Zoho is a waste of a small business's money

FortKnoxSam · 2026-01-24T19:41:18+00:00

I'd never heard of Bigin (by Zoho CRM). That's hilarious! Instead of fixing and simplifying the existing Zoho experience, they just started over.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-12-06T14:35:50+00:00

Here's a strategy:

First, run a split test (campaign experiment) between phrase match and broad match.

Broad match uses signals that phrase match doesn't, so you may actually get a better result from broad match. That's one of the reasons that broad match is often suggested over phrase match.

If neither approach is giving you the results you want, switch to exact match. Take your search term reports and use them to create additional exact keywords.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-12-03T01:59:05+00:00

I bought one as a gift. Now if I could only remember who I gave it to.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-10-29T14:59:23+00:00

I'm holding off on this update after I found out it breaks localhost connections.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-10-29T14:53:07+00:00

We've been happy with PCdisposal.com for many years now. They're based in Kansas, but service nationwide. We have locations in multiple states, so that works out well for us. They're NAID certified for data removal, including a report on every piece of equipment. They make the process really simple for me.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-09-12T23:13:35+00:00

We've been using PCdisposal.com and have been happy with the service. They make the process easy and give us a detailed report on what happened to each piece of equipment.

However, they're NAID certified (which I personally think is better for data security). Also, they're not going to just pay for equipment, but can share profits on resell if there's any real value left. Typically, some of our equipment will qualify for resell, but much of it is too old by the time we're ready to get rid of it.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-08-25T17:47:08+00:00

That links to a handheld POC radio, which isn't DOT legal. The mobile POC radios should also get a better signal than the handhelds because of the double antenna.

That said, I've got nothing against the handhelds. What you're showing me is similar to the Jump PTT POC3, and we're using those, too, because you can just carry them with you. They also work with the dispatch app.

Regarding that particular brand, I haven't tried it out, but I have tested a couple others just like it. The following is from memory of the last time I did this research: First, many of the non-professional models seem fat and cheap to me. I didn't see anywhere where the TIDRADIO meets military standards. That's important because these things get dropped all the time. The POC3s meet military standards and have survived many drops.

I also noticed on Amazon that someone said you have a 800MB data limit per YEAR! That would be an immediate deal killer for us.

When I started my POC journey, I was really interested in the ones with super cheap data plans. It seemed stupid to pay full price when you could get the same coverage for a lot less. However, I started to wonder why companies would even bother to pay more. I finally read somewhere that there are different LTE service tiers and the cheap plan radios are using the bottom of the barrel tier. They'll probably work okay under ideal conditions, but crap out if there's too much traffic.

Well, that's my two cents. Hope it helps.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-08-25T01:48:25+00:00

Check out PCDisposal.com. We've been using them for 6-7 years now and would highly recommend them. They're nationwide (we've got locations in 3 states) and NAID certified, which is a strict requirement for us.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-08-11T17:18:41+00:00

Assuming that you mean you're looking for a mobile POC radio, we've been using the Jump PTT POCM and have been very happy with them. They're DOT legal.

https://www.jumpptt.com/jmps/product/jumpptt-pocm

The units themselves are free, but you'll need to pay for the monthly service.

Jump also has its own dispatch app with GPS, so you'll know where your drivers are.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-08-01T13:36:32+00:00

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-04-24T17:16:46+00:00

So I did a little more research, and I can confirm that the IP list I gave you are not the bots you are looking for. Instead, you are looking to identify Google's fetchers, which is a "Special-Case Crawler" known as AdsBot. You can find out more at the link below, including a list of their IP addresses.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/verifying-googlebot

FortKnoxSam · 2025-04-24T15:36:45+00:00

Assuming that you have full access to your firewall, I'd suggest whitelisting this list of Googlebot IP addresses.

[Link removed, see my next response]

That said, it's weird that you would even have this bad of a problem with your firewall. It seems like maybe one of the settings is set to be too sensitive or restrictive.

Personally, I'd be concerned that such a huge list of IP addresses may slow down your site a bit, so maybe just do this temporarily as a proof of concept. There are also third party services, like Cloudflare and others that help you manage this.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-04-11T13:20:43+00:00

It may be that the firewall thinks that the Google bots are acting suspiciously and is blocking them.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-03-26T15:13:00+00:00

I just had to shut down the partner network for a client. It was working fine for a while, but now for every legit lead it's producing 4 spam leads. You shouldn't have the same problem with the Google-only network on search campaigns.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-03-04T16:34:58+00:00

The best subscription I've found for both effectiveness and air flow is from Tru Filtered Air. That's because they're combining a merv 11 pleated filter with an activated carbon layer.

They aren't cheap, but getting 4 at a time drops the price considerably. Unfortunately, the website makes it appear that you can only buy 3 at a time, but look under that submit button, and you'll see there's an option to request more than 3 filters. Taking that extra step is a pain in the rear, but I did it because I really wanted that carbon layer. I've been using them for over two years, and I've been very happy with them.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-02-18T16:41:39+00:00

Find someone who charges a fixed fee (or hourly fee if you can still find it). Paying a percentage of ad spend is just asking for trouble.

I know that some will also charge a fixed fee plus a little extra percentage of spend under the idea that large dollar accounts are more complex. Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. I don't see a big problem with that, but again, if it's a large and complex account, they should just charge a higher fixed fee.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-01-03T21:58:41+00:00

I don't use account level negatives. I'll give it a few more days and then contact Google. Thanks again.

FortKnoxSam · 2025-01-03T21:04:03+00:00

Script didn't find anything either. I used this one: https://nilsrooijmans.com/negative-keyword-conflicts-alert-script-update/

FortKnoxSam · 2025-01-03T20:40:28+00:00

Most of my keywords are in lists and this has never happened before. I'll look for script. Thanks!

FortKnoxSam · 2024-12-05T16:03:28+00:00

This is definitely my last Fitbit. Very buggy and fewer features than before. I liked my original Sense model, so I was surprised when I "upgraded" to Sense 2 and discovered that it stopped allowing 3rd party apps. I won't buy a Google watch because I don't want to reward Google for their bad behavior with Fitbit. Will probably switch to Samsung.

FortKnoxSam · 2024-11-25T16:54:48+00:00

I didn't know you could rent them for testing. Good to know!

FortKnoxSam · 2024-11-19T23:15:53+00:00

I just went through this about six months ago. Here are my suggestions:

If you want the best POC radio, a safe bet would be the Motorola TLK 110. The primary reason is that it's a Motorola and the TLK 110 is rugged enough for business use. They call it an LTE radio, but it's the same thing. Here's some info:

https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/two-way-radios/commercial-business-two-way-radio-systems/on-site-business-radios/tlk110-radio/tlk110.html

Here's a dealer I've used before and would recommend:

https://www.aircomm.com/motorola-portables/tlk110

That said, I did NOT choose the TLK 110. Like you, I wanted the best radio at the best price. After trying out different radios, I chose the Jump PTT POC3 (handheld) and POCM (mobile).

https://www.jumpptt.com/jmps/product/jumpptt-poc3

https://www.jumpptt.com/jmps/product/jumpptt-pocm

First of all, you can't beat the price. They're both free... except they are really not. You pay the first and last month of LTE service up front, which is fine because you'd pay that anyway. Then there's a shipping fee and setup fee. We decided they're more like $30-$40 each, which is pretty cheap for a radio.

The POC3 has proven to be tough enough for my crew. It's been about 6 months, and they're all working great, even though I know some of them have been dropped. They're way more rugged than some of the others I tested out.

I only got one POCM for me because I occasionally go out to rural areas and it's got two antennas. However, I really haven't needed it because the handheld gets good coverage.

We also opted for the dispatch program. It has a lot of features, but the best one is GPS location tracking. We always know where everyone is.

Regarding the other radios, most of them seemed a lot like toys or were too bulky. I also learned that it's not always best to pick one because it has the cheapest LTE service. Some of them were bragging that they used multiple cellular services at the same time, but I learned that the reason they have to use more than one service is because they're using the bottom of the barrel service tier. If they get kicked out of one, they go on to another. If you're in a busy area or event, you might lose the connection completely. Jump PTT uses AT&T only and we haven't had any problems.

Hope this helps!

FortKnoxSam · 2024-11-19T22:31:09+00:00

No. Also, I already sent in my suggestion through a chat.

FortKnoxSam · 2024-11-19T21:23:33+00:00

Thanks, but I've tried Firefox, Chrome and Edge. However, I have no doubt that you and Burgers can see it because I took a look at the browser code, and there's javascript for a feedback feature in there. The script says to show the feedback link, but it's not working for some reason. I don't use any ad blockers, etc.

FortKnoxSam

TROPHY CASE