WP PicPoll Genie [review]
POS:
You might get some extra clicks to your offers, but they will likely just bounceNEG:
Poor execution, questionable valueLet me tell you sometimes it can be so hard doing these reviews. As most of my readers know I have dedicated myself to being totally honest in my opinion and findings when I review an IM product. Most of you also know that this includes times when I review products that are being released […]
Let me tell you sometimes it can be so hard doing these reviews. As most of my readers know I have dedicated myself to being totally honest in my opinion and findings when I review an IM product. Most of you also know that this includes times when I review products that are being released by my friends and my business associates.
Well here we are once again. A couple of days ago I get a message on Facebook from Ivana Bosnjak asking me to check out her latest WordPress plugin release. Now I have promoted products by Ivana before on more than one occasion and I was impressed with the quality of some of the training programs she released. However this is the first time I was reviewing a WordPress plugin by her. Honestly given the fact that her past training packages where so good I was fairly excited to see what she had come up with.
Unfortunately my excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I realized that this latest plugin not only had questionable value but it was also very poorly done. So once again Im put in a position where I have to decide, do I risk breaking yet another business relationship and tell the truth or do I keep my mouth shut and just forget I ever heard of this plugin? Well many of you already know the answer, so here we go:
Today Im taking a look at WP PicPoll Genie by Ivana Bosnjak
So what is WP PicPoll Genie? Well its name actually describes it very well. Its a WordPress plugin that lets you put ‘picture poll’ on your blog, inside of posts or on pages. These polls look something like this:
The basic concept is that people see the poll and will want to take part in it. Each image ‘answer’ in the poll can also be made a link which can then redirect to your affiliate offers or sales pages.
I found the interface for this plugin to be functional but a little clunky. Everything on it is mashed together on a single screen and over all it just has a low quality feel.
Also I noticed that as a real poll app this thing is not very useful. You see there are no stats at all. In the admin area there is no way to check who answered the poll what way (they answer by clicking an image). There is no way to see how many times the app was displayed. There is no click tracking. Nothing at all. The only way to see this data is to go and take the poll yourself and then look at the results that are displayed to the user. Its silly to make admins do this and quite honestly I have never seen any polling app that didn’t track stats in the admin area. Again this is just indicative of how much of a low standard this was created to.
As a marketing tool I have serous doubts about its effectiveness. You see the whole idea behind this as a marketing tool is that you can redirect people to a squeeze page or an offer after they click on the image to vote in the poll. Sounds great right? Well not really when you think about it since the users are not expecting this to happen. Its the equivalent of a pop up ad that shows when someone clicks a link and just like these pop ups I expect people to just bounce (close) right away without giving it a second thought.
While I’m sure this may get some people to your target page, just getting people there is not enough, they have to have some interest. Tricking them into going to your squeeze page or offer really does not seem like a viable way to get traffic. Just think about it. If I changed the navigation menus on my site to all link to a squeeze page I would get a lot of traffic to my squeeze page. But people are ending up their unexpectedly so they are not going to convert, its useless traffic. That’s what I can see this plugin delivering.
Still Ivana insists that this works and she actually told me that she has proof that it works. So I asked her to link me to the proof. I wanted to see it because if Im wrong then I want to know. What she showed me was the sales page. Here is the ‘proof’.
To be honest I never really put much faith in these PayPal screenshots. I mean there is no way to know for sure that any transaction actually came from what it is claimed it did. I can transfer a bunch of money to my PayPal and then claim that the ‘internet fairy’ sent it to me. Is a PayPal screenshot proof that ‘internet fairy’s’ exist? Hardly. So since Ivana claims that this income came from using this plugin (by redirecting people to offers after they click to enter the poll) I asked her to send me a link to the website that she is using this plug in on which generated that income.
Her response was less than what I was hoping for (to say the least). But I was not going to let her off the hook easy and kept pushing the issue.
Finally after some nagging by me something interesting came to light.
So basically what she is saying here is that she cant give me a link to the site that this income ‘proof’ was generated from because she does not know what the site is. Really? She has her name on a product that has supposedly valid and honest income proof but she does not even know where that so called proof came from? Sorry Ivana Im not buying it. Now Im not calling anyone a liar or anything but I will say I have a hard time believing this and an even harder time accepting the creditability of this ‘proof’ on the sales page.
Now there is at least one site where Ivana did test this plugin in. In the sales video she shows where she used this plugin on a blog. She identifies it as ‘a real life example’ on ‘one of my blog posts’. Well I wanted to see what kind of real life results she is getting from this real life example. Unfortunately you cant see the blogs URL in the video. However I did my due dilligance and worked some Google search magic until I actually found the blog post in the video (by searching for text that I can see was a part of the post in the video).
So now that I have the actual blog, and the post, all I have to do is enter the poll and I can see the results of this ‘real life example’. Here they are.
Well there you have it. On her ‘real life example’ a total of 3 people took part in her poll, and one of them was me. Now we can be fair and say well this is just an example and perhaps the blog does not get any traffic or something. But here is the thing. These people supposedly have actual proof that this thing works. Well if they do then why would they not use the ‘proof site’ as the ‘real life example’? It makes no sense. Why make a different site for an example when you supposedly already have one that is working and generating income?
Now Im not going to say that this is the case for sure, however a logical conclusion is that the proof is fake and they dont have a real site making money with this plug in. This would explain why they made this other site as the ‘real life example’ instead of using the site they supposedly made income from. Again Im not saying that this is the case for sure. Just saying that its a logical conclusion and that I have even more doubts about this products credibility now.
Ok so lets sum up on this one shall we:
This plug in is poorly designed and comes off fairly low quality
Its not good as an actual polling app because it really has no stat tracking (other than what is shown to people after they enter)
It sends traffic to your offer or squeeze page a bit deceptively by redirecting them unexpectedly when they think they are just answering a poll. This has questionable value for marketing and I believe is likely to just result in a high bounce rate.
It has proof of results that are at best difficult to believe and of questionable creditability
Whats my final verdict on this one? Save your money.
**UPDATE: It seems being honest cost me yet another business relationship. Ivana blocked me on Facebook so I can no longer message her. Its strange, people put out bad products and somehow thats my fault. I just dont get it.
** After first releasing this review Ivana has changed her sales video (notice that the video was published to YouTube on the 9th of Aug. 3 days after this review was first published). In the new video Ivana is very careful not to show any of the blog contents that allowed me to find her ‘real life example’ through Google.
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,
Great review!
One big scam once again…
Well done Brett. Thank you for your commitment.
Thank’s for the heads up.
Obviously, one to avoid.
great review, keep up brett
Too bad she decided to put this out, I have her last craigslist training product which was very good.
I understand that the goal is to make money but I wouldn’t put my name on something like this if I were her. It just diminishes her credibility in my opinion.
I have a BS detector that I trust implicitly, but it is always great to get vindication from someone I trust. Brett is one those people.
He does not talk up lousy software, he does tell it like it is always. When he is wrong, he will come out and say that he is wrong, which is good. This tells me that he is keeping it honest and upfront. I never have to second guess Brett.
If you have a BS detector and need what you feel to be vetted, Brett is the one to turn to for a completely honest evaluation.
Brett is the man in IM.
Another great review from the Brett “Equaliser” Rutecky again. My many thanks – grateful!
Hi Brett, I am really thankful for your Reviews. Your honesty, style and knowledge is really appreciated. You have saved me money and also pointed me to great products, that I have bought based on your reviews.
To many marketers just have the philosophy: sell, sell, sell, Good or Bad Products. Not you Brett! Your Reviews are really needed in the market place and more Internet Marketers should take your method as the Example. Keep Up the Good Work and don’t get discouraged.
I decided to pop by to purposely say thank you to you Brett. Not many are able to do reviews the way you do.
My many thanks!
One of the problems is that all affiliate marketers depend, for their living, on product creators.
You can put up a Pros/cons review giving the impression of an unbiased review, but how many of the reviews have cons out numbering pros?
Thanks for your honesty Brett. Creators of products should welcome an honest critique of their products so they can improve them. But instead, they are off creating another $7 miracle product.
I appreciate your reviews.
–Jeff B.
Your comment made me wonder myself what my ratio is so I had a look. Since starting this blog I have done 43 reviews. 22 of them where negative and I did not recommend the product. 21 where positive. So I guess that means Im about 50/50 (which honestly is about what you would expect, 1/2 of the stuff is junk)