VideoDek [review]

62
Posted January 6, 2016 by in

Rating

Price
 
 
 
 
 


Concept
 
 
 
 
 


Execution
 
 
 
 
 


Value
 
 
 
 
 


Total Score
 
 
 
 
 

2.5/ 5

Creator: Lee Pennington
 
Type: Web Software
 
 

POS:

Could be used for basic presentations
 

NEG:

No real features, not impressed by SEO claims.
 

Today at the request of multiple readers I’m doing a review of the new VideoDek software. Because of time constraint, and because I spent all day testing and then made a very detailed video review , this is going to be primarily a video review. Watch the video below for the full review. I think […]

by Brett Rutecky
Full Article

Today at the request of multiple readers I’m doing a review of the new VideoDek software.

Because of time constraint, and because I spent all day testing and then made a very detailed video review , this is going to be primarily a video review. Watch the video below for the full review. I think you will find it enlightening.

 

When I initially tested this software I could not get my videos to output at all. The system would just hang up and never produce anything. After contacting the vendors they let me know that this was due to server load from it being the first day of the launch. This seemed reasonable to me. I do launches myself, and as a tech guy I know how taxing the install surge of traffic can be on a server.

After waiting a couple of hours I was able to get my videos to output. However in that time I was testing the software functionality and I noticed a few things that I did not particularly like.

First of all, while there are several templates for your videos many of them are not practical to use. The issue is that this system will always center the text in the video. But some of these templates have a logical place for the video text to be off centered. This causes the text to go outside where you would expect the text to be and over the templates background graphics.

I also noticed that there is absolutely no functionality in this editor. You cant format the text in anyway or position things in any way. All you really can do is put black, sans-serif font text of a single size, in the center of the video, over different backgrounds. There is not much flexibility at all.

The vendors claim that this system makes it super easy to nearly instantly rank the videos. However in researching their ‘proof’ I found that their videos are only ranking for very long tail keywords. In fact the videos only show up when you search for a near exact match to the title of the YouTube video. This is not impressive at all. Just about any video is going to rank for its own title.

When looking at the videos I noticed they had very few views. I also noticed that most of the videos in their YouTube channel had very few views. Even ones that where made weeks ago. Further judging by their total lack of channel subscribers it does not seem that the people who did view them where very impressed.

Overall this software seems the be of limited functionality but coupled with a lot of hype. While I don’t think its terrible, and why I do think it might be of some use to some people. I personally would not buy this, or if I did buy it I would not be happy with the purchase,  and as such I cant recommend other people buy it either.

notapproved

 

 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.

62 Comments


  1.  
    Allan

    Thanks again for your honest opinion Brett.




  2.  
    Kimberly

    I thought about it but when I looked closer and did my own searches based on the terms I could only find 1 that ranked and as you pointed out – it had to be exact. And the templates are very boring and downright ugly without a way to spruce them up with images. And the robot voice isn’t good at all. Although there is a way to upload your own vo but without a way to actually add images to make the video more interesting … it just wasn’t worth it. The OTO to get 10 additional templates that are a little more interesting – is $27 a month. Nah I passed. I’m going to be very prudent this year. I was glad to see you rejected it.




  3.  
    Robert

    Brett,

    I got an alert for this and wondered if it offered any real value.
    Now I know I can give it a pass.

    Thanks for another one of your true grit reviews. 🙂

    P.S. I am sure there is a picture of you on a wall someplace with darts all up in it. lol




  4.  
    Ainsley M

    Thanks Brett – my feelings were precisely the same. There are so many of these products out there now with extra functionality that this seemed meek in comparison.

    I did however investigate and couldn’t give any credence to their inflated claims of ‘crushing the SERPS in minutes’ – despite there being a number of webinars run by affiliates around this product showing how to rank better/faster. The webinars seemed to make up for the shortfalls by intro’ing advanced techniques that most people can do on their own with a half decent knowledge of youtube. The product was only a small piece in the ranking pie.
    The templates don’t impress and the autoupload is a basic for these products – not a major selling point.

    To me this left only two positives. 1) The WP plugin – could be useful – yes I’d use it but does it justify the price and upsell – I think not and; 2) The 5 auto voice narrations – I don’t mind these but my experience has always been they are less than great – however useful to a shy person or a person versed only in accented foreign tongue. Again not a major selling point to me but perhaps to others.

    So my upshot: not really worth purchasing. Tho only reason most affiliates are jumping on it are because of the lucrative upsell funnel I’ve decided the guys behind it are capable of so much more considering their previous gigs. I’ll sit it out completely or wait till Videodek 2.0 comes out in 9 months to see if it has improved enough to my satisfaction.




  5.  
    Tom

    I have never asked for a refund, but I sure did here. Terrible. Just downright terrible.




    •  
      Mike

      Totally agree, this software is really crap. It does not automatically upload to Youtube, just gets stuck and never completes the upload. I am getting a refund.




  6.  
    Robin Lee

    Thanks Brett,
    I was looking at this one. Glad I waited!




  7.  
    Ken

    For some reason (money?) the video marketing niche seems to get way more than it’s fair share of lame products. Probably because so many of the vendors in it have no chops/no experience with actual video seo and are just out for the quick buck.




  8.  
    Stevee

    Well.. 2016 is starting off with an influx of poor grade tools.. this is where “Rutecky Approved” wins outs every time..Great work..

    Cheers Steve… Ps shamefully I pulled the Calc out for human test.. talk about being lazy..




  9.  
    Raymond Knapp

    I bought it before I read your review. I am not impressed with it at all. Plus it mispronounces words. And the voices are terrible.




  10.  
    Ted

    In addition to what Kimberly wrote, if you wish to use this for clients you have to pay $27.00/month for the Dev Lic, which is part of the additional templates package oto. Who wants to be locked in monthly for the Dev Lic? They should have separated that out as a one time fee and possible would have made more sales. Then charge monthly for the Templates.
    (By the way Brett, the sample template you used was one of the upgrade Templates. The first 10 come with the FE, stopping with the black looking template. So clearly not worth the extra dollars if the text is not lining up. Learned all this from a webinar overview this afternoon.)
    But right off the bat I did not see any way they were going to rank a video by just entering the typical data anyone would do when posting a video. The only info they offered was to use long tail keywords to get it to rank. So I was fairly sure there was no other built in software to make that happen, even though their sales page eluded to that.
    Why am I still writing? It’s late. There’s more (robot, robot), but obviously I passed too.




    •  

      To be fair charging a monthly fee for a developers license is reasonable. A software like this uses server resources and servers cost money (and resources such as bandwidth etc cost money). If your using this for all kinds of clients ongoing its not unreasonable to ask that you pay an ongoing cost to cover the ongoing additional server resources you will consume.




  11.  
    Ed Movius

    Thank you Brett. You are a man with integrity!




  12.  
    Darrell Miles

    You are point on Brett…it SUCKS. Thank for the review. Save your followers some cash and time.




  13.  
    Beth

    Thanks for your review:)




  14.  
    Ted

    When I looked at the sales page for this and could find no videos made by this software that one could play and check out that was a red flag to me. If the videos and the voices were really good they would have several videos on the sales page for potential buyers to watch, the fact they don’t is a clear sign to pass on this. Your review confirms it.




  15.  
    saul

    thanks brother Brett!




  16.  
    Douglas

    Really appreciate your honest opinion on every review you make….By the way I make it a point to read them irrespective if I intend to purchase or not.
    Keep up the good work, Brett.




  17.  
    Tom McGaughan

    I thought the same thing early this morning when I saw their early bird offer. Feature-less!!

    Obviously there couldn’t have been much time and effort put into making the features it

    does have which are miniscule. Thanks Brett…I second you on this one!!




  18.  
    Ulf

    Again your review put it on the straight, thank you. Though I disagree in the end. This IS a horrible software and not worth any penny, obviously created to make some quick money. And of course promoted by Todd “The Unavoidable” Gross. Really, if I see his face in the sales video meanwhile I’m like “ah no, not him again”.

    Anyway, 2015 was my year to get deeper in all this Internet Marketing thing and I’bought a lot of products and only a few turned to be worthy. It’s kinda disappointing, how much crappy stuff is made every day to squeeze money out of our pockets. So 2016 will be my year of beeing rather picky and I will allow only a very few so called marketers to get in my inbox.

    You will be one of them for sure – every mail/ review from Brett “The Lighthouse” Rutecky has got, gets and will get my courtesy. Happy New Year for you and your family and keep doing what are you doing!




  19.  
    Nige

    Hi Brett,
    I dismissed this one after watching their videos but it is nice to know I was right to do so by someone who has put the product through its paces.A good honest review as usual.




  20.  
    Mary

    Brett, the sales pitch had me intrigued, but like others I had my doubts when I saw the long tail keyphrases that they were ranking for. This has got to be one of the worst pieces of crapola software I have seen in some time. I can’t even believe all the people pitching this, like, Neil Napier, I thought this guy was one of the good guy’s ( I know this doesn’t necessarily make him a bad guy) and wanted to help people buy good products. He’s pushing this hard, that tells me he has no regard for his subscribers, big mistake! Han Fan…well, I think we all know that, Han Fan, just jumps on every product launch that comes along and pitches it to his subscribers regardless of weather it’s a good product or not….seems he just takes the product owners word for it.

    Thank you Brett for another honest review, you rock!
    Mary,




  21.  
    Colin Glover

    Thanks Brett I looked for your review before purchasing at a cheaper price. Unfortunately you hadn’t done so at that time. I have been moving house so haven’t looked at it yet. I was a bit suspicious when they didn’t give us an example of the robot voice. I’ve heard them before and they are terrible. I’m wanting to do more video this year however your review puts me on the edge of asking for a refund for this not so new approach.




  22.  
    kami

    I can’t agree more, thank you for the honest review Brett.




  23.  
    Tony Moriarty

    Thanks Brett for your HONEST & REALISTIC review of what cannot be achieved or expected by purchasers of the high profile IM Product Vidiodek BECAUSE it really highlights the lack of honesty & strong moral principles that are giving the Internet Marketing Machine & products a bad name.

    It’s a crying shame that Lee Pennington, his Vidiodek Team & all his well known endorsing IM PROMOTERS lack the judgement & don’t have the balls to reply & say why they didn’t give honest comments about Vidiodeks lack of abilities.




  24.  
    Vine

    thanks for your impartial feedback, Jeff




  25.  
    Antoine Oomen

    Hi Brett,

    I landed on your site as I had my questions about this software.
    Thanks for your honest review and I will bookmark your site for future reviews.

    Antoine




  26.  
    AminPrivate

    Hi Brett,

    thanks again and again for your intervention and honest and REALISTIC thoughts. I bought the product from Mark Bishop via JVZOO as I knew him from BINGY, BUT was disappointed in the first place, as my videos never rendered! So, I contacted him personally, and he replies fast, as usual, saying, yes, unfortunately, they are having problems with their servers! Hmmmm

    Well, now it’s obvious, and I asked for a refund. Let’s see how fast will they be in their reaction!

    Cheers again
    Amin

    PS: I will call you: The IM ISO MAN




  27.  
    Martin

    When I see auto voice over, I know it’s not going to cut it. I have been searching for auto voice over program/services myself and none sound natural when reading whole text. The closest I come across is inside EasyVSL.




  28.  
    Phil

    Thanks once again Brett.I must say I am usually a fan of Lee’s software but I declined this one!! (it isn’t actually his software to be fair)




    •  

      I normally like Lees stuff as well. I have sent him him hundreds of sales in the past. I personally like Lee and Mark. But I review the product not the vendors, and this one I just cant get behind.




  29.  
    Ed

    Thanks for confirming what my gut told me, Brett. So many are promoting this as the Holy Grail (If only
    I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that). As experienced as most of those “Guru’s” that pushed this offer to me are, they’ve got to know at least half of what you and I know about this thing. Shame on them.




  30.  
    Darryl H

    Good job Brett




  31.  
    alan Mack

    Once again you are on the ball Brett…many thanks !!




  32.  
    alan Mack

    I’m New Year cleaning my inbox, but yours is one I wouldn’t dare do without….
    Thanks again. !!




  33.  
    Tony Brayley

    Thanks, Brett. I’ve bought a few of Mark Bishop’s products. They’ve all been decent. I’m disappointed that he put his name on this one. Sidenote: Why is this guy Todd Gross on almost every damn launch going (rhetoric)? He may be a nice guy, but I’m sick of seeing and hearing his news-anchor voice.

    Cheers!




    •  

      Todd is a professional spokes person. People hire him to make their sales videos for them.




    •  
      Sue

      “… news-anchor voice.” This made me laugh, because Todd used to be a meteorologist on a Boston (MA) TV station! When I first saw/heard him pitching IM products, I almost fell off my chair. Now, whenever I so much as start to hear his ‘pitching’ voice, I immediately exit the page!




  34.  
    Russell

    I feel a more serious drawback of this and similar programs is that they can only produce a very basic text-based slideshow. Video is great for demonstrations and such, but when it’s just used to do something much better done by a straightforward text salesletter that I can read at my own pace, I switch off. The same goes for those interminable talking head sales videos (mentioning no names…). Yes, video is powerful, but please let’s use it properly and when the occasion requires it. Anything else devalues it.




    •  
      Les

      Have to agree with Russell video used properly is great. Your video for example explaining how this software works. But to be honest I didn’t watch it until after I had read your report which incedently gave me all I needed to know. If your review was just the video with the not approved sticker I probably would not have watched the video (I’m glad i did though). Thanks for a great review. And Russell for your comment I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought that way.




  35.  
    Jenelle Livet

    Brett you are the sure to my shiny object addiction. I love your honesty when you do the reviews and I am sure that they take some time. I just wanted to let you know that you are appreciated
    Thankyou so much
    Jenelle




  36.  
    Naleen

    Thank You Brett, as always for your honest opinion.




  37.  
    Bill Dampier

    Thanks again Brett. These reviews are becoming invaluable for me.




  38.  
    Keith

    Thanks sir!




  39.  
    robert

    I was interested in this product at first, but you cant upload pictures or video clips, didn’t really like the basic themes so I passed on it and didn’t buy yesterday before your review was out.




  40.  
    Lyudmila

    Thanks!!!




  41.  
    Mike Holthuysen

    Hi Brett,
    I always love you no bull sessions about what you review.
    You give the pro’s and con’s and still if we are interested then it is our choice but at the very least we have a better understanding of what we get plus a reduced version of the marketing hype for that product.
    Thank you
    Mike




  42.  
    Daniel

    Trustworthy as usual, thanks
    Daniel




  43.  
    Jon

    Thanks Brett. Confirmed our suspicions.

    And I hope all these comments help your SE visibility!




  44.  
    Harold Nusbaum

    Thanks for your honest opinion Brett!




  45.  
    Paul Woodall

    Hay Brett,

    I totally agree with you that this is a very, very light weight video production program. I wish I had waited a day or two for your review. Unfortunately, I purchased it yesterday and found it lacking. Live and learn.

    Best to you and thanks again for your honest, straightforward reviews.

    Paul Woodall




  46.  
    David

    Well done, Brett. Hit the nail right on the head again.
    Hi Brett,

    It has certainly been extolled by many IM’ers as a panacea for video ranking in my inbox.

    I now try to resist temptation until I hear from you and although I’m not making any cash yet, I’m losing a hell of a lot less now, thanks to your honest reporting.

    Thank YOU!

    David Stringer




  47.  
    Maggie

    I tried working with this program and I am in complete agreement with all that Brett had to say. Thanks again for an honest review, I so value what you offer.




  48.  
    Jimmie Mack

    Bret,
    Your wisdom is a precious commodity and our world appreciates ALL that you do….I was just looking at this & you sure made up my mind for me….NOT!




  49.  
    Trevor C Taylor

    What I don’t understand is why do the product creators NOT listen to expert software creators like Brett and address the problems identified. Surely it would be in their best interest to correct the issues identified. How are they going to be able to remain credible for future product releases?




  50.  
    Deborah

    Thank you. I appreciate your helping me out here. i thought I wanted it but, did not want to spend the money right now. So thankful for your review.




  51.  
    Joseph Taska

    Brett I think they listened to your review They added advance settings were you can change the font and color of the text. And also be able to center the text or format it left or right… Go take a look… but I think alot more improvement is necessary . Maybe they can get better voices… The best voices I have heard is ATT voices which you can purchase and use with Text Aloud… Also the bonuses they promised is not on the site… Thanks for your great review




  52.  
    Michele K.

    Am so glad to find, that my initial reaction was not me standing alone with my disdain for loudmouthed, air-filled hype.

    Marketers like these, gave me the push to create my own video service, based on good old-fashioned values and being able to do anything they promise a whole lot better, including a true competitive value.

    I could counter every single line they claim to do better – but, am not here to toot my own horn. I am only thrilled to read honest opinions – and that is, what not only makes my day today, but also strengthens my initial mission for providing value.

    Thank you for honest and objective opinions – “True Innovators Invest In Values”. Videos are like fingerprints, fingertips may look the same [templates] but true work guarantees the difference from anyone else’s on the net. In no way can such item be produced by cookie-cutter mentality as we see over and over again with hypes like these.





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