Blog Auto-Poster Show Down…
A number of great tools are hitting the market for blogging power users…
They’re not cheap by any means and each one seems to vary in it’s purpose and flexibility.
These are auto-submitters – posting RSS feed items to a blog – without any interaction on your part, past the initial set up.
This is bound to be a long review so I’ll keep it short as much as I can. If you have specific questions feel free to post them below…or skip down to the Sample Sites resource box below to get a quick 3 click feel for the power of these two programs.
The two auto-posters I’m reviewing are BlogPower and RSS2Blog, they are both $247.
Both have videos on the sales site:
BlogPower’s videos show how to use the software with Directory Generator websites (a $250 extra purchase). This is scaring off a few people as Directory Generator sites are usually quite spammy in appearance and nature. There has been a lot of buzz in the forums lately that DG sites are dropping in income production for site owners as well as losing their coveted search engine placements.
It’s important to note here that BlogPower’s use is not restricted to Directory Generator sites even though they are being showcased on the set up videos. However, you will need to have a website with many pages in place to get good use out of BlogPower software.
RSS2Blog’s video shows how to use the software with Google’s Feeds. Not a good idea since Google frowns upon the practice.
It’s important to note here that RSS2Blog’s use is not restricted to Google Feeds – so don’t let that video or this information prevent you from ordering.
Program Use in General:
BlowPower works best promoting websites that already contain many pages. RSS2Blog has no such restriction.
This is where the two cannot fairly be compared…
- BlogPower is touted as software that will get your website indexed by the search engines quicker.
- While RSS2Blog’s purpose is to gain high rank and post relevant news to a blog, resulting in off-site links and affiliate or Adsense income (dependant on how you set up your blog to earn an income).
It seems that everyone is doing a dance around BlogPower’s effectiveness at getting their new site’s listed in the search engines in 2-3 days. Hmmm…if that’s all the program has going for it I’d say don’t waste your money. You can get your new website indexed by the search engines with a no-cost RSS Feed pointing to a sitemap on your new site. As a matter of fact, save yourself $150 and send me your sitemap url with $100 to my PayPal account. I’ll add your site to my rss feed and get you indexed in less than a day. I did it just last month with a friend of mine’s site – took me 10 minutes – and his site wasn’t even closely related to any of my niche topics! Or save yourself even more and sign up for a blogburner account for as cheap as $27.
RSS2Blog does what BlogPower can do in this respect plus a whole lot more. For instance if you build a blog on a free site (i.e., blogger.com, msn space, etc.) and edit the template to link back to your site, you’ll enjoy both the power of offsite links coming in, plus a regularly updated blog that will get high ranks from the search engines. That ‘rank’ will leak into your main site and you should notice a traffic increase as well.
Installation and SetUP…
BlogPower is very slick, polished, and easy to set up by simply following the videos. The most time you’ll spend is trying to figure out your SMTP settings and finding the RSS Feeds to use. By default BlogPower runs on your computer (although a nifty server-side script has now been included) and uses your email account to autopost. If you aren’t online all the time, or if you have a slow system or connection – this may be a problem.
RSS2Blog is also easy but it runs off your web site – whether you are online or not. There are about 4 settings to insert for each installation (blog name, blog url, etc.) and again the most time consuming part is finding RSS Feeds to use. RSS2Blog posts from your website through a cron job. Yeah, that one got me too, and I’m part geek! “What the heck is a cron job?” It turns out that this is very simple – I used an off-site resource to set this up. My added cost is $15/year for 5 websites and I’ve been using it for two weeks now without one glitch. Off site cron jobs are just this – enter three variables onto a webpage – your posting page, the times you want it to run, and if you want to be sent a copy of each post. Done. Dead simple.
How RSS Feed Items Are Handled by the Two…
There is one major difference in the way these two software programs use RSS feeds and this shouldn’t be missed or overlooked.
- BlogPower has you define your feed items during setup for automated posting.
- RSS2Blog has you simply point out the main feed url to grab posts from.
My concern over BlogPower’s way is that most site’s RSS Feeds are consistently being updated. Even in my own feed I completely turn over the content every two weeks. If a BlogPower user was linking to one of my items there’s a pretty good chance they’d end up with a file not found in their software if they weren’t fast enough. RSS2Blog doesn’t have this problem as it grabs items that are currently in the feed you originally pointed to.
What Are These Programs Good For?
As stated above these two programs both submit RSS feed posts to a blog – BlogPower’s main goal is to ensure the search engine spiders end up on your doorstep. RSS2Blog’s main goal is to ensure that the blog it submits to is regularly updated and as a result will get and maintain top page rank, traffic and income (if that’s what you’re after).
So, if you’re consistently launching new sites with many pages BlogPower may be of good use to you. But if you fit into any one of these categories:
And…another awesome feature of RSS2Blogs as if the above isn’t enough…
Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would think twice about this. Whether it’s Adsense income, affiliate income, or boosting traffic and page rank for existing or new sites, RSS2Blog is a winner in my books. And, the bonus alone is worth the cost of the software as audio, transcripts (and my example below) will show you how to use retailer’s datafeeds with RSS2Blog to make easy income by auto posting to a blog.
To Your Continued Online Success!
Laura Childs
www.smartzville.com
—————-
Sample Sites:
* RSS2Blog automatically posting products with affiliate links embedded visit http://country-living.blogspot.com – you’ll see how I use sidebar links to give my new and old niche sites some traffic and page rank, plus earn affiliate income from products regularly updated without my interaction.
* RSS2Blog earning income with Adsense and helping with traffic and page rank using ‘top of page links’ see: http://niche-marketing-news.blogspot.com
* BlogPower blog set up to link back to a Directory Generator site. http://spaces.msn.com/members/fly-fishing/.
————————
Resource Links:
Read more about BlogPower at blogpower.com (and no, I’m not providing a link because I don’t want to be held responsible for you buying and using it in any way).
Read more about RSS2Blog here.
Great article Laura. I bought RSS To Blog and before I even installed it, I bought Blog Power.
I had trouble getting Blog Power to work with Word Press and between the problems and the reality of how it works, tried RSS To Blog, which I love.
I requested a refund on Blog Power last night. Thanks!
Laura I was asking myself after listening to a recent teleseminar on blogs and rss feeds: “why would you need to set up static websites at all if you can add rss feeds (using rsstoblog), fresh content, affiliate datafeeds, & adsense to your blogs and begin building one of these blogs as many have suggested every few days?
No hosting fees or domain names to purchase, fresh content rotating whenever you wish on these niche focused blogs.
Pretty powerful stuff.
Hi Tony!
Thanks for dropping me a line! It’s always great to hear from other net-preneurs!
There are many people successfully making a living doing exactly what you propose. And yes, they are making enough money and getting lots of traffic just on free blog setups with blogger, msn, blogharbor, etc.
Plus, you can even develop the linking strategy (as long as the blogs are related to another) within free blogs (the same way you’d link to static websites).
Finally, these free blogs are a great way for someone to get their feet into the business – much easier than setting up and maintaining a .com of their own.
But I try to counsel people to never put their eggs all in one basket. Personally, I’ve found that the best way to make a living online is to have many different income streams. That way if one rug gets pulled out from underneath you, you’ve still got others to fall back on.
And, it’s hard to say where ‘blogs’ are headed. I can’t for the life of me forsee their effectiveness and popularity going away anytime soon, but one never knows.
And, I’ve yet to see a free blog setup with as much tracking power, ease of modification, etc. as one you might host on your own .com – BUT, do not let this stop you! If you are brand new to blogs, internet marketing, making money online, etc. and the strategy you’ve outlined is your ‘in’, then by all means use it! You will start earning some money, learn the business, and move forward.
Write me back and let me know how ‘new’ you are, because I’ve got a few tips to share that will save you time on the path. I want to make sure you know about keywords and finding the market before you try to create something they’ll want to read or buy.
I’m here to help!
Truly, Laura Childs
Laura,
Very good review. Thanks. People, gurus, masters etc are not talking much about RSStoBlog and are preferring Blogpower for some strange reason.
This bit of info suprised me:
“You can get your new website indexed by the search engines with a no-cost RSS Feed pointing to a sitemap on your new site.”
Can you elaborate a bit more on this please?
Of all the ways of getting indexed fast, this one is completely new to me.
Do I just set up a regular site feed – post to feedburner then stick a url to the sitemap in it.
Also, Could you review RSSsubmit one of these days?
Thanks a lot,
Luke
Hi Luke!
Thanks for dropping me a line.
Most of the gurus are pumping BlogPower because they have an exclusive right to market the program. It’s been an interesting marketing roll-out and I have to be honest with you some of the behind-the-scenes stuff I’ve noticed hasn’t been pretty. I won’t name names but one marketer publicly made a comment on how much he’d made and in the back of my mind I interjected in his voice “off all you sheep”.
Now, for one ‘good-guy marketer’ who is on the same page as I am (and believe me I am proud of the association) regarding RSS2Blog is Michael Campbell. Michael has been in the search engine thicket since 1995 or so and has a proven linking method for top ranking. As a result when Michael says “go” on something that interests me, I literally jump!
Yes! On the sitemap RSS trick!* Even easier is to grab that blogburner account – just go for the smallest job at $27 it’s a steal considering how quickly it works. There are some issues you’ll want to be aware of first so grab a copy of the Blog and Ping tutorials or email me and I’ll try to walk you through some of the blog settings.
I will try to move onto a few other RSS (including RSSSubmit) soon, right now I’m onto a new project that will probably eat up 1/2 my week, but other than that my plate is practically clean! PHEW!
Thanks again for checking in Luke and let me know if I can help you further.
Laura
*Editor’s P.S. – added after the fact…the News Feed should have tenure or at least be known on some of the search engines already! I’m sorry I did not clarify that – too many fires in the oven.
Howdy Laura,
Thanks for such a great review! And also for confirming my suspicions on the “behind the scenes” stuff regarding BlogPower.
Isn’t it amazing that even now in their “special 24-hour only pre-release special” there’s still no real information on the product itself? Only the supposed benefits, and of course a link to their order form.
Anyway, funny you should mention Michael Campbell… after seeing an ad for RssToBlog in his newseletter (and at first not even realizing it was an ad
— I rushed to check it out — and purchased it without any hesitation. A $247 “Impulse Buy” that demonstrates the power of TRUST and “FRAMING”. Sure, the RssToBlog salesletter is powerful. But it was the “endorsement” from Michael Campbell that really made the difference between hesitation or whipping out the ‘ol credit card. That’s powerful stuff.
I had been thinking of also ordering BlogPower just to check it out and fully compare the two. Thanks so very much for helping me keep that extra $247 in my pocket!
Isn’t this just another form of spam ? Whether it’s spamming the ping services or filling a blog with high volume low quality ‘content’, this sort of thing is going to end up with the search engines changing the way they treat blogs. There are reports that Yahoo already seems to have downgraded the importance of blogs, and I know that mine have dropped out of sight on Yahoo over the last week. Tools like this can only accelerate this and ruin it for the legitimate hard working blogger who tries to create unique and original content.
Granted, RSS to Blog could have perfectly legitimate uses and is not the blatant spam tool that Blog Power is, but run down the list of URL’s that make up the testimonials. Almost every one of them that I looked at was PR unranked. Doesn’t that tell you something ?
Hi Chris, thanks for writing down your thoughts…
As far as PR is concerned you might just as well forget it. PR has next to no relevance in traffic and google’s value of a page anymore. Perform any search for a high end keyword on google and tell me how many of the top 10 come up with a page rank higher than 4…
But I will address your page rank question on testimonials anyway, so that other readers don’t go astray. The page rank in those testimonials only prove to me that the sites are new – many haven’t been indexed yet.
I’m sorry your blogs are dropping out of sight and I can’t begin to know the reasons why – other than you’ve got some serious competition in your niches and it may be time for you to take off the writer’s hat (providing content) and put on the marketer’s hat to get your blogs back in the game.
If your blogs are dropping out of Yahoo, I can only assume that it’s a Blogger hosted on Blogspot. I have not looked, but I heard they dropped every Blogger blog from their index. I have a few Blooger blogs, but I host them on domain names, which only makes sense. The on site factors out weigh any benefit that an off domain link could give. BTW, my Blooger blogs ARE still in Yahoo of course.
Great point John!
Thanks for your input and knowledge!
Except for a few free accounts my blogs have their own domain as well – but for different reasons – and so far they have enjoyed more success than anything I’ve done on blogger.
Personally I can’t comment until my research is done and I’m giving it another 2 weeks.
Hi Laura,
Great review! Been a while since we’ve chatted.
Cheers,
Tim
Good!
Tim Erway is here!
Tim has had some great success with BlogPower. Click his name, you’ll find his site (link to the blog posts on the bottom of the page) and you’ll find his BlogPower accolades. I do ask that you drop him a line with any specific questions on blogpower before you order. Tim is a wonderful help and will answer you – usually within 24 hours.
Laura
May I share a WARNING about these automated blog posters?
Yesterday I asked for a refund from BlogPower as a result of a phone call threatening legal action because my blog had posted a whole stack of entries from some gal’s RSS feed from her blog.
During the phone call from her husband, I asked “Why publish a feed if you dont want your content reproduced on other sites?”
Answer: We want it read in RSS readers but not reproduced for commercial reasons on other sites without permission.
BP said they hadnt heard of this before and doubted that the case would stand up, but I dont want any legal hassles so I asked for a refund – and I’m told it’s coming.
If somebody can figure a way for these automated software tools to detect whether posts can be reproduced or not, that would be handy!
Cheers.
Gary
Gary,
That is interesting. I’m not sure, but I remember when MSN first let people use RSS feeds of their search engine results. A few friends were ready to show them on their web sites, and then I just happened to read the copyright notice.
I almost missed it, since when I click on a RSS feed in Firefox and I have a viewer extention, it shows as formatted text, not the raw XML that it is.
Anyrate, this is what their feed says. Perhaps people can use it to block if this tag is used and read. Clearly MS doesn’t think a feed is “free for all to use” but I always thought it was too.
Copyright © 2005 Microsoft. All rights reserved. These XML results may not be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner or for any purpose other than rendering MSN Search results within an RSS aggregator for your personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of these results requires express written permission from Microsoft Corporation. By accessing this web page or using these results in any manner whatsoever, you agree to be bound by the foregoing restrictions.
Hi All!
Sorry about the lateness of this reply!
There sure are some wackos in this world aren’t there? I’ve even heard of a few people who don’t publish their own rss feed, but who have harassed others about using RSS – it’s a search engine jealousy thing…
We started talking about it here on May 17 and there’s some links if you’re interested…
http://www.smartzville.com/marketing-help/learn/87
Yahoo is testing a new ‘tool’ called ‘Creative Commons’ over at myyahoo.com – the gist is that publishers who are happy to allow use of their articles and feeds submit their info to yahoo’s creative commons…
I’m a little behind and it’s Saturday so I won’t be verbose…more on ethical use of RSS coming soon!
Truly, Laura
I would like to hear a review on RSS Submit as well, have heard a lot on it.
C
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the VERY VERY interesting and detailed review…
Now.. I will go and get RSStoBlog with extreme confidence
One thing that i wish to get your help with is your statement:
“get your new website indexed by the search engines with a no-cost
RSS Feed pointing to a sitemap on your new site”
Can you tell me how to do that?
I have my sitemap as an XML file (i.e. google site map)…
But what should i do next?
What do you mean by “RSS Feed pointing to the sitemap” ?
I couldn’t understand your explanations to Luke…
Also i need to understand it first,
before thinking of blogburner account
I wonder if you have some time to hint me about this, or briefly walk me through this?
Thanks again for the great review above.
Best regards,
Tim
I just have a random question about how to use this program. I’m using blogger.com and simply have no idea how to create a new directory and to upload the files. Do you think you could help me out?
Very interested in this and will probably be buying rss2blog shortly
On the copyright thing. By default anything you post to your website is technically covered by copyright laws. Granted you should quote weather they come under open source or not.
So technically by not specifying what laws they are leaving alot of confusion around.
I agree though, rss feeds stand for what (really simple syndication??) If they dont wnat their data sydnicated dont put it in the feed.
Yes Mark!
You just said it…
“By default anything you post to your website is technically covered by copyright laws.”
That is; original content that you yourself created of course. If not,
it is copyright of the original creator.
I fully agree with you however, that if you don’t want it syndicated, why in the world would you ever want to make it available through syndication a’la RSS, XML, Atom etc…etc… from your website?
However, we all have different opinions about what’s proper use, and what’s not…
And, while some find it okay you use it for non-commercial use… (whatever that is? – I couldn’t tell, because if you even make a single dime on your site, I’d call it commercial – hobby or not… And, as goes for profit or so called non-profit organizations, there can only be profit, or how else would you afford to hold a website running? ..well, that’s another discussion though:-?)
..others let you use freely, or only through desktop applications (readers) installed on your computer… yet again, some wouldn’t even let you touch it at all, non profit/commercial or not…
ANYWAYS:
As long as we have copyright laws, you as author is (somewhat) protected, and then you have the right to dictate how it’s to be used or licensed… (well, there are special rules here too…)
As such, you are perfectly in your right to tell me if I’m allowed to use your content or not… – Even so if the Syndication (RSS / XML / etc…) option is available from your site or not…
And, as some people, even here have experienced, there are people who absolutely don’t want “you” to use their content, even though they’re having a syndication link at their website..
Well, the logic in that?
Beats me, as obviously, syndication is a helluwa tool for bringing your words and works WAY FASTER around to the world for mere pennies in extra bandwidth…
And, if you have anything at all of commercial value – a product to sell, adsense or any sort of ad/banner program, I’d say that extra revenue, due to the extra traffic you’re bound to get as publisher, SURE is worth the little extra cost…
But, we humans are created “different” and strangely complex wired in mind and opinion…
..And, as most people would love you to “steal” their content in EXCHANGE for a link back or ten, there still are people who would like to take you to court simply because they could…
No matter how stupid we believe that is… leaving an open link SHOUTING “syndication” & “rss” & “xml”, just to tell us to keep our “hands off” – how moronic…?
..well, it’s still (usually) copyrighted matter… And, the copyright holders are in perfect right to say “hands off”… or dig in!
BIG SURPRISE:(?)
Lets assume, lovely summerday as it is, you just spotted the hottest, fastest, coolest convertible out there in the street…
Unlocked. Sunroof down. And…
WOOOWIEE!
Keys in! I’ll be damned…
Let’s tak’er for a ride… Just a little one… Short. Fast! Incredibly joyous cruise down the block.
Feeling the gush of fresh air in your hair… and… and…
..Suddenly…
..the cops…
..pulling you over…
Well, simply put, I’d think you’d have a hard time telling them, you just borrowed it… And, as it – not only was open, but had keys in too, you felt it your right to tak’er for that ride…
Do you think you’d have a tough case in court either way…?
Still though, Syndication may be somewhat different… A more difficult matter… And especially so when you arrive at this site, they have their xml links out… BUT, no directions on how you could – and should not use it…
Should you take’er for a FREE ride, or should you not…?
Definitively way safer to keep off, unless stated you’re free to use…?
But, as you said, the nature of the beast, is; “naturally” to be –>
“syndicated”
- – why else have it available onsite?
Still though, just as with the delicious convertible, it’s all up to the owner…
Delicate issue indeed…
Regards
Arne Yri
“Little Known Tips And Tricks To Bringing
ANY Havoced Project Back On Its Feet
– To A Profitable Money Machine –
In 90 Days Or Less – Guaranteed”
http://www.projectmanagementmadeeasy.com
Don’t go there if you cannot take
direct talk and the obvious truth…
Laura,
Thanks so much for the reviews. All of this is very confusing as there is so much out there and hard to make choices.
Do you have any experience or information about RSS Equalizer and how it compares to these others?
Hi Debby:
I guess it all comes down to what you plan to do with the software, or hope to achieve with it.
RSS Equalizer is good (I hear) if you already have webpages but just want them to update in part to help your search engine rank (se’s love freshly updated content).
RSS2Blog adds content to blogs on autopilot – so you don’t have to post daily to keep your site fresh. You can set it to run while you’re on holiday, if you’ve tired of the subject but are making money on the site so want to keep it ranked well in the search engines, etc.
I might be able to help you find the product that fits your needs if you define your strategy for me…
Maybe you want to run your own RSS Feed on your html based content site?
Drop a line back and we’ll see what we can cook up for you…
Yours truly, Laura
anyone working for rss2blog???
sounds like what i need but if i dont use blogger.com, does that mean ihave to purchase a domain name and hosting?? is there any reliable free hosting??
im in the uk, i want to set up loads of blogs for advertising and , im going on a very long holiday and need some money trickling in even if i can generate ten dollarsa day ide be happy, however the program seems a bit exspencive cant i get a free download and crack.?? email me let me know, desprat to make a little cash , lee oh by the way a usefull site , im not to savvy and the more ato the better,
Very interesting review. I recently was fortunate enough to see the “guru’s” discussing how to use blog software to best use. They all mentioned that the objective should be to automate as far as possible, but you should always try to have a certain amount of “human involvement” in the process.
More interesting to me is the discussion about whether you can use syndicated feeds at will. I’d say if you use feeds which have copyright restrictions on them, that you’re looking for trouble in the long term. Rather find feeds that are available for use (whether free or perhaps paid), or find more original ways of generating content for your blogs.
Hi Laura,
I’ve been reading some of your articles and am glad to hear your good feedback for RSS2blog.
I was originally recommended this product by a working associate but was a little wary at first because of the price.
But along the way, there is another up and coming updated software of interest that is also getting raved about in its initial new version start, namely Blog to rank at http://www.blogtorank.com.
Initially this was seen as not as good as RSS2blog, but now they seem to be flying with the recent new release (having read other forums).
Just wondering if you have heard of this product and if you have any plans to test this product in the future?
If so, I would love to hear your feedback on this product.
Please let me if you do!
Thanks!
Hi Laura,
I read all of your comments with great interest. We have just created a website where will sell e-books and other e-assets.
We are now trying to ensure we are able to a) update information on the site if possible via an RSS feed of relevant information b)push that information out to the WEB so that we can attract other users to our site.
This is the first time we have carried out a project using the Internet to market our projects, so please excuse me if this is a dumb question, but we really do not know how to start to set our website up for this sort of functionality.
When I check the WEB about this there appears to be some terminology issues, people appear to refer to a Blog as a webpage am I correct in this assumption. If so what is it that products like Blogpower and RSS2blog are creating, how does this software really work and are there any instructional videos I could look at so that I can understsand how this sort of software works.
Again apologies if all this sounds dumb but we really are new to these sorts of products.
Best Regards,
John.
Hi John!
Sorry for the late reply.
Are you asking in reference to http://www.astralpower.com? Nice site by the way. But the RSS feed you’re running on your home page takes the visitor completely away from your site. If you’re going to keep running that feed, I suggest moving it to a secondary page or under some other content – otherwise you’ll be losing all the visitors you worked so hard to achieve. Get some keyword rich text in there optimised for the search engines that entice the readers to search your site, sign up for a newsletter, or buy a product – before they leave.
Now to answer some of your questions…let’s move back to square one.
* To create an RSS feed for your site – you’ll want software to do this because it’s faster and easier than manual creation and updates. (You can grab a trial version of Feed4All here: http://www.stampedesecret.com/zipped/feedforall-trial.zip – this is my favorite RSS Feed creation software and even has a spell check.)
* Once your feed is created, you’ll want to ftp it to your site, link to it from at least one of your site’s pages, and submit it to the RSS Feed directories (that’s how the search engines find links to your site all over the web which is great off-site optimization).
————
Now, about RSS2BLOG, great program with many uses. Probably not for you right now. I use it primarily to load up a week’s worth of content that the software will then post to my blog site. Other’s use it to scrape rss content and paste it into their blogs. Either way, you need a blog to use it – you can use a free blogger or msn account – but there’s little sense in going through the learning curve just to apply what you’ve learned to a free blog – which means that eventually you’ll be hooked on blogging and registering new domains to host blogs on.
Blogs are database driven websites or sections of a website – unlike most html pages as the content is pulled from a database file on your server and not from static content. You manage the content via a browser (vs. a page creation software package) – for all intents and purposes, to the average website visitor there is no difference between the two – that’s a very simplistic and generic description. Don’t hesitate to write back for more details.
I hope this has helped clear some of the confusion, we’ll talk soon?
Laura
I liked your review on rsstoblog, but I have a question I noticed on his website that he has links to his other products.
If I just wanted to use Free blogging accounts to promote my affiliate programs and (try) and make some adsense income can I just buy the rsstoblog script or do I have to purchase some of his other software.
If i do may I ask what you would recomend
Thank you,
Len
Hi Len:
Sorry I’ve taken so long to respond. We had a hospitalized grandmother here and Canadian Thanksgiving, and so much more going on…
I’ll try to answer your question, if I’m not too late doing so…
First of all, RSS2BLOG was created by a woman. Her name is Michelle Timothy and if you ever have any questions about her products you will find her to be fast to answer and super helpful. She is one of the finest marketers around in my books anyway – simply based on her level of customer service.
You don’t need her other products to run RSS2BLOG and you’ll find that if you order, she adds on more bonus scripts than she advertises in her sales letter. Now these aren’t ‘big’ scripts but they sure are helpful to load up your RSS2BLOG software with great links to your site, posted on your schedule.
http://www.smartzville.com/automate.htm
One thing you will need though is your own domain to host the software on. Yes, you can use free blogger accounts, msn blogs, etc with this software but you do need some ’space’ to run the software from.
Anyway, drop me back a line if I can help further, and again, sorry for the delay in replying.
Truly,
Laura Childs
I am curious to know if anyone who has requested a refund on their Blogpower purchase ever received it, or even a response. I tried it and for the life of could not find relavent content for the niche that I am in. I sent email, made phone calls, and did not receive any response. Just recently I put a bit of a flaming post on Marc Quarles (he is the developer) blog and he responded quickly that he was not aware of my issues and that Brett handles the business side. I have yet to hear anything from Brett or receive a refund.
Greg what a fine day for you to leave this post. I think you just saved me a few bucks as well as frustration for the creators.
You see I had a window open reading your post and another window open signing up for Marc’s latest promo – PortalFeeder – don’t bother going there, it will probably be sold out by the time you read this…
I was drawn in by Jason Potash – who is only just shy of genius (innovative, gutsy, and original), but I had forgotten all about Marc’s involvement with BlogPower (when I first found out about BP it was Brett’s product).
So, even though I’d love to follow Jason, I’m likely not a good fit for Marc’s direction (and may have found myself disgruntled a month down the road). You saved me from that and I thank you.
As for your refund. Dang that bites! If a refund is offered in the sales letter a refund should be granted – and it should be granted without hassles or a hunt. I’d die if I found out Joe Vitale was telling people “Laura handles all that – email her.” (I can say that because Joe never would do that – he’d pass the email onto me or tell the customer the fast track to get a refund.)
So with all that – how can YOU get a refund for your purchase?
Well, if the seller fails to assist you you have two recourses of action…
1. You take it up with the payment processor.
2. You take it up with your credit card company.
Neither one of these options is terribly time consuming…
If you ordered via a clickbank link, email refunds@clickbank.com and tell them in a few sentences what’s happened.
If you paid by PayPal or 2CO follow the same procedure.
Give the payment processor about 2 days to respond, then move onto your credit card company. This takes a phone call to get it done right. You should find a complaints number on the back of your credit card statement. Call them, briefly describe the situation and they’ll send you a form to fill out. They’ll also back off the charge and any accrued interest on the spot. The form is very basic, takes about 5 minutes to complete – when you’re done you simply fax or mail it back to them. They’ll handle the rest.
Again, thanks for your timely message and good luck with your refund!
Laura Childs
Thanks Laura.
Did you have a look at Autoblogger software, that was released by Relink Software later 2005 ? http : //www. relinksoftware.com
I’d welcome your opinion on this product.
Very helpful information. Your work has saved me a lot of time and sent me in some interesting directions …
A late note perhaps, but maybe relevant … in exploring the BlogPower.com website, it is interesting to note that the page now reads (as of today, Jan 15, 2006) “Update – This Software Is No Longer Available”.
Perhaps that just about says it all.
RIP BlogPower?
Warm regards,
Chris
I am so impressed with this site. I can’t believe how much information is here. Blog away!.
Is RSS2Blog still a good buy? I mean it is old now, and is it still useful/profitable?
Hi Ben!
RSS2Blog still is a fantastic tool to own! And yes it is old now, but Michelle keeps updating it as required and now she’s come out with a complimentary set of tools that can be used with RSS2BLOG to make affiliate commissions.
In a world where “what’s hot” seems to change daily, RSS2Blog is still one of my favorites. It’s versatile and one install can be used for a variety of urls.
Cheers!
Laura
Its hard to get this idea across to the masses when you get names such as Morin, Pierce and Kern waxing lyrical about automated Blog and Ping software.
William, yes I hear you.
It is the trouble with marketing to the masses for monetary gain. Giving them what they want…I’ve been caught there a few times myself during the growing process!
Although Armand’s my least favorite marketer (he’s just a little too slick for me), I do enjoy Frank’s style.
Sadly for so many website owners who looked for all the cheapy shortcuts (at the risk of creating a pile of crappy sites) Web 2.0 will be kicking them in the butt in 2007.
However, with all that said, I still stand by RSS2BLOG. I love working on one project at a time, doing a month’s work and using RSS2BLOG to set it and forget it.
Thanks for the review, Laura, I have to say, you either know what you are talking about or you are very good with words! I haven’t used either one of them but I suure will be trying the Rss2Blog!!
Sogo, thanks for the compliment. On my best days I like to think it’s a little of both! Being good with words AND knowing what I’m talking about.
It’s important that any marketer or trainer of any sort has spent some time ‘in the field’ and using the tools of the trade.
I also think it’s important that people only buy products that they’ve researched and will use. My end of the deal is to serve it up straight in both accounts.
Have a great day!
Laura Childs
p.s. If you’ve been wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately it’s because I’m working on Web 2.0 traffic strategies and site creation techniques. THAT research and field study will soon be compiled in a few ebooks, a few of my own working examples, and of course lots of free content to get people started on their own Web 2.0 journey.
I love RSS2BLOG. made my marketing efforts much easier…
I love RSS2BLOG. made my marketing efforts much easier… ME TOOOOO!!!
Nice and powerful software. Very handy for newbies.