of dollars to a professional... you want to save your money and "learn yourself"... no matter how limiting your abilities are....

You don't understand "anything" or "most things" so you assume "support" means Brad is to singlehandedly coddle you so you can save money because you really desire to be your own SEO.

Personally I think you should leave SEO to people that can actually do it without "support"... since Brad DOES NOT HAVE MAGICAL SEO SOFTWARE.

If you think I'm being harsh... well IMHO you deserve it...


You said:

I do not have SEO Elite (this thread isn't about SEO Elite

Your post certainly made me sit up and take notice - resulted in me joining this forum. (what you didn't join SEOChat to "LEARN SEO"? You came here only to gossip about how pathetic another person is at designing software because you're to dumb to learn how to use it on your own... surely you can see how dumb that is - can't you?)

Keyword Elite does seem to be OK - cannot fully say since I've not used it a great deal, WHAT! what kind of professional are you... come here to tell us about your review domain that you haven't started for a product you don't use because you can't figure out how to use it without connect-the-dot-drawings!

I am putting together a website and Reviews will occupy a section of it - and Keyword Elite will be my first review, AND I will be giving it the thumbs down.

hmmm -- maybe you should stick to your day job as I'm certain your SEO career will never take off and your honesty, trustworthy, and credibility is truly questionable to be a serious reviewer to anyone...

That's my opinion... I'm sure Brad will be far nicer than me!

(maybe you should read his posts here)

I really don't know what you're carrying on about - all I did was buy a product, wanted some clarification in it's operation, and got an unpleasant response from the support. The questions I posed to them had nothing to do with SEO training or anything else - just in the operation of their product. Apart from that, I do believe in self education, to get up and work and to learn - and I have done all of these in the proper appointed channels and I do not ask for handouts. Brad has indeed given excellent SEO training - did you really expect me to fork out thousands of dollars for an expert to do something for me that I can learn myself - if I'm not supposed to do this then why did Brad offer me SEO training tutorials - I did not ask for them, he offered and I accepted. So what's wrong with that?

I have been open and honest with you, but in you I sense a hidden agenda - you're out to get me regardless and for this reason I do not intend to reply to any more of your posts.

Regards
Genny2

Hi Genny, I apologize for the late reply. I try to stay out of forums these days and just stumbled into the forum this evening by chance.

The only SEO forum I usually visit is the SEO Elite member's forum. I stop by about once a day and am very easy to reach there.

Please stop by the member's forum and say hi :-)

Hi Brad

It’s so good to hear from you – I was beginning to think you were a ghost (excuse my sense of humour). You mentioned visiting the SEO Elite member’s forum – I haven’t as yet purchased your SEO Elite – can I still join the forum, and if so where do I go to do so.

Thanks for taking the trouble of replying - I figure you must be a very busy man.

Regards
Genny2

Hi Genny, oh...

I probably shouldn't post the SEO E forum link here.

You mentioned that you own KE. You can visit the KE member's forum. I also frequent that forum :-)

If you don't remember the address for that forum, pm me and I will send it to you.

He's probably quite busy and took the time to answer a concern as trivial as this after all the rude things that was being directed at him. You could easily find out this answer on your own in less than 30 seconds.

Maybe your having problems with his software because you lack the initiative to figure things out on your own? I highly doubt anyone over there is going to hold your hand through the learning process.