No, but I think I can make an exception for someone who is dickrolling the Facebook ad approvers. I'm PMing you now.
WPZonBuilder - Build Amazon Affiliate Sites In Minutes With New Wordpress Plugin
- Thread starter HBZSoftware.com
- Start date
- Status
No, but I think I can make an exception for someone who is dickrolling the Facebook ad approvers. I'm PMing you now.
Here's my initial review -
Setup and installation was a breeze.
General Settings - You can control how the reviews are pulled from Amazon: overall rating, # of helpful reviews, date of review.
Tracking clicks - very cool feature. You can review how many times links were clicked on your site and which posts are most popular! I'm suggesting that you be able to export this info into a spreadsheet.
The search:
Searching and adding to the post queue - when searching for products to add to your site you have the following options with which you can sort the results: featured products, best-selling, customer review counts, price, and alphabetical. These allow you to quickly find products with existing customer reviews and which products are highly sought after.
At this time I do not have the updated version which allows you to add multiple products. I'm glad to hear its coming out soon as this will make things much easier. Under the current version you have to browse page after page of product and click each product that you'd like to include.
Searching for product is a breeze with wpzonbuilder. Other products ask you to find the category number you want to search in on amazon but wpzon gives you a nice drop-down list to choose from.
But, I would like to see a way to filter the searches better. For example, if you search for HDTV's under the electronics category you'll end up getting HDTV $2 cables as well as the 40-inch HDTV's. This makes for a lot of clutter that needs to be sorted out. Maybe set minimum criteria like the product should have at least 5 comments, at least $100, and include an image file.
Posting was a breeze. You can choose to drip-post and create aged posts. You can prevent duplicate products from being posted - I like that feature. Not much more I can say - point and click.
I haven't figured out exactly how to use/manipulate the templates yet. I haven't looked at layouts, etc. so I'm still playing with this product. Remember I only look at instructions when it doesn't work and I haven't even tried to tweak this yet. I'll probably try this tomorrow and update this review. For now, feel free to take a look around, but right now it looks basic because I haven't finished working on it - getawii.info
Anyway, I give my recommendation for this product. I've used several amazon wordpress plugins and this one is similar in some ways but is also easier to use. I also base my recommendation on the attitude of the programmer who is working hard to develop this product.
Once the features are upgraded like the bulk product add tool - and maybe some better search features this product will be an extremely valuable weapon to have in your arsenal.
Features I'd like to see:
- spinning post titles, content, comments, etc.
- creating and adding comments like on wpreviewengine
- detailed search described above
- exportable click reporting - graphical reporting?
Setup and installation was a breeze.
General Settings - You can control how the reviews are pulled from Amazon: overall rating, # of helpful reviews, date of review.
Tracking clicks - very cool feature. You can review how many times links were clicked on your site and which posts are most popular! I'm suggesting that you be able to export this info into a spreadsheet.
The search:
Searching and adding to the post queue - when searching for products to add to your site you have the following options with which you can sort the results: featured products, best-selling, customer review counts, price, and alphabetical. These allow you to quickly find products with existing customer reviews and which products are highly sought after.
At this time I do not have the updated version which allows you to add multiple products. I'm glad to hear its coming out soon as this will make things much easier. Under the current version you have to browse page after page of product and click each product that you'd like to include.
Searching for product is a breeze with wpzonbuilder. Other products ask you to find the category number you want to search in on amazon but wpzon gives you a nice drop-down list to choose from.
But, I would like to see a way to filter the searches better. For example, if you search for HDTV's under the electronics category you'll end up getting HDTV $2 cables as well as the 40-inch HDTV's. This makes for a lot of clutter that needs to be sorted out. Maybe set minimum criteria like the product should have at least 5 comments, at least $100, and include an image file.
Posting was a breeze. You can choose to drip-post and create aged posts. You can prevent duplicate products from being posted - I like that feature. Not much more I can say - point and click.
I haven't figured out exactly how to use/manipulate the templates yet. I haven't looked at layouts, etc. so I'm still playing with this product. Remember I only look at instructions when it doesn't work and I haven't even tried to tweak this yet. I'll probably try this tomorrow and update this review. For now, feel free to take a look around, but right now it looks basic because I haven't finished working on it - getawii.info
Anyway, I give my recommendation for this product. I've used several amazon wordpress plugins and this one is similar in some ways but is also easier to use. I also base my recommendation on the attitude of the programmer who is working hard to develop this product.
Once the features are upgraded like the bulk product add tool - and maybe some better search features this product will be an extremely valuable weapon to have in your arsenal.
Features I'd like to see:
- spinning post titles, content, comments, etc.
- creating and adding comments like on wpreviewengine
- detailed search described above
- exportable click reporting - graphical reporting?
Thanks for Louis who gave me review copy of WPZonBuilder and allow me to compare it with other similar plugin. Honestly, I'm very surprised with this plugin. It's really wonderful plugin for me as I have tried some various similar plugins even after they are upgraded to new version.
The benefit of WPZonBuilder that I get:
1. Simple layout. I don't get many trouble in setting the layout on WPZonBuilder even in excerpt post for product at homepage, category page, or other pages. If I compare WPZonBuilder with other amazon plugins, perhaps only AutoEstore plugin that has simple layout setting too. I don't say that other plugins have no simple layout, but they have different layout setting which is needed more time and modification in wordpress theme that we use.
2. Youtube video integration and some other plugins such as phpbay and phpostock. These features are really great. The only two plugins that have this features are WPZonBuilder and Reviewazon.
3. Customer review feature, another plus point of WPZonBuilder. We can add customer review as product post or comment mode. Probably, the only one plugin which has this feature is WPZonBuilder. Even its comment column feature has beautiful star rating. And once again, only WPzonBuilder has this feature.
4. Add bulk product feature. This feature is also had by WPAmaniche plugin but only produces 100 search result. While on WPZonBuilder, after I got the modification file from Louis and compare it, the add bulk product feature has more powerfull result that can produces more than 100 products on search result.
5. Reporting click. This feature is only had by WPZonBuilder and Reviewazon. The benefit from this feature is to see what product is more popular between the visitor.
Some suggestions for next:
1. All in one SEO pack integration, especially meta description feature
2. Spin feature. Adding content on posting page is a good idea for people who believes that duplicate content issue has impact on search engine rank.
3. Amazon nodes based searching. With this feature, maybe we can get more specific relevan products
4. I have a problem on product review date when setting up as comment form. Sometimes the review is older than posting date, so it doesn't look natural. Maybe you can also add random email feature to get random image on comment form
5. Bulk product keyword. But I saw in Warrior forum that Louis will add it into the next WPZonBuilder update version
6.I wonder also if I can combine WPZoneBuilder with reviewengine plugin, this plugin will have more powerfull features and benefits. I love the post thumbnail on reviewengine and comparison menu/table. So in my mind, if I use my reviewengine plugin with this plugin, I can create a comparison product with comparison price and features. If it's combined with this plugin, I'm sure that your amazon plugin (WPZoneBuilder) will be the best one at this time. And also the reviewengine will get plus benefit too.
Right now, those are my quick review and comparison for WPZonBuilder with other amazon plugins. Overall for me, WPZonBuilder has many great features instead of other amazon plugins. You must try this plugin yourself.
The benefit of WPZonBuilder that I get:
1. Simple layout. I don't get many trouble in setting the layout on WPZonBuilder even in excerpt post for product at homepage, category page, or other pages. If I compare WPZonBuilder with other amazon plugins, perhaps only AutoEstore plugin that has simple layout setting too. I don't say that other plugins have no simple layout, but they have different layout setting which is needed more time and modification in wordpress theme that we use.
2. Youtube video integration and some other plugins such as phpbay and phpostock. These features are really great. The only two plugins that have this features are WPZonBuilder and Reviewazon.
3. Customer review feature, another plus point of WPZonBuilder. We can add customer review as product post or comment mode. Probably, the only one plugin which has this feature is WPZonBuilder. Even its comment column feature has beautiful star rating. And once again, only WPzonBuilder has this feature.
4. Add bulk product feature. This feature is also had by WPAmaniche plugin but only produces 100 search result. While on WPZonBuilder, after I got the modification file from Louis and compare it, the add bulk product feature has more powerfull result that can produces more than 100 products on search result.
5. Reporting click. This feature is only had by WPZonBuilder and Reviewazon. The benefit from this feature is to see what product is more popular between the visitor.
Some suggestions for next:
1. All in one SEO pack integration, especially meta description feature
2. Spin feature. Adding content on posting page is a good idea for people who believes that duplicate content issue has impact on search engine rank.
3. Amazon nodes based searching. With this feature, maybe we can get more specific relevan products
4. I have a problem on product review date when setting up as comment form. Sometimes the review is older than posting date, so it doesn't look natural. Maybe you can also add random email feature to get random image on comment form
5. Bulk product keyword. But I saw in Warrior forum that Louis will add it into the next WPZonBuilder update version
6.I wonder also if I can combine WPZoneBuilder with reviewengine plugin, this plugin will have more powerfull features and benefits. I love the post thumbnail on reviewengine and comparison menu/table. So in my mind, if I use my reviewengine plugin with this plugin, I can create a comparison product with comparison price and features. If it's combined with this plugin, I'm sure that your amazon plugin (WPZoneBuilder) will be the best one at this time. And also the reviewengine will get plus benefit too.
Right now, those are my quick review and comparison for WPZonBuilder with other amazon plugins. Overall for me, WPZonBuilder has many great features instead of other amazon plugins. You must try this plugin yourself.
This is my WPZon Builder review. It is a shorter one that I would have liked, but I want to finish fully deploying a complete niche site, and since I tend to fuss with details on WP installs, a follow up will be posted later this week.
I sat on the plugin for a couple days, thinking I would work on it Sunday, forgetting that the review was due Sunday. Realizing this on Friday, I set aside a couple hours on Saturday to setup a domain, get WP installed, do some niche research and get WPZon Builder going.
Install was straightforward. Once I got a WP theme I liked, added some of my fav plugins, and put my Amazon details in, I was pumping out Amazon posts in less than a minute.
I was originally looking at two competitor products before this review opportunity came along, but I feel a lot better about this product and the quality of the output. It is crazy easy to use, fairly intuitive and I think the few suggestions I have sent in, will only make it faster to deploy for people who like to crank out niche sites, which is ultimately my goal as I shift away from eBay and towards the more stable Amazon Associates program.
What truly blew me away was the option to update details from Amazon looks strong. Since my posts were all new, I wasn't able to play with this but it's imperative to keep product feed data current because prices and product details/ratings can change. If your site matters to you, and it should if you want it to have value for your visitors, then having the right data available is important. People are more inclined to buy if what they see on your site, matches what they see on Amazon. Your blog posts are your pre-sell.
Which brings me to the template system. The templates are super easy to read and change, and you can create your own product template layouts. While I want the content on my site to match what the visitor will find on Amazon, I don't want to show him the information in a boring fashion. You can use the included templates (the weasel template made me laugh) or you can make your own.
There is also short tagging, perfect for my site which is based around long tail recipes with exotic and hard to find ingredients found at Amazon. I'll be able to blend multiple Amazon products in my article and recipe content.
To be honest, there are so many features with this plugin, and I am so fussy about setting up my new site, that I was only able to check out maybe half of them at the time of this review. I have barely scraped the surface when it comes to all of the widgets.
My conclusion?
If you're going to do Amazon, this looks like it is the plugin to have. Get WPZon Builder.
With the low introductory price and the wickedfire discount (see first post), it is a NO BRAINER.
I've got a list of suggestions submitted and this is the plugin I will be using to build my Amazon niche sites from now on.
@HBZ, thanks for the opportunity to review this.
I sat on the plugin for a couple days, thinking I would work on it Sunday, forgetting that the review was due Sunday. Realizing this on Friday, I set aside a couple hours on Saturday to setup a domain, get WP installed, do some niche research and get WPZon Builder going.
Install was straightforward. Once I got a WP theme I liked, added some of my fav plugins, and put my Amazon details in, I was pumping out Amazon posts in less than a minute.
I was originally looking at two competitor products before this review opportunity came along, but I feel a lot better about this product and the quality of the output. It is crazy easy to use, fairly intuitive and I think the few suggestions I have sent in, will only make it faster to deploy for people who like to crank out niche sites, which is ultimately my goal as I shift away from eBay and towards the more stable Amazon Associates program.
What truly blew me away was the option to update details from Amazon looks strong. Since my posts were all new, I wasn't able to play with this but it's imperative to keep product feed data current because prices and product details/ratings can change. If your site matters to you, and it should if you want it to have value for your visitors, then having the right data available is important. People are more inclined to buy if what they see on your site, matches what they see on Amazon. Your blog posts are your pre-sell.
Which brings me to the template system. The templates are super easy to read and change, and you can create your own product template layouts. While I want the content on my site to match what the visitor will find on Amazon, I don't want to show him the information in a boring fashion. You can use the included templates (the weasel template made me laugh) or you can make your own.
There is also short tagging, perfect for my site which is based around long tail recipes with exotic and hard to find ingredients found at Amazon. I'll be able to blend multiple Amazon products in my article and recipe content.
To be honest, there are so many features with this plugin, and I am so fussy about setting up my new site, that I was only able to check out maybe half of them at the time of this review. I have barely scraped the surface when it comes to all of the widgets.
My conclusion?
If you're going to do Amazon, this looks like it is the plugin to have. Get WPZon Builder.
With the low introductory price and the wickedfire discount (see first post), it is a NO BRAINER.
I've got a list of suggestions submitted and this is the plugin I will be using to build my Amazon niche sites from now on.
@HBZ, thanks for the opportunity to review this.
Here's my review.
Overall:
A solid plugin. Initial setup is very fast, all you have to do is upload the plugin folder and edit your license key into the configuration file. Then, you add your Amazon parameters (API secret key, Associates ID, etc.) and you are ready to go.
What I Liked:
Suggestions:
Overall:
A solid plugin. Initial setup is very fast, all you have to do is upload the plugin folder and edit your license key into the configuration file. Then, you add your Amazon parameters (API secret key, Associates ID, etc.) and you are ready to go.
What I Liked:
- Really easy to get started with.
- Automatic categorizing of posts based on Amazon.com manufacturer data.
- Amazon.com user reviews as comments with starred reviews, very nice touch.
- The ability to include products or search results with inline post tags.
- Also, the feature to mass change Associate IDs (could be useful for tracking).
Suggestions:
- I may have missed this, but I don't think there is currently a way to schedule posts to be posted in the future.
- Some criteria (price, minimum ratings, minimum number of stars) to filter out products would be great.
- Like others have said, some type of content spinning/manipulation for the titles.
- I like the update feature, would it be possible to get a 1-click mass update (similar to the mass changing of Associate IDs)?
My First Review:
I was a bit hesitant to see what kind of product this was going to end up being... I mean, really... free... on a forum... but come to find out, I have just started to uncover what can really be done with this thing, and I am loving it!
I still wish I could have run through the steps hard with this, and once I do, I will post more in this thread, but as it sits now, this program is super easy to get running. I already spoke with the OP about, some simpler instructions could be handy (I did fuck it up at first). The standard layouts, the template modifications, the unlimited domain uses, this Amazon plugin is really top notch. Everything that has been recommended has been taken care of. Bulk addition works flawlessly and I honestly haven't run into one issue (except comment dates showing before post dates...)
Basically when it comes down to it, this program out of the box is absolutely flawless. I don't think I would be able to combine a blog and amazon together any better, it already puts my PHPbay sites to shame. For the cheap ass price, for the support, and for the absolutely awesome information this thing puts out, you guys really need to jump on this today. You can literally upload this plugin, and have amazon posts within 2 mins, no lie. It is that easy. I've been checking out random Amazon products lately looking for a nice one, and after these past few days... I won't even need to look anymore. I already have it.
And like I said, I will check back in this thread to let you know what I dig as I get some additional time to dig deep!
I was a bit hesitant to see what kind of product this was going to end up being... I mean, really... free... on a forum... but come to find out, I have just started to uncover what can really be done with this thing, and I am loving it!
I still wish I could have run through the steps hard with this, and once I do, I will post more in this thread, but as it sits now, this program is super easy to get running. I already spoke with the OP about, some simpler instructions could be handy (I did fuck it up at first). The standard layouts, the template modifications, the unlimited domain uses, this Amazon plugin is really top notch. Everything that has been recommended has been taken care of. Bulk addition works flawlessly and I honestly haven't run into one issue (except comment dates showing before post dates...)
Basically when it comes down to it, this program out of the box is absolutely flawless. I don't think I would be able to combine a blog and amazon together any better, it already puts my PHPbay sites to shame. For the cheap ass price, for the support, and for the absolutely awesome information this thing puts out, you guys really need to jump on this today. You can literally upload this plugin, and have amazon posts within 2 mins, no lie. It is that easy. I've been checking out random Amazon products lately looking for a nice one, and after these past few days... I won't even need to look anymore. I already have it.
And like I said, I will check back in this thread to let you know what I dig as I get some additional time to dig deep!
WPZonBuilder Review
I just got finished setting up a WP install with content from this plugin. It is a good domain name that has been real tough to find a single affiliate program to fill it with good content. You know the type, lots of little niches and products but you don’t want to join 4 programs just to populate one blog.
Amazon and this plugin is the way to fill blogs that are hard to get products for.
Installation
Quite straight forward but is over 100 files to upload so you know there is actually a lot of substance to this plugin.
On the first host I installed this on I am having some problems getting it to run properly. It is 80% there but stalls at inputting the products once found. I have PMd Louis and he is on it. Great support within a few hours and very proactive as usual for his team.
The second host it installed quite easily and runs just like a plugin no special themes or theme hooks needed.
Virtual Multiblog Setups
It’s simple plugin only operation means it is working with Multiblog setups or if you are aliasing a few installs to a master WP install. Sweet. Multiblog setups can break more complicated or less well written programs.
Startup
One thing it does not prompt you for in any way is to enter your API before even searching. And if you click on it the first screen starts a search for you and you might be anxious to try it. It wont work. I think Louis is working on a nag screen to take people to their API entry if it is still blank.
Good Defaults
The defaults and using the standard templates make good looking posts that should have real good SEO right from the start. In fact I did a few blogs and I did them all with the standard look and I think it is good for fast sites.
Customizable.
Page templates, excerpt length, what type of reviews post, how many reviews post are all customizable.
Date range
I played with the date range quite a bit in different categories. I think something might be a little off there. It seems to favor certain dates or ranges of dates. i.e. I pick a 3 week range but all 8 posts show in the first 10 days. This is not likely randomly so there may be something wrong there.
This will probably be fixed by Louis or you can make your posts drafts and then go in and fine-tune the posting dates. This is real easy in the latest WP versions as you can quick edit the dates.
Searching for items
As some people have said there seems to be some problems. Most of the problems come from Amazon having so many damn items. And lots of amazon merchants are spamming their titles and descriptions with irrelevant crap to be found in Amazon better. I have had good luck with sorting by price high to low. Like for the TV example above this would get rid of the cables. Also if I give better keywords with more adjectives I tend to get better results. Also if you pick a category you can sort by most relevant, most popular etc. If you leave it on all categories it pulls an insane amount of items. Booleans and price range selection would be nice.
Posting
Nice and I like the way it pulls into a category. It is about the way I think and the speed I do things. Too fast and you get a bunch of junk in the wrong category like Feedwordpress and other plugins.
Monetization
Amazon is not a gold mine but is better than nothing or parking income which is what most of us are looking at if we don’t develop our sites. Also once I made some good categories, changed themes and did permalinks and pulled in content with this plugin I noticed my Google Adwords ads were a lot better and more targeted. So I am going to run a little adsense and some amazon with a mix of articles and videos. Amazon has great prices, trustworthy reviews, and a very high conversion ratio. It sorta makes up for the low commission rate.
Conclusion
It is totally usable right now as it is. It is worth the money in spades and there is still the WF coupon and it allows unlimited domains. Version 1.1 is coming out in a week or so and i imagine it will fix some minor quirks. It could be a great tool for fast domain development and getting things filled for Flippa etc. People can see a sites potential better with content. I am not sure why that first webhost of mine did not work. I imagine something is in safe mode (CURLOPT or PHP) or something and can easily be fixed. There is a refund if it doesn’t work on your host and Louis can’t fix it.
But to be honest, I hope he does fix it, and early this week as I really have some domains on that other host I want to populate with great content.
O I could stop being such a LAMP newbie and fix it myself. But I told him as others might have the same issue I had.
Try it it rocks, and is a great tool for newbies to experienced developers.
Great Content in 40 minutes with no grabbing affiliate links, inserting images, and assorted drudgery.
I just got finished setting up a WP install with content from this plugin. It is a good domain name that has been real tough to find a single affiliate program to fill it with good content. You know the type, lots of little niches and products but you don’t want to join 4 programs just to populate one blog.
Amazon and this plugin is the way to fill blogs that are hard to get products for.
Installation
Quite straight forward but is over 100 files to upload so you know there is actually a lot of substance to this plugin.
On the first host I installed this on I am having some problems getting it to run properly. It is 80% there but stalls at inputting the products once found. I have PMd Louis and he is on it. Great support within a few hours and very proactive as usual for his team.
The second host it installed quite easily and runs just like a plugin no special themes or theme hooks needed.
Virtual Multiblog Setups
It’s simple plugin only operation means it is working with Multiblog setups or if you are aliasing a few installs to a master WP install. Sweet. Multiblog setups can break more complicated or less well written programs.
Startup
One thing it does not prompt you for in any way is to enter your API before even searching. And if you click on it the first screen starts a search for you and you might be anxious to try it. It wont work. I think Louis is working on a nag screen to take people to their API entry if it is still blank.
Good Defaults
The defaults and using the standard templates make good looking posts that should have real good SEO right from the start. In fact I did a few blogs and I did them all with the standard look and I think it is good for fast sites.
Customizable.
Page templates, excerpt length, what type of reviews post, how many reviews post are all customizable.
Date range
I played with the date range quite a bit in different categories. I think something might be a little off there. It seems to favor certain dates or ranges of dates. i.e. I pick a 3 week range but all 8 posts show in the first 10 days. This is not likely randomly so there may be something wrong there.
This will probably be fixed by Louis or you can make your posts drafts and then go in and fine-tune the posting dates. This is real easy in the latest WP versions as you can quick edit the dates.
Searching for items
As some people have said there seems to be some problems. Most of the problems come from Amazon having so many damn items. And lots of amazon merchants are spamming their titles and descriptions with irrelevant crap to be found in Amazon better. I have had good luck with sorting by price high to low. Like for the TV example above this would get rid of the cables. Also if I give better keywords with more adjectives I tend to get better results. Also if you pick a category you can sort by most relevant, most popular etc. If you leave it on all categories it pulls an insane amount of items. Booleans and price range selection would be nice.
Posting
Nice and I like the way it pulls into a category. It is about the way I think and the speed I do things. Too fast and you get a bunch of junk in the wrong category like Feedwordpress and other plugins.
Monetization
Amazon is not a gold mine but is better than nothing or parking income which is what most of us are looking at if we don’t develop our sites. Also once I made some good categories, changed themes and did permalinks and pulled in content with this plugin I noticed my Google Adwords ads were a lot better and more targeted. So I am going to run a little adsense and some amazon with a mix of articles and videos. Amazon has great prices, trustworthy reviews, and a very high conversion ratio. It sorta makes up for the low commission rate.
Conclusion
It is totally usable right now as it is. It is worth the money in spades and there is still the WF coupon and it allows unlimited domains. Version 1.1 is coming out in a week or so and i imagine it will fix some minor quirks. It could be a great tool for fast domain development and getting things filled for Flippa etc. People can see a sites potential better with content. I am not sure why that first webhost of mine did not work. I imagine something is in safe mode (CURLOPT or PHP) or something and can easily be fixed. There is a refund if it doesn’t work on your host and Louis can’t fix it.
But to be honest, I hope he does fix it, and early this week as I really have some domains on that other host I want to populate with great content.
O I could stop being such a LAMP newbie and fix it myself. But I told him as others might have the same issue I had.
Try it it rocks, and is a great tool for newbies to experienced developers.
Great Content in 40 minutes with no grabbing affiliate links, inserting images, and assorted drudgery.
So here's my review. I'll try to compare it with the competition and touch on some things no one else has mentioned yet.
Setup
First off, WPZon is VERY EASY to set up. Like everyone else has said, you can build fully fleshed out WP site with lots of Amazon content in less than 10 minutes start to finish. The interface is simple and straightforward, making other plugins like ReviewAZON seem convoluted in comparison.
One thing to note though is some people might require using multiple Associate IDs . ReviewAZON can have different IDs to choose from when you make posts, whereas WPZon only allows one at a time.
Templates
The default template(s) look good out of the box whether it's the posts, comments, or widgets. Even with custom themes you shouldn't need to mess with the appearance. In my experience with ReviewAZON, you usually had to fix a bunch of CSS/tables shit to get the content from overflowing or wrapping. WPzon doesn't have those problems, it just works.
Searching
Finding products can be hit or miss. For example I tried adding "printers". But it kept giving me photo paper and ink instead (using the Featured Items and Best Selling sort order). ReviewAZON's results were way more relevant and gave me a page full of actual printers. ReviewAZON has a "Default Sorting" sort order while WPZon doesn't. If this "Default Sorting" is built into Amazon then this should be a quick fix.
Also it would be more convenient if it saved the search terms after you hit "Get Products", because if you want to change the category or sort order, it blanks the field and you have to retype the keywords.
Posting
Queuing bulk posts works great. It's simple so it's really easy, although it doesn't have as many advanced options as ReviewAZON like posting to categories or using different Associate IDs. The tagging is great too, you can have a huge tag cloud pretty quickly.
What I would like to see is a built in search on the New Post page like ReviewAZON. With WPZon you need to know the ASIN or the Youtube URL in order to use those functions. In ReviewAZON you can just do a search right there in modal box and it plugs it in for you.
Customer Reviews
I hate how ReviewAZON includes customer reviews as part of the post and not the comments. WP-Robot and Amaniche can do reviews as comments - but there are no stars - so it looks kind of dumb with "Rating 1 / 5". WPZon is the perfect solution to all this. It turns reviews into comments with pretty stars better than any other plugin.
Like someone already said, it would be nice to fake the dates so that they look like they came after the post. Even more awesome (but not exactly necessary) would be to drip feed the comments, so your site stays fresh. I think the Blogsense plugin can do that but it's not strictly an Amazon plugin. Now if WPZon could do that, it would blow away all the other Amazon plugins.
Conclusion
While WPZon is much simpler and easier to use, for $10 more (with discount it's like $35 more), ReviewAZON comes with a way more advanced options - though you have spend time fixing some minor annoyances. With WPZon you don't have those advanced options, but what it can do it does very well.
Of course ReviewAZON and other plugins have been around for a long time, while WPZon hasn't even really launched yet. Based on what I've seen so far, WPZon looks extremely promising. If Louis continues to improve it (I don’t see why he won't) I could see WPZon as the "ReviewAZON killer" real soon.
I would recommend it to anyone looking for a really simple and easy to use Amazon plugin. With the WF discount, it's a really great deal on a high-quality plugin that will only get better, and you can't go wrong here.
Setup
First off, WPZon is VERY EASY to set up. Like everyone else has said, you can build fully fleshed out WP site with lots of Amazon content in less than 10 minutes start to finish. The interface is simple and straightforward, making other plugins like ReviewAZON seem convoluted in comparison.
One thing to note though is some people might require using multiple Associate IDs . ReviewAZON can have different IDs to choose from when you make posts, whereas WPZon only allows one at a time.
Templates
The default template(s) look good out of the box whether it's the posts, comments, or widgets. Even with custom themes you shouldn't need to mess with the appearance. In my experience with ReviewAZON, you usually had to fix a bunch of CSS/tables shit to get the content from overflowing or wrapping. WPzon doesn't have those problems, it just works.
Searching
Finding products can be hit or miss. For example I tried adding "printers". But it kept giving me photo paper and ink instead (using the Featured Items and Best Selling sort order). ReviewAZON's results were way more relevant and gave me a page full of actual printers. ReviewAZON has a "Default Sorting" sort order while WPZon doesn't. If this "Default Sorting" is built into Amazon then this should be a quick fix.
Also it would be more convenient if it saved the search terms after you hit "Get Products", because if you want to change the category or sort order, it blanks the field and you have to retype the keywords.
Posting
Queuing bulk posts works great. It's simple so it's really easy, although it doesn't have as many advanced options as ReviewAZON like posting to categories or using different Associate IDs. The tagging is great too, you can have a huge tag cloud pretty quickly.
What I would like to see is a built in search on the New Post page like ReviewAZON. With WPZon you need to know the ASIN or the Youtube URL in order to use those functions. In ReviewAZON you can just do a search right there in modal box and it plugs it in for you.
Customer Reviews
I hate how ReviewAZON includes customer reviews as part of the post and not the comments. WP-Robot and Amaniche can do reviews as comments - but there are no stars - so it looks kind of dumb with "Rating 1 / 5". WPZon is the perfect solution to all this. It turns reviews into comments with pretty stars better than any other plugin.
Like someone already said, it would be nice to fake the dates so that they look like they came after the post. Even more awesome (but not exactly necessary) would be to drip feed the comments, so your site stays fresh. I think the Blogsense plugin can do that but it's not strictly an Amazon plugin. Now if WPZon could do that, it would blow away all the other Amazon plugins.
Conclusion
While WPZon is much simpler and easier to use, for $10 more (with discount it's like $35 more), ReviewAZON comes with a way more advanced options - though you have spend time fixing some minor annoyances. With WPZon you don't have those advanced options, but what it can do it does very well.
Of course ReviewAZON and other plugins have been around for a long time, while WPZon hasn't even really launched yet. Based on what I've seen so far, WPZon looks extremely promising. If Louis continues to improve it (I don’t see why he won't) I could see WPZon as the "ReviewAZON killer" real soon.
I would recommend it to anyone looking for a really simple and easy to use Amazon plugin. With the WF discount, it's a really great deal on a high-quality plugin that will only get better, and you can't go wrong here.
mindmade, thanks for the review and the feedback. I'm going to be incorporating lots of your suggestions in 1.1/1.2. This post is going to purely respond to that. I'll post another soon responding to everything else - so if you see this without the next post, I didn't forget you, I'm writing the other post after I write this one.
You have to select a category when posting to be able to sort the products. This is controlled by Amazon, not WPZonBuilder. ReviewAzon forces you to select a category - that's why the results are more relevant (just printers, not ink, etc.). If you select the same category in WPZonBuilder as you do in ReviewAzon, you'll get the exact same results.
I don't want to come across the wrong way, but... what options? Mabye my documentation is unclear, but did you miss the settings page? Unless ReviewAzon released an update last night that I don't know about, mine is definitely more configurable, or I am retarded.
You have to select a category when posting to be able to sort the products. This is controlled by Amazon, not WPZonBuilder. ReviewAzon forces you to select a category - that's why the results are more relevant (just printers, not ink, etc.). If you select the same category in WPZonBuilder as you do in ReviewAzon, you'll get the exact same results.
Great point, will be done in 1.1.
I think you overlooked these options... they're definitely there.
Good idea.
I don't want to come across the wrong way, but... what options? Mabye my documentation is unclear, but did you miss the settings page? Unless ReviewAzon released an update last night that I don't know about, mine is definitely more configurable, or I am retarded.
Regarding hosting: Drake, I'm looking into your specific issues.
For everyone else, as a general rule: YOUR HOST MUST ALLOW ACCESS TO AMAZON.COM FOR THE PLUGIN TO WORK. If your host doesn't allow PHP scripts to access Amazon.com, there's no way WPZonBuilder can get data from Amazon.
I know HostGator gets a lot of shit around here, but I highly recommend them. They have great uptime, standard server configurations, and work great with almost every WordPress plugin (not just mine).
For now, use negative keywords, and order the products by the price.
Just type in something like "hdtv -cable -tv" or "pianos -bench -pedal -cable -midi"
OK everyone, let me know if I've missed anything. If I didn't respond to specific feedback, I still saw it, and will be incorporating it in 1.1/1.2/2.0. If you guys really really really want something that has been mentioned but I didn't acknowledge, let me know and I'll bump its priority up on my feature list.
For everyone else, as a general rule: YOUR HOST MUST ALLOW ACCESS TO AMAZON.COM FOR THE PLUGIN TO WORK. If your host doesn't allow PHP scripts to access Amazon.com, there's no way WPZonBuilder can get data from Amazon.
I know HostGator gets a lot of shit around here, but I highly recommend them. They have great uptime, standard server configurations, and work great with almost every WordPress plugin (not just mine).
Would exporting them to Excel be good? What formats are you guys looking for? I could do CSV, that is pretty univeral.
Great suggestion. I will be adding filtering in the next release.
For now, use negative keywords, and order the products by the price.
Just type in something like "hdtv -cable -tv" or "pianos -bench -pedal -cable -midi"
Will be in 1.1.
Will be in 1.1/1.2.
I'll add an option to randomize e-mail addresses and to use comment dates within a specific range of the post date in 1.1/1.2. Right now, they are set to the date of the review as it appears on Amazon.
There is - it's on the Post Products page under the date section. You can enter future dates in the date range box and WordPress will automatically schedule them to appear in the future.
Will add to 1.1/1.2.
Very extensive testing confirms it is random and working properly. Just like someone has to win the lottery, sometimes random means a lot of posts do appear close together.
OK everyone, let me know if I've missed anything. If I didn't respond to specific feedback, I still saw it, and will be incorporating it in 1.1/1.2/2.0. If you guys really really really want something that has been mentioned but I didn't acknowledge, let me know and I'll bump its priority up on my feature list.
Oh fuck, you're totally right - I'm really sorry about that. I admit I rushed through a few features (stupid deadline) and thought they were missing - now I realize they are definitely in there, just not in the same spots as in ReviewAZON.
ReviewAZON doesn't have "way more" options at all, WPZon basically matches everything and more.
The multiple IDs - correct me if I'm wrong - but you can only use one "default" associate ID at a time, then when you want to use another you change it. I was comparing that settings page with ReviewAZONs. WPZon only had one box, with detailed instructions if you wanted more than one, whereas ReviewAZON made it easy to input more than one. I realize now WPZon can use different associate IDs in the post page, still it would be nice to have a dropdown there of all the IDs you've used.
And the categories posting - I found it now, I'm blind. As for searching, I was selecting categories, and the results didn't improve. Yes they're the same results if you do Bestselling or Alphabetically or the others. But how come ReviewAZON has a more relevant "Default Sorting" option whatever that is and WPZonBuilder doesn't? I guess node search in the next version should help a lot though.
I wish I could edit my review so no one gets the wrong impression. I'm used to ReviewAZON, my bad, but like I said WPZonBuilder should quickly surpass it. It is already awesome right now, and it'll be even better in the next versions.
Here is my review.
Installation was extremely easy, if you can install wordpress you can install and configure the plugin without a problem.
To get started you simply had to enter you Amazon Affiliate info (AWS Key, Associate ID, and AWS Secret Key). All that information can be found in your Amazon account. It takes you 2-3 minutes.
I love that you can easily change "Language Settings", so you can build your niche sites in another language. I tested the plugin in English, German and French.
Adding and finding products is a piece of cake. You can search by category or simply enter your keyword. If you search by category, you can sort your search result, makes it much easier to work with. The plugin will even add a brand/manufacturer category for you! Basically, you can customize whatever you want.
It's great that you can determine future post dates, you build the site today, and it will update the site automatically you for the next year. It allows you to work time efficiently, that's always great!
In conclusion, the plugin is great, specially if you want to build niche sites. Amazon will most likely have your niche/product covered.
My only suggestion, I would love to have a "Spin feature" integrated into the plugin.
I highly recommend the plugin, specially if you want to go after niches.
Installation was extremely easy, if you can install wordpress you can install and configure the plugin without a problem.
To get started you simply had to enter you Amazon Affiliate info (AWS Key, Associate ID, and AWS Secret Key). All that information can be found in your Amazon account. It takes you 2-3 minutes.
I love that you can easily change "Language Settings", so you can build your niche sites in another language. I tested the plugin in English, German and French.
Adding and finding products is a piece of cake. You can search by category or simply enter your keyword. If you search by category, you can sort your search result, makes it much easier to work with. The plugin will even add a brand/manufacturer category for you! Basically, you can customize whatever you want.
It's great that you can determine future post dates, you build the site today, and it will update the site automatically you for the next year. It allows you to work time efficiently, that's always great!
In conclusion, the plugin is great, specially if you want to build niche sites. Amazon will most likely have your niche/product covered.
My only suggestion, I would love to have a "Spin feature" integrated into the plugin.
I highly recommend the plugin, specially if you want to go after niches.
You don't seem to be online when I am. Send me a PM here if next time you message me I don't reply.
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