Video Skins [review]

33
Posted July 22, 2015 by in

Rating

Price
 
 
 
 
 


Concept
 
 
 
 
 


Execution
 
 
 
 
 


Value
 
 
 
 
 


Total Score
 
 
 
 
 

3/ 5

Creator: Sam Bakker
 
 

POS:

Great for self hosted videos
 

NEG:

Only works on your site, not fully mobile responsive
 

Today Im doing a 100% honest review of the new Video Skins software. First though I want to apologize for not having a demo video. Normally I make a video review to go with my text review but for this one I did not. The reason I did not is that right now its about […]

by Brett Rutecky
Full Article

Today Im doing a 100% honest review of the new Video Skins software.

1

First though I want to apologize for not having a demo video. Normally I make a video review to go with my text review but for this one I did not. The reason I did not is that right now its about 92 degrees outside in North Eastern PA where I live with 80% humidity. To put it bluntly its hot, and I just cant sit in my home office for an hour with the central air off to make a video. I tried making one with the air on but the noise kept ruining the video. So because of the lack of a video review I will try hard to be extra thorough with the text review.

Ok so as you probably guessed Video Skins is a software that lets you put a ‘skin’ over your preexisting videos. But what exactly is a ‘skin’ and more importantly how can it help you? Well a skin is any type of functionality. That shows over the video. These can be things like optin forms, social share buttons, call to action buttons, PayPal buttons and more. I will explain each of these features in this review and also cover the pro’s and con’s of each one.

The first thing I looked for when I logged into the software was the tutorials. A big pet peeve of mine is when a software does not have tutorials or a way to contact support built right into it. Video Skins has both. There is contact form and there are a ton of video tutorials.

1

However I will admit that once I found the tutorials, was satisfied that they where there in case I needed them, I did what most people will probably do. I completely ignored them and jumped right into the software.

In order to get started you need to click ‘create new’. You are then asked to select where your video is hosted as well as a video name. There are a couple of other optional settings that are not really that important as well.

1

Video Skins integrates with YouTube, Amazon S3, or you can enter your own embed code. Given that they have multiple options I was a little surprised to see that they did not include Vimeo so I decided to test with Vimeo’s embed code. With the exception of the unimportant custom control bar and custom play button all of the Video Skins functions worked correctly when using Vimeo.

For my main test I used a YouTube video.

After entering the initial video you are presented with a number of premade skins to get started with. Or you can make your own from scratch.

1

I chose to create my own from scratch and was then taken to the main editor.

1

This is the heart of the software. The place where you add your own custom functionality to the video. Its also the place where you will spend the majority of your time when using this software. You can add several different types of things over your video. In order to add a specific functionality simply left click on its widget / icon on the left and drag it into the video to where you want it located. After you drop it into the video you can then edit that widgets settings or reposition it if you like (its fully drag and drop)

Lets cover each of the widgets one at a time, I tested them all and noticed good and bad things about each. Please note that you can have any or all of the widgets over your video but you cant not have multiple copies of each one. You can also select the start / stop time for each widget or have it show for the entire video.

First the ones that I personally did not care to much about.

Custom Image: This allows you to put your own custom image over the video. While this is nice , its really not that important in my mind. I guess you can have an image that is designed to make people more likely to click play, but really you should be making people ready and wanting to watch your video before they even get to your site.

Play Button: Put your own custom play button over the video. This really does not make any sense unless you have a custom image over. In fact the only time you will really use this is if you have a custom image.

Play Bar: This one lets you put your own custom play bar over the video. A play bar is where people can fast forward / rewind  /play / pause / and see the video counter. There is nothing wrong with them having that, but really a custom play bar is not going to make anyone any money so really who cares.

Text: Video Skins lets you put your own custom text over the video. This is fully customizable allowing you to select the text position, color, font, and into animation (most of the widgets allow you to enter a intro animation actually)  but honestly in my experience text is difficult to see or read over a video, also its not clickable or anything so really this did not excite me.

Now for the ones that I did think are useful

Button: You can add clickable buttons over the video. Buttons like this are going to be great for linking to affiliate products or CPA offers and are going to be a good way to use your video to warm up traffic and then send them over to your target URL. These buttons are not graphics, they are actual buttons, so you can fully edit the text in them.

1

Since you can add your own text to the buttons I wanted to see if it would handle non English languages well. Specifically I was interested in if could handle non standard characters. So I went over to Google translate and translated “This is my button” into Finnish “Tämä on minun painike”, I made sure that I put the translated text into notepad first to remove any character encoding. This is what I got when I saved the button:

1

As you can see Video Skins seems to have problems handling non standard text characters. I tried several other languages and got similar results for each one. Because of this Im going to say that the button option is best if your using a language that does not have special characters.

Optin Form: This is a feature that I really liked. By adding a optin form over your video you can basically turn your video into a squeeze page and use your video to build your list. We should all know by now that list building is the one thing that you absolute need to be doing.

The option form comes in two different styles. The first is a form that only covers the lower third of your video and will continue to show as your video plays. The second, which I show in the graphic below is the kind that pauses the video and displays until either the user optins or clicks to close the form and continue the video.

1

The form is super customizable allowing you to edit every single aspect of it. You can enter your own heading, text, and button text as well as its opacity. You can set the background color an opacity as well if you like. Video Skins integrates with Aweber, Infusion Soft, Send Reach, ImnicaMail, MailChimp, IContact and Get Response. I thought the optin integration was very well done and a great feature.

Count Down Timer: Adding a countdown timer is a great way to get people to take action. This is something that has been proven time and time again. When you add a countdown timer it adds scarcity and quite frankly scarcity sells. Video Skins allows you to enter a fully customizable countdown time.

1

There are five different counter styles and it works very well however I did notice a couple of quirks about this feature. First unlike all of the other widgets there is no live preview in the editor. Instead it only shows a place holder graphic. Second if you add custom text above the countdown timer the text is constrained to the width of the timer.

1

This is not really a bug. Just a personal preference I guess. I would have liked to see the text go wide and have the countdown timer centered under the wider text. But as I said thats just my preference and honestly most people wont need to enter custom text anyway. For most applications you will just have a timer alone in the corner or something to add scarcity to the context of your video.  Over all I really like this feature and thought it was a great addition to Video Skins.

PayPal: You can add a PayPal button over your video. This is going to be good for anyone who is selling a physical product or for a charity looking to get donations. However honestly I thought this particular feature was not done so well.

1

First of all you only have 4 button styles to choose from and you cant upload your own. Second of all this does not actually generate your PayPal code that it uses. You have to paste on your own PayPal buy now or donate code. Both of these things where a big let down for me and I really think this particular feature could be improved on.

Social: The last feature is the social buttons. This lets you add social share / like buttons over your video. Included are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.

1

There are many differnt styles of buttons that you can choose from as well as two different orientations. You can have any or all of these buttons. In my testing the social buttons feature works well and I thought it was a great addition to Video Skins. Having the share / like buttons up front and makes people much more likely to actually click them. This will inevitably get you more social exposure as well as more followers.

Besides these video functions Video Skins also has built in stat tracking. This tracking is easy to follow professional quality and very detailed.

1

You can see over all statistics for your videos combined or you can see individual video specific statistics.

Ok so what do I think of Video Skins over all? Well if you took the time to read this entire review Im sure you noticed that this software has a lot of different functionality. What I thought of each of these functions ranged from, “I didnt really care about it” to “could be done better” to “I really liked it”. While there where things about Video Skins that I did not like or that I thought could have been done better over all I thought it was a cool tool that is going to be great for anyone who has a website or blog that uses videos. That’s something I want to point out, VideoSkins is about putting functionality over your existing videos and embedding it on your site. It does not change the actual video you use. It just puts functionality over the video and then gives you an embed code to put in your site.

The four options I really liked best where the optin form (any chance to collect a lead is always a good thing), the countdown timer (scarcity sells its just that simple), the social features (social exposure is always a good thing) and the clickable buttons (though this is not so great if you need special characters in your language).

Being totally honest I will admit that this is not the first of this kind of software, there have been others, and truthfully if you already have a software like this then you might not need Video Skins. However if you do not have one, if you have a website or have clients with a website, then video skins is going to be a tool worth considering. Though it is not perfect and for sure has some areas that could have been done better, it does have enough good things about it to still make it a viable tool for some uses.

1

 

 

 

 

 

Sam has provided me with some cool bonuses to give to anyone who picks up Video Skins through my link. You will get instant access to these extra bonuses (and more).

1

1

1

1

You get instant access to all of these bonuses (as well as more) when you pick up Video Skins.

Click here now to get Video Skins and the bonuses.

 

 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

Brett Rutecky

Brett Rutecky is a full time online marketer, web developer, and entrepreneur. He has developed scores of Facebook apps, dozens of custom web sites and hundreds of scripts.

33 Comments


  1.  
    Jon

    Hi Brett,

    Thank you for your usual diligent in doing the review.

    I have Video Studio. Video Skin seem similar but I am not fully sure. Are you able to advise the difference?

    Thank you.

    Jon




  2.  
    Hitesh

    Hi Brett,

    Thanks for this review. Couple of quick questions – In your Review Heading, you’ve mentioned that it’s not fully mobile responsive and only works on your website. Can you please elaborate more on the mobile responsive part, since I did not find anything in your detailed review about mobile responsive test.

    Secondly, you’ve mentioned that the software can only work on website that we own – I believe, they have claimed that the OTO3 will allow you to post to Facebook Newsfeed and all over Social Media. Please let us know if you have any insights on this.

    Lastly, in functionality how is this different from Socivids – what are the main points where you find either of the software has a winning edge ?

    Thank you in advance for your time taken in review and your time in answering this and educating us.




    •  

      Good questions and sorry that I did not go into detail about the mobile responsive part. The truth is that I got tired and forgot to explain that. I know thats not a good excuse but its the truth.

      Ok mobile responsive, in my testing the videos adjusted their size properly and the position of the elements (countdown timer, button etc) also adjusted their coordinates properly, however the size of the elements (time, button etc) did not change, so on a small screen they where to big and got jumbled together.

      In speaking wit Sam the embed in Facebook is not working properly (I pointed out a few errors / problems with it when testing). He has informed me that it is expected to be working around 30 days after the launch. As Im sure you understand I only review what exists in a software, not what they claim they will add a month later. This does not mean that they wont add it, it just means that at the time of testing, even with the OTO, it did not exist.

      SociVids is fully mobile responsive, SociVids works on Facebook and on your websites. This does have a better interface though and better stat tracking. If your looking for something just for your site this is a good choice, if you have SociVids you probably dont need this. if you dont though and want to embed interactive video on yours website this is a very good choice.




  3.  
    jon

    Doesn’t Sam Bakker usually abandon his products shortly after launch.
    Although, I am not sure if he is just a pitchman for this launch or the developer.




  4.  
    Peter

    Brett,

    Thank you for soldiering through the heat for us. That is dedication!

    Frankly, I am all “video software-ed out”. I can’t keep track of ’em anymore.

    Peter




  5.  
    Morgan

    Brett,

    I just don’t like this type of your review. I hardly read them and I am not going to do that today. I wish you had done a video review instead of this long one.




    •  

      Some like the video reviews, some like the text reviews. I try to make everyone happy but its not possible to make all people happy all the time. Thanks for the feedback.




      •  
        John Miller

        Hi Brett,

        I’m one of those for whom your static image worked just fine in your excellent review.

        Thank you very much! Your efforts are greatly appreciated!




  6.  
    Morgan

    Brett, did you check Video Overplay, it seems to have all the features Videoskins have and more for lesser price




  7.  
    stephen

    Hey Brett,

    If you think it’s hot where you are come to Texas…my car outside temp read 110 yesterday.

    As always great review. My question is on a youtube hosting does Video Skins have the option to designate a url that the viewer would automatically be sent to after viewing/finishing watching the video?

    Thanks in advance….




  8.  
    Joe

    Whatis the difference with this over Social Movie Video?




  9.  
    Shawn

    How does this product compare to Video pages, which you reviewed last May?




  10.  
    Matt

    Hey Brett, as I have stated before, Sam Baker has one of the worst reputations. I have bought his junk (him + his wife)… I would warn everyone to stay well away.

    Even if he is just frontman, it is usually crap + NO backup!

    The 3 Horsemen of the IM appocolypse:

    1. Precious
    2. Alex Costan
    3. Sam Baker

    The first too are by far the worst carpetbaggers in the IM niche.

    Havn’t heard from either of these two for a while… Hopefully they are gone?

    I do think people should be warned of these guys reputations before purchasing.




    •  

      I dont review the people I only review the software (as Im sure you can understand)




    •  
      Steve

      I agree. Sam Baker is full of sh*t. His wife is even worse. Why?
      They don’t offer amy value for one, then they so blast the hell out of your email promoting everythING under the sun..and yes, he does ditch his products after launch. Seems like he pumps outs 20 products every 2 months




      •  

        Lets keep it civil here guys. We are reviewing the product not bashing Sam (who did not even develop this product)




        •  
          Mike

          This is an honest fact that the top three marketers are relentless sellers of useless products. Sam is indeed a partner of this product and this is supposed to be his “flag ship” product.

          Sam and his college-level partner made over $1M from this launch based on that fact (at least from his sales videos). He even sells a lifetime upgrades as an upsell. However, the product falls short and I’m sorry to say I will not be purchasing anything from him again.

          Honestly, how can anyone support one product well enough when he has new products coming out every 5 days?

          I am sure as a product creator he is a great person to partner with as his list must be huge. Looking beyond that, he promotes crap!




          •  

            This comment is full of nonsense. A) How do you know that Sam has made over $1M from this launch? Simple you cant. How do I know you cant know this? Because I really do know how much he made from it and it was not anywhere near that amount. B) Also he does not have a new product coming out every 5 days. That again is total nonsense. If your going to post comments please try to act like a mature adult and do not invent nonsense and present them as if they are facts. This is a site designed to give good useful information to people in the IM space. While I welcome comments this is not a place for gossip or for people to invent ‘facts’ out of their head. Thanks!




  11.  
    Joe

    I mean social mobi video… you made video review before.. and you use the player during review.




    •  

      They are very similar, as I said in the review here, the concept of Video Skins is nothing new, it has been done several times before, if you already have a player like this then you do not need a new one.




  12.  
    Hitesh

    To Everyone who have expressed their opinions –

    My only request is – “Please Dont Judge A Book By it’s Cover !”

    We have Brett going deep into the products and laying out the pros and the cons of the products… so then why be judgmental even before we hear Brett out !!!

    And in most of the cases, the developer is another person.. just as in this case, its Brad Stephens who the man behind this software. Brad has successfully developed many software in past just like Brett.. and we must never forget it’s a tough job to develop flawless software without any bugs in the first go ! It’s almost next to impossible – which is why, what matters most is the commitment of the developer to rectify the mistakes and come out with better versions.

    Lastly, someone just mentioned that Sam abandons his products after launch – on the contrary, I still see CTA Bar, Rocket Bar, Audience Drill (all of this are where Sam was the front man) up and running, still selling on JVZoo – while Socialcloudsuite was bought by Shawn M. Miller recently because he liked it very much after using it as a customer.

    I am not a spokesperson on behalf of anyone; neither I have any connections with any of these marketers – However, I am just laying out the facts. It’s easy to speak something evil about someone – but we must refrain doing so unless we have facts in support to that. If you all observe, Brett always reviews the products and not the promoters or the front spokespersons in the launch which is the real purpose of this website.

    This is just my opinion. Thanks.




    •  

      I could not have said it better myself Hitesh. You also exactly understand why I review the products and not the vendor.




    •  
      Sam Bakker

      Thanks Hitesh 🙂

      As Hitesh said I’d encourage everyone to do their research. This and most other products including the product the two above are talking about – I was the front man and not the developer.

      However Rocket Bar, Social Post Suite, Social Post Manager, CTA Bar and there are others. I bought the software off the developers in order to keep them updated in many cases it’s cost me tens of thousands of dollars to do so. We have made a large effort to keep our products up to date and right now we’re in the process of upgrading CTA Bar, Rocket Bar, Social Post Suite, and Social Post Manager.

      If it doesn’t make sense to update a software in every case we’ve upgraded users to a more advanced version of the software for free.

      We’ve done 3 launches over the last 3 months and our support has maintained a 95 – 98% satisfaction rating. It’s consistent throughout the year. We monitor our support stats and even though we’ve had to entirely switch over to a new group of people over just this last month we’ve kept the satisfaction of our customers.

      {link removed}

      Also the fact we are a top seller of JV products shows that we have a good reputation and we sell quality products.

      As for the products I promote – I don’t promote bad products – I create reviews YES in a different style to Brett but I take a lot of time to go through every product I promote and create a video on it.

      And to the two negative comments above (hating on me and my wife without facts just hate) – if you have had a bad experience I encourage you to email our support and give us a chance to make it better. You’ll find 100% of the time we do – heck if we have made a mistake I have paid out of my own pocket to make it better many times.

      I even include my personal email in the emails that I send so I’m easily accessible in case something happens and I’m personally in support helping out every day.

      Sam Bakker is my real name, I’m not hiding here and my name means everything to me online as do the products I release. Right now Brad is working his backside off as are his developers to add additional features to Video Skins and we both will be keeping it up to date moving forward. We care about our customers.




  13.  
    Srecko

    I really appreciate this site and your reviews Brett (imagine I’ve put a thumb up right here 🙂 It’s really refreshing, REALLY refreshing to see somebody giving honest reviews, not just pitching and please know you are GREATLY appreciated.

    Now regarding “people trashing” posts in here. Well, firstly, Like Brett said, we are discussing the software here not a person, otherwise Brett, I mean come on, where’s the Brangelina review then?? 🙂

    Secondly I have to say some of the things people have written here about Sam or his wife is really really nasty. it looks like somebody paid you to do it or something similar and you haven’t mentioned a thing about the software we are discussing here.

    From my personal experience Sam and his wife Eva have been above and beyond supportive, responsive and helpful. They have been and continue to be incredible and that is my experience. Even if you guys did have a negative experience with any of them, which I highly doubt what you wrote is still not a way to express that. Which says more about you than it does about them.

    As for Video Skins, I actually really like the software, I beta tested it and yeah like in every other software I test I would have done something different, but I am not the developer and I like the way it turned out. Like Brett said, it’s not the reinvention of the wheel but so what. If you don’t have something similar, yeah it’s definitely a great deal! It has everything other similar products have in one place. Oh and just for the record, you know, I once asked Sam about HIS product: “Hey Sam do I need this if I already have this and this?” Sam: “no, you have enough :)” was his response. Where da heck are you gonna find that sort of honesty in the IM world?

    Thanks again to Brett for this and for all the other honest reviews man (again, imagine a thumb up here 🙂 Keep it going and many thanks!




  14.  
    Roy

    To be frank, I bought a number of Sam Bakker’s products. Amongst many others, I have bought Social Spy Agent, CTABar, Social Cloud Suite and a couple others. I find his stuff is pretty good. Instead of bashing against Sam, I think we could learn something from him. He is active and produces. In fact, I find his wife’s material is very good as well. For example, in one of the upsells, she documented the procedures of establishing an IM business. Heck, who has actually got the time to do it in such a detailed level? I have yet to come to see such well done products in quite a while. His support is very good as well. He personally responded my support tickets, so I have no problems with Sam what so ever. The fact that he produces much more products than many is doomed to have shortfalls, only if we could learn from him, we will be benefited. 😀




  15.  
    Hitesh

    Guys,

    I would go one step further on this..
    I remember I’d bought Social Engage and the Pro Version costing me quite a bit. This was a product from Precious Ngwu.. I actually could not test out this software immediately upon purchase due to some reasons and tried using it after 3 months but the software was a complete failure. Firstly I was given Basic Version in the name of Pro and the site also maintained the Basic Version Link.. Support from the seller was bad. The 30 days period had lapsed and Oaypal would not help me on this.

    Sam had promoted this product so I reached him and expressed my grievance – Sam immediately reached out to me and expressed his apologies stating that he also disaaproved this software upon finding out the flaws and that he immediately stopped promoting it afterwards. He also offered to refund me out of his pocket into my paypal.

    Guys, I have this complete mail conversation on record – Tell me, which affiliate would go this length if he was not serious about his subscribers and did not care enough ?

    Coming to Eva, She’s even more professional than Sam and you can expect her to respond in less than 12 hours flat inspite of time difference…

    I’ve contacted her on number of occassions regarding Bonus links and stuff like that.. I’m given solutions and personalised treatment in a very less turnaround time.

    About Brad Stephens, he is a wonderful person and a genuine software developer – Brad puts in lot of efforts in his products and he always responds back promptly with solutions.. I’ve had the chance of communicating with him on number of occassions and my Gmail is open for anyone who has an element of doubt on these guys.

    Friends, there’s always something to learn from someone and from Sam there’s a lot to learn… He’s a true marketer… Doesn’t everyone on this forum including the Blog owner have one common goal of being an online success in a big way ? Sam is already headon and leading the way… Let’s get positive and start learning from these Gurus.

    Cheers.





Leave a Response


(required)

Prove your human: *