SEO Link Vine is NOT Recommended, Syndication of your content is poor, minimal, and it's not worth the effort
I was asked by a reader to review SEO Link Vine so I went off to take a look (who’s running this blog anyways?)
Anyway, it was closed when I finally got around to checking it out and the CLOSED page said that they got their initial 100 members within 15 minutes.
Question:
Why would a service stop at 100 members if it’s “already proven and tested” like their sales page says?
Guesses:
- Most likely it’s a scarcity tactic forcing people to crave it more when it suddenly becomes available again..
- They’re still Beta testing their “proven and tested” system.
- It’s another clone of Article Marketing Automation, which was basically cloned into what is now known as My Article Network
NOTE: They say SEO Link Vine is “exclusive” so maybe it’s not a clone of AMA and MAN, who knows but the interface, while updated… appears to be “borrowed” from MAN
Since there are no REAL reviews out there on this product, just regurgitated sales letters and features, we’ll have to wait and see just how different SEO Link Vine is from AMA and MAN.
Also, it’s nice to have new features like viewing articles, setting up project names, and stuff like that, but what really matters is the quality of the sites in the network and how well it works.
Don’t let feature-rich programs obfuscate the real reason why you’d want to join ANY link building service, which is to get copious quality backlinks
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Daniel, I signed up to receive articles for a site I have. I double checked the set-up details and still have all kinds of errors, thus I haven’t rec’d one piece of content yet. Looks like bugs are on both sides at this time.
.-= Ric´s last blog ..Membership Sites Are They Worth It? =-.
Thanks Ric, I guess it’s not as proven and tested as they claim then. The Callens are good people and I don’t have anything against SEO Link Vine re-purposing some My Article Network features and software, but MAN is no longer a recommended service (by me) so I hope things change for the better with SEO LV
Daniel, as a follow-up. I too believe overall the Callens have quality products, not from experience, but from some of the reviews I’ve read. Tell me if I’m wrong, but it seems I’m seeing more established marketeers, like a fellow named Josh Spaulding and Caroline Middlebrook (IM Automator – Free for now), entering the link building service area.
I suspect you’ll be getting many more readers in the future. Where’s your paypal donate button?
Regards..
.-= Ric´s last blog ..Membership Sites Are They Worth It? =-.
Hey Ric, it seems like there’s new services coming out all the time now, or maybe its just me.
But My Article NEtwork got a failing grade from me, eventually, especially since they never bothered to fix their #1 major flaw in their system.
Josh and Caroline are good people, too. I just hope they’re doing something different than just more blog networks filled with spun content.
UAW, BLS, EzarticleLink, Link Dozer, LinxBoss are all unique in their own way which is what makes them recommended services, basically.
As they say, “if you do what everybody else does, you get what everybody else gets”
By the way, as a regular reader of this blog whattya think of the new look and feel, like/dislike?
Also, your last blog post is titled Membership Sites Are They Worth It? That should give us all a clue as to why so many of these services are coming out now
Thanks,
Dan
Daniel, I really like the new look. Seems to load faster too. Now, I’m using mozilla browser, but the upper link bar is showing black type on a dark blue background. It’s hard to read is it my browser? I like the new look..Regards
.-= Ric´s last blog ..Membership Sites Are They Worth It? =-.
Hey Ric, thanks for the reply.
It’s not your browser, it’s the color theme for this custom thesis I am using now. Still working out some of the kinks with this and getting to know Thesis a little bit more now. If it loads faster for you, that’s good because it’s one of the things that Thesis is supposed to do. Thesis removes the need for using quite a few 3d party plugins which supposedly will speed up the load times for the sites using them and load times is now becoming an important SEO factor.
Does using the thesis theme improve your rankings in the search engines at all?
Did you customize the thesis theme yourself and was it hard to do?
Not sure if Thesis improved any rankings, but load time is one small factor adding to the overall equation for site rankings. I paid to have a customized thesis made for me
Dan, I still prefer your old theme. I miss it already.
I hear ya, I really liked the old theme, but after about a dozen “mentions” by people who wrote to me saying “great site could use some work design-wise” I figured I’d go with a new look for design purposes, faster load times, and basically, for a more professional look.
I’m not much of a design freak, but I know people still do judge a site by appearance
I like the new look. Its very simple and very humble. I just remember the CEO of some digital marketing company referring to the google interface, very very simple yet probably the most significant place to be.
Can you please do a review of the http://socialadr.com/pg/register/begin01 program?
It looks as if SEO link vine is going to get cast into the other sub par link networks by me. It’s the same old, same old, lots of spun content, populated onto rubbish sites.
These sort of systems are a dime a dozen at the moment. Everyone seems to be releasing one.
About a year ago, I started looking for one system to build links to my links (if that makes sense). A year on and what i discovered is most of them are pure garbage.
Its also interesting that a SEO Link Vine had to acquire links from another network itself, for its key ranking terms.
.-= Kieran Flanagan´s last blog ..Link Building with Nudges from SEOMoz =-.
Thanks for the feedback and review. I heard that they used SEO Nitro, not My Article Network itself….. to get rankings for the key terms for the MAN service. It appears to me that this was just a clone of MAN or AMA just trying to be spun off as something different
Hi Daniel, we use ALL major link networks for our linking strategy with both SEOLV and all of our sites. In no particular order…
seolinkvine
linkvana
MAN
SEONitro network
Traffic Kahuna
articleranks
All are good networks. The more links, the better. But ALWAYS vary your anchor text considerably if you’re going after massive amounts of links daily. It’s all about consistency.
What separates 1 network from another are:
- quality of blogs (I know the importance of quality, and have staff manually going through the blogs… which is very tedious when adding 100+ new blogs a day)
- number of blogs (we add 100+ new blogs per day)
- organization and features (i.e. spinning, being able to track results easily, etc)
I too love the layout of your site. Very fresh and “clean” look. Have a good one.
Brad
Brad,
PLEASE take Daniel up on his offer to make some suggestions! I know you’re busy so maybe you haven’t read around Daniel’s blog, but he tests MANY, MANY systems out everyday, all day, and actually uses them for sites! This man knows SEO!
Also, it would be great if SEOLV addresses the one major bad thing with MAN/AMA (as reported by Daniel) that when you send out one article it goes to a certain set of sites. When you send out the next article, it goes to the SAME certain set of sites – it doesn’t skip over, or RANDOMIZE the sites that your posts goes out to (when you select a “category” or group of sites). Randomization would be a big big step up from MAN/AMA.
Thanks.
Oh- and Daniel, LOVE the new site design! Seriously seriously big improvement over the old design, it’s easier to read articles with this design.
Solomon, thanks for the feedback on the new site design.
I emailed Brad, and offered to review his service and also offered to help him make it better, and more unique and not just another blog network full of human-approved, “quality” sites. So the offer’s out there, and I’m sure he’s confident enough about his service to have me test and review it. Most service owners are like that; they appreciate added exposure and feedback on how to improve their service (although they never listened at MAN)
Brad
Thats very good news, Very very good. So in other words a person need not pay $147 for LinkVana then $340 for SEO Nitro etc etc. Besides using these major networks, what else do you do to make your services better. @Kieran Flanagan April 19, 2010 at 7:24 am has a point that if you are just a “reseller” of other people’s networks then when Google begin to hate them (devalue them) your system is then worthless Brad. But I know you are a smarter man than Ephraim Bapela.
Brad
I am so impressed by what you have just revealed(using the powerful networks). Follow up question, does your system intelligently (in the background) manage on which network to place a given post, is this purely for managing link diversity or is the main focus to get high rankings. I suppose you know exactly which of the networks that you are using give good results for ranking (i.e not all animals are equal) so are you just using the rest for diversity?
Hey Jose, I think you misunderstood me
What I was saying was that when we optimize our own websites, including seolv, we use our own as well as all other link networks. You can never have too many links. So, when I’m gunning for a top ranking for a competitive keyword, I don’t just use our own network (which would eventually get me a top ranking in time), I use ALL networks so I can get the maximum number of daily links… getting me that top ranking quicker.
That’s what’s nice about SEO, we’re not stuck to one network (i.e. which one is better than the other etc), once you have some profit coming in from your rankings, you can expand and start using more than 1 network… and it becomes a snow ball effect.
So, what I’m trying to say in a nutshell is,
1. SEOLV’s network is unique and contains the best organization and features that I liked in other networks, plus things they couldn’t provide me personally.
2. If you can afford it, you shouldn’t settle for just using 1 network. You should use as many as you’re able. The more, the better. Just be sure to REALLY vary up your anchor text and don’t try to trick Google, because you’ll (and anyone else) will lose.
Hope that better explains
Brad
Thanks for explaining this Brad, I was a bit confused by Jose’s comments myself.
Brad, something to consider here with your points about using multiple networks…
They’re all mostly blog networks and links from blogs, which is good and all since it’s wide variance on IP addresses and linking sources, but it’s still (in the majority of cases) just one type of link; a blog link from an article submitted via xmlrpc…. Therefore, it’s be nice if LinkVana TK, MAN, AMA, SEO LV and even BLS… offered a variety of links aside from the standard blog link.
If you really want your service to be different, and truly better and not just another blog network, I can help you out there (like I did with EZArticleLink which is fast becoming one of my favorite services because of how they do things).
I think you’re a US guy as am I, so you can contact me via email if you want your service to perform better for your members. I have no idea how your service performs since it’s closed for some reason but if it’s the same old same old blog network spun-content distribution model, then I can help you.
In exchange for helping you (after our call you will know for sure that I can) I’d like to be able to review SEO LV which means opening up a spot for me.
I’ll even go over how I will test SEO LV out with you so you feel content in knowing that it’s a fair and balanced test, ok?
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Brad
Thanks for your reply albeit still very open for interpretation(i.e allegations neither confirmed not denied wrt extra sources of links
)
You say 1.SEOLinkvine has the best unique features but (a)ultimately the user is left to generate content(spun) then submit correctly(at a good pace/variations in text and links). This is where a newbie like myself will get lost. Spinning of content is better left to those who know what they are doing. I would not mind paying extra $50 outsourcing per submition which is guaranteed to pass as proper SEO. Question: Do you have outsourcing services where I just give keywords and URLs and then go away and eat biscuits and chips?
2. Are you able to clarify in vague details the sources of those links. Like Daniel is saying there is a need for the next generation SEO service and I still wish you got some of the links from the other services (LinkVana,SEONitro) the need you will be serving there is (a)one stop SEO-service/wharehouse and (b)without even doing anythin super tech your service will be providing link variety
Have watched the three videos and they were great, well put together in short top notch. Everyone is expecting nothing less than perfection from SEOLinkVine.
Hi Jose, some good points here
1- Why harness just the network when we could harness the power of total outsourcing by having writers do the submissions?
My Article Network had something like this whereby you could find your own writers, and they’d have a separate unique login area where they could do your writing and submissions for you.
EzarticleLink allows you to dump an article you write, or wrote… and they’ll spin and submit for you
UAW has a private service that can upload its articles directly into UAW itself for you (MyArticleExpress)
#2- Jose, Brad was only speaking to the point/question of., “If MAN and AMA are so good why is there any need to use services other than MAN and AMA to promote and build links to MAN and AMA themselves?”, and his answer was that they use all varieties of services to build links to their sites (LinkVana, UAW, MAN, AMA SEO LV< SEO Nitro etc…)
Hey Dan, can you let me know what email address you’d like me to setup for you and I’ll be happy to
Thanks.
Hi Brad, it’s the “aikidoroll” att GMAIL dott com one I emailed you from 2 days ago
Thanks,
Dan
All set, Dan. I’ll email you your login info now, to aikidoroll AT gmail. Thanks for taking the time to look over our system
Brad
Ok Brad, thanks.
BTW, I would have gladly paid for this…
1st impressions:
Clean intuitive interface
Standard spinning spintax/spinner format
Good training videos
Questions:
How many sites are in this network?
Is free content network tied into AMA or MAN in any way? (If so that’d be huge, since both of those network combined with SEO LV’s growing network would make for a huge network rivaling UAW’s network
Do we get to see which sites posted our articles? ( so we can get links to our links)
Suggestions:
When site owners publishes an article of ours, it’d be nice to get an email stating that XYZ url just posted one of our articles. I know this means there’s the possibility of “giving away the network” but if it can be done safely and securely, without revealing all site sin the network, then it’d be a great way for us to know exactly what sites linked to us by publishing our articles so we can then get links to our links.
Most people that are experienced with this of link building know that the networks get “tapped out” after a while, like in 4-5 months due to repeated links form same sites, with maybe a few new sites accepting our articles as network grows. The solution here is to make the links more powerful so less can be more.
I’ll stop making suggestions now and just work the service for a bit, and will write a blog post explaining what most blog networks are missing and what they could do to make things better for their members.
Thanks again for the membership, my review will be untainted by the “freebie” but I will be fair. I’ll probably test this out on some new mini-sites I’m building since I’m running out of sites to get backlinks to.
Thanks,
Dan
Dan, you said:
I thought that was the WHOLE POINT of SEOLinkVine? Maybe I have my thoughts messed up, but I thought that seolv’s feature was that it gave you detailed stats on each article, showing when and where it was published.
If it DOES NOT show you where your article was published (so that I can get links to point at it – getting links to my links) then I simply WILL NOT be joining – there’d be no need – there’s already tons of these types of “networks” out there. If it DOES show me where my article is published so that I can get links to my links, I’ll be one of the first to sign up!
Also, Brad, if you are still reading/still watching, please see my comment above about listening to Daniel, regarding which sites our articles are published on. I’ll quote it again here for ease of reading:
If we write articles in the “home improvement” category, and our articles keep going out to the same exact websites, that would not be as good as if it randomized it up! (so if there are 800 possible places for our article to go to, but it keeps going to the first 75 first, that’s not good)
Solomon, Brad gave me access to SEO LV (thanks Brad) now I just need to submit a few articles to see what the dillio is. Maybe we DO get reports and lis tof sites linking to us, who knows? Only way to tell is to do…
Hi Dan,
Just wanted to say great post and awesome to see Brad posting on here too. Interested to see your review of the network.
Ant
Dan@ am waiting for your complete testing and what output you would have in that particular time, we all want to see
Testing just got under way, unfortunately…writer/tester had PC/laptop issues.
I have been usingh SEO Link vine for over a month now and have seen some small but measurable results. I would ahve to say there are quite a few glitches though.
THe first one is that I ahve ended up with houndreds of links in the incorrect anchor text?? got me buggered how that happenedm but it hasn’t happenend in any other networks. Otherwise generally happy with the system however I ahve been unable to publish any articles in the past week and have sent a ticket through to support who are noty replying. Very frustrating while your rollling out content and had planned on using Linkvine in my seo strategy.
Oh well hopefully they’ll get back to me
seolinkvine has caused wordpress to twice shut down my business web site for violating their policies.
I cannot find the unsubscribe option anywhere of Brad Callens email.
Please unsubscribe me from this service Brad.
Thanks,
Richard
Richard Furlong
Twitter: #govlists
Tel: removed
http://www.government-mailing-lists.com
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/governmentlists
Hi Richard, how would using a service like SEO LV cause your sites to get shut down?
Were you accepting and publishing free articles, or just using it for inbound links?
Were these wordpress.com or wordpress.org non-self-hosted sites?
Please clarify, as I don’t see how SEO LV would have anything to do with this.
Thanks,
Dan
Hey Dan, Richard’s not hosting wordpress on his own server. He’s using a subdomain on wordpress’ server. As we both know, having any sort of program that generates auto-content onto a wordpress “subdomain” is against their terms of service.
Richard, the easy fix for this is buying your own domain name and going to wordpress.ORG and downloading and installing their open source onto your own domain name. Then you can do whatever you want with it
OK thanks Brad, I figured as much. No offense to Richard but it’s newbie-ish behavior to do stuff like that with WP.com or .org plus post your tel # on the Internet (which I’ve removed for Richard) plus ask someone else to unsubscribe you/them form service they signed up for .
Simply click unsubscribe button, and/or go to PayPal and cancel your recurring payment, know what I mean?
Bard, I feel your pain when these things happen, because it’s so easy to get “bad press” form people who really don’t understand the rules of the game.
Question for you Brad:
Is SEO LV closed to public, what’s status of all of that, will you re-open doors to allow new members in every once in a while to offset attrition?
Thanks for stopping by,
Dan
Hey Dan, yeah, I guess it’s all just part of it when ya sell online. Still tough for me sometimes, but I try my best to explain stuff to the newer guys/gals so this doesn’t happen. Thanks for sympathizing
To answer your question, yeah, the reason we open and close SEOLV is exactly as you said. We can only serve x members before paying customers would start getting less results. Technically we could leave it open and just get money hungry, but that would hurt our members and that’s not a path I want to ever take.
Anyway, right now SEOLV is open. We’re working hard to constantly add new blogs to the system so that:
1. current members get better and better results
2. we can open SEOLV up again without user results suffering
Gotcha Brad…
BTW, if you train the free members of SEO LV on how to get automated links via RSS, social bookmarking and social sites syndication, then even the freebie article publishers/syndicators will see some benefits, aside from getting free content.
The “white elephant in the room” for all services that grow their network via free articles to people sites is this:
Too many articles on poorly designed/structured sites causes makes for less powerful indexing of our articles on those sites, which are generally lower quality than the people doing the syndication, so if services like UAW and SEO LV sent some onsite design/structure tips to the people receiving free articles, they will benefit themsleves more, those articles will bring more traffic in to their sites, and provide better links for UAW/SEO LV/MAN/ Kahuna members.
Something simple like installing OnlyWire or using free auto social bookmarking scripts on their sites will at very least….keep link juice on the positive side for these free article publishing sites.
Red this post here, or just link to it
to show people how to get anything and everything they published, indexed, so basically, teaching the free articles recipients how to do something really simple like implementing index drivers will help all parties involved.
Just a suggestion
OK folks. Here is my opinmion. Mr. McGonagle’s instincts are correct based in my experience. I have been using SEO LinkVine and the software is quite good and usable, but the reality is the blog network appears to be very weak. I spent considerable time writing several articles and they all had very high acceptance rates, but in a very short period of time I burned through the network and presentation to new blog sites stopped cold around 300 or so. The blogs where your articles are published are not disclosed (which should have been a clue), and I suspect they are very weak or cheap blog pages setup by Callen or associates. His newest marketing ploy is offerng an “elite” version where he claims to offer access to 400 to 500 of his personal high ranking blogs and will also include another 100 bonus blogs with pr ranks of 0 -2. Are you kidding? This little scheme did it for me. The unmitigated gall. How about taking care of the people who bought in up front? Why don’t they get access to these super premium blog sites? The normal temptation is to let everybody know how wonderful it is because more users means more network strength, but the reality is would hate to see other people pay good money for questionable value.
Yea, that pretty much sum sit up. Maybe you need the Elite version for 227/month?
Brad’s a good guy, but SEO LV was and is a bust, time to move on
You’re so right on JoeCT. I got the “Elite” email invite just a couple of days after purchasing SLV. I didn’t know there was an “Elite” version. To get the upgrade invite a couple of days later really upset me. It was like, “What? Does this mean the first version you sold me stunk?” At least that’s how I felt, and still do. I’d have expected more from BC.
And, as you pointed out, the E version has PR 0-2 ranked blogs. Ummm well what the heck does the version I bought have? Anyway, lesson learned.
And for you Daniel. I love your site. I’m really happy I found it. I’ve spent hours over the last few days coming back to it. Lots of really helpful information and I can tell a lot of thought goes into what you do.
I’ll be following your lead from now on seeing how thorough you are in reviewing new (and not-so-new) methods. -JS