Social Store App / whats the point?
I started this article with the intent of doing a review of Social Store App, a new software that is being released on November 13th. Social Store app is a new software that allows you to create an Amazon affiliate store inside of Facebook. However looking into this product some thing occurred to me. So […]
I started this article with the intent of doing a review of Social Store App, a new software that is being released on November 13th. Social Store app is a new software that allows you to create an Amazon affiliate store inside of Facebook.
However looking into this product some thing occurred to me. So what? I mean really that’s what popped into my head. So you can build an Amazon affiliate store inside of Facebook (as a page tab). How is that a good thing? Honestly I cant think of any reason it is. Though I can think of more than one reason its a bad thing.
So first lets talk about what I think its a bad thing:
1) First and foremost Facebook page tabs dont work on mobile devices. We should all know it by now but some still dont understand what this means. Its not that they are not responsive or anything like that. Its that they simply dont exist on mobile devices. Why would anyone want to build a web store that simply does not exist for the millions of people who use mobile devices to access Facebook and the internet?
2) While Google does indeed crawl and rank fan pages they dont rank as well as websites. In every test I ran where I did a Google search for something that I knew had both a website and a fan page the website always ranked higher. Normally first or second with the fan page being on average about half way down the page. This makes sense actually since websites normally have more content, pages and back links to it than a fan page does.
Besides the fact that fan pages themselves normally dont rank well we also have to consider that this is actually an app on a fan page (a tab) and tabs generally rank even lower than fan pages. Why would I want to build a store that gets lower rankings than a normal website?
3) Generally your fans are not going to visit your fan page. Its fairly well known that fans interact with the timeline. They dont actually go to your fan page normally. Honestly think about this yourself. Think of any fan page that you have liked. When was the last time you went to the actual fan page? In all likelihood you might never have, at least if your like most Facebook users you have no need to go to the fan page because you can get their posts in your news feed.
Even worse Facebook has removed the tab / app icons from the fan page layout. So even if you do happen to get someone to the fan page its not very obvouse to them that there is a tab / app even on the page. Most people will either go right to the pages timeline or bounce without ever even knowing that you have a Amazon store on your page in the first place.
So to sum up when we use Facebook fan page tabs for our Amazon store we get a guarantee that anyone on a mobile device cant access your store as well as the likelihood of lower rankings in Google. It might be me but I just cant see why people would want these things.
But what about the creators? Why did they say when asked why anyone would want to put a store on Facebook?
I though that perhaps I was just not understanding something or was missing something. So I contacted the creators of Social Store App and I asked them what is the advantage of putting an Amazon store on Facebook?
I actually could not get a straight answer from them for about the first 5 minutes that we where talking. They would sidestep the question and initially refused to give a direct answer to a very simple question. “What is the advantage of putting a store on a Facebook fan page tab”. However I did not give up and kept pushing:
Finally I got an answer from them. Its the only answer I got and unfortunately it was less than satisfying.
This might have actually been the stupidest answer that they could have given. Basically they are telling me that people should put a store on Facebook because then they will have a store on Facebook. There is still no reason at all given why anyone would want to do this.
After a bit more discussion it occurred to me that the reason they are sidestepping the question and being obtuse is because they just dont have a good answer to give. The creators of this product could not give me a single, solid reason why anyone would want to ignore the problems not functioning on a mobile device and likely getting lower Google rankings and still put a Amazon store on a fan page tab. Hmm if they dont even have a reason thats enough for me not to like this software.
But what about Facebook ads?
I know that its inevitable that someone is going to mention this so Ill just dive right into it. Someone is going to say “But you can get lower CPC on your Facebook ads if you keep the user inside of Facebook.
Well here is the thing. I have never once heard of anyone besides internet marketers who are trying to sell a tab builder say that. In fact I spent a lot of time searching Google to try to find a single independent article or case study that says Facebook will give you a lower CPC if you keep a user inside of Facebook. Guess how many I found. None. Not a single social media blog or article that I have found says that Facebook will give you a lower CPC if you keep the user inside of Facebook. Its only internet marketers who are selling a tab app that say this.
Also Facebook does not say it. This itself makes no sense. If it where true and Facebook is willing to give a lower CPC when you keep the user inside of their website then it would mean that they are basically willing to ‘pay’ for this to happen. They would be paying (by giving the same service for a lower price) for advertisers to keep users inside of Facebook. If they wanted this to happen bad enough that they are willing to accept a lower advertising fee then why would they not mention this at all? Why would they not tell people ‘You can get a lower cost per click if you link your ad to a fan page’. Simply they would not hide this. Hiding it would be like a grocery store having a discount on bread and then not telling anyone about it. Yet Facebook makes no mention of this. Why? Because its not true.
Also my own experience with running Facebook ads (and I have run a lot of them) tells me that this is not true. I have run ads to fan pages, to tabs on fan pages and to websites and I have never noticed a marked difference that is the result of where the target was.
But really that does not even matter anyway because Facebook ads are not a good way to drive traffic to a Amazon store.
Let me explain, as a internet marketer and software developer with a business background I always think about the numbers. They just come to me easy. Now I know that its not the case for everyone so Ill go into a bit of detail as to why I would never run a Facebook ad to an Amazon store, long term, with the expectation of making a profit from the ad traffic. The short answer is that Amazon pays to little in commissions to make it a good investment, but here is the detailed answer.
Amazon commissions start at 4% of the sales price. But we are going to be generous and assume your at the higher 6.5% commission tier. Also lets be further optimistic and assume that your getting target clicks from Facebook ads at 15 cents each (this is unlikely today but we are being optimistic). Further lets assume that your store has a 4% conversion rate and that the average purchase price is $50. (4% on a web store is very generous). So we are being generous and optimistic with our assumptions to give this business model the best chance of fairing well. Assuming the higher commission tier, assuming low cost for ad clicks and assuming a very high conversion rate on our store. Lets see what happens.
Im going to spend $250 on ads.
From that Ill expect to get 1666 clicks (15 cents per click)
From that Ill expect to get 66 sales (4% store conversion rate)
From those 66 sales I expect to make $214 in commissions (6.5% commission on an average $50 spend)
So congratulations even when we stack the assumptions for a best case scenario we still have lost $36 from our efforts. Basically it does not matter if you believe me about the Facebook CPC. The numbers dont work anyway. Simply put Amazon pays to low of a commission for Facebook ads to be viable. Sure if you had a website it might make sense to run a single low budget one time ad to your website just to ‘seed’ the site in the search engines but Facebook ads are in no way viable for driving consistent traffic to a Amazon affiliate store.
The real way to make money with Amazon stores is to have a lot of them in highly targeted niches with each one bringing you in a small amount of passive income. For this to work though you want the store to get the best Google rankings it can and also to work on mobiles. Basically you dont want it to be a fan page tab app.
So what do I think about this product? As I said in the beginning whats the point? I still cant think of one. Having a store inside of Facebook is a gimmick and nothing more. As intelligent people we need to look past the gimmick and ask ourselves how does this actually benefit us. What value is this going to provide that we cant get somewhere else. Unfortunately I dont see any value at all.
**Correction / Clarification: in the article this statement was made: “Even worse Facebook has removed the tab / app icons from the fan page layout.” I was referring to the prominent icons that where by default directly under the cover photo. Icons for apps are now on the left hand side and a bit down on the page of the new layout.
A quick note about the reviews I do on this site. The product vendors give me access to their products for free in order for me to do my review. However I make no promises to them regarding the results of my tests or what I will write in my review. Should you click a link that takes you to a sales page for a paid product for sale this link will be an affiliate link and I will be paid a percentage of the sales price should you decide to invest in it.
About the Author
Hi Brett, awesome review, full of common sense:-)
Thanks for all you do my friend.
Brett,
I agree with all your facts and assumptions in this article, thanks for the advance notice.
There is only one scenario I can think of that tabs may be useful. If, and only if, you only have a FB Fan Page, and no website, you can use a pic director to redirect from your timeline to a tab for any number of reasons, but one of the best is list building. It may not be a perfect solution, but it is a viable one with a less than perfect process.
I will say right off, I think it makes no sense to not have a website as well, but there are a number of folks who run Fan Pages without websites to back them up.
Again, I am in no way saying this is the way anyone should go, but it is possible. I have used this process as a last resort when I had some problems with my hosting being up and was changing over to new hosting. At least I did not mess out on still building my list while the process of moving my hosting went on.
If there is anything I have learned in my 40+ years of being in business, there are very few absolutes and there is always another way to skin a cat, as the saying goes. FB tabs are all but useless except in last resort situations where they are better than nothing for certain types of uses, but not all uses, and especially not for setting up an Amazon affiliate store.
Thanks again for the advance info, I tend to get your recommendations after a product has launched and I already made a purchase, however it is ironic to me that I would have never purchased this product and I did receive the review early…LOL. Sometimes that is just the way life works.
Thanks,
I will cancel my subsription from lists of every marketer that is going to mail me about how desperate I will need Social Store APP. When they mail me, it implies they just want to make money on me.
Greetings,
Alfred
Well lets be honest. Marketers .. well market. That’s their business. Of course they want to make money off you. But a responsible marketer should make a concerted effort to only market good products. What I would do is this. If they send you an email about this one 1st send them a response and ask them why they feel this is a good product and why you should buy it. If they dont respond or dont respond with a very good reason then you might consider unsubing.
So Brett,
You want to do false reviews and lie about things how about you let me defend myself and open up your comments!!
Ryan
I always let the creators reply. What exactly did I lie about?
Brett, you say “The real way to make money with Amazon stores is to have a lot of them in highly targeted niches with each one bringing you in a small amount of passive income. ”
What is your opinion of the “Authority sites” which some say that these are best for long term revenue growth?
This blog is an authority site. I love them 🙂 Just make sure your very experienced in the thing you are trying to be an authority on. Also keep in mind authority sites are not a passive thing. They require some work.
Well done ..now can you review the produc fresh store builder will this be a good amazon store builder product
Thankx in advance
I did review Fresh Store Builder Zane:
http://brettrutecky.com/Software-detail/fresh-store-builder-v5-review/
Brett Rutecky, are you aware of how you are killing yourself online? More and more affiliates are turning away from you because of your crappy attitude. Just dig that hole deeper, soon you’ll be lucky to get any review copies. Your negative and deranged business model will be the death of your online business.
My ‘crappy attitude’ and ‘deranged business model’? You actually think that being honest to people is a ‘deranged business model’? Sounds like Im not the one with the crappy attitude. As for review copies. The only reason a vendor would have to not give me a review copy is if their product is flawed because if it is then I will point out the flaws. The best way to avoid this. Make better products! Thanks for the feedback though.
Do you really think he is killing himself for being honest to his customers? You are very wrong, as a matter of fact, word of mouth on the internet is very powerful. The only people complaining is marketers with bad products! Brett will have thousands upon thousand of loyal customers for years to come because of his honesty, which is very rare. Brett is a rare Jewell. Before I buy, I check with Brett true reviews before I purchase.
Their are thousands of sell out, and rip off marketers like you who give rave reviews on products that they have not even tried, all for a buck. And we are sick of ripped off! You come a dime a dozen. So no, Brett will not have to worry about being KILLED on the internet because he will always have thousands of customer and growing. But you however, just might!
Wonderful to be able to the right of reply to address the inaccuracy above.
Firstly, Brett, does not have access to Social Store App and so a true review is not something he is really capable of giving . I mean a review is usually of an actual product that has been used, this review is of a very short skype conversation on the 7th October. Since that date we have not had any interaction nor has Bret sought any other details about SSA.
I digress ….
1) FB tabs do not work on mobile
That’s right, but when you post from your store to your timeline, group, private message, pintrest, or twitter accounts any products from your store (which you should do about twice a day or so) those completely accessible from all devices. In fact if someone is on a mobile and sees a post on the fanpage – click through and purchase on Amazon, chances are they have one click purchase and don’t even need to enter credit card details. 90% of traffic will come from posting products from your store – So this overturns this objection
2) When I spoke to Brett back on the 6th Ocotber we were experimenting with SEO and fanpages – not the stores – the fanpage. With keyword enriched fanpages we were having mixed results with ranking – At the time of talking we had our brand new fanpage on page 2 with no backlinks for a KW with 1900 exact searches. Since we have done SEO for years, we apply the basic SEO principles to our pages, it works well, but it is hard to rank. Therefore it was not something we focused on the final product of SSA. If Bret had been in further communication or had access to the product he would have been made aware
3) Visiting fans to your page & the tab is gone
The tab is down the left hand side of fanpages now & if you wish you can move it to the top menu bar in your settings of your fanpage. We found each post to the timeline will reach about 20% of your fanbase … but if you do it right you can turn the posts viral & reach more people than just your current fans.
Just about every post we make – and remember our posts are of Amazon affiliate products with our links – get shared, friends tagged & always LOADS of likes. Posting on your timeline is alive & well =)
Now the lie that Brett mentioned Emma did not address his question I feel is best resolved with another screenshot ….
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For some obscure reason Brett harped on & on about our last widely successful WP them & the fact it was like gated, Brett also kept banging on about how Neil created it.
Brett was repeatably corrected …..
Emma & I developed the theme
Neil was our partner (not in development only in launching)
And
It never was like gated ….. EVER
SSA was created to answer the problem of quickly & easily putting a store inside FB.
No hosting, no ssl, no domains needed -just a simple solution for a big problem
Brett was difficult to communicate with. I mean it was like we were having 2 different conversations …
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Also the scenario Brett puts forward is rather crude in terms of running ads.
I spent $80 for 500 opt ins in under 24 hours & been able to get generate $300 in sales to a RAVING fanbase that I intend to continue to grow & sell to over & over again.
I hope you the customer will make your own mind up
If you are interested in SSA then we are open for 5 days only
If not that’s cool too – we wish every one well on their journey where ever it leads
To your success
Not sure I see the lie here:
* I never said I had a copy of the software. Notice I did not mention the software functionality at all. In fact Im sure it does what its suppose to do well. I was interested in the concept of the software. As I said and as was the entire point of the article. Whats the point? Exploring that question was the focus here. (you can even notice that the article does not have the [review] tag in its title that others do)
1) Facebook tabs dont work on mobile devices, I said it, you confirmed it (and then tried to sidestep this deficiency by talking about posting to the timeline)
2) I said Facebook fanpages / apps dont rank well in Google. You just confirmed it. Stating that you have ‘done SEO for years’ and even for you it was ‘hard work’ to get ranked to a specific niche (has only 1900 exact searches).
3) This does need clarification by me. I was talking about the large thumbnails that where by default right under the cover photo. I will post an clarification. Thank you for pointing that out. Then once again you are talking about timeline posting. You have a real talent for sidestepping anything that is inconvenient for you and suddenly talking about something else. You should have been a politician 🙂
* I agree our conversation was very tough. As I said you have a real tenancy to start talking about other things when confronted with questions or situations that are not in your favor. I to felt like where where having a two conversations and became a bit frustrated with it as well. Though I did not lie at all. You have NEVER given a direct answer. So I will invite you to do it again. Please in one or two sentences give a direct answer: “What is the advantage to having a Amazon store as a page tab as opposed to just having it as a website?”
My scenario for Facebook ads is ‘rather crude’? Well I guess that’s debatable. You say you spent $80 on ads and got 500 optins. So in 24 hours you got at least 500 clicks at a cost of $0.16 cents each (at most). I would be interested in seeing some proof of that from your Facebook ad account.
Look Brett,
Your just to much of an expert of every single aspect of marketing aint ya mate? Your a MASTER “Coder” I think more MASTER “bater”. Your an SEO GURU that can’t even rank a site. And instead of supporting your peers you get off on putting them down with nothing but false claims.We just launched SSA and in 2 hours we have sold over 400 memberships and we are helping EVERY single member get their products promoted VIRALY! I am not wasting another moment with you after this reply. If you too would like to learn how to get FB ads at a cost of less that 10c to external URL’s off FB and under 5c cent clicks to internal pages on FB then by all means come and have a chat with us. Only next time show some respect and get off your high horse! Cos it’s a long fall to the ground and I would not want to see you hurt yourself. If your going to do a review and an honest review you need to at least have access to the product and prove your claims are true! Give it a shot and then come to me and tell me my software does not work and my methods of marketing are not successful. Until then shut your mouth and ponder in your own self righteousness. In fact lets just take a quick analytical look at the so called expert you claim to be with some real stats. The trust flow of this site is sitting at a whopping 0, 0 external backlinks 0 referring domains. You claim that this very site is an “authority” and I see your MOZ score at whopping 1/100 for this page and 16.37/100 for the entire domain. A page rank of 0 and a total domain rank of 0. You have a social presence of yep you guessed it 0. 14 errors on just this page and an overall SEO IQ of 15/100. YEAH right mate you REALLY know what you are on about and anyone that listens to you or looks to you as a person who knows what they are on about should probably NOT! And you have the hide to do reviews on other peoples products. What a JOKE actually its not even funny its quite disturbing to be honest. It’s really sad to see people like you on the net! Where are all your successful students and better yet where are any of your peers that respect you? The only respect you get is earned through the putting down of other people through your negative nancy bullshit reviews. It is a real shame to see a man with such potential go and create such a disrespected name for himself throughout the top levels of marketers. You could do so much better! Oh hang on no you could not your already the self claimed master of talents when it comes to what everything. You are a JOKE that’s what you are. Take a look at yourself mate and focus on what kind of reputation you have given yourself. The one thing you did get right was the name of this site as you are the only dog that people have to watch.
I normally only give product creators a single time to respond to avoid arguments. However I decided to approve this one so that people can see what kind of person you really are. Its interesting. I once again asked you to clarify and explain to us all “What is the advantage of putting a Amazon store on Facebook over just having a website?” It was a very simple question and it was also an opportunity for you to explain why your product is a good investment. Did you take that opportunity? Nope once again you refuse to answer a direct question about the advantages of your software. You also become very hostile, angry and unprofessional. Showing not only your inability to list any real benefit to this software but also your immaturity.
You talk about FB ads costs and make some claims about what you have done with them. I invited you to share some proof of those claims. You ignored that as well. Generally speaking when people become hostile when asked to support their claims its because their claims are lies.
As for all those SEO remarks. Honestly Im not a SEO expert Im a developer. Also quite frankly I could care less about SEO. I dont get my traffic from SEO. I get it from the 18,000 buyers I mail my reviews to. (didnt think of that did you).
Further I dont see what SEO knowledge has to do with reviewing a software, speaking about Facebook ads, or anything else that I do honestly. As for your product I dont have to know if its good for SEO or not. You said yourself that its ‘hard work’ to get your page ranked for a very specific keyword even though you have been doing ‘SEO for years’. Finally once again, as I said. I did not review this software. I explored the concept. I have said this several times now. Im sorry if you are unable to understand that.
Your refusal to answer even basic questions on why someone should use a Facebook tab for an Amazon store coupled with a pathetic attempt to discredit my knowledge of things that have nothing to do with SEO by pointing out my site is not SEO optimized says everything I and probably most people need to know about you and your product.
I wholeheartedly agree. These are average folks make a living by investing in themselves, doing the hard work. It just bother lazy folks when something works out well and for once is not a scam. I’ve struggled all my life working for other people and getting paid, if paid at all, a menial sum for late hours and sore muscles. And now, at 56, I can be at home, put in the less hours, spend less than what I’d put in my gas tank in a month and not only get my bills paid on time, in full, but enjoy a real vacation with the love of my life EVERY year!
Are you saying that Im lazy and dont want to do the hard work? You do know that Im one of the top internet marketers, that I bring in 7 figures a year, and that Im well respected in this industry right? I think I did not get to the point Im at by being lazy 🙂
I would like to thank you for your reviews.
I too had several questions about tabs and mobile visibility, since not too long ago several products were launched addressing this issue. I noticed there was no mention in the sales copy about this, or even if a longer cookie was available.
Especially since this launch is so close to the Fresh store builder update that just happened. It’s natural for any potential customer to want more info to make an informed decision.
It’s unfortunate the response you received from the product creator. They should be aware that customers do pay attention and how they respond can have a big impact on any future purchasing decisions. (Positive or negative)
This is a big reason why I like the warrior forum, you get the down and dirty from forum members that aren’t afraid to call products or marketers out. A feature we’re missing on JVZoo. It’s all about accountability.
Thanks again.
I am getting bombed by several marketers pushing this Social Store App product. Quite a bit of interesting conversation going on here about this product.
Let me ask everyone this – do you Honestly and Actually visit FB Tabs? I usually don’t anymore and the real question is why?
True – FB Ads can drive traffic to FB Pages and Tabs. But again, let me ask – as marketers, why would anyone spend money on FB ADs… to gain measly 4-6% commissions?
Has anyone really answered why you need an Amazon store in Facebook? Won’t videos of the products in the newsfeed work just as well?
Even though I have asked the product creator several times to explain the advantage of having a store in a Facebook tab (both in the comments and in a Skype chat) he refuses to give a direct answer. I cant help to think that its because he does not have a good answer to give. If he did why would he have not used me asking as an opportunity to pitch his product, instead of going into a temper tantrum rant like he did? Who knows? What I do know is this I dont see any reason to want a store in a fan page tab and the vendor refuses to give one to me.
Also you will notice on the products sales page, all of the ‘proof’ that it works is just links posted in the timeline. Well tell me why do I need a tab app to post links in the timeline? Why cant I just post a link in my timeline.. lol. Further looking into the sales page shows some real things of concern, I have serous doubts about the income claims about this product as well. I asked the vendor to give proof of these income claims. He refused and became very hostile (as you can see above)
How’s it going Brett? Looking forward to seeing your next trite review, sorry to hear you have lost some great affiliates. Maybe if you work on your personality, you might be able to claw back some respect, here’s to that eh?
If being honest about what I thought of a software and then giving the vendor multiple opportunities to explain why I was wrong (with each one being ignored) means will loose some affiliates then so be it. As for work on my personality. Thats almost laughable. Its amazing that people in this business would think someone who says: I dont think this is a good investment .. but here vendor tell me why Im wrong.. somehow has a bad personality. I could have pitched this and earned a couple K in commissions with ease, unfortunately I have morals and will not pitch something that I dont feel is a good investment to my list. Further I gave the vendor chance after chance to tell why this is a useful product. He refused to answer every single time. Im sorry if your the kind of person that is so low that you will sell out yourself and people who trust you just to make a quick profit. Further Im sorry if the fact that I am not offends you. Thanks for the comment though.
Brett.
Dure you were in body slam mode on this one! Fantastic review… Tecvhnically sound, covers the key pros and cons, and clearly shows those that did not know that if you want to do Amazon products you’d better have your SEO in the bag! (Something I learned back in 2011).
Thanks,
Tony
I would not say I was in ‘slam mode’. I honestly wish every product and every concept for every product I review was great. (but of course that’s not possible) Its important to note though that there is nothing personal when I give a product a negative recommendation. I dont intend to cut down the vendor or the creator in any way. I just say what I think and give my honest assessment good or bad without bias.
Hi,
I just like to add that I purchased this “product” just to find that it works only with amazon.com.
I contacted the support to ask if they will add other countries and the answer was “of course….”, it was scheduled for 24th november, posticipated to 26th….and now is scheduled for 2nd week in december, just in “time” for Christmas :).
Asked for a refund, since it doesn’t work for me in my country, the answer was:
“We do not refund for a simple change of mind”
and not answered anymore to my tickets, just closed the thread as solved.
I hope this can help others to know better this vendors……
Im very sorry you had this experience. Though I try to keep my reviews about the product and not the vendor I was able to see a lot about this vendors personality based on the way he responded to this review. I have given other vendors bad reviews and they have responded with professionalism (and often later I have promoted other products that where better). This vendor however responded with a real lack of professionalism. While you can see the comments he made that I approved there are a lot of others that he made that where to vulgar for me to allow to be made public. Just a suggestion but you may want to check this site in the future and see if I did a review before you make a purchase.
I will Brett, I found this too late 😉
Have a nice week-end.
Hi Bret
I wish I came across your site before I purchased this product, just like the comment from Gio I was also given the response “We do not refund for a simple change of mind” when I requested a refund because the product did NOT and still does NOT work for me. they also said
Hey Paul,
We place all information on the sales pages for you to look at and fully understand what is in the product before you buy it, we also place a working demo video showing you what the software does and also how it works. Our refund policy is if the product does not work as outline on the sales page then we will refund.
We do not refund for a simple change of mind
If will support you in your use the product and are continually adding new features and training to assist you as best we can, we pride ourselves on that
Emma & Ryan Powell
I want to WARN PEOPLE THINK TWICE ABOUT PURCHASING THIS PRODUCT AND LISTEN TO BRETT’S ADVICE….as far as I am concerned I will never never purchase any products from these people again as I would seriously question their integrity..
I take the other attitude on this:
Why NOT have a store on FB if it’s easy to create?
If you have a large fan base – let’s say a cooking page – and you sell cooking utensils – pots and pans, blenders, choppers, knives etc – why not have a store there where your fans can easily buy a product you recommend?
I haven’t done it yet but plan to.
I know you say that it’s not responsive etc. I agree a web site is better in many respects BUT if you have the fans on FB more than you have ranking on google, then in that case a store on FB may make total sense.
IMHO.
Because people who really use Facebook know that fans almost never actually visit your actual fan page. They only interact through the timeline posts which show up in their newsfeed. Your 10X better off just posting a link to an Amazon product relevant to your fans in your timeline (and optionally boosting the post). You dont need an app / store on your fan page to do this.
Keep up the good fight Brett. Your honest reviews are highly valued and the reason I recently signed up t your list and bought your most recent product.
I think the reply by the Powells started ok but descended quickly into ad hominem attacks. Made them look really bad.
Like you, I would also allow a right of reply and they certainly did themselves a disservice by attacking your SEO prowess. Complete deflection and non-sequiturs.
I own this product but will not be so hasty in buying the Powells products in future. Just as important to me than all you have raised, is their return policy. I will not be buying a product in future again without a no questions asked money back guarantee.
Wishing you the best with 2015 and please, keep these reviews coming.
Brett Rutecky — SOCIAL STORE APP BURNS BUYERS
Social Store App was a pure fraud.
I was one of the fools who bought into the internet scam called Social Store App. It was a cloud-based app accessed thru the vendor’s website. Less than 3 months after buying Social Store App, the app disappeared from the vendor’s website. A blank web page appears where the app should be. Of course, the vendor doesn’t reply to support tickets. They took the money and ran.
Your review was too mild…but you did keenly perceive the disreputable character of the vendors.
Sweetie, it is pretty simple. I remember when, after not long having logged into my FB page, I saw an ad shared by someone on my fan page in FB. I was interested so I clicked the ad’s link and was taken to a very informative website that I did indeed spend plenty of time. In doing so, I never returned to FB that day because I found something else interesting and it took a good deal of my time whilst leading me to other relative info on other websites. I didn’t buy the item offered, but the point is that it took me away from FB, and no website, including FB wants visitors or member driven away from their website, whether buying a product or not. FB, like all other social media sites, run on memberships. Advertising your FB store around the Net drive potential members to FB. As far as tabs are concerned, there are 2 pages when you are a marketer on FB; 1) fan page and 2) store page. Fans have the option of clicking on your very prominent “store” tab, which is quite possible to do on FB these days, and visitors to your store page have the option of either joining FB and/or creating a Friend Request with you. Either way, if they shop within your niche it’s win/win for FB, you, your friends and visitors. The reason they didn’t give you a straight answer is equally simple; you weren’t in with the proper forum. The question(s) you asked would have carried more weight if they had been posed by a true marketer, even a rookie. And from what I’ve just read, you don’t come close.
I dont come close to a true marketer .. or even a rookie.
You obviously dont have much connections in this business. Im one of the top marketers in the space. Generating 7 figures a year online. Really man .. Im not bragging or anything .. but though you dont know it .. you just showed how inexperienced you really are and made yourself look kind of silly at the same time .. Im no rookie my friend lol 🙂 Thanks for the comment though!
I see this page is a few years old but I’ve been getting promotions for a product called Social Stores. Not sure if it’s the same one reviewed here, but it seems to be the same idea. I’m glad to have read this, as I wondered the same thing -is there really a benefit to having a store inside Facebook? This review was also helpful in answering another question I had – would Facebook ads be good for promoting Amazon stores? It sounds like the answer is no. One thing I read somewhere is that People on Facebook reading ads are more likely to click on an ad that keeps them within Facebook, e.g. to a Facebook page rather than an external website. But overall this doesn’t seem like a great idea. Thanks for the info!
Ever notice that the only people who say that are people who are selling something and using this as a reason for people to buy their product? Also ever notice that no one ever has any real statistics or studies to back this up?
Very happy to have read this review on Social Stores. I have 9 WP sites promoting Amazon products that have brought in very little profit. I was looking for a low cost no domain way to build several Amazon stores without the long process of starting and maintaining a Word Press site. The FB aspect of this software was not my focus but a stand alone site with no extra costs. I would be open to any other suggestions on how to market Amazon on a low budget. I have been a part time affiliate marketer since 2008 and never found the golden nugget and believe me I have tried very hard and wasted a lot of money in the process. Why do I keep trying? Because the stress of “corporate world” ruined my health and feel working independently from home is my best option. Any reply comments would be appreciated
The key to Amazon is to have a lot of sites and make a little money from each.