Self Taught SEO | Search Engine Optimization Blog

I’m a long time fan but first time caller!

Today, was my first experience with Google customer service.  First, I fired off a support email to Google — in hopes to get a live response, instead I got a auto-generated message that explained they received my message and here’s what I should do.  It listed a bunch of links to areas in their support forum about questions which may relate to my problem.  Stuff I already read and can’t help me!

Then it was difficult as hec trying to find the phone number, after a thorough search I found it on Google support forum 1-866-246-6453.  Next I called the number, selected option #2 for Google Adwords support, but only to be told “We cannot help you here, you need to visit Google Support online for help and submit the form — Goodbye!).  Everything I already done.  I called back and this time hit option #1 to type an extension for a Google employee, I hit 0 —

This is where it starts to heat up!  I finally got a voice.  Wow!  She said “Hello this is Google how may I direct your call?”.

I said, “I need to speak with someone in regards to my Adwords account.  I am trying to make a payment using a new credit card account but I am being declined by your system, can someone help and tell me what’s wrong?”

She said, “hold on one sec” — sounding as if I was bothering her, like she was in the middle of something.

She came back probably 10 seconds later and said “Adwords support doesn’t take phone calls, you’ll have to go through the support form online”.

I politely explained, “I’ve already been this route, but doesn’t seem to be helping, I can’t get a live response.”

She said, “Well I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do.”

I said, “Can you transfer me somewhere or to someone that can help?”

She said, “No, there isn’t anything anyone can do.”

This is where I got semi-explosive, I said “What do you mean nothing anyone can do?  I said, my ads are currently not displaying and it’s been in this state all weekend, I need my ads to run and need this issue resolved a.s.a.p., what do you mean nothing anyone can do?”  I said, “Is this Google, the billion-dollar company and the largest corporation in America, or world for that matter!  How is there no one that can help me, are you telling me there is no one in the company who tends to Adwords.”

She fevereshily said, “I’m sorry, nothing I can do.  Adwords do not receive calls, all support is done online.  There is no one I can transfer you to.”

Some other minor things were discussed in between, but fast forward, I said, “May I talk with your manager?”

She said, “No he doesn’t receive calls.”

I said, “What is your name?”

She said, “I can’t give out that information.”

I said, “Well what is your first name?”

She said, “I can’t give you that.”

I said, “What?”  I may have been born at night, but not last night — you can’t sit here and tell me that a receptionist or customer service rep do not give out their first name.  I mean that customer service 101, give a name to open up dialogue and good communication.  Even Dell, know this!

In any event, the call ended something to the effect — You are a piece of &#!^%

Admittedly, the problem was with my bank, but I decided to go the Google route first, since my card worked with all other accounts I updated.  Anyway, it was a lesson to be learned, because I had no idea Google customer service sucked this bad!

Google is better off charging a fee for phone support (that is real and quality) than telling customers there is no phone support for a product most people pour thousands into.

I can’t say I’ll never use Google Adwords again, because it’s a much needed product but it definitely lets me know it’s a “USE AT YOUR OWN RISK” policy.  Something I never would have thought from a company with its status.  This is another reminder that Google doesn’t care about the people who really make them who they are.

A company as large as Google really should be setting trends in this area and supplying great customer service.  Regardless, how you feel about Micorsoft I can almost guarantee Adcenter support would be a better experience.  At least Microsoft would tell you that you would need to pay for phone support and have several different package tiers to buy into.  Google, just don’t have phone support for Adwords!  Shameful.

So, I got my account deactivated on Mailchimp because they say for SPAM complaints, but that is totally bogus because my subscriber list of about 15 subscribers were all opt-in on their own accord.

I once had a newsletter sign up form on Self Taught SEO, it was for the promotion of my upcoming book.  The basis of the newsletter was to publish pages of my book through the newsletter so essentially subscribers get spoon fed the book before its release.  I signed up for a Mailchimp account about 2-3 weeks ago because it was free and seemed reliable.  Everything was fine until they deactivated my account and kicked me out of their system.

Here is the email they sent me:

Hello Anthony,

Your account was suspended because of excessive direct spam complaints and your content is written as if you are emailing folks that have never heard of your organization before.

Our service is a strict permission based newsletter service, we do not support sales prospecting type messaging.

Noting your content formatting and the complaints, we are not going to be able to assist you with your email delivery needs.  You’ll need to look for a different vendor for assistance.

I don’t have any issue with Mailchimp accounts who violate their terms or those who spam, but in no way did I spam or violate their use.  First, 15 subscribers is not enough to get validated as a spammer — which tells me that one person can call you spammer and that’s it Mailchimp will ban your account.  That’s not good, because people make mistakes and some forget they signed up for some newsletters.

The thing is it is simple for them to see if I am a spammer or not, simply take a look at my account and see the messages I sent out as well as the way I retrieved my subscribers.  They will easily notice that all 15 subscribers came by way of newsletter signup and not manually loaded by myself.

Admittedly, I may needed some help on my copy because it was kinda shabby.  I tried explaining in the first message that I will include affiliate links in future mailings for monterary purposes, but not to take offense and not to click any links if they do not agree with the monetization agenda.  However, I also attempted to make it perfectly clear in the same message that I will not saturate the newsletter with affiliate links nor would I use any affiliate which I do not fully endorse.  With that said, I had about 20-25 autoreponder messages all set up and ready to go week by week, none of these message had any affiliate links within.

I probably could have done without that message as it probably was the reason for my demise, but still my newsletter had no affiliate links in it regardless what I tried to explain.  Even though I did have every intention of sprinkling affiliate links across the newsletter.  But the newsletter itself was valuable for readers, because it was written to help people learn SEO, basically pages from the book optimized for the newsletter.

I honestly think Mailchimp agenda was to release me because of my SEO status and the fact that I had a newsletter that wasn’t to their liking.  You know how you start a website with a vision of a certain audience and visitor.  I remeber years ago when I started a blog hosting website I wanted only a certain visitor to host their blog on my site.  I remember the first active blogger to the site was someone who was into the Goth lifestyle and that’s all they wrote about, it frustrated me to wits end, but I didn’t allow my beliefs and preference dictate who joins my site nor did I allow it to make me discriminate against any particular group.  Another thing that probably got Mailchimp panties in a bunch is the fact I wasn’t a paying member which made it worse.

It’s obvious to me that they had a different agenda or vision for their website and the spam blame was just a way to get rid of me.   That tells me that the business is not being ran by business-minded folks, because just like the Goth blogger on my website — I could have potentially become a faithful member who upgraded to paid services.  I tried rectifying the issue with Mailchimp, here is what I sent them in response:

Hi,

Can I please know about spam complaints?  I haven’t spammed anyone, everyone on the list is opt-in — I only have about 15 subscribers, with no unsubscribes, so how can this raise spam concerns?  Also, my content is written to help people learn — I don’t have one affiliate link in any of the content and links to my website in only one newsletter post.  Is there anyway I can talk to someone over the phone in regards to this matter?  I am a fan of MailChimp and wish to have this matter reinvestigated and my account reinstated.  I think a mistake has been made.  Please advise.

After this email, I heard crickets…no response.  Obviously, they don’t want me as a member.  Am I mad, no … not at all, I’ve been through worse.  But am I disappointed and think Mailchimp is a bunch of crap!  Cold-heartendly…YES.

I wish this company was a little more mature because they have way too much time on their hands if they are reacting harshly to spam complaints from an account with less than 15 subscribers.  Imagine if large autoresponder companies did that, like GetResponse or AWebber?  They would be out of business because I’m sure the spam complaint ratio is really high.  I wouldn’t expect spam reaction until at least an account has 100 subscribers and at least 20% complained.

The proper approach mailchimp should have token is at least contact me with a warning and telling me that they had a number of spam complaints from my account and if they continue to receive complaints then they will be closing my account.  A warning or something.  I can’t be a member with a company who is responsible for storing my subscribers data and make rash decisions to ban members without warning or giving the opportunity for me to download and retrieve subscriber details.

Not one of the 15 subscribers unsubscribed from the newsletter so there is no way for me to know my newsletter wasn’t being well recieved.  Who knows the true reason behind Mailchimp banning me, but I am glad I learned their unruly business practice early before I had hundreds of subscribers or worse paid for upgraded services, because that was my next step if the newsletter continued to grow as it was.

It’s been 5 days now and I’m thinking Mailchimp is not going to respond to my email, but I am at the point where I am better off without them so I doubt I’ll care about being reinstated.  I can’t be with a company who holds crucial data to my business but will delete an account due to a single spam complaint and then leave me with no way to retrieve my crucial data (subscriber info).  I wouldn’t advise you to rely on this company and don’t put all your eggs in one basket, because you may be next!

If you have a current and active Mailchimp account then I advise that you download and save your subscriber data frequently, also have a backup email provider because I warn, the ban comes out of no where!  No warning.

Anyway, I am on a hunt for a great autoresponder company which have good features so if you have any ideas then let me know!

1. In the beginning everyone hates you, so have thick skin
2. If anyone can personally identify you then you are not doing a good job as an affiliate
3. Learning organic SEO and PPC will prove to be invaluable
4. Having a staff of talented content writers is well worth the expense
5. There’s more money in extreme target niches which interest you

Have you ever had an exercise work out routine with the plan to build muscles so you are bigger and stronger?  When working out for muscle and mass if you don’t follow a plan then failure is usually around the corner.  If you skip too many days of your workout routine then in most cases you’ll never accomplish your goal.  If you build your muscles to a great size then make the decision to never work out again you’ll lose all your hard work.  Depending on the day you usually will work out on different areas of the body.  You learn not to work out everyday, because you build muscles faster if you give them the proper time to grow and rest.  When considering building muscles and mass it is understood that it is a long term goal.  All of these principles can be applied to SEO in a similar fashion.

Have you ever felt like your website might be outdated?  It might not have the pizzazz it needs to grab user attention?  Could it be you reached the dog years of Internet web maturity?

It’s said that for every 1 human year a dog ages 7 years.  This mean if a dog is 10 years old then in human years they are actually 70 years old.  I would say the Internet is at least two times years ahead, so a one year old website is outdated by 2 years in terms of web maturity if no major design changes exist.  A 2 year old website is outdated by 4 years, a 4 year old website is outdated by 8 years, and a 8 year website with no design changes is outdated by 16 years.  You know those outdated websites you maintain, either you don’t have the time, money, energy, knowledge, or control to make the changes to update the website, but they do get traffic however you know it can be much better if the design complimented the content.

It’s okay to have a 1 year website (or 2 year outdated website in Internet Years).  It’s even okay to have a 2 year website (or 4 year outdated website in Internet Years), but anything beyond is threatening of becoming a dying breed and harming your website youthfulness.  So every 2-4 human years you should consider changing your website design.

Now that was Internet Years, but there is also Internet Marketing Years or better defined as SEO Years.  These actually have a shorter lifespan of 6 months in human years and 1.5 years in SEO Years.   So every 0.5 human years you should consider updating your SEO strategy.  This doesn’t mean you should neglect the daily SEO task, such as content creation, link building, etc.  But instead every 6 months you should switch up your overall SEO strategy — try changing your target audience, marketing plan, advertising resources, keyword targets, etc.  Create an impactual existence on the web!

The web matures at a greater pace than human life so you have to stay with the times.  You may be operating an out of date website and don’t even realize it.  Considering the creative reach on the web, crowdsourcing, and the overpour of different cultures, geographical locations, languages, social networks, instant communications, and available web pages the Internet ages quite rapidly.

Nurturing your website and keeping it mature will enlist youthful bliss for your website.

It seems the concensus is that Microsoft is the clear winner in this deal!  The terms of the deal involves Yahoo! search being powered by it’s competitor, Bing, while sharing the search revenue of Yahoo.  That does sound awesome for Microsoft, but when I think of the deal in a wide-eyed view it may work in Yahoo favor.

Yahoo has essentially secured a way to serve and deliver their search demands on leased equipment for a period of 10 years while still making a clear profit and sharing a small portion of revenue.  What this does for Yahoo! is free up time and capital which can be poured into research & development for the next 10 years, ultimately making Yahoo! a force to reckon with, in the time to come.  They will likely have more capital and time than their competitors for research and development.

This 10 year agreement has given Yahoo! time and money to play catch up without losing out on revenue and profit.  I will declare Yahoo! a company to closely watch in a few years.  Fast forward to 2020 and its possible Yahoo! will be the next best thing!