MChriston

Being on Matt Callen's list I received the news about his new AffiliateCamo product, the link cloaker with a few extras.

Up until now I had just used PHP code to do redirects from a "recommends" folder, but this plugin seemed great as it offered the opportunity of 'set and forget' autogenerated linking and for pro-users autogenerated links to keyword associated products (Amazon & Clickbank) ...and statistics on click-thrus too.

So I went for it...

And even went for the upgrade... BUT... IMHO there's quite a few cons which lead to a refund request.


First - Let's set some background:

The plugin asks you for your keywords and the associated web link (this can be anything, your products/sites, affiliate links to amazon, etc). The plugin then automatically (within parameters you control) converts references in your posts to the same keywords into desired links. The link is cloaked as www.yoursite.com/yourdesiredcloakname if a pro-user or for non-pro-users something like www.yoursite.com/r-1-yourdesiredcloakname.

On the face of it the idea of the plugin seems great...


Main points to note:

• This is a Wordpress plugin, something which is not immediately clear from the video promo. As it is, Wordpress works for me, so no hassles there... however I can imagine some people getting caught out and being a bit put off by this obvious omission in the promo details.

• Once through the free signup you get the (to be expected) upsell. This is the option for a $7 upgrade to Pro where you can 'brand' the plugin and get 50% of the autogenarated links in your referred sites. In other words, you recommend the plugin, someone else uses your 'branded' version then 50% of their links are directed to your affiliate sites (I'll come back to this point in a second).

• The video listed as "Be sure to watch the short Affiliate Camo tutorial where I go over the various features of the program" is actually a promo video about the upgrade! In fact, as a free-user you are reminded all over the place to upgrade... which means if you upgrade your referrer is going to lose their 50% links (quickly negating their main benefit of being a pro-user... this will make sense in a moment...)

• The upgrade is described as a 'branded version' of the site/plugin - it isn't ...it still says Matt Callen! So not sure what they mean by 'branded copy'

• BEWARE - There is some small print: The $7 upgrade is actually a $7 trial for 7 days and then annual bill kicks in for $77. So the pro version of the plugin actually costs $84 for the first year and then $77 thereafter.

• BEWARE PART 2 - More small print: If you do not take the upgrade, 50% of your links (relating to your keywords) will (potentially) point to affiliate sites of your referrer. If buying directly from Matt, then this would seem to be his company, if buying via a recommendation of a friend/contact then they get 50% of the links of your site. But I said 'potentially' as there is a proviso on this...

• So let's talk about those "50% autogenerated links", there's several points to note:

1. These links are specifically to products on Amazon and Clickbank with your affiliate ID (if a pro user) or your referrer's affiliate ID (if a non-pro user).
2. This means for a pro-user, the 50% links you are grabbing from referred sites are not the links you created via the keywords you have set on your own copy of the plugin... they are instead Amazon and Clickbank links which you do not control but are associated with your keyword
3. When testing I was not impressed with the type/quality of linked product... for instance, testing the keyword "business" got a Clickbank product for "catering businesses". Hmmmm, unless I get a load of caterers visiting I'm not earning from that one...
4. These autogenerated Amazon/Clickbank links are only created if the Pro users keywords AND the referred non-pro users keywords match.
5. So as a non-pro user this is a potential plus as you may be able to avoid loss of 50% of your links.
6. But for the pro-user hoping to gain easy commissions from referred sites... Well, you have two choices... A massive amount of luck that keywords match or alternatively you set every keyword for every market you can think of in your AffiliateCamo account in order to get a match!

• And finally - If you downgrade back to a non-pro copy, 50% of your links get lost to your referrer (or, thinking about it now, do they go to Matt when specifically downgrading? ...either way, you potentially lose 50% of your links)

• If your referred user upgrades you lose the 50% links you had on their site but gain a commission (if you have a Clickbank account)

My conclusion:

Pro upgrade is not worth it, I have requested a refund.

This will leave me as a non-pro user, and I am about to uninstall the plugin ...hey, nobody gets 50% of my links!


As a closing commment:

You may be wondering why did I bother doing such a long review of something which for most people will be primarily free. Answer is simple... because I am not happy with what this product amounts to and sadly this kind of offer is all too common where the only real benefit is for the seller.

Pro-users will be lucky to get 50% links and associated affiliate commissions - because why would a free user gladly let this happen? Besides, at every opportunity your referred user is being told he/she really needs to upgrade... even hiding a promo video as a tutorial!

So naturally the free-users are likely going to either uninstall the plugin or upgrade (primary winner = Matt!)... so okay, you get the commission for their upgrade... but you can get that as a free-user who promotes it anyway. Which leaves the statistics as the only tangible benefit left for the pro-user, but is that worth $77 every year?

And of course - When/if you downgrade from a pro-user you will potentially lose 50% of your links... so I can imagine many people will uninstall as well as downgrade.

Now you could look at this as just an affiliate commission exercise where you earn money from AffiliateCamo sales... and if that's your bag, well that's up to you.

But for me...

Net result: Viral spread of plugin with the only solid benefit being for Matt Callen's company who gets the upgrade sales...

...and of course the 50% links if you had decided to buy direct from him.

(And as I mentioned earlier, potentially if you downgrade as a pro-user... Matt gets your 50% links too? ...happy to be corrected on this one)

All in all - Sorry Matt, you have some great products and ideas, but this is not one of your finest moments.

Yours unimpressed,

Michael

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JNFerree

Excellent post. Thorough and seemingly an educated and unbiased review. Well done, thanks for the insight.

Like you, I've used some of Matt's software in the past and have been more than pleased with the results. In this case, I think I'll pass on the Aff Camo offer too.

Now that Google Instant and the Caffeine algorithm, I'm finding better and faster results by paying attention to my on-page optimization efforts. Google Analytics tells me that my bounce rate has improved, my position and ranking for a handful of KWs is still on P1 but staying there is not assured.

This snippet is from one of my fave SEO guys I religiously follow since he forgot more about SEO than I know. Thought you you might find handy.

Which factors are important to Google?

In the past, Google revealed some factors that influence the position of a web page in Google's search results:

• the presence of a search term in the HTML title tag
• the presence of a search term in the HTML body copy
• search terms in bold typeface
• search terms in header tags
• the presence of a search term in anchor text in links to a page
• the PageRank of a page (the actual PageRank, not the toolbar PageRank)
• the PageRank of the entire domain
• the speed of the web site

These eight factors are only some of the 200 factors that Google uses to rank a website. It does not make sense to add your search terms to every element on your website. It's also important that the frequency of the search term in the web page elements is correct.

David Bynon

Michael,

This is a fantastic review and just goes to show that even "reputation" cannot hold up a weak product.

Thank you for your insight and honesty.

David

TheWealthSquad

I passed on this because I already use pretty link pro. You can search for it.

It does just about everything you mentioned this plug in does with a few notable exceptions.

One time fee for the pro version.
No sharing of any links
Can replace the branding and even create Pretty Link bar redirects which automatically provide a way for people to Tweet the link.
Unlimited site usage (not sure on Affiliate Camo)

Even the free version is pretty cool though it lacks some of the features like automatic linking of keywords.

Not sure what the current price is but it was well worth it to me. Had an affiliate company change their program. All new links. I simple spent a few minutes going through that group of links and changing them out. Now any ebooks, or other links will automatically direct them to the right place.

Richnana

Thank you for taking the time and having the patience to let us know about this product. I am on Matt's list and have been for years. But it is very frustrating to preview a program only to find ou that it does not live up to all the hype.

I finally got smart and visit the Warrior forum before I buy anything and at least ask the question. Your review is very thorough and specific to the problem (issues that you found) You are obviously knowledgeableand you knew exactly how the product should have performed.
Again, thanks for the insight, heads up?? saved me some time and money.

dustoff

Thanks Michael for the excellent review. I am still in the trial period for the Aff camo, so I am opting out and from this point on I will come to the warrior forum to check for reviews before making purchases of this sort.

alpacabob

I'm glad to see some confirmation on my suspicions. I got to the second page and noticed that bit about "get a branded copy and get 50% of their links" which seems pretty unethical. And then I thought about it and realized that this meant that the Callen's would be stealing my commissions. It seems like a Faustian bargain.

MChriston

Well I had to smile the other day as it obviously doesn't delete you from any email database when you go for refund... and so I received an affiliate email, the opening line read:

Hmmmmm, I wonder if Matt still visits WF

On a more positive/serious note - If anyone is still interested in the automatic linking within a wordpress blog then check out Pretty Link Pro (naturally this is not an affiliate link).

I'm just integrating it into my work now and it seems to cover what I was after in AffiliateCamo but without the Amazon/Clickbank auto-generated links or linking on referred blogs.

Enjoy,

M

ShaneRQR

Excellent review!

+1 for Pretty Link from me. It's really excellent for tracking and managing affiliate links and all sorts of links on WP blogs, for that matter.

mitz

I simply have to say something here!!!!!

I bought the product and was bitterly disappointed with the whole product. I wasn't even thinking about the things you mentioned above as I'd found other problems with it.

The one that really got me was that the registration key would not stay in the product. Therefore you would come along to check on your website and notice that none of the affiliate links will working. OMG ... I was losing money!

So I tried to contact support approximately 5 times. I got the auto responder message saying that they received my message. But unfortunately I never ever got another reply after that.

This is why I now feel free to bag out this product. I am disgusted in the way this business is run and only a thief could take someone's money for this plug-in.

The this other thing is I can't export my links that I have created. And I can't even access them if the registration key will not go into the plug-in. So I'm locked out from my affiliate links.

Now I have to go and sort something else out and start from scratch! Not happy at all!

I wonder if this post will be removed???

xxxJamesxxx

Thanks for pointing this out about $50 of the links do not belong to you. I never noticed that.

James Scholes