The #1 SOFTWARE CHOICE For Offline / Local SEO Professionals - Reputation Management Just Released!

[alexd]

Just placed my order - I can't wait to get this thing up and running and see what it can do. It looks like it is a truly amazing piece of software.

[standfast999]

Hi,
What kind of prospecting reports can we generate? Can you provide an example?

[standfast999]

Do you think loading this on a tablet and visiting the business owners would work?

How many computers can we run it on?

[eezymoney]

The function to find if the EMD is available looks amazing!!

Would it search for domain availability for .co.uk names or is it just the main .net .com .org etc types?

Thanks, John

Edit
**Sorry - just found the answer in the video - sorry to waste your time!**

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by created4success

Mark:

Wow! Is there anything your software DOESN'T DO?! Brilliant.

Will you be including a lead management/tracking function in any future updates?

If so, I don't think there's any offline lead-gen software that can compete, esp for the price. (Nice work!)

@created4success - Yes, i will be including lead management and tracking in future updates, as well as the ability to auto-contact leads generated.

What i'd like to is have a new tab in the Find Local Clients section, called saved leads. In the main grid view, i want to have a feature so you can select various leads and add them to your saved leads. Then, under the saved leads tab, ill implement the ability to email each lead. This way you can hand pick the targeted leads you want to contact, save them to an organized location, and then send the emails from there.

I am also going to be adding a new 'My Clients' tab to Places Scout, which will offer client management functionality and provide an overall analysis for each one of your clients...e.g. take all the data under find local clients, rank tracker, and citation finder and have it summarized for each one of your clients in this section...kinda like a summary page that offers all these metrics for each client in one convenient, easy to use and visualize section. You can get all this data now, its just not summarized how i would like it to be eventually.

Lots of good stuff coming in the future to this software, just need to manage and prioritize each of following things i'd like to add:

1) Keyword Recommendations section - automatically will recommend what keywords to choose for your client using a complex algorithm that will take all the hard work out of picking the right keywords to choose for your client

2) My Clients tab for client summary information - would also like to add an 'SEO Checkup' feature here that will analyze the clients google places page and Keyword Optimization and give recommendations on what needs to be done to improve your clients rankings. Again all the data is there to do this, just would like to have it organized on a client-specific basis.

3) Citation Tracker Feature - Have the ability to not only find citations, but to track the number of citations over time...and for each citation source, track the number of reviews and rating over time. Kinda like a rank tracker but for citations. You can do this now there is just no data saving for your citations over time....yet .

4) Auto contact / email leads gathered per ideas above.

5) Android app coming down the road that will allow you to walk right into a business and pull all the business' data and display right on your smartphone . This should make landing this clients on the spot even easier than it already is with all the data i'm providing.

So yes this software already does many great things, but it will be doing even more in the future...so look forward to all this good stuff in the next 2-3 months...but again price will go up accordingly as each of these new features are added...most likely i am going to stop offering yearly licenses and make it a monthly subscription based service once some of this gets added....so the current price of $97 / year is an absolute steal right now considering all the functionality this software currently offers.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on these new features i will be adding, i'd love to from you, so shoot me a PM or email and i will work to address your specific needs with these new upcoming features.

Originally Posted by alexd

Just placed my order - I can't wait to get this thing up and running and see what it can do. It looks like it is a truly amazing piece of software.

@alexd - Thanks, enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Originally Posted by asarno

Hi,
What kind of prospecting reports can we generate? Can you provide an example?

Originally Posted by asarno

Do you think loading this on a tablet and visiting the business owners would work?

How many computers can we run it on?

@asarno - The lead generation reports are extremely comprehensive, and can provide up to 48 data items for each lead generated. With this data you will know everything necessary about each prospective client. Not only does it help you choose the proper prospects based on the services you offer, but it also helps you understand what you need to do to improve that client's ranking and visibility online. Here are some samples of generated leads for the keyword 'restaurant' and location 'pittsburgh':

Sample Lead Generation Report - HTML Format

Sample Lead Generation Report - Excel Format

As far as loading on a tablet...i'm not 100% sure if this will work, but i'm thinking that it should work. Your tablet will need to be running Windows...but i think it should work fine just haven't tested it yet...will get back to you once i have to opportunity to test this.

Also, I love the idea of walking into business' with all this data available...either on a tablet, or like i said above...i am going to be making an android app that will have all this data available as well. With the new keyword recommendation feature i will be adding, you should be able to walk into a business, know all their current data, and right on the spot tell them the exact keywords they should be targeting as well as what needs to be done to improve their rankings. Having this all right at your fingertips either on a tablet or smartphone will simply be amazing.

As far as the license goes, yes, you can install and use the same license key on up to two machines. The license key is hardware locked, so it knows how many machines the key has been activated on, and won’t allow activating on more than two machines. But it will remember these machines in case you have to reformat your computer and install again on the same machine.

Originally Posted by eezymoney

The function to find if the EMD is available looks amazing!!

Would it search for domain availability for .co.uk names or is it just the main .net .com .org etc types?

Thanks, John

Edit
**Sorry - just found the answer in the video - sorry to waste your time!**

@eezymoney - unfortunately, no support in the EMD feature for .co.uk domains...right now it checks .COM, .NET, .ORG, and .INFO extensions...and was designed to check domains in masses...you can check 1000's of domains in seconds, its that fast. The other day i checked over 100,000 domains in less than 30 mins.

Also working right on adding filters to the domain data so you can filter out keywords that don't have available domains, and choose filters for extensions the results must have. Had an idea to do this when i was checking all the domains, as it will definitely help narrow down the list and save time doing so, especially when your looking at 10K+ keywords at a time.

I will be adding this into the 2.0.1 update that i am going to try and release today...if not today sometime this week. I need to roll out an update very soon to address the Google PageRank calculation that is currently broken in the 2.0 version (see my post here for more info on what happened with the Google PageRank and how i already figured out how to fix it). Also have a few more things i'm going to add to this update...will post once its ready with full details.

Hope this helps!
Mark

[aargambit]

Hi
What about Poland?

best reg
Ryszard

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by aargambit

Hi
What about Poland?

best reg
Ryszard

@aargambit - Yes, i do plan on adding support for Poland as well as other non-English speaking countries...however...what makes it tough (and the reason that i haven't added non-English countries yet) is that i have translate certain words into your language that i use throughout the data gathering code...

Ideally what you want is to use both your country's specific google server (e.g. google.pl for Poland) as well as have all the business data presented in your own country's specific language...however, this is easier said than done, as all the data gathering code has to be ported to each country's specific language.

Anyways, i will get around to this at some point, and when i do, it would greatly help me if i could have someone who would be willing to translate certain words from english to your language...would you mind if i asked you to translate a few words into polish for me when i get around to adding support for your country? Please shoot me a PM and let me know, as this would greatly speed up the development of Places Scout in your language.

Also, FYI, Places Scout will work in countries that are not officially support, it will just use the google.com server and english as the language.

Hope this helps!

[glassman]

any chance we can see what the reports and rank tracking looks like. If you can't do a video, maybe a screen shot. If I do get this software and you need help making videos/tutorials, let me know.

Thanks

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by glassman

any chance we can see what the reports and rank tracking looks like. If you can't do a video, maybe a screen shot. If I do get this software and you need help making videos/tutorials, let me know.

Thanks

@glassman - yes, i will be creating training videos for the Track Local Rankings, Create Client Reports, and Citation Finder sections. They should be ready this week. Please check back in a few days and they will be ready .

Also going to make a quick overview video as well.

[KabanaSoft]

NEW UPDATE JUST RELEASED!

Folks, a new Version 2.0.1 update has just been released!

The main changes are:

• Google PageRank calculation fixed in all areas
• New filters in the Keyword Generator allow you to filter the data based on AdWords metrics and Domain Availability. The following filters are now available
  • .COM Domain Available Filter - Hides results that do not contain an available .COM domain.
  • .ORG Domain Available Filter - Hides results that do not contain an available .NET domain.
  • .NET Domain Available Filter - Hides results that do not contain an available .ORG domain.
  • .INFO Domain Available Filter - Hides results that do not contain an available .INFO domain.
  • Minimum Local Monthly Searches Filter - Hides results that do not have the specified minimum local monthly searches.
  • Minimum Global Monthly Searches Filter - Hides results that do not have the specified minimum global monthly searches.
  • Minimum Avg. CPC Filter - Hides results that do not have the specified minimum Average CPC.
  • Minimum Adwords Competition Filter - Hides results that do not have the specified minimum Adwords Competition.
• Citation Finder - Google Reviews and Google Rating is now available in the top level data for each result in the individual view. This provides the online reputation for the business from their Google Places Page in addition to the reputation across all citation sources.
• And more!

Click Here to View all the Release Notes and
Changes for Update Version 2.0.1

Enjoy! Let me know if you guys find any problems or have questions on anything.

Best Regards,
Mark

[P1]

Looks amazing!

Can you make a monthly payment system for us broke people with no budget?

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by P1

Looks amazing!

Can you make a monthly payment system for us broke people with no budget?

Yes, i will be adding a monthly plan here in the next week or two, however, the cost per month is going to start at $29.95 and then move up to $49.95 a month. So while you are paying less off the bat, the price per year is much greater when paying monthly compared to my current price of $97 / year.

[onlinemoneymakermonthly]

Wow! I checked out the videos and this is FEATURE-PACKED...Just a couple of questions before purchasing...Do you show us how to optimize google places listings (to get better rankings for our clients)? Does this go into setting up Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local?

Thanks.

Steve

[alfrescoid]

Hi Mark,

Your software looks incredible!

I have MapPI (which is v. good), as well as Localizer.

I will scrape my pennies together to get this...it's cheap at triple the price!

One quick query though, I just ran a query in Localizer to see what it returned compared to the sample report you posted earlier on Pittsburgh restaurants.

Although your report contain sooo much more data (for which you are to be commended on a truly impressive achievement), I noticed on a quick look that Localizer returned a contact email address for Mallorca Restaurant (info (at) mallorcarestaurant.com), whilst your PlacesScout sample report for that business did not.

Not a criticism, as PlacesScout leaves any other Maps app eating dust Just wondering if there's a data source you may not have tapped into?

Also, will the $97/year pricing remain even after you introduce monthly payments?

All the best with this Killer Places App!

Mike

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by onlinemoneymakermonthly

Wow! I checked out the videos and this is FEATURE-PACKED...Just a couple of questions before purchasing...Do you show us how to optimize google places listings (to get better rankings for our clients)? Does this go into setting up Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local?

Thanks.

Steve

@Steve - In regards to actually showing you how to setup and optimize your Google Places listing...right now i do provide all the data that you need to know to properly optimize your Google Places page....but i don't yet have a training video in place that shows you exactly how to do this...but this information is readily available on YouTube and if you just do a google search you will find many articles on how to do this...there are also a number of WSO's that cover this as well.

Anyways, this is something that i would like to do down the road as a add-on bonus training video...but for now i am working on making the remaining tutorial videos for the rest of the program sections...so those have to get done first as well as a few other things i have on my list before i can do this...but anyways i have it on my list of things to do so i will take care of this as soon as i have the time.

Originally Posted by alfrescoid

Hi Mark,

Your software looks incredible!

I have MapPI (which is v. good), as well as Localizer.

I will scrape my pennies together to get this...it's cheap at triple the price!

One quick query though, I just ran a query in Localizer to see what it returned compared to the sample report you posted earlier on Pittsburgh restaurants.

Although your report contain sooo much more data (for which you are to be commended on a truly impressive achievement), I noticed on a quick look that Localizer returned a contact email address for Mallorca Restaurant (info (at) mallorcarestaurant.com), whilst your PlacesScout sample report for that business did not.

Not a criticism, as PlacesScout leaves any other Maps app eating dust Just wondering if there's a data source you may not have tapped into?

Also, will the $97/year pricing remain even after you introduce monthly payments?

All the best with this Killer Places App!

Mike

@Mike - Thanks for your great comments .

In regards to the email address for Mallorca restaurant...i looked into this and it appears that this restaurant does have an email address listed on yellowpages.com, which is most likely where the Localizer tool is finding this email address...and my code does check that site...so i went through my code and realized that it was not grabbing the email because of the listing verification check that i have in place.

Basically, what i do when i find a yellow pages result, is that i have to ensure that the listing found matches the actual business...this is to ensure data integrity and that the email provided is for the actual business and not a different business...i do this by looking for the phone number on the yellow pages listing. What has happened in this case is that the phone number for Mallorca on their Google Places page does not match the phone number on the yellow pages listing, which is causing my listing verification code to think that this listing isn't the correct one for the business.

This can be fixed though...I've actually started working on new code that has a better listing verification algorithm...what i can do is check for the phone number first, and then if that fails, check for either the business name or website URL...if one of 3 of these can be verified, then my code can have confidence that this is the proper listing for the business and provide the email address accordingly.

I will implement this new code in my next update...not sure when the next update will be since i just released one on Monday...but whenever i do release a new update i will be sure to fix this issue so you get even more emails .

Hope this helps, and thank you for pointing this out to me!

Best Regards,
Mark

[eezymoney]

I'm in on this one - an actively updated program is what's needed in this ever changing google places environment.

Looks excellent and can't wait to get my teeth into this :-)

[JohnDavid]

First off, I take my hats off to Mark for creating this software...WOW!

Once he adds the email within the program this thing will stand heads and shoulders above anything else out there. It's truly that good!

One quick question for you...how do I get the software to return more than just the top 10 results? For example if the top 10 results are all verified and I want to look further down to say 10-20 or 20-30 how do I do this? I'm sure it's possible...sorry for the bone headed question if you've answered it already!

EDIT: I found out how to do the above in the settings!

Thanks again for creating this my friend!

John

[KabanaSoft]

Places Scout Screenshot Gallery Now Available!

As promised, i have created a pretty extensive screenshot gallery for each module of Places Scout. This will help everyone see what each section of the program looks like visually (especially for the sections i do not have tutorial videos ready for yet).


Click Here to View the Places Scout Screenshot Gallery!


Enjoy!

[created4success]

Originally Posted by KabanaSoft

Places Scout Screenshot Gallery Now Available!

In a video/user guide (somewhere), you mentioned all these Social Media Metrics data that your software pulls on a potential client; however, haven't seen a report configured that has the data/info.

Qs:
(1) Can you configure a (custom) report to include that information or have a separate report to include only Social Media Metrics data that exports to .html or .pdf?

(2) If I purchased now, when would you be releasing the update that included the Current Clients/New Clients tab you mentioned earlier?

(3) You will be increasing the price/converting to monthly by which date exactly (sometime w/in the next 2 wks from today)?

Thx, awesome software!

[eezymoney]

I am absolutely amazed at how good this program is - Many Thanks!

I'm using it mainly to prospect for clients, so I've got it set to analyse the first 100 results.

One thing I noticed was a small anomaly in the positioning. Places scout reports a site at position 3, but when I look at the browser it might be in position 4.

This confused me, until I clicked on the link in PS that took me to the results in google which were exactly the same!

So, what I've found is that google is delivering a slightly different set of results based on if you choose to list results in the usual 10 per page or 100 per page. If this has been covered elsewhere then I apologise, is there any setting that will make the two results tally up together. If not its not that big a problem because they are quite similar.

Many thanks, John

[gogetter07]

Originally Posted by KabanaSoft

@gogetter07 - its just me and one other person working on the software...so i guess you could call me half superman

In regards to your comments, with all due respect, i'm going to have to disagree with some of the things you said... i can tell that you have some reservations towards windows...so i'm not here to get into an argument over which OS is better, there's no point to that...but i will say the following that is based on all my years of experience developing software (and i think that my software speaks for itself in terms of my capabilities and knowledge of software engineering).

1) Windows still has 86%+ of the operating system market share. Numbers speak for themselves, so there's no way you can say that Windows is becoming obsolete. iOS only has 6% market share, and Android isn't even on the charts yet...everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but with all my experience, i don't see Windows going anywhere, and i surely don't predict that 80% of people will be using iOS and Android in 5 years. I can see windows losing maybe 10% max 15% of their market share, and only because more and more people will be using tablet computers in the upcoming years.

2) Simply put, software with as much functionality as Places Scout could probably never be designed in AIR and Flex...i couldn't even fathom engineering Places Scout in AIR (and yes i have coded in AIR and Flex before, which is why i can make this statement)...even after the 3.0 update to AIR that i had a look at last week, the framework still isn't mature enough for what my requirements are, and it simply couldn't handle all the parallel processing capabilities of Places Scout. Microsoft .NET 4.0 is still the most functional and mature framework, and is my only choice if i want to my software to be as powerful as Places Scout is.

3) No, your license will not die with your PC, unless you switch to a Mac and refuse to use something like Parallels to run Places Scout on a Mac...the license dies once it expires (licenses are sold on a yearly basis).

In the ideal world my software could run as a web application via the browser...but that would require 100's of cloud servers to support its user base due to all the processing power it uses for each user (which it uses efficiently with the multi-threaded parallel code i have designed, but 10 simultaneous users all gathering data could still eat up a full server processor and internet connection)...so its not realistic unless you want to pay 10x the price.

Thanks for your detailed response, Mark!

I am willing to believe and agree with your points above, except for 1. Here is a fresh evidence from Fortune, "Gartner: Mac grew 20 times faster than the PC market in Q3":

Gartner: Mac grew 20 times faster than the PC market in Q3 - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech

Let's hope and pray that Parallels will be alive and well for years to come.

Thanks again for giving us this fantastic piece of software for such a reasonable price!

Yuri

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by created4success

In a video/user guide (somewhere), you mentioned all these Social Media Metrics data that your software pulls on a potential client; however, haven't seen a report configured that has the data/info.

Qs:
(1) Can you configure a (custom) report to include that information or have a separate report to include only Social Media Metrics data that exports to .html or .pdf?

(2) If I purchased now, when would you be releasing the update that included the Current Clients/New Clients tab you mentioned earlier?

(3) You will be increasing the price/converting to monthly by which date exactly (sometime w/in the next 2 wks from today)?

Thx, awesome software!

@created4success - The sample reports i have provided do have all the social media metrics in them. Have a look at those again maybe you missed it. They are also linked in the screenshot gallery.

1) Yes, i designed the software specifically so you can customize exactly what data you would like to include in the report. There is a 'Select Additional Data to Include' button that allows you to choose the data you'd like to gather. So if you only want Social Media metrics, i'd choose that option as well as Facebook Fanpage Status (provides # of likes and checkins and more), and lastly the Get Photo / Video count as that can also indicate social activity.

You can then export the report data to CSV, Excel, or HTML. PDF export isn't supported yet...it was in version 1.0 but had to remove it didn't work right due to bugs in my component vendor's PDF exporting code...i have already opened a support case with them got the standard we are aware of it response...but i have been passing along all the bugging to them so hopefully they can get it fixed and i can get it working for you guys in Places Scout.

2) Can't commit to an exact date yet...but i won't keep ya waiting too long

3) Again, can't commit to an exact date...but soon.

Originally Posted by eezymoney

I am absolutely amazed at how good this program is - Many Thanks!

I'm using it mainly to prospect for clients, so I've got it set to analyse the first 100 results.

One thing I noticed was a small anomaly in the positioning. Places scout reports a site at position 3, but when I look at the browser it might be in position 4.

This confused me, until I clicked on the link in PS that took me to the results in google which were exactly the same!

So, what I've found is that google is delivering a slightly different set of results based on if you choose to list results in the usual 10 per page or 100 per page. If this has been covered elsewhere then I apologise, is there any setting that will make the two results tally up together. If not its not that big a problem because they are quite similar.

Many thanks, John

@eezymoney - Your very welcome...glad you like it.

In regards to the results being slightly different between when gathering 10 or 100, i have seen this many times, and not just in my software. You can easily reproduce this in your browser as well, just change the setting, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't... Google is never 100% consistent in its results, they do things like this mess with all of us lol...some keywords are more consistent than others (i find that local keywords are usually more inconsistent fyi) but like you said its usually only a few off...and there is no setting to align them as you can't tell google what to do or when she's off her rocker :P

[eezymoney]

Originally Posted by KabanaSoft

as you can't tell google what to do or when she's off her rocker :P

Brilliant quote - seriously good software, Thanks!

[maveric]

Hey Mark,

Very impressed with what I've seen so far on this... especially the Manta.com integration which is super useful and seems to be lacking in other solutions.

One thing I would love to have that I don't see here is yp.com scraping. Do you plan to add this in a future update? Would be great if it also indicated what level of exposure the business had on the yp.com page: i.e. do they pay for top tier ad placement, or just the run of the mill standard listing.

Also, since the license does NOT auto-renew after the first year, does that mean us early adopters are subject to whatever the current anyone-off-the-street rate is in a year? ... or will we be grandfathered into the $97 per year option (my preferred option of course).

Thanks again for creating a great tool where it is so much needed in the marketplace.

Eric

Oh, and I must say, as a visually oriented marketer I REALLY appreciate your design elements... just makes software so much nicer to work with. Indie software doesn't HAVE to be ugly!

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by maveric

Hey Mark,

Very impressed with what I've seen so far on this... especially the Manta.com integration which is super useful and seems to be lacking in other solutions.

One thing I would love to have that I don't see here is yp.com scraping. Do you plan to add this in a future update? Would be great if it also indicated what level of exposure the business had on the yp.com page: i.e. do they pay for top tier ad placement, or just the run of the mill standard listing.

Also, since the license does NOT auto-renew after the first year, does that mean us early adopters are subject to whatever the current anyone-off-the-street rate is in a year? ... or will we be grandfathered into the $97 per year option (my preferred option of course).

Thanks again for creating a great tool where it is so much needed in the marketplace.

Eric

Oh, and I must say, as a visually oriented marketer I REALLY appreciate your design elements... just makes software so much nicer to work with. Indie software doesn't HAVE to be ugly!

@Eric - I have considered adding YP.com scraping, but just haven't given it enough thought yet as to exactly what i want to provide for each listing...however, i can see this being beneficial especially if i could provide whether the business is paying for top-tier ads...as this would indicate that the business is already dropping lots of ad money on YP...

Anyways i am open to any suggestions that you may have on this, so please shoot me a PM with exactly what you would like to see for each business based on their YP listings...and i will see what i can do and add it to the list of things to add to the software.

As far as the license goes after the first year, i can't guarantee that i will be offering a $97 renewal to existing subscribers...but i will surely offer a generous discount to any existing customer when their current license expires...its just hard to say at this point what the going rate is going to be a year down the road and what discounts i can provide...but i surely won't be raising it that much for any existing customer...i want to keep you guys as customers and won't do anything outrageous in terms of price increases...it might be a little more the next year but nothing crazy, as long as you got in at the current $97/year rate.

Hope this helps!
Mark

[KabanaSoft]

NEW TUTORIAL VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE!

Just got done with the tutorial videos for the Track Local Rankings and Create Client Reports sections of Places Scout...you can view them here:

Places Scout Track Local Rankings Overview Video...

Places Scout Create Client Reports Overview Video...

Hope this helps...the other videos will be posted as soon as i get them done!

[KabanaSoft]

Citation Finder Tutorial Video Now Available!

The last of the tutorial videos is now ready! You can view the Citation Finder tutorial video here:

Places Scout Citation Finder Overview Video -...

Going to make one more overview video that briefly goes over all the features of Places Scout..and that will be it for the initial tutorial videos...in the upcoming weeks i will also be recording some advanced in-depth training videos on how to use Places Scout to make tons of money (though if you know what you are doing then its pretty easy now with all the features i am providing ). So look forward to those as well in the next few weeks.

Next, the affiliate program should be ready within the a week or so...so anyone interested in promoting Places Scout will be able to soon .

Lastly, i'm also working on adding some great new features the Places Scout as always (hint hint: auto contact feature of leads ) and am hoping to release another update by the end of the month with alot of new features added.

Will keep everyone posted!

[leon1004]

I have sent you a PM

[AmyChokshi]

Hi - I bought the tool and gave my virtual assistant to use it.

I wanted her to perform research for US based locations from Phillipines. So she put in the US zip code in the settings tab and chose the keyword and city from the 'find local clients' tab. However, she is not getting any results.

Is this an issue with the tool or with the user?
Thanks!

[Amber Jalink]

This may be answered already but I didn't have a chance to read through "everything" yet...

Can we use this software for other things? I.e., I really need something that PROPERLY gathers leads, but its NOT for SEO or google places, however obviously it makes sense to pull leads from there.

I've tried other software but I'm having problems really getting proper leads.

Also - how does this TRULY work for Canada? (The other system claims it does Canada, but only specific areas and frankly the results are far too low for what I know they should be in big cities like Toronto).

Amber

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by AmyChokshi

Hi - I bought the tool and gave my virtual assistant to use it.

I wanted her to perform research for US based locations from Phillipines. So she put in the US zip code in the settings tab and chose the keyword and city from the 'find local clients' tab. However, she is not getting any results.

Is this an issue with the tool or with the user?
Thanks!

@AmyChokshi - Just replied to your email...check it out and i will do my best to figure out what is going on and fix any issue that may exist. Also you can use zip codes for the location, works fine on my end here.

Originally Posted by dimeco

This may be answered already but I didn't have a chance to read through "everything" yet...

Can we use this software for other things? I.e., I really need something that PROPERLY gathers leads, but its NOT for SEO or google places, however obviously it makes sense to pull leads from there.

I've tried other software but I'm having problems really getting proper leads.

Also - how does this TRULY work for Canada? (The other system claims it does Canada, but only specific areas and frankly the results are far too low for what I know they should be in big cities like Toronto).

Amber

@Amber - Yes, you can use the leads for whatever you like...the software can generate as many leads from Google Places as you need...you can do whatever you want with this data, and the data is fully exportable to CSV, Excel, and HTML file formats.

And yes, the software does truly work for Canada, using the google.ca server (there is a setting to select which country to use). Here is some sample data for leads that i generated using Canada as the selected country, keyword: restaurants, and location: toronto (i didn't choose to gather all data in the sample file below since you said you don't need the SEO data, but the following is just an example of the data the software can gather. I did choose to get the top 30 results for this keyword / location).

• Click Here to View Sample Data file for Canada

Also, you can use any keyword / location you like to generate leads from any niche and locality.

Hope this helps...let me know if you have any other questions.

[Kelvin AIP]

Ranking Discrepancies between Google Places and Maps results...

I noticed that there seems to be (still) a discrepancy in ranking results on google for places listings depending on where you look. It used to be that maps did not reflect same ranking results as "everything" ranking results... NOW, the "everything" search for places ranking results seem to match the maps search ranking results, BUT NOT the places results ("everything" vs. "places").

Has anyone noticed the discrepancy?

RE: your software PLACES SCOUT... i'm assuming that you're scraping the results from the "places" search for ranking instead of the more common "everything" search, right? That's the only way you can get beyond 7+ place listings to display in your scrapes results.

While this is still considered technically accurate, the more popular results of ranking (in "everything" search results) does not necessarily match the "places" search results.

I've also found that the results are inconsistent depending on where/what you use to look. for some geo areas, the results match, where others the results do not. hair salon san antonio is one such example. this is gonna get confusing... see below images:

#1. [google: EVERYTHING (desktop)]
query: hair salon san antonio


NOTICE POSITION - C:"Hair Affairs Salon", D:"Style America," E:"Personal Touch..."

vs.

#2. [google: PLACES (desktop)]
query: hair salon san antonio


POSITION - C:"Aveda Lifestyle...," D:"Hair Affairs...," E:"Marcel Salon..."

vs.

#3. [google: MAP - results ranking also match Places App on Android Phone AND mobile web on android]

POSITION - C:"Hair Affairs" (matches "everything"), D:"Marcel Salon", E:"Style America"

vs.

#4. [iOS Places App - matches google "EVERYTHING" rankings]


POSITION - C:"Hair Affairs," D:"Style America,", E:"Personal Touch"

vs.

#5. [iOS Maps App - matches #3]

POSITION - C:"Hair Affairs," D:"Marcel Salon," E:"Style America"
***********

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by Kelvin AIP

Ranking Discrepancies between Google Places and Maps results...

I noticed that there seems to be (still) a discrepancy in ranking results on google for places listings depending on where you look. It used to be that maps did not reflect same ranking results as "everything" ranking results... NOW, the "everything" search for places ranking results seem to match the maps search ranking results, BUT NOT the places results ("everything" vs. "places").

Has anyone noticed the discrepancy?

RE: your software PLACES SCOUT... i'm assuming that you're scraping the results from the "places" search for ranking instead of the more common "everything" search, right? That's the only way you can get beyond 7+ place listings to display in your scrapes results.

While this is still considered technically accurate, the more popular results of ranking (in "everything" search results) does not necessarily match the "places" search results.

I've also found that the results are inconsistent depending on where/what you use to look. for some geo areas, the results match, where others the results do not. hair salon san antonio is one such example. this is gonna get confusing... see below images:

...

@Kelvin - In regards to your comments, yes, google maps vs. places vs. organic blended / 7-pack results for a localized search are not necessarily the same...in fact most of the times they are not the same for the same keyword / location search...this is just how google works...i can't really provide you an explanation as to why it is this way, its just how google currently works.

The way Places Scout works depends on what section of the program you are using. If you use the rank tracker, the software will actually track rankings in:

1) The Places Results
2) The Organic (aka 'Everything') 7-Pack, if available
3) The Organic (aka 'Everything') Blended Results, if available
4) Regular Organic Search Results

So to answer your question, if you use the rank tracker, then the software will scrape data from all 4 areas your site can rank in, including the 'Everything' organic results. It does more than just the Places Results since your site can rank in other parts of the SERP pages.

If you use the Find Local Clients section, then the leads that are generated come from the Google Places Search Results. I am considering adding the organic 7-Pack / Blended Places Results to the Find Local Clients section in a future update, that way you get both when generating leads.

Regardless, none of what you are describing affects the accuracy of results in my program, rather you are just pointing out inconsistencies in google that do exist...but you can easily verify that the results my software provides are indeed accurate by clicking the hyperlink in the "Keyword / Location Query" column.

Hope this helps.

[abrandt]

Hello:

Thank you, Kelvin AIP for an excellent question (post #132).

Thank you, Mark (Kabanasoft) for a straight forward, technical and detailed response.

Positively,

Alan

[KabanaSoft]

NEW UPDATE JUST RELEASED!

Places Scout Version 2.0.2 Update has just been released!

You can view a list of all the changes and new features in the release notes here:

• Click Here to View the Release Notes and Changes for Update Version 2.0.2

Next update is scheduled for mid-november and will include the highly awaited auto-contact leads feature as well as a greatly improved citation finder algorithm that will pull non-google indexed verified citation sources, plus lots more.

Enjoy!

[AmyChokshi]

Thank you for helping us Mark.

video testimonial for Mark Kabana - YouTube

[stone2010]

I love placesscout, I have a quick question about it can i pm you?

[AdappMedia]

Mark has released something very special with this software. I do not leave reviews very often but I just cant help myself in this case.

Places Scout has been instrumental in getting my offline marketing business off the ground. Mark could easily charge $97 A MONTH for this software and would still be giving it away for a steal!!! He provides easy to follow instructions in his videos and once you understand the software it not only helps track current client results but makes finding new ones a breeze.

And if that wasnt enough he has provided a major update since my purchase that literally TRIPLED the value of this product. I can't emphasize enough that I DO NOT LEAVE REVIEWS and that my endorsement of Places Scout is an extremely difficult recommendation for any WSO to receive.

I would like to thank Mark personally for providing the means to make my agency successful and a pat on the back. Keep up the good work!

Kind Regards,
Dennis Jeffers
CEO Adapp Media LLC and Adapp Media Forum
Adapp Media Forum - Your Marketing Headquarters . . .
Adapp Media LLC

[Catalyst eMarketing]

I also don't leave reviews often. Plus I BETA test lots of GP software and am not easily impressed!

I was supposed to BETA test this software several times but due to time constraints never could really dive in. I just finally ran some ranking reports this weekend and was BLOWN AWAY.

Mark implemented a suggestion I gave him awhile back. The software shows what type of ranking it is. Blended, 7 pack or organic. This is a HUGE deal to me and very important for anyone that's really in the know.

You can have a client that's ranking #4 in a generic report that does not spell out the difference. A week later they drop to #22. With reports that don't show the different SERP styles, you have no way of knowing why they dropped.

I currently use what I think WAS the best for local rankings (until now). But it does not give me that added level of detail that I need, so I still have to manually spot check rankings all the time.

WHY is it important to know if your clients is ranking with a Blended, 7 pack or organic result?

They could have ranked high in 7 pack but then drop due to G switching that KW to a blended. They may have had lots of citations and ranked in pk, BUT you have not optimized site yet, so that's why they don't rank high now that G switched to blended.

OR you see a client ranking for a long time in blended and then suddenly they don't, they only rank organic. That tells you Google lost the connection between the site and Place page. That also tells you the client has now lost the benefit of their reviews, etc. so you need to investigate. (If you've read my recent post about the Proximity LOckout Algo this will make more sense)

NO OTHER SOFTWARE shows you what TYPE of ranking in the reports. This is HUGE!

Thanks Mark for the constant improvements to this software! I believe if I asked you to program it to make my coffee every morning too, you're the man that could probably make it happen!

[KabanaSoft]

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING RECENT
GOOGLE SERP CHANGES

Folks, it appears that Google is beginning to roll out a new layout for the SERP pages, in both the Places and Organic results. You can view an exmaple of the new layout here: New Google Places Layouts w/ Gray Map Pins: Face-lift or Botox Shot? | LocalVisibilitySystem.com

Right now Google is intermittently serving up the new layout, which may cause Places Scout to not return any results or not track rankings properly.

It is too early to tell when this change to the new layout will become permanent, however, i am currently working on new code that will detect which layout is being shown, and properly parse the data from the new layout if the new layout is shown.

As soon as the change becomes permanent, i will roll out an update immediately to address this issue.

I will keep you guys posted once everything is squared away and ready, but please be patient while Google does it's thing and i will stay on top of any changes and be sure to update Places Scout as quickly as possible so that it works with any new layout changes that Google makes. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

[rideotm]

Google could use David Bowie's song, Changes, for ad promo

Have any gray pins popped up in the US yet?

[Zen Warrior]

Ahh, now I understand why I am not getting any results when trying to find local clients just now...darn Google, they are a moving target.

Keep up the hard work Mark, and I am glad I held off buying any of the other similar software programs until I came across this.

[ebusiness]

Starting in January, Google will begin charging businesses for using the Google Maps link on their websites.

According to Apple Insider, the company says the charge will only affect .35% of users as websites won't be charged until they get 25,000 Google Maps clicks in one 24-hour period. After they've reached this quota, businesses will be charged $4 per 1,000 clicks according to BBC News.

BBC News also reports that Thor Mitchell, product manager of the Maps API at Google, said that Google is aware that these changes may be "concerning" to businesses who rely on Google Maps, but that they are necessary in order to "secure its long-term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest-volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable."

Apple Insider writes that Apple is one of the companies that relies heavily on Google to provide mapping information for their devices. The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad all use Google's Street View content in their native mapping applications. However, Apple may be getting out of the Google Maps game for good in the not too distant future. Apple Insider dishes that Apple is reportedly working on their own mapping application.

In April, Apple admitted that they are using location data collected from iPhones to create a "crowd-sourced traffic database", which the company hopes will be able to help people avoid traffic congestion. According to 9to5Mac, Apple may have this service up and running in the next few years.

Apple has also purchased a number of mapping startups in the last few years, including PlaceBase, Poly9, and 3D mapping company C3 Technologies.

But if Apple tries to usurp Google's dominant map position, it's not going to be easy. According to a website that tracks Google Maps use, 1,115,421 websites use Google Maps, and 75,463 of those websites are among the most visited on the web, which means that Google could end up making a pretty penny come January.

Of the sites that use Google Maps, 18.26 percent are news sites, 14.94 percent are business sites, and 9.34 percent are travel sites.

I guess that this won't affect our prospective clients till they get to the 25,000 click mark in 24 hours. Google seems to be making many many changes to G Places and i for one thank you for keeping up with them MARK.

[KabanaSoft]

NEW UPDATE JUST RELEASED!

Places Scout Version 2.0.3 is now available! This update addresses the issue where Places Scout would return no results due to the new Google SERP layout being intermittently shown. The new code will detect what layout is being shown, and parse the data accordingly based on whether the new or old layout is shown.

The next time you open Places Scout the software will automatically update itself.

Again, i appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter and want to let you guys know that i worked as fast and hard as humanly possible to deliver this new update that fixes the issue with the new SERP layout.

Enjoy, and let me know if you run into any other issues!

Sincerely,
Mark

[jalexanderseo]

I was checking to see the last page to see if it was still being supported and the last comment was an update from yesterday. Looks like good support I'm in.

[jalexanderseo]

Ordered on Friday now the download link isn't working hopefully this will get fixed tomorrow.
Link fixed thanks for the fast support.

[standfast999]

on average what percent of the prospecting report data is populated?
i have seen similar tool when put in production do not populate enough data to be useful.

[standfast999]

Can we manually add urls / websites for analysis?

[KabanaSoft]

Originally Posted by jalexanderseo

Ordered on Friday now the download link isn't working hopefully this will get fixed tomorrow.
Link fixed thanks for the fast support.

@jalexanderseo - took care of your license code last night, had nothing to do with the download link rather there was a bug in my license code generator that i have fixed.

Originally Posted by asarno

on average what percent of the prospecting report data is populated?
i have seen similar tool when put in production do not populate enough data to be useful.

Originally Posted by asarno

Can we manually add urls / websites for analysis?

@asarno - took care of your questions on skype but if anyone else is wondering my data is very complete and well over 90% if not 100% is there for each result that is generated.

[Zen Warrior]

Originally Posted by asarno

Can we manually add urls / websites for analysis?

I was wondering this myself..I have used this and really like it but haven't taken the time yet to go through it thoroughly, watch the tutorials etc.

thanks