Metzger Business

August 11, 2009

Google Profile – Almost guaranteed 1st page search results

Today I wanted to discuss a technique that almost guarantees fist page search results when someone is searching for your name. This strategy is very valuable for individuals involved in sales.

Search for Kevin Metzger

Search for Kevin Metzger

To test the strategy I had to do a search for my name and as you can see I come up in 5 places on the first page of Google although none of the results go directly to my blog sites. The first result that is related to me is video results. I have some videos posted to YouTube so I come up when the user clicks on that page. The next site that shows me is a network that I maintain a profile on and sometime blog at. Then there is LinkedIn my radio show profile page and finally you see a picture of me at the very bottom of the search page. This picture and profile was created 2 minutes before I did this search. It was done on the Google Profile page and this is a very valuable tool.

If a searcher chooses to click on my profile they now have access to both my blog’s, my twitter profile page, my LinkedIn profile page, and my Facebook profile page. They can also see a personal bio I put together and some limited information about me. Here is a quick look at the profile page.

Kevin Metzger profile page

Kevin Metzger profile page

This page took 5 minutes to create and put me on Google’s front page with my picture in no time. If you think anyone will ever search for you and you want to be found. Then this is a simple strategy that you must follow to guarantee your spot on Google’s fist page. You can create your profile at Google Profiles. It’s as simple as filling out a form and following directions.

July 28, 2009

Blog Talk Radio – Customer service situation #3

Filed under: Musings — Tags: , , , , , , — MetzgerBusiness @ 7:04 am

I do a weekly radio program on Blog Talk Radio. Blog Talk Radio is a service that provides a call in number and then does streaming audio over the Internet. They post to iTunes, tweet and update facebook for me. Overall I love the service and it’s free.

They also offer two levels of enhanced service. I signed up for the lower level enhanced service so I would be able to call my guests directly from the control panel. Unfortunately the service just didn’t work well. I emailed with and live chatted with customer service but they were just awful. There was no phone number to call and the service rep didn’t know what to do so she told to try contacting someone else but didn’t give me any information about who to contact. Then the function suddenly started working but the next time I logged in it did not work again.

So I hadn’t canceled the service yet as I really wanted the ability to conference people into the show but then I was billed and realized that since we hadn’t been able to get the functionality working it was time to cancel the premium service. Canceling the service was confusing. First I had to find where I could cancel the service. Then I hit the cancel button but did not receive any confirmation that the service was canceled, so I had to look around the site and I found something telling me that I had to notify BTL in writing that I was canceling. So I sent an email and asked for a refund. BTL responded to the email confirming that they canceled my service but had to refer me to another group for a refund. As of today 5 days after canceling I have not heard anything back from BTL.

Hmmm. They certainly are no Apple or even and Amazon. Good luck to BTL they’ll need it if they keep this type of customer service. I’ll continue to use the free service for now until I can find a better service else where.

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