Curation Hero [review]
POS:
Higher version has some kind of auto poster thing. Might save you 10 seconds of time over just copying and pasting.NEG:
Basic / Lite version is useless, have to manually edit the contentToday Im doing a review of the new Curation Hero software. Though I was quickly approved to be an affiliate of this, despite attempting to contact Emma Powell (one of the creators) multiple times my requests for a review copy where totally ignored. So I decided to go above and beyond, and I purchased this […]
Today Im doing a review of the new Curation Hero software.
Though I was quickly approved to be an affiliate of this, despite attempting to contact Emma Powell (one of the creators) multiple times my requests for a review copy where totally ignored. So I decided to go above and beyond, and I purchased this plugin myself. Watch the video below to see my entire experience, from purchase to testing.
I was given 3 choices of what ‘level’ of this software. I chose the lowest cost (basic) level for $17. After purchasing I was put through a sequence of no 5 upsells (OTO’s) that ranged in price from $57-$197, with one being $47 a month for 3 months. After going though all of this I finally got my software.
The first thing that I noticed was that there is absolutely no help, tutorials, or way to contact support built into the plugin. Anyone who has read my blog knows that this is a personal pet peeve of mine. I don’t see any reason at all to make the user log into some members website just to view a tutorial or contact support. There is no reason at all why there cant be assistance in the actual software and in my mind failing to do this is just indicative of a lack of desire to create a professional quality software. But thats just my way of thinking and for some not having help in the software may not be an issue.
Fortunately there was some easy to follow PDF tutorials inside of the members area that I could download. The problem with them though was that the screenshots that they showed in the tutorials did not match what I was seeing in my plugin. Specifically there was no ‘expand’ button to see the entire content of the article that this plugin was pulling on. What this meant was that when I was selecting an article to add to a post on my blog, I was not getting the entire article, I was only getting the shortened preview of the article.
It was only later that I realized that the basic version of the software that I purchased does not come with an expand button by design. This means that with the basic version you can search for articles but you cant add the entire article as part of your content. In essence the basic version I purchased was completely worthless.
But even if I had purchased a higher level version that would have allowed me to actually add an entire article there was still one other thing that I could not find. The spin button. Try is I did I could not find the button that would spin the content I was finding and making it unique. I did not see any mention of it in the PDF training either. Thats when it occurred to me. I couldn’t find it because there was none.
Creation Here is basically a software that steals other peoples articles and puts them on your own blog. Im not a SEO expert but I feel pretty confident in saying that stealing someone elses content and posting it to your blog verbatim is not the best tactic in the world. Sure you can manually edit the content yourself, to make it unique. But if you where going to do that why not just write a original article in your own words from scratch and just use other peoples articles as a guide for ideas?
In fact if you where just going to steal peoples content like Curation Hero does, why do you even need a software? Why not just go to Google, search for your keywords, copy the article and then paste it into your blog as a new page or post? This is basically all this plugin does anyway.
Personally I dont see any real value in this software, the basic version is essentially useless and even if you did get a full article it does little more than what you could do yourself using Google and a simple ‘copy / paste’. Sure the highest ‘level’ of this software has some kind of auto posting to Facebook etc for your articles, but why would you want to auto post stolen, unedited content to a social network?
If you search for most of the products I review in this blog you will see that I rank very high for most of the terms I target. Go ahead and try searching for some of the last products I wrote about, such as “Traffic Fusion”, “Easy VSL”, “Buzz Ignition Review” and many others. Why do I rank well? Not because Im ripping off other peoples content. Because I’m writing good quality articles. Basically Im doing what Google wants, and I am rewarded with thousands of free search engine visitors each month.
Curation Hero sounds like a short cut, and lets face it we as humans just love short cuts, but really it did not impress me in the slightest. If you do get it for sure dont get the basic / lite version, thats useless. If you do get the higher priced versions be aware that you are going to have to manually edit the articles anyway.
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
As always Brett, your reviews help allot of people.
Thanks,
Charles Grooms
And that my friend is why you didn’t get a review copy. 🙂
You think because the vendor knew I was going to be totally honest about it?
YEP!! Methinks you nailed it there.
I would imagine you’re a bit scary to many of these product developers and affiliate marketers who just push a product for the $$!
It appears to me that true honesty is not common in the IM niche so to me you’re a breath of fresh air 🙂
Thanks
Paul
If the developers of so many of these software apps. being released these days were really proud of what they developed, they should be falling all over themselves to give review copies out to as many reputable and influential people in the industry as they could to get an honest assessment for their product/s
Also when I’m looking at buying any software, I want to know I can ‘easily’ contact the owners to ask questions before I buy.
If there is no ‘Contact Us’ information on the sales page, that allows me to do this, then I won’t buy.
I suppose this is really a side issue from the point I made above about review copies.
These product developers seem to want little, or no communication with anyone BEFORE they buy, with is pathetic really.
too true 😉
Thanks Brett,
You safe me a tone of wasted time checking this sort of rubbish out. now i don’t even have to look at the sales page as my curiosity for this is product is 0.
Brett…you rock! I was literally in the process of purchasing when I saw your review email come in. You saved me AGAIN my friend. I just don’t understand why some marketers continue to put out crap…well I know it’s greed but that will catch up to you.
I guess they all can’t be Brett Ruckey!
Thanks again! You are the best!
well another one bites the dust…’it sure sounded good’ though – I was moments away from ordering lol
thanks for saving me another hundred bucks or more Brett!
Well done Brett! I agree 100%
The moment I see the face of Tod Gross I know to be careful so I’m happy I didn’t buy. Your review confirmed my feelings about this ‘product’.
Thanks!
Glad I could help. Lets be fair to Todd though, he is a paid video spokes person, making sales videos is his job, he is not the creator or the seller of this product.
It’s funny to see how many affiliates are pitching me that this is the greatest program ever. Thanks for your reviews!
Refreshing to have someone giving honest reviews and not thinking “only” about affiliate commissions on shiny objects. Kudos to you Brett. Omar.
Nice one mate…you are only 1 of 3 marketers that i let send me emails now. Your reviews are the best!
I’m with Marc. Only a select few marketers I am still subscribed to because of all the junk most promote.
Hi Brett,
Only going to “Curate” what’s already been said here, thanks for the review, agree entirely, also with Carel, when I see TG’s videos and or Chad Nicely, I just step back as there is no such thing as being selective in what they promote, good or bad it always is portrayed as the most amazing product.
Stopped searching for the “Holy Grail” most tools require a degree of effort, any that promise no work, I just back off, finally learning I guess.
Have a good weekend,
Mark
Hi Brett,
Nice review, although I do have one reservation about some of your comments. Content curation, when done correctly, can be a legitimate method to increase the value of content on a website. How else can sites like Huffington Post, Mashable, etc. still get into the top spots in Google, etc. without it?
I do not personally use content curation, but see that it can be useful. You could use it to expand on a point you are making, provide further reading on a topic, etc. You should always link back to the original article, only use a short extract.
However, it does appear that this is encouraging content curation done wrong and is something I would not recommend either.
I also hate it when you have an almost useless FE product, which relies on OTOs to work correctly, used to get you in the door. At least in this instance you do have a handy chart explaining exactly what you get I suppose.
Keep up the good work!
They have thousands of backlinks, people sending them traffic, and social bookmarks, also they have tons of unique content that draws in users.
Also its important to understand that there is a difference between being a site that aggregates articles, and one that just steals posts from other websites.
Brett,
Once again you have just saved me from myself. Its unbelievable how a lot of these affiliates just jump into the bandwagon and sell stuff they know do not work. What pisses me even more is the talk shows that are a haven for these unscrupulous developers. they ask them softball questions and cozy up with them and allow them to screw us. Some of them just accept any copy or print of so-called proof of income and they hype it as evidence that the product works
At this time I know who to trust in this industry. You have just educated me on how to be smart about these marketers. Because of you I have saved myself from me.
Thanks.
Brett,
Stand firm when the industry start coming after you.
Morgan
Vendors have been complaining to me that honesty has no place in this business for over a year. I didn’t care what they thought then and I dont care what they think now. Im here for the customers.
Totally agree with everything said so far. This hype is a real proof who is just selling anything to make money and who cares at least a bit of his customers. My personal result: I’ll block everyone who hypes on this product and will have a much more lighter inbox future 🙂
And you are 1 of 3 who is and will be whitelisted – keep it up!
Dear Brett,
I really enjoy your expertisation in this subject i think your subscribers trust is your
one of the biggest earning & reward out of this business process .Now a days lots of marketers wanna to earn five to seven figure income in such short span of time they even dont realise sustainable impact in long term business process without adding measurable value in there customers account .Every natural process took his prize,time,efforts until it reaches in mature state.In such scenario these reviews help lots of customers to understand the product.
So Thx for such value addition.Keep it up.
I usually skip a bunch of annoying OTO’s when they’re set up like that. And I am not interested in studying their funnel. I just open a new window to my JVZoo account. But I love how you go through them all for us. I would never ever purchase something before checking with you! And the “little things” like not answering your review request, and not bothering with instructionals within the software, well they’re actually big things and that says a lot! Thank you for all you do Brett! I tell everyone about you!
i once bought a “local” product (pdf, etc…) from her
it actually had a chapter that went into why you should –
always use deodorant
and
brush your teeth
before having a meetup with your prospects
arggggghhhh ;0
Actually, it can be used in a good way as well. When you write an article or post – you can add some curated content with a link back to the source as well. That way you can be of service to your readers and I think that’s completely honest way of publishing on your blog.
Im not sure what your saying there.. it sounds to me like that would just make you a link farm, also why would you want to take people off your site? Finally even if it is a good idea, why do you need a software to do that?
I’d use it to save some time, otherwise I would have to search for the keywords, copy and paste the content from Google, YouTube etc…
Let’s for example write a post on curing acne. Then after my post – I would use the software to get me some snippets of articles to wiki, other authority sites and relevant YouTube videos. Does that make sense?
Not really because it would take about 30 seconds to type in “Youtube {keyword} or WikiePedia {keyword} into Google” and then copy and paste. Also thats not what you said at first, at first you said having links etc. But either way though, Im glad that you have a use for this product. I just dont see it. But if you do, thats great 🙂
Actually, I use Curation on Fire for that purpose. And well, no problems so far 😉
Cool Marian, thanks for the alternate view. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, and to explain your thoughts.
Brett,
What about software that can popup in other website that we not own like Lead Monster or Engagifire… Is this like we steal or not?
There is no software that can pop up in other websites. There is a software that will load another website in an IFRAME (Lead Monster does not do this, Engagifire does). What you just described is a good example of how vendors mislead people with their sales copy.
Ah, speaking of which. What is your take on Social Cloud Suite that recently launched? I see a good amount of request on this one for a review. To be honest, I already picked it up during the early-bird launch but was looking forward to your review because I respect your opinion.
I lost my common theme in the jungle of the big affiliate marketer. There is no one day without two or three or more big, big products coming out. And every product, program or software is the big thing of the year! Some affiliates forgotten today that they tried to sell the product of the year yesterday. But today they have the next product of the year. And the owner of so many products call out big competitions for a prize to the affiliate marketer. I hate that so many so called big marketer don’t know what they are talking up! And most everybody is doing it with the same words in the emails.
I like so much what you are doing Brett, thank you for your honesty. When I use Google searching for product reviews I get only the reviews by the affiliate marketer, no honest reviews. I am so lucky that I found you!
Hi Brett
Good review, did not expect much from Neil Napier association with another failed product.
Thanks for this, Brett. I only recently discovered your blog and I’m glad I did.
I received loads of emails today promoting this product and that’s a good thing. It’s good because now I have been able to thin the herd by unsubscribing from their lists.
You are, in my opinion, a man with integrity – and this review chearly show this.
Hey guys
Neil Napier here.
I am helping Emma and Jay to market Curation Hero. I think it’s a great product (of course I am biased) and I will respond to Brett’s observations here. Before I do though, I think its good that someone like Brett reviews products from the other side – it gives us vendors some very good feedback.
For those that are picking up their pitchforks against Neil Napier – please do comment what else you have purchased and were not happy with – will be glad to sort it out (hint hint, qcsb)
Now responding to Brett’s points:
1. I am sorry that he couldn’t get a review copy. Will talk to Emma about it – I would have volunteered a copy but Brett and I had a misunderstanding and so he didn’t approach me. That’s sorted now, though I am not refunding Brett, unless he asks for it 🙂 (and soon you will see why he won’t ;))
2. Brett’s recommendation of including help inside the plugin is well received and we are now working on it.
3. As for PDF tutorials – I will have to investigate and rework them if needed – again something I need to discuss with my partners.
4. About basic software – it works as it is supposed to (principles of Curation). Curation means taking an article excerpt and adding your own content to it – your own voice. I have done 4 webinars today, and in each webinar I have emphasized that fact that people need to get off their butt and take action and not just copy paste stuff but add their own voice to it – or at the very least mix and match. I feel Brett is confusing curation to be copying or stealing – which it is not. Heck, even BBC and CNN curate content. Ok – sometimes they steal 🙂 So the basic version is right if you want to put more effort – with platinum you put less effort – that’s all!
5. Spinning – yes, this has been asked frequently today. We have already decided to build this in for anyone who buys the platinum version.
Hope this helps – we are open to new additions – already have the developer working on spinning feature – just need people to try it and tell us what they need.
Thanks for the comment Neil ..
I didn’t mind buying it. No big deal, my readers are worth spending the money on.
It sounds like you are taking a lot of the things that I did not care for about this product in a positive way and are going to be improving the product. Im glad that your saying in your webinar that people will need to edit the article manually, its very cool to see someone being honest about limitations in there marketing .. but as I said, if thats the case whats the point of the software, people can just copy from a Google search and dont really need the software. Though I am excited to see that your adding the Spinning function, in mind that will make a huge difference as to the usefulness of this product. Of course Im sure you understand that I have to review the product as it is, not as it will be later.
Your comment (and our Skype chat after you read this review) has been one of the more professional responses that I have gotten from a vendor who’s product I did not like. I always tell people I review the products not the vendor, however I’m very happy at how mature you where in your reaction and that in mind increases your creditability over all even if I did not like Curation Hero (as it stands right now).
Hey,Neil.. I’m in . I wanted to get in the early bird version and on the waiting list of Curation Hero Platinum with the spinning text option. I have a suggestion here, can you consider to add some button on the spinning side for a connection to the copyscape site for the spun articles just to assured peoples that this spinning software really serving its purpose and the outcome is readable.
Thanks for the honest review.
thank you Mr Brett.
you saved me some time looking at this one…Just came back from yet another long trip with the kids, and I’m now looking at 300 or so emails.
Sorry but I’ve just scrolled down your review page, and saw REJECTED. that was enough for me…my decision is made..
I’ve bought enough software that has promised content generation and content curation, because (as you said in your various training modules) people are lazy and I’m one them, but the truth is, if you want good content for google’s eyes, you have to be prepared to do some work……I’m still waiting for that great software that can deliver great content on auto pilot and as I see this one is not one of them…
Thanks again Brett honest opinion as always and after what I just seen you review its just another hyped up peice of crap I will not be touching
great to see this conversation here between Neil and Brett…
I had great products from both of these great guys…..
I love this great honest confrontations between product creators, vendors and reviewers…this makes our IM industry really an interesting platform where vendors, promoters, reviewers, product creators and consumers come together and discuss issues relating to products that would benefit the consumer…well done guys…this is great stuff for our industry….lets all be on the same side and deliver great products for the consumer who only wants to further succeed in this IM business….kami
Thank you Brett for another of your honest review.
I am always looking out for your review before looking at flashy product. The fact that you have Neil responding is remarkable.
Yep agree that Neil is positive with his respond and good for him.
Keep it up Brett.
As always, a voice of reason in the midst of all the hype. I always look forward to your reviews. Stay true.
I think you missed a point or two which made you dislike this more than you should. (I’m not affiliated in any way, I just have an alternative view).
1) you can grab just a paragraph from one place, a paragraph from another and mix and match that way much easier than going to google and clicking through to each article etc, copying and pasting… You can copy 5 paragraphs from 5 different sites and mix and match them within a couple minutes. Sure it’s best to write your own if you have a major site like yours but if it’s a thinner affiliate site or adsense site or pbn site you can use copied info. Also you can certainly rewrite each paragraph very quickly without a spinner if you have any skills at all in English composition.
2) it has the ability to give the attributions to each article you curate, and if I’m not mistaken that is how proper curation is done and every major site from yahoo to Huff Post use curation like this
3) it has the ability to add images quickly and easily and even check them for public domain licensing etc.
4) you should know better: the cheapest basic version of a plugin is almost never very good; you have to buy the bells and whistles to make it really sing
The only thing I really agree with you about is that it should incorporate a spinner or at least be able to connect to BestSpinner or SpinRewriter.
One more observation. I don’t read all your articles but it seems to me you more often tend to write a negative review on a software/plugin if they don’t give you a free copy and you have to buy it.
Generally agree with your reviews but not so much on this one.
Thanks for your feedback however:
1) Well that would be true if the version I got actually did that.
2) Major sites like Yahoo and Huff Post have their own quality articles, be assured they dont get traffic by having snippets and linking to other sites.
3) See #1
4) Yea I expect every version of a product (even the cheapest) to be at least functional and provide some actual value. If you dont that’s cool, I just have higher standards I guess.
Finally .. you are way off base here .. especially given this is the only software I have ever reviewed that I had to buy. Well I guess that means you are right, since I gave this a bad review, and its the only one I had to buy that means that 100% of the time that I had to buy one I gave it a bad review.. but really since this is the only one .. that really does not mean much I think.
With all due respect (Mr TheTrafficJammerGuy), do you really think that Brett writes a negative review on a software/plugin if the product creator doesn’t give him a free copy and he has to buy it????…I think that Brett is here to help anybody in the IM game who wants to perform better, based on his experience and knowledge, and anything else is irrelevant….
Honest review as always. I purchased a product that Emma Powell was a co-creator some time ago. I finished up not being able to use it because the support was almost non existent. I submitted a ticket and got a reply about a month later which wasn’t helpful.
Keep up the good work Brett.
Similar situation John, if she can’t provide customer service she shouldnt be launching products and taking people’s money.
I agree with what you say kami even though Brett had some negatives and that’s an opinion which I always value of course no doubt this will still sell thousands of copy’s. But when you see the program not working the way the sales page and the instructions tell you that it does don’t you think that the program creators and developers have put the nails in their own coffin?? So unfortunately the traffic jammer guy the proof was there even if you turned the volume down
Hey Brett,
Hope you’re well.
It’s been a while since I left a comment.
After reading some of the promos for this product and then reading the review I thought I had to leave a comment.
Some of the claims being made about this product seem somewhat exaggerated.
Since you’re one of the few that point out both the pros AND cons I find that to be quite valuable when making a decision about a product. For that you’ve earned the respect of many people.
If marketers could just be a bit more honest in their claims and promote better quality products I’m sure they’d gain more respect from their subscribers.
Keep up the good work!
Best,
1st, nice reviews here. Just subscribed to alerts.
Curation is a great way to create content. It is not just copy / paste, and there is a significant demand for it (great opportunity for good curators) – Google algorithms can’t do all curation by themselves.
2nd, I decided not to buy even before I saw this review. I always check JV pages before buying anything to see what is in the funnel. When a pipe is too big usually something isn’t right.
One thing is to offer a frontend product and then offer an additional product as OTO / upsell / cross-sell. Another thing is to pitch a limited product on frontend and then pitch a better product as an OTO – Just bad ethics to me.
This kind of funnels expresses that marketers are way more interested in making money launching and partnering with each others than to making money supporting a product on the long way.
Personally I prefer to pay $xxx for a product that is on the market to stay then to pay $27 for a basic product and find out imediatly (litterally) there is a better version for $67 (why do you try to sell me a limited version if you have a better one?).
After I open my wallet two times, I’m also being pitched to buy a theme and finally I have the opportunity to sell all this funnel to someone else.
What the hell is your market? People looking for curation software or people looking for resell opportunities? Or people looking for shining objects? 😉
Well.. Curation Hero has potential if it keeps being updated but didn’t convince me.
I’ve found another curation product being used by developers on their consulting services to clients (this is always a good sign). A little more expensive but much more reliable. No OTOs, no hidden features, no hype.
One product, One valuable add-on for advanced users (extra payment) and one “we do it for you” more expensive package. Everything on “price” page as it should be.
Thanks Brett for your reviews. You give us that reason that before buying any new product, take note of the reactions of those who have tried it first. More power to you, mate.
Thanks So Much Brett, For not letting us get duped into all the hype! I have been seeing all the promo for this and almost fell for it.. Thanks again your reviews are definitely a life saver or business saver I should say !! 🙂
Hey all,
Neil here. Again – based on a lot of requests – we have rolled out new upgrades last night. See the list below:
New v1.1 released:
* SPINNING (platinum and up)
* AMAZON Multiple countries
* support multiple languages like French, german, etc
* Better search with redirect handler.
* Better curation flow
* Better post layout for Pro
* add clear content button
* zendesk widget
* FAQ
* all bug fixes from tickets
So yup – we are quick to see how else we could add more value to anyone who purchases. Anyone who has purchased something from me knows that already (and now you do too :))
Awesome Neil .. thanks for the update 🙂
I want to buy at this link {link removed} $ 47
written per month, if I stop paying the monthly whether I have the right licenses will be lost as well. or simply lose the upgraded product only.
NEIL might be able to help answer it
I would expect you dont get to keep your purchase if you dont pay the monthly fee, but you would have to ask Neil to be sure.
Thanks Brett I was on the fence. But you once again precisely put it to words what i was initially thinking. Slick VSL, but crappy useless product designed to steal your money and deliver nothing. Jeez it gets frustrating sorting the crap from the gold. Don t know how u do it sometimes!
Great review again!
I guess only 1 out of 50 products or so is good enough to purchase and use in the IM industry.
Even the Warrior Forum now is a great place to promote products by scammers.
It’s a sad sad world………..
I dont think its that bad 1 out of 50, but there are some bad ones. Thats why I started this 100% honest review site, I notices that there was no one really giving honest reviews.
Great Job,
I am glad I found your website, I sort of do the same thing when I buy some of these products. There are more real people who need to start doing this to help folks not buy trash products.
Hi Brett,
I had similar issues with Emma Powell. However I actually bought one of her products and went to access it through JVZoo and website no longer existed. I wrote to her customer service explaining the issue. They sent me access to another one of their products which I didnt even purchase. After numerous emails to both them (with only one response), I still have no product/access. Been getting the run around, I will never purchase a product from her again. Her customer service is the absolute worst I have ever experienced!
This is one of those products that the hype was ridiculous on, but when you watch the sales video, it’s instantly apparent that it’s not really anything more than a limited search engine that allows you to “Frankenstein” various articles together loosely, and which did not look like it would save anybody any time!
I bought this product. Wish I had found Brett’s review first. It was cumbersome, to say the least. I have now asked for a refund. The first time I was told “no problem” but did not get the refund. I have asked 2x more times and have not received any response at all. So Neil…if you are listening and still support Emma, perhaps you can ask her to honor her 30 day refund guarantee.
I have the pro version which does show the page as in the demo. Also, in the content you can expand to the full text and copy the article by paragraphs. It also has a spinner on the right side. So I suppose if you would have upgraded your review would have been much better. By giving you a copy they may have sold many more