Stakk [review]
POS:
Very customizable, does a lotNEG:
Only works on pages (at time of testing)Today Im doing a review of a new WordPress plugin called Stakk So what exactly is Stakk? Well its a WordPress plugin that lets you create popups. Now I know what your thinking .. ‘big deal Brett there are about a billion plugins that let you make popups, why in the world did you decide […]
Today Im doing a review of a new WordPress plugin called Stakk
So what exactly is Stakk? Well its a WordPress plugin that lets you create popups. Now I know what your thinking .. ‘big deal Brett there are about a billion plugins that let you make popups, why in the world did you decide to review Stakk?” .. and to be fair thats a good question. Let me explain.
First of all popups are something you should not be ignoring. Now Im not talking about the annoying old school popups that open in a new tab and are blocked by just about every browser for the last 10 years. Im talking about unblockable modern CSS popups. You see them all over the place, on high end sites, they ask for your email, they lock content, they offer you a deal and they do lots more. Ever wonder why so many sites use them? Its simple really, sites large and small use them because they work. Period.
Because they are so effective there are a lot of existing plugins that let you create popups. I have even made some myself. So what makes this different and what made me want to review Stakk? The answer is simple. The sheer functionality that Stakk offers. While most pop up plugins let you create a pop up that has an optin form and optionally a redirect Stakk lets you do so much more. You can create timers, opt ins, media overlays, surveys and offers. Also you can combine these things together in different ways. So for example you can have an opt in with a timer with an optin form or a survey with a video.
This is actually one of Stakks two biggest strengths, it is so customizable. It really does take it to a new level. Everything is fully editable and it comes with a lot of really cool options such as animations, overlays, and mix and match functionality. With it you can create pop ups that not only look the way you want but also execute in a very professional and eye catching way. Unfortunately the sheer number of options that this software has is also a bit of a problem as well. Because this is so customizable there is a bit of a learning curve to get good at creating your popups. Not that you wont be able to get started right away quickly because you will. But in order to really take advantage of what Stakk can do you will need to use it a bit.
To make learning how to use the many options that it has Stakk provides assistance in multiple ways. First there are tool tip icons next to every single option in the software. Simply mouse over them and you will get a description of what that option is for. Second it has links to both the support system and video tutorials built right into the plugin. These links open up in a new browser tab so if you need to watch a video or you need to contact support you can do so while you are in the middle of working without interrupting your work. Also I watched a couple of the tutorial videos. There are a lot of them, they are very well made and are easy to understand.
The second thing that Stakk has going for it is the standard that this plugin was created to. As a person with a background in software development errors and bugs tend to jump right out at me. I had no such problems with Stakk. It really is a professional level product. Also they keep updating it and making it better. I got my first review copy about a week ago. The version I tested in the video was actually the third version I was given and about 20 minutes after I finished the video Bobby hit me up on Facebook and sent me a link to a newer version. Each time they have added new features options and functionality.
Unlike some marketers when I do a review I always try to be totally upfront in it pointing out the good and the bad. There is one thing that I really did not like about this plugin. Its the way you add your popups to your site. In order to add your popup you select the page on your WordPress site that you want to add it to.
While this may seem like a very convenient to add a pop up to your site it does pose a bit of a problem. You see WordPress has pages and it has posts. There is a difference. For example brettrutecky.com is a WordPress site. What your reading right now is a post. If you where to click the contact link in the header you would be taken to a page (that has a contact form on it). In the version of Stakk that I tested you could only select a page to put your pop up on. This means that you cant put them on your posts. For a lot of people using WordPress the majority of their content is going to be in the form of posts. Its important to put your pop ups where your actual content is because that is what Google is going to index and that is where your free search engine traffic is going to end up. Where the content is. I really wish this also generated a short code that you can add to your posts to include your pop up in them as well.
Now to be fair I did contact Bobby about this issue on one of the many Facebook chats he and I had about this product. In our chat I explained why this is a limitation and he agreed that it was something that needed to be changed.
His answer was fast to the point and very satisfactory:
Now I have no doubt in my mind that Bobby will make this update as he promised. However I must review the product as it was presented to me which is why I must mention this limitation. Even though I firmly believe it will be changes, and in fact may already be changed by the time this goes live I do have to be fair and say that at the time of testing this only allowed you to put your popups on pages and not on posts.
So besides this one limitation what do I think of Stakk over all? Well quite simply this the best pop up plugin I have ever seen. While there are others that will let you collect emails, Stakk takes functionality to a whole new level letting you also create surveys and offers that can be further mixes with videos, and timers. Its also extremely customizable and is built to a high standard. As a software developer I tend to be really picky about software products I review. In fact sometimes I get a little mad, frustrated or cynical when I review a bad product. However Stakk is nothing like one of those bad ones. It really is top notch. There was a lot of time and hard work put into creating Stakk and with the exception of the current limitation on only being able to add your popups to your pages (and not your posts) it is quite good.
Popups are something you should not be ignoring. Every time a visitor comes to your site and then leaves you have missed out on an opportunity. By adding a pop up to your site you create that chance to build up your list, to make a sale, or to get feedback. Also since popups show over your content they are good for SEO. Google and the other search engines see the content of your site not the pop up. This means that unlike a traditional squeeze page or stand alone feedback / offer form you will still get organic traffic to your site. Not trying to capitalize on that free traffic is insanity as it costs you nothing and happens without any additional work, which as I said is why so many big name sites use pop ups.
Stakk is a high quality plugin that does so much, if I where to list all the features in it this article would be a dozen pages long. Its one big drawback is the fact that it currently does not work in posts and is limited to pages only. If you are using a WordPress site that is primarily pages I suggest you take a moment to look at the Stakk plugin. If you are site is primarily made up of posts (like this site) then as it currently is Stakk is not going to be very useful to you.
Important update:
True to their word the creators of Stakk have updated this plugin and it now allows you to publish your Stakk to your WordPress posts as well as to your pages.
Stakk is now officially one of the best WordPress plugins of its type that I have ever seen!
Update 2:
They added even more features! Check out the video below, its like these guys read my mind (or perhaps they just read my blog)
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
Holy cow Brett! You mean this won’t show up on my posts? How in the heck did they not implement that on day 1? That’s all my site is about, the posts. None of that is noted in their demos. Big fail and will shock many buyers.
I also don’t see any ability to set a cookie so regular users don’t see the popup every time they visit. I CONSTANTLY have people bitching about my popup – and I have it set to only appear once per 7 days for a user. And I’ve modified my current plugin so that my email subscribers click a special spot and they set their cookie for 365 days so they don’t see my popup… NONE of those kinds of options are in this plugin that I can see. That’s another deal killer for me!
Yep I totally agree, most blogs are about the posts and this is a big disadvantage, one that Im willing to bet no one else told you about (you can always count on me to tell you what other guys dont). Though I do believe that they are going to add this, at the time of testing it did not exist. This limitation is actually the reason I rated this 3.5 for execution and for value instead of the 4 or 4.5 it would have gotten.
Stakk does have an option to set how often the pop up will show for a repeat user, there are so many ways to customize this that it was impossible for me to show everything.
That’s good news (about the repeat visitor) tho it must be hidden somewhere – I can’t see it in any screen shot on your video or on their demos either.
I’m still not a buyer if it isn’t on the posts tho!
Thanks so much for your review Brett! You rawk!
I have looked at this WP Plugin and while they say it works on mobile phones, in my tests these pop ups did not display very well. Since mobile represents at least 50% of all traffic I wish this performed better, but I will stick with other solutions that work great on all screens.
Well to be fair a plugins output becomes a part of your site, so if your site is not fully responsive the plugins output will not be. In my testing it showed correctly on my Droid. As for that statement ‘mobile represents at least 50% of all traffic’ .. you really need to be careful when making statements like that. For example: for me that simply is not true, mobile is only about 26% of my blog traffic. Facebook reports that only about 30% of its users access on a mobile. You really cant make a ‘blanket’ statement about ‘all traffic’ because you dont know other sites states. You can only make a statement about ‘your traffic’. Its people making these blanket statements that propagates the myth that 50%+ of all traffic for everyone must come from a mobile (which is simply not the case).
Great review Brett. I have purchased other products from Bobby and his team (Bleupages/Tabfu) and found them to be worthwhile investments. I try and wait for your review on new products, and because you take the time to do an honest review, I purchase from your link if I like the product. Keep up the honest reviews, and I will keep purchasing from you, regardless of any bonuses.
Me too. I order my products from Brett first. As he honestly deserves it, as he gives us real reviews. Believe me real reviews are time consuming.
I can´t see the optin form on my LG Nexus 5. ( example1+2+ 3)
{links removed}
If it´s not properly mobile optimized, I really don´t see the point of getting it.
-AJ
Thank you for taking the time to test and share your results with everyone!
In my phone the examples look just like they do on my computer. Though they are not responsive (you have to pinch / zoom) etc. Everyone is going to have to decide how important responsive is for themselves. For me its not that important since my site is not responsive and a large part of my traffic is not mobile traffic (yet my site gets tens of thousands of hits a month).
A lot of people over play the importance of responsive design because they keep quoting that 50%+ of all web traffic is on a mobile myth (be assured its a myth). But as I said each person is going to have to decide its importance for themselves.
You have to keep in mind that popups are inherently not good on mobiles. Why? Because pop ups, by design are always smaller than the screen. On a mobile the screen is small to start with, so a pop up will always be tiny and require zooming. With that being said in hindsight I think it would have been a good idea for them to have had an option to turn off the popup if the page is being viewed on a mobile device.
For me I was much more concerned about not being able to publish to a post than the mobile aspect.
Thanks Brett, for such a great heads-up review of this WP Plugin!
Peace,
Thanks Brett for the review. Great as per usual.
Your byline should be – “Keeping the bastards honest since 20…” 🙂
I would not rate Bobby or his colleagues such however.
I hardly use pages on my blogs so might give this a miss, which is such a shame because I was so looking forward to using it on my posts after seeing various videos on it. I tend to take for granted that most modern plugins allow for both posts and pages. Evidently it is no longer a given, so we are fortunate that you point this out. Do you think such coding would be so onerous?
I usually don’t purchase products outside of launch week so if Bobby and Co can get this posts limitation out of the way within the next 6 days and 18 hours (on last check of their countdown timer), I will not give it a miss and wait for Stakk 2.0 in a year or the countless imitations that will now appear in coming months. 🙂
Perhaps Bobby can post back here when it’s added.
BTW – I have always rated Bobby’s stuff first rate. I have no doubt that he will come good on this soon as no stone is usually left unturned. Just hope its during launch week.
Cheers again, Brett.
Best regards
Mark
I agree, I personally cant use this on my site because it only works on pages and not posts. That really did make me sad because I honestly wanted to use this on my site, in fact I even asked Bobby if I could keep my review copy and use it, that was before I realized this limitation. In truth I considered stamping Stakk disapproved because of that limitation but decided against it for two reasons, A) Everything else is done very well B) Its not correct to assume that everyone uses posts on their WordPress site, because of the sheer number of WP sites, there are lots that use pages (even if its only a percentage of the total), For these two reasons I felt it was proper to mark this as approved but also warn of the limitation in the review.
Thrilled to hear from Bobby this morning that the new version does in fact take care of posts. I really like Bobby and this again confirms that I am continuing to deal with a top operator.
Thanks Bobby and thanks again Brett for the impetus.
The email correspondence –
Me: Hi Bobby
Want to buy this but heard it only posts to pages and not posts. Is that right?
Bobby Walker Bobb: the new version does posts, so yes it does 🙂
Yes, you are right. they don´t work that well on mobile. Furthermore, mobile traffic is also very different from “normal traffic “. Less information is needed, lower res videos and pictures so the site will load faster. Ever body is talking about creating pretty nice looking pages, but do they convert better ?
It would be a better idea to create a separate mobile site with the same look and feel. It should preferable be a non-wp theme or at least a so called adaptive theme.
Thank you for the review, Brett. I may have some interest in this plugin, although they would have to fix the pages/posts problem first. But, aside from the main offer, what OTOs are offered, and do those upsells make it a better product?
I think the OTO is a different software, Im not 100% sure but I think its IMS Rapid Mailer. I did not test the OTO, I normally dont and quite honestly even if I wanted to I did not have time, it took me hours just to test Stakk properly. As a side note: I 110% agree this would be much better if it could publish to posts. I actually just sent Bobby Walker a Facebook message asking him to please let me know if this is added, if it is I will send out a notice to everyone.
I got your new email about Bobbi adding Post to his software. I have purchased several items from Bobbi and I can honestly say, he is a great honest marketer from my experience. He along with you Brett are rare marketers that I trust. I figured he would ad Posts, but did not know he would do it extremely fast by the next day!
Now that Posts have been added, I will now purchase this product.
Hello,
i work with the german AR-Programm Klick-Tipp. Can i also include Raw-html Code for the optin-Formular?
Regards
Werner
Yes you can add your own custom form code if you like!
Brett,
Thank you for the email update on Stakk now including both pages and posts. Quite frankly, I was strongly leaning against this purchase based on your initial review. The fact that the folks behind Stakk listened and fixed this deficiency speaks volumes about your credibility and their concern for customers. I’m always suspect of any IM marketer that I have not yet done business with because you don’t know what you’ll get until after committing. You take a lot of the guess work out of making an intelligent purchase decision, which leads to less wasted time and requests for refunds on crappy products.
Thank you,
Mike Guess
Are you going to review Video Sales Machine?
That does not really seem interesting.
Hi Brett,
I bought the software through your affilliate link, but after purchasing Stakk does not show up in my Jvzoo account. Any idea who to contact?
Did JVZoo send you a email after the purchase? In it there should have been a ‘support email’ that you can send to. If not shoot me your receipt ID and a contact email address and I will forward that over to Bobby Walker for you.
Hi Tim,
If you send through your full name/transaction ID to our helpdesk:
support@stakk.zendesk.com
I’ll get your access organised right away.
thanks for your purchase 🙂
Thanks Brett and Sam, It’s in my account now!
Hey everyone,
Sam Finlay here, partner on Stakk with Bobby Walker. Thanks for the great review Brett – and for calling out the things we were missing – good to see. Hard to see mistakes and oversights sometimes when you’re wrapped up in something 🙂
So just wanted to update you all that we have a new version of Stakk out just in time for close tomorrow – fully mobile responsive, added some more features and customizations and even the auto-centre option you were talking about for the form positioning Brett.
if you have already purchased Stakk the update will show up in your WP admin area, and i’ve put together a quick vid running through the new features as well which can be seen here:
Any questions feel free to hit me up on skype – samfinlay_
Thanks Brett!