Hydravid [review]
POS:
More views = more sales, its really that simpleNEG:
No in software help, no install scriptToday Im doing a review of the new Hydravid 2.0 software There are so many product launches each month that I simply cant test them all. Because if this I have a really simple rule when trying to decide which internet marketing product Im going to review. I check out the affiliate page and I […]
Today Im doing a review of the new
Hydravid 2.0 software
There are so many product launches each month that I simply cant test them all. Because if this I have a really simple rule when trying to decide which internet marketing product Im going to review. I check out the affiliate page and I ask myself a simple question. Does the description of this product get me excited? If it does, I get a review copy and report on what I found during testing, if it does not I generally pass on even asking for a review copy.
Hydravid 2.0 is one that got me excited. But why?
Well first off video marketing is the future of online marketing. Actually its not even the future, its the present, just about everyone who is making money with IM is making using video to some degree or another. Even me, I could just write my text reviews like I did a year ago, but as any of my long term readers will have noticed, now I regularly include a video as well. The reason for this is simple. Video is the online content of choice.
The second reason is because there have been so many great video creation products that have come out I knew that people (like myself) would be interested in a product that is going to help them leverage these cool videos that they are making with Explandio and other software products. So I hit Walt up for a review copy and also asked to have a live Skype chat with him about this product.
So what exactly is the HydraVideo software all about? Well first let me say its name is quite clever. For anyone who does not know, a Hydra is the name for a mythical creature, a multi headed dragon. HydraVid is named well because that’s basically it is, its a multi headed dragon. Ok not really its a desktop software, but let me explain.
You see the normal process for people who want to get into video marketing, and the one I normally follow, is this. You find a product you want to promote, be it an IM product, an Amazon product, or a CPA product. You make a review or demo video of the product, or even a clever explaner video, and then you upload it to YouTube. Then you hope like heck that you get traffic to the video. But there is a problem with this approach. The problem is the upload to YouTube part. Not that uploading to YouTube is a bad idea, its not. The problem is uploading to only YouTube. What about Vimeo, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, Flickr or all the other video networks? What about all the traffic, views, and clicks you could be getting from them? If you only uploading to YouTube your missing out on a lot of views which in the end means your missing out on a lot of potential sales and probably a lot of money.
The thing is that its a pain to go around to all these different sites upload your video to each one, add a custom title and description to each one etc. In fact is such a pain that I was not doing it. Even though I knew not doing it was probably costing me sales and traffic. What can I say, the honest truth is that Im lazy. This is where HydraVid comes in.
Its a desktop software that is going to let me upload my video, with unique descriptions and titles. to multiple video networks at once. It allows spintax text in the description and title, which I can manually enter or use one of the optional services (Spin Rewriter and Best Spinner) that it integrates with. Once Im done, press a button and the software goes to work doing all the heavy lifting that I was to lazy to do myself. So now instead of having my video on one YouTube account, its all over the net. As I said it really is simple to understand, the more places my video is, the more views total its going to get and the more chances I’m going to get to make a sale from the video. I mean really, whats the point in creating a cool review video or explainer video if only 20 people are going to see it anyway.
But thats not all this software does. Besides uploading to multiple video networks Hydravid 2.0 will also upload my video to multiple YouTube accounts. Now when I first heard that my first thought was. Are we allowed to have miltiple YouTube accounts? Walt said there is nothing in YouTubes TOS that says you cant, and sure enough, when I went and looked at the TOS I could not find a thing that says this is not allowed. In fact I have multiple YouTube accounts, though I dont know how I ended up with two of them. But why would you want to upload to multiple accounts? Simple. Because its just more chances that your video will get views. Especially since each one has a slightly unique title and description.
Still that is not the end of the automation that this software provides. You can link your social media networks to this, and it will post a link to your selected network to your videos for you. This further helps you get traffic. Its a nice little feature that I was glad to see they added.
Besides all of that HydraVid comes with a free bonus YouTube keyword tool that you can use to get some basic knowledge and insight on what videos are ranking and what ones are not. Ill be honest when Walt was showing me all the features that this thing has I couldn’t help but think of two things. First I was wondering if there is anything this software does not do, second I was thinking .. ugg I have to test all of this stuff, this review is going to take hours (and it did).
Ok so there are two things that I dont like about this software. First, as many IM software products do, this one touches one of my personal pet peeve in that it has no built in tutorials or support, or even links to them, you have to log into the download area to view these or to contact support. I know I must be starting to sound like a broken record mentioning this all the time, but I really am bothered by it when software does not have some kind of help in it. HydraVid does indeed have a help menu, but there is no help in it, just an “About’ link.
The second thing I dont like about this software is that it does not come with an installer. You see this is a Java software which is good since that means it can run on a Mac or on a PC. But it has no installer. This means that you dont get a start icon or desktop shortcut with it. To run the software you have to browse your computer to where you downloaded it each time.
I found this to be a bit annoying. As I said, Im lazy. Though to be fair you can just manually create a short cut on your desktop (which is what I did).
Ok so what do I think of HydraVid over all? Well despite the fact that there are two (minor) things that I did not like about it, I love the concept and what it does as a whole. I mean if your looking to make money online you almost need to be taking advantage of video marketing. If you are taking advantage of video marketing you dont have to be brilliant to understand that the more places you put your video, the more views your video is going to get, and the more chances you are going to have to make a sale from that video. This software has a great concept because its based on simple logic and common sense. But even more than that it automates what would normally be a good amount of work to implement that logic. Im going to call this one a solid investment for anyone looking to make money online with videos no matter if its by promoting affiliate products, CPA offers, Amazon products, or even selling your own product. It just makes sense to have your video all over the net and not only on YouTube.
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
I am just wondering since this is version 2 did the version 1 people get an automatic upgrade and will anyone purchasing version 2 continue to get updates/upgrades or will they have to pay every time their is an upgrade.
My pet peeve is when I buy a product and find out a couple of months later that my version has became a lite version, or it upgrades every 6 months and I have to keep purchasing.
When Ford out comes with their new car model I dont get it for free. When the new version of my kids X-Box games come out I have to buy them. When Microsoft releases the new version of Windows or when Adobe releases the new version of PhotoShop they are not free either. I dont get the new Droid from Samsung or the new iPhone from Apple for free because I bought the old one. I just cant understand why people feel that vendors in the IM space should be required to give their future products away for free just because you bought an old version when its not expected of any other industry, even other software industries.
While it totally agree with you Brett… it does seem that many of the software products in this industry do come with ‘lifetime updates’ – but if you’re not looking for it, then you may be surprised when you have to pay for upgrades. Part of the problem is that products you buy on the Apple iOS store come with free updates so it is becoming the ‘norm’ for software (which may not appeal to developers as I know making updates isn’t free! I was in software development for 32 years!)
I could not disagree much more with you assessment. This is just Marketers leading us sheep to the slaughter.
If this was a car or physical good I could see your point, as far as software goes, many times companies have given free updates going back 6 months.
Here are some examples, Microsoft gave everyone who purchased a computer with Vista within 6 months of Windows 7 coming out a free upgrade.
Adobe when Photoshop 6 came out and was mad buggy, gave out photoshop 6.5 as a free upgrade.
Hydravid came out in July 2014, so barely 6 months ago if that.
There is a difference between an ‘update’ and a new version. I can understand how that could be confusing for a non developer. But in general an update is a ‘patch’ a fix or a slight tweak. An new version is redesigned. The development process is started over. Windows 7 was an update to Vista (Vista was so buggy that they did not even want the name of it on their update which is why they renamed it).
For Photoshop 6.5 was a update, for version numbers anything after the decimal point is to indicate minor changes. thus 6.5 had a few minor changes from 6.
Try getting to totally new version of Photoshop for free, or the totally new version of Windows (10 is coming) for free, or the totally new version of any other software for free.
I can understand that to a non developer it seems like doing software updates is no big deal.
However I also understand the flip side. I understand that software takes sometimes a couple hundred man hours to create, and developers are not cheap (I billed at $75 per hour). Just because a product is digital does not mean their are not development / support costs. Still I respect your opinion even if I dont agree with it.
Also just to clarify HydraVid is listed in JVZoo as having been originally released: 10/25/2013, so that was quite a while ago for the old version.
Hi Brett,
Firstly, thanks for your Reviews – always useful and I think impartial. Very valuable.
I think the points you make about upgrades are reasonable to a degree, but not entirely.
1. Its true that when you buy a car or other physical good you don’t get a new free replacement every year. Against that you have to consider you still have a car, and you can sell it on to someone who would find it useful if you want to upgrade to the newer model. The older one is still usable and maintainable, and the sale of it reduces the cost of the new model.
You can’t generally onsell older versions of software for one thing because of licence restrictions, probably lack of support, etc.
2. Most commercial software in the non-IM world has an optional or mandatory annual maintenance fee of 15 or 20% of the purchase price which gives you ongoing support AND upgrades. This could be a good model to bring into IM software.
3. The vendor pays out monster Affiliate fees – sometimes as much as 100% on the ‘front-end offer’ as well as other costs on new sales, so why not give existing customers a 75% on the new version as an alternative to the annual maintenance.
4. If a customer bought the f.e. offer and the OTO version, and possibly other OTOs typically the customer will have spend quite a bit with the vendor, and deserves an excellent deal to remain with him and take the new version.
5. The Vendor / Developer will have incurred costs of course with the updates that have been done, but usually will not have re-written from scratch or incurred the same level of costs on the upgrades (he might have, but often not) and again there is logic in providing the new features to existing clients for a small fee, not a re-purchase fee.
6. Telling the customer that the thing you just bought or bought just 6 to 12 months ago is now not only superseded but they have to buy again, in full, not only risks the customer saying well fine, I’ll buy something that does a similar thing from a different Vendor who might actually value me as a customer. The moment you ask someone to think about a purchase decision, guess what, they do! And you as the vendor might not like their decision, and even if they do upgrade the vendor risks the customer building a slight resentment.
Rob
Thanks for sharing your opinion, I really dont want this comments section to turn into debate on if vendors should give free updates (which it seems its starting to), but you made a well written comment so I approved it anyway. I dont believe that any software developer, in any space, should be expected to give away the next version of their product. Even if it does come out 6 months later, heck even if its 4 months later. I mean spending 4-6 months working on an update is a lot of work. Its not unreasonable to want to get paid for that work. Also its not like you HAVE to buy the update, dont want to, just keep the version you have. Again though I understand my opinion is from the perspective of a person who worked as a software developer and not a a customer buying software.
Hey Brett, I commented more substantially on this ‘Free Upgrades’ thing below – but had to laugh at your remark “When the new version of my kids X-Box games come out I have to buy them” – C’mon Brett – those games are ‘your kids’ and you never play ’em??!!
(Grin!)
All the best
I never play my kinds X-Box … (I have one of my own lol) 🙂
Hi
1.Do your customers get the this Bonus Gift from the creator? Hydravid
Xray (video keyword spy software) as Todd customers do?
For sure. That’s the research tool I talk about that’s included as a bonus from Walt, I put a video demo from Walt up if you want to check it out.
Hey Brett
thanks so much for the review! I was on the fence but I know I need to upload to multiple sites and it is just too painful.
I keep seeing something about a monthly fee and if I read it right something about being limited to 100 uploads a month? I’m confused and you didn’t mention anything about those. I jumped ahead and watched some of the videos on their youtube page (which I assume come in the training area). {link removed}
HydraVid is unlimited usage and there is no monthly fee. Though there is an OTO that has a monthly fee, though I did not review that. The OTO is optional though, HydraVid is fully functional without it and is a one time, unlimited use. Be assured if it had a limitation on use I would be the first to complain about it 🙂
Is there an oto…thank you!
There are two, though Ill be honest I dont have a lot of details on them, I did not review the OTO’s because they are additional services and not required to make the software work etc. That is they are totally optional and not needed for the HydraVid software if you dont want them.
Thank you Brett, will definitely get this…I always wait for your reviews as they really are a good honest evaluation…
Brett,
Thank you always, for you insight with IM sofware.
Hello Brett
My concern is the support tab,is this going to be another fly by night piece of software,i,m sure
you have exprienced new software with the bugs that have not been worked out yet. Man how i hate having to search for support when i need some help.That kind of turned me off, i think i,ll wait a few and see what the masses think about this amazing piece of software.
By the way loving your reviews striaght and to the point,keep up the good work.
Hi, what different from the previous version?
Thanks
gio
Im sorry I have never used the first version so I really cant say.
Hi Brett, I know they are two different products, but in your opinion would it be worth buying Hydravid and Vidneos given that Hydravid comes with the Hyper X SEO add on as the bonus software?
If you need a keyword research tool then perhaps. However if you already have a different research tool like Vidneos then no.
Brett, How do I purchase via your link? Do I click on the “Click Here to Learn More” link?
Yes that is correct. Thanks for asking 🙂
Hi Brett,
Just wanted to leave a comment about Hydravid after my purchase. I have been working on this for about a day setting this thing up with the accounts and testing it. I tried to upload a short video and submit it to the sites. All of the sites I tested before saving and all of them worked. On the test run, it stopped submitting when it got to Break.com. Could not log in. Was not the password, because I could manually login. So I deleted that one and tested it again. It uploaded to Youtube just fine, except for one thing. The video’s audio track was out of sync! This is not acceptable to me at least. Also, after logging in to the other accounts that show a successful video upload, there was nothing there. Only the social media accounts showed the video, but in Facebook only a Youtube link. As far as I’m concerned, this was a great idea and concept, but poor execution. FYI, I did this with the Mac version. Haven’t tried the PC version.
Has anyone else actually bought it and had success uploading to all of your accounts that were set up and actually went to those sites to see if your videos were there and played properly?
I do not believe the audio track being out of sink is caused by this software. In my testing I did not try to upload to Break.com / however Walt did a live demo for me where I saw him upload to all the sites. I will say this though, if you are not happy you for sure should request a refund (after asking their support for assistance of course).
I am having that same problem. My videos keep getting out of sync as well.
Hmm I had no issues with that. Did you hit up their support?
I unfortunately ‘still’ haven’t managed to get a single video to upload to all required sites 🙁
As you say – great concept!
Did you contact their support and ask them for assistance?
So, HYDRAVID CLOUD, will launch very soon.
It would be great to get a review, (hope you can fit it in Brett) and also here some thoughts from owners of previous versions.
Ill see if I can get in touch with Walt.
Ok, great, I will periodically check back here at http://brettrutecky.com/Software-detail/hydravid-review/ to see if there is a update on the new version. I think Walt Bayliss would be more then happy to give you a review copy, or even a interview, seeing how you gave the last version of Hydrovid 4 stars.
Thank you.