I’ve been hesitant to do a Synnd review because it seems anti-thematic to what we do here (talk and write about link building and higher rankings) and Synnd is admittedly not a link building service
Here’s a Syndd review that pretty much covers everything you need to know about what Synnd is and does. Go read that and I will fill in the blanks on what you really need to know. You’ll note that the author of that post got ranked higher for the term YouTube SEO, which isn’t exactly a competitive term with lots of traffic, so Charles and I will promote 5 old blog posts and see if we can get them ranked higher using Synnd methods.
Here’s another Synnd review that has a few well-written and lengthy posts on experiences with Synnd
Why would you even consider using a social media engine like Syndd for increased rankings?
To Build Rank Trust + Search Engine Trust
If you’ve ever done link building on a massive scale, then you know the true value of that is getting ranked without having to find or develop high quality links. I love that method… but there’s more to ranking well than just getting as many DoFollow links as possible, and bigger-picture” thinkers and linkers will realize the following things about Site Link juice and Site Trust juice :
Site Link Juice
1- The more links a site has to all its pages the more link juice the site has
2- The more link juice a site has, the easier it will be for it to have its current and subsequent content ranked well
Site Trust Juice
1- Links from quality sites and trusted entities qualify as quality links not because of the link juice or ranking power, but merely from whence they came (source is trusted)
2- Quality links develop rank trust and search engines trust
3- The more Rank and Engine Trust a site has, the easier it will be to have its current or subsequent content ranked well.
I think the best way to think of social media is to think of it as Trust juice builder, as opposed to a Link juice builder.
NOTE: If I want something ranked, I’ll stick with content syndication for backlink building but if you want to develop links that stick for a long time, and not have to replace those links with another “link blast” or link run… then developing quality links is the “other” side of the link building coin via semi-automated quality social media link building.
However, social media isn’t always the most anchor-text-friendly link building mechanism because a lot of times the only hyperlink you get is the title o f whatever piece of content you want “social-media-ed” A.K.A. Dugg, Stumbled, Reddit-ed, etc…
Can you achieve top rankings without social media? YES, absolutely been doing exactly just that for a long time
Can you achieve top ranking by only using social media? I doubt it, not for competitive terms but can only help
Does social media linking help develop search engine trust and rank trust and also give the “other” search engines more of what they want to see?
Yes, other search engines like the social media links and references more than big G…
Testing Synnd: Charles Heflin Synnd creator-co-creator agreed to push 5 urls through the Syndd social media engine to shows what kind of “damage” his system can do for building buzz and hopefully rankings… for the 5 urls and kws listed below.
As part of the test we decided it’d be best to find some “settled” posts, meaning aged urls not receiving links currently, and settled into a certain rankings point.
- KW Network Marketing Tips
- URL http://mlmnetworkmarketingtraining.org/network-marketing-tips-5-things-network-marketer-leaders-do-daily
- YSE: 14
- Google: Page 2, #17 overall
- Yahoo: Not ranked in first 15 pages
- KW: Blog writing tips
- URL: http://danielmcgonagle.name/blog-writing-tips-how-to-post-to-your-blog-often-with-good-content/
- YSE: 5
- Google: Page 2, #17 overall
- Yahoo: Page 3, bottom
- KW: Link wheels
- URL: http://linkvanareviews.com/link-wheels-best-practices
- YSE: 37
- Google: Page 2, #17 overall
- Yahoo: Bottom of page 5
- KW: Get backlinks
URL: http://linkvanareviews.com/get-backlinks-how-to-get-560-1020-backlinks-a-day
YSE: 63
Google: Top of Page 3, #22 overall - Yahoo: same
- KW: Rss Submissions
- URL: http://linkvanareviews.com/rss-submissions-software-period
- YSE: 7
- Google Ranked: Page 1, #8 overall
- Yahoo rank – same
UPDATE: 2 months later
KW1- Network Marketing Tips
- Google Ranked #27, down 10 spots
- Yahoo, not in first 8 pages
KW2-Blog writing tips
- Google Ranked #14, up 4 spots
- Yahoo ranked #14, up 16 spots
KW3-Link wheels
- Google Ranked #30, down 13 spots
- Yahoo ranked #22, up 18 spots
KW4-Get Backlinks
- Google Ranked #7, up 15 spots
- Yahoo, page 4 now, down 1 page
KW5-RSS Submissions
- Google Ranked #9, down 1 spot
- Yahoo Ranked #4, up 4 spots
{ 60 comments… read them below or add one }
Daniel
Thanks for a great site.
In the comments for another post when talking about synnd, you mentioned “3-4 services and or tools that can do mega social bookmarking and buzz building”. Can you please share these?
Jeff
Content Buzz
Bookmarking Demon
Viral bookmarking
Bookmarking Wiz (when working)
SocialAdr
All similar in nature, but nothing’s exactly like Synnd so maybe those are unfair comparisons, but they deliver some social media “punch” to them as well
Thanks Daniel. I’ll look into these.
Keep up the great work.
Jeff
Can’t wait for your test results, thanks Daniel for reviewing it!
Great info Dan. Thanks.
Really enjoyed your blog here, Daniel.
I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
Synnd has been around for a while and a friend of mine recently shared a comparison of his experiences with Synnd vs. LinxBoss.
He was a Synnd user for several months, saw some results but realized that there was still a fair amount of manual work where as LinxBoss was almost all automated once the keywords & URL campaign is set up.
Also, the time it takes to create a piece of content to get picked up by other users in Synnd and go viral is longer than if you use LinxBoss.
In his words -
“The only times when the platform worked were when I had created really powerful link baits, with a strong opinion or really novelty content.
But then again, those would have worked outside of Synnd as well if I use a different tool.”
It almost sounds like this is Synnd has more to do with Quality, while most other tools reviewed here focus more on Quantity.
Hey Jerry, good points there. We’ll see what happens with this test. I forgot to take snapshots of rankings in the other search engines which is supposed to be one benefit of rounding out the inbound link profiles for the above-mentioned urls for the test. But yes, I understand your points about automation versus manual. Anything that’s manual already has a low place i my totem pole of desired tools to use, by their very nature.
If they rankings of the test urls go up high enough to warrant a deeper look, then I’d have to see just how much work is involved with this “semi-automated and outsource marketing social media engine” that Synnd is, and make a decision moving on form there whether or not its worth doing
Cool! Looking forward to seeing your results.
I might give it a review also, although I notice I always seem to be lagging behind you with my reviews. Whenever I publish a new one and come here to check, I inevitably find that you’ve already had one for weeks.
Don’t know how you do it.
Hey Daniel -
Do you use any fancy tool to track your improvements in rankings? Or just a simple search and jot down the rankings in Excel?
Just curious. I’m turning on my Synnd account right now and will see what happens to the rankings of my posts.
Will compare notes later.
Jerry, I pretty much get top ranked for everything I dearly want to get ranked for so it’s easy for me to track.
Am I page 1?
If No, then get there
If Yes, do I wanna do what it takes to get higher?
BTW, you’re invited to do a guest post on the MLM blog mentioned above, if you want, page 1 for everything important terms-wise (naturally
)
Hahaha. Good point, Daniel.
Thanks for the invite. I’ll be happy to do a guest post on the MLM blog above. Maybe you can e-mail me (from the comment e-mail) what you need.
I actually found this blog thru your MLM blog. You site almost came out of nowhere for a few keywords I’ve been monitoring over the last few months
Perhaps some kind of collaboration is in order in the near future if you’re open.
P.S. My business partner saw the post “People I’ve Slept With” and was gasping for air when he and his wife saw the title on your MLM blog (they’re Christians with little girls at home). And then I read the article to find out it’s not what the title seemed to suggest. Hilarious!
Yes synnd is awesome I agree with you one hundred percent,It’s more of a link building complimentor because it helps everything (SEO) appear more natural.
Hey man how are things?
Personally, I used Synnd for around 6 months. +- a few
I’d have to say that I got very minimal SERP increases on all the blog posts I ever used it with.
Now, with that said, I do feel it did give me a decent PR boost for those particular pages, so it does help improve “trust rank” so to speak.
I’ll be honest…I left very frustrated as the interface and submission just became way tooo time consuming.
I specifically remember having to “re-submit” jobs into their que upwards of 5 or 6 times just in order to get them approved. Plus, if I remember correctly, they only reviewed submissions around once a day at the time.
Also, their submission guidelines were simply too restrictive. For example, I couldn’t get a digg or reddit campaign going because I had an opt-in form at the bottom of my blog posts…and no, these weren’t posts for viagra or adult industry, merely review articles.
The kicker for me was one particular occasion when all of my new campaigns were disapproved because, according to support, they no longer supported pages which had an exit pop up on them.
In the beginning, I tried it out because there were a handful of people in my industry who were hyping it up as the “new SEO” so to speak, without really any kind of data or testing to back it up.
Course now I know better.
My two cents at least.
Hey Kurt -
Good to see you here!
I think I know who some of those “handful of people” might be in the MLM industry
I’m still waiting for my Synnd account to be created… after 5 days! I guess their manpower might be lacking?
If you looked at one of my comments on this post where I shared my friend’s thoughts about Synnd it seemed to echo what you just shared!
Guess I’ll find out soon enough!
Hey Jerry,
Saw your reply on linkvanareviews.com. Good to see another network marketer involved in SEO research and action.
Let me know how Synnd goes for you. Hope that the program has improved over time.
You are in good hands here with Daniel. Honest, thoughtful testing and reviews here.
Never ever gone wrong with a recommendation from him.
Kurt
Hi Daniel,
We are now 3 weeks into this test so I wanted to post some of the preliminary results.
http://synnd.com/docs/Synnd-McGonagle-Initial-Report.pdf
Synnd is a “set and forget” kind of system so I basically ran a Synnd bookmarking campaign across all the test cases and ran a Synnd social news and bookmarking campaign on one of the test cases (see report). I set them about 3 weeks ago, have been running daily rank updates using CuteRank and have stopped to take a look and report…
There is positive movement but we are letting the test continue by adding other modules of Synnd promotion to each test case so we can observe more movement there… We are especially interested in positive movement under the more competitive key terms like “get backlinks”.
You gave us a tough one there but we are seeing positive movement so far
- Charles
Charles,
Anymore updates on the SYNND results for the test pages? I’m considering on joining the service considering some of the reviews I’ve read about your service.
Module One got links, no SERPS movement
Module 2, whatever that comprises of, has shown SERPs improvement on one test url so far, but has been put into the fray for only a few days now.
I don’t really know what each module does, and will let Charles explain that if anyone’s interested. I might interview him if he’ll consent to it after this testing is done.
I’ve been using Synnd to concentrate a bit more on the keyword “get backlinks” … quite competitive but we are seeing good movement.
We’ve managed to move linkvanareviews.com to position 5 (Google US) for the term “get backlinks” with nothing more than social buzz building through a Synnd bookmarking campaign.
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=get+backlinks&aq=f&aqi=g4g-o1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=b7b968c575c3858f
This page started at rank 24 at the beginning of the study and is now up to position 5 … That’s a 19 position improvement and has taken 4 weeks.
We will continue with other Synnd modules of promotion next week so we may “secure” this result.
That’s all for now… more soon…
- Charles
Note: Synnd bookmarking is not what you may think it is… Buzz building through bookmarking is is where MANY people bookmark your URL (not just you… or one other person)… MANY PEOPLE … this is buzz building.
I have been with Synnd for about 3 weeks now and I think I am about as frustrated as many of the other users I have read reviews from. In “theory” the program works great, but in reality it simply does not work as advertised. Most days NONE of my campaigns are running even though my Remote Automater is supposedly on and functioning. I have put through multiple support tickets and simple can’t get anyone to help me. So far I feel like I have wasted 3 weeks and my money as well.
The biggest factor for me though, is that if you run a news campaign with Digg or Reddit or Mixx, you cannot have even a sliver of Adsense, any sort of promotion or even any ads whatsoever. I understand not having promotional material with a Digg campaign, but I have pages that are purely educational with a simple adsense block and it gets rejected by the system after a human review. So what’s the point of getting “social buzz” to a page that you cannot monetize? I wish someone at Synnd would answer that for me.
I’m sure this is a great service for some people out there, but I have wasted way too much time just trying to get the thing to even work. If you read the forums on Synnd you will see MANY complaints of people with the same problems and support is no where to be found. I am giving Synnd another week and if I still can’t get it to work I simply need to spend my efforts and money on the things that DO work. Thanks Daniel for a great blog here. Sorry for the rant. =)
Hi Jon,
Sorry for your troubles. Support is working 24/7 to resolve the issues that a handful of our users experience.
We have found that 98% of the problems that people experience are due to user error in understanding the usage of a social news campaign (Digg, Reddit, Mixx) VS. a bookmarking campaign. Many people try to push junky and MFA (made for adsense) content through a living, breathing voting network like Digg (for example)… You cannot make MFA content thrive in a social environment… It will never work and Synnd cannot artificially “keep it alive”.
Synnd is a unique economy and fraught with complexities that we’re always trying to figure out and resolve. Many problems are perceived and not real. This is one of the problems of social settings like a forum where mis-information can easily become truth.
You asked… “So what’s the point of getting “social buzz” to a page that you cannot monetize?” … The point of social buzz is to increase rank in the search engines (primarily) … You may just as well use a bookmarking campaign (to build social buzz) as a social news campaign… Why not use the bookmarking option?
Your monetization will come from searchers now finding you in the SERPs and then clicking your ads… Traffic directly from social networks is NOT “good” traffic unless it is extremely niche/problem specific.
- Charles
Charles thanks for responding here. I read your reply 2-3 times and I ‘m missing th epoiint I think.
If someone has an MFA site then the Synnd news module won’t work, but the Synnd bookmarking module will work, to some degree for raising rankings?
Then you mentioned that people monetize when higher SERPs are attained and visitors click on ads, but reader’s point was, if they have MFAs, can they rank them with Synnd’s social buzz building, or is that just not realistic, since real news buzz is generating for “real” content…
Hi Daniel,
Yes… MFA sites are typically down voted by social news (aka. Voting Networks) because the public at large hates advertising and has become quite savvy about MFA sites and their “thin” ploy to disguise its real intent… monetization.
No matter if the content is the best on the planet … if the content contains ads (within the body) then people automatically discount it as junk. Basically people are fed up with old school marketing techniques and can spot it a mile away… Not Synnd’s fault… Like you, we just report the facts.
The moral of the story is that “buzz building” (more than one person acting) on a piece of content IS a ranking factor. It doesn’t matter if it’s “buzz building” through social news … or “buzz building” through bookmarking. The effect is the same.
The only difference is that buzz building through social news has the distinct possibility of going viral… But only if the content is “spread worthy” and void of traditional (old school) marketing such as MFA content.
I believe the biggest challenge with Synnd and SMM (social media marketing) in general is educating people on subjects that are, at first blush, counter intuitive.
- Charles
P.S.
Buzz building through bookmarking works just as well as buzz building through social news (digg, reddit, mixx, etc.)… Either or both will help rankings … but … a big BUT … social news can only be used in cases where your content is helpful (enlightening, entertaining, educational … with a bit of controversy) and devoid of commercial intent.
For example … This blog post is devoid of commercial intent… It’s highly social and controversial … Perfect for social news (Digg, Reddit, Mixx, etc.) … It is also perfect for bookmarking (either or both)… Both promotional angles will yield a higher result in the SERPs.
As and example… This blog post has climbed out of nowhere to position 33 for the key term Synnd just based on the buzz building through commenting that is happening here.
I could go on for an hour about why this is but… it IS what it is. Social Buzz (or Social Proof) is a ranking factor.
- Charles
Ok, Here’s one I did earlier.
Phrase (as spammy as it gets)
“Warcraft Gold Guide” (ouch! – more spammy than a Python sketch)
Ranking 1st October at 3:15pm (15:15) BST. – Not in top thousand
Visitors less than 4 per day
2nd October made
1x 6 spoke linkwheel (Wordpress, Jimdo, Live Journal, Blogger, Wikispaces and Blogspot)
All unique content – 3 posts per Blog spread over 7 days (i.e no spinning what so ever – 18 unique pieces average 300 words each – done with Dragon Naturally Speaking – time taken to make = less than 1 hour)
11th October
SLS campaign. Main site URL and 12 internal pages. Every spopke in linkwheel. Posted every other day om SLS
ALSO One spun one 550 word article to all PR3 or greater sites in AMR
PLUS mass bookmarking with BMD on main site (13 pages) and the 6 spokes.
PLUS DFB – split between the lot (1000 per day)
25th October
Indexed 31 posted articles from AMR – posted same article to 600 PR2 or lower sites with the same tool, lthe resource boxes were set to spin links between the top 10 PR articles that had previously been published and found.
Switched DFB to hi PR articles (top 10)
28th October.
Rank 13 for Warcraft Gold Guide
Warcraft Gold guide FFS!
My point?
The only subscription tool I used is DFB, the rest were one off payments.
The only paid for stuff I could not achieve myself. And posting 1000+ links on forums and the massive amount I use SLS (which now uses pure URL’s not RSS feeds – which was a major issue with me in the past – especially if you were relying on mashups hosted by a third party)
For a niche that relies utterly on social buzz and updated news, BM demon delivered in spades – for the cash it cost me 4 years ago and 10 bucks worth of email accounts sourced from BHW
No “Nuke” or any spanner tool like that in site. Only one link wheel.
However I have gone to top 50 for “Warcraft Guide” and inexplicably the top 100 for phrases like “Warcraft Cataclysm”
Current traffic levels 350+ uniques per day.
The hard work is the mass linking, not the WEB2.0 creation. THat was a short mornings work.
I am still using Synnd after 3 weeks and I have -54 credits. Yes, that is negative 54. In spite of 4 support tickets and constant questions on the forum I cannot get my Remote Automater to actually earn me credits, even after checking each network campaign to make sure all my passwords were correct, and in spite of reconnecting time and time again.
I love Synnd… in theory. It just doesn’t work as well as claimed, or in my case, it doesn’t work at all. I am giving it another week, and if I still can’t get my credits to actually go UP instead of down then I am wasting my money. I really wish I could get someone from the support department to help me.
I don’t mean to down Synnd at all. I’m really not an angry person. But it has been the most frustrating system I have ever used and support has been dismal. I’m really wishing I could cheer for Synnd and maybe someday it will be a system worth paying for, but right now… it doesn’t seem to be worth my few hours a day trying to get it to work, and from the looks at the forum at Synnd, I am definitely not alone.
Hi Jon,
You’re in a minority but not the only one. There is no reason to spend hours a day on Synnd trying to fix a problem that is on our end.
Support is dismal I agree. Anyone considering joining Synnd should stay away for a week while we reorganize our support department.
What is your ticket number Jon? … I will make sure it is addressed asap.
- Charles
Thank you Charles. I really do appreciate your efforts to help me. The latest ticket I submitted is # 4924. I know this is not your support forum, but I did get a response back to one of the other tickets saying that I was assigned a bad VM and was now assigned to a new one. No idea what that means, but sounds like a good thing.
I understand that you are still working on support, but let me just encourage you to make this a priority, because members like me really want to stick with Synnd as it is a wonderful tool.
Any help you can give me would be great, and when all is said and done I would love to leave a rave review for Synnd.
That’s out goal and we have reorganized our support dept. Hopefully we can do a good job for this case study here. So far it is looking very good.
I also have the feeling that 97$ per month are better spent elsewhere– my assistant in the Philippines although quite good at all SEO jobs is struggling for ages to get it working. Better cancel today. Sorry, you’ve had your chance.
Juergen, judging from the feedback here, it seems like a prevalent issue. All I can say is that whatever Charles is doing for my Synnd campaigns, it’s working and helped me/us prove a point, that social buzz, that direct traffic to a site, IS indeed a ranking factor.
While it may not be the ultimate overriding factor towards higher SERPs for increased rankings, it is definitely a factor form what I see thus far, just saying….
I signed up with Synnd…. and then I cancelled. This is way more work than what I was expecting. I do not mind setting up accounts, but, for obvious reasons I do not feel comfortable downloading their application and letting it access my computer at will. I would rather pay for credits… this might be a great service, but it is not for me.
Hi Terry, that seems to be the common prevailing opinion here, that Synnd’s a bit of a bear to use. I think Charles is aware of this user perception/experience and is working to streamline things better.
Charles was nice enough to use HIS accounts and do labor on my behalf to use Synnd for my test urls, 2 of which went from page 2 to page 1, and they seem to be sticking there
Just to follow up, I did cancel my Synnd as stated above. During the process, they were easy to communicate with and responsive to the tickets I submitted. I understand that a hands off version is in the works, and I would defineatly be interested in signing up with that.
Just wanted to be fair that the current product was not for me, but that the company overall was acutally more responsive than most I deal with. Looking forward to the hands off version.
We need an update.
As of 12/3/2010 @ 1:10 am est – Google only
KW – Network Marketing Tips
Now – pg 2, # 17 overall
Start – Google: Page 2, #17 overall
Net – 0
KW: Blog writing tips
Now – Page 2, #17 overall
Start – Page 2, #17 overall
Net – 0
KW: Link wheels
Now – pg 3, #22 overall
Start – Google: Page 2, #17 overall
Net – (5)
KW: Get backlinks
Now – pg 1, #10
Start – Google: Top of Page 3, #22 overall
Net – +12
KW: Rss Submissions
Now – pg 1, #6
Start – Google Ranked: Page 1, #8 overall
Net – +2
BTW, I am a SYNND member and use other tools on occasion.
KW – Network Marketing Tips
Now – pg 2, # 17 overall
Start – Google: Page 2, #17 overall
Net – 0
UPDATED Ranking – Page 4
KW: Blog writing tips
Now – Page 2, #17 overall
Start – Page 2, #17 overall
Net – 0
UPDATED Ranking – Page 2, #14 overall
KW: Link wheels
Now – pg 3, #22 overall
Start – Google: Page 2, #17 overall
Net – (5)
UPDATED Ranking – Top of Page 3
KW: Get backlinks
Now – pg 1, #10
Start – Google: Top of Page 3, #22 overall
Net – +12
UPDATED Ranking – Page 1, #10, slowly slipping away, downward
KW: Rss Submissions
Now – pg 1, #6
Start – Google Ranked: Page 1, #8 overall
Net – +2
UPDATED Ranking – Page 1, #6
I joined SYNND on the strength of this article and now in hindsight I should have realized that this piece is not a first hand review by the author at all but more of a slap on the back because you got a few results you attribute to SYNND with the work being done by the sites owner.. I don’t know what I was thinking…
I had a dreadful experience, every one of my bookmarking campaigns received barely 50% of the goal and my Twitter campaigns got crap. It was explained to me that things were being worked on but they never got fixed in the month I was there. I can’t believe I spent money and time to receive a handful of bookmarks. What was I thinking…
They offered me a about a 30% discount if I stayed another month but how could I stay when even the modest goals I set barely made it half way.. The idea seems sound and I don’t doubt their sincerity when it comes to fixing things but I have to ask, how can you charge for a system that does not work as advertised?
I would hope Daniel that you will refrain from plugging sites that you don’t have first hand test knowledge of.. of course it is my fault that I bit on the hook, no one else.
So Craig, aside from explaining what the service is, then displaying my case study results, what else would you consider a review and not a PLUG? I don’t even have an affiliate link on my site for Synnd, so your angst seems misdirected. Did I say it was great, did I recommend it, ?
If I told you it was sunny out and you decided to go outside and take a walk based on this “new” infromation, but got hit by a car, is that my fault, too?
Seems to me though that Synnd causes a lot of angst with members and users, and I have yet to hear anything good about it.
It works to some degree though, that’s all I can say/depict via the updated rankings.
Hi Craig,
In Daniel’s defense he never endorsed Synnd. We simply agreed to a set of test parameters and executed them. All he did was display the results.
I too am frustrated with our ability to quickly fix issues that arise with Synnd. I use it as much as anyone else does. I will say that our development team is always working and that Synnd is not an easy application as we’re coordinating hundreds of computers to perform tasks on 3rd party networks.
The issue with Twitter ran for about 2 months before it was finally fixed about 2 days ago. Though this was an issue with the Twitter API and not Synnd of course it is still our problem and we accept that.
On the matter of bookmarking performance…
This is a Synnd performance issue that we’re currently working on as a matter of high priority.
The problem lies in the algorithm that selects which campaigns will get action first. The algorithm sweeps from the top of the list “newest” down to the bottom (oldest). It also sweeps from the bottom up, selecting older campaigns and then moving to newer. The algorithm also sweeps from the middle-top down and from the middle-bottom up. This was done to (hopefully) give all campaigns (despite their age) equal promotional opportunity.
Apparently there is still a problem with that logic so we are working on it.
I must say this though, even with Synnd hitting at half capacity it is still effective in producing the results as advertised. One of our biggest issues is that people who don’t understand this tend to come to places like this blog to vent their frustration over a perceived lack of performance.
I guess it all falls down to what you consider to be a result. A number of promotions that Synnd provides in a given period of time or an actual increase in rank and traffic.
What do you consider to be a “result”? … That’s the question.
Thank you,
Charles
Daniel
never said it was your fault and never meant to imply that… I was only pointing out that showing results may seem like a plug since you didn’t work the interface and have no way of knowing what steps SYNND took on your behalf, but in no way do I blame you.. I find your site informative and have benefited from your posts and reviews quite a bit.
please accept my apology.
Craig
I have been with Synnd for nearly 3 months now and for all of those months I’ve not had access to the Article Submission feature. It’s been broken this whole time. Also, I’ve set my bookmarking campaigns to receive 10 a day. I am lucky if I get one or two. In fact one of my websites has stayed the same with bookmarks for over a week. It’s sat at 58 bookmarks for over 7 days.
I’ve also set a blog commenting campaign up on various blog posts to about 5 or 10 a day. I don’t even get 1 comment a day.
The funny thing is that each time I ask “when is this going to be fixed?” I get the same paragraph and sentences every single time. Customer service have copied and pasted the exact same reply to me every time.
I get this: “The problem lies in the algorithm that selects which campaigns will get action first. The algorithm sweeps from the top of the list “newest” down to the bottom (oldest). It also sweeps from the bottom up, selecting older campaigns and then moving to newer. The algorithm also sweeps from the middle-top down and from the middle-bottom up. This was done to (hopefully) give all campaigns (despite their age) equal promotional opportunity.
Apparently there is still a problem with that logic so we are working on it.”
I read the entry above and nearly chocked and thought “Geez, so they DO copy and paste it from somewhere, and now it’s here again.”
I am fed up and sick of paying for something that does not work.
They’re fine to charge me $100 bux a month, but not fine to give me what I am paying for.
I am giving them a few more weeks and then if this software is not fixed and I am not getting what I am paying for then it’s goodbye.
I’m so annoyed, frustrated and fed up already. I am starting to truly regret my purchase.
It’s all very well to tell people what’s wrong and say you’re fixing it, when nothing ever gets done (and I think 3 months is ample time) then people start to feel lied to and ripped off.
Not a good way to run business.
I would definitely avoid this product.
Hi Amy,
Unfortunately 3 months has not been ample time. It’s easy to say that but it simply isn’t true. If you only knew how extremely complex what we’re doing is then you might understand.
To put it bluntly you should go ahead and quit now and anyone considering joining Synnd should stay away from it. We are quite content with our current member base and will continue to refine and improve the technology for our own purposes.
My suggestion would be to leave and then come back in 3 months if at all.
My suggestion would also be to ask for a refund if what you’re saying is true and then come back later and try again.
- Charles
Charles, thanks for your response even though I am not sure if you are saying “if you don’t like it then get lost” or you are saying “I’m sorry for the inconvenience and promising something I can’t deliver.”
I have a feeling it’s both.
If 3 months is not ample time, then why don’t you tell people that then? How much IS ample time?
I really feel sad and disappointed because I thought this was going to be a really great experience. You promised SO much Charles.
And if Synnd is not ready and you say people should stay away from it, then why have it available for new people to join? Why not make it inaccessible for new customers?
Sure, I get that this is complex, but Charles, you are taking my money for something I am not getting. If I had a half finished product and put it on the market and my customers were unhappy….actaully no, I wouldn’t charge people money for an unfinished product because I don’t want to take peoples money for something they’re not getting.
Can you see it from my point of view Charles? I pay $100 for something I am not getting.
If it’s not ready then take it off the market.
All you have to do is just be nice. Just be kind.
That’s all I am asking.
Be good to people. You really seem to miss identifying with the customers experience.
Hi Amy,
Maybe you are one of the few that doesn’t read the updates. All the things you were complaining about are already working so I don’t know what more there is to say there.
Synnd is ready… I’m just telling people like you to stay away… We really don’t need you. This thread is not an attempt to garner more members, it is an attempt to lay down the facts. Take them or leave them…
I already told you to request a refund but you didn’t do it so what more do you want?
- Charles
I sent out a press release (Thanksgiving), waited a week. Checked the PR title in google. Picked one of the top listings that had the hyper link in place. Setup a SYNND bookmarking campaign pointed at that PR. Now the press release is #10 (pg 1) in google for the term in the PR title which of course has links to my site.
Regarding the article networks in SYNND. Yes everyone wants it automatic. Well its not yet and I spent an hour or less setting up my article accounts so that I can use them in SYNND. BFD!!
I realize some people want everything to work automatically from the beginning but a little elbow grease while they are ironing out things goes a long way.
I don’t even come close to the testing Dan has done on link building tools. But I have read most of his reviews on how they work and still believe that SYNND has the best (natural and human) attack at leveraging automated backlinks.
Granted they are not at where they want to be so I will just have to have faith they are moving forward. Which I will watch of course.
By the way Charles can I have those 1,000 backlinks… yesterday… and while you are at it will you please drop me in a few number one google placements for a few one or two word keywords I have lying around. Thanks…oh in a week will do.
FYI … The article distribution module is now tested and live. Just be sure to link an author account to each of your article network accounts in Synnd and they should begin rolling.
- Charles
One other thing. This is a damn good site on link building and I come here for reviews when I get wind of new services to see if Dan has checked it out. I also appreciate him starting out a bit skeptical cause a lot of these tools are hyped up beyond their claims.
Here is my take on SYNND:
I totally agree with Ted. I have been able to provide immense improvements in online visibility for my clients. Sure, I would love to have more things automatically done, but it just isn’t that big of a deal. If you want it done for you, they just announced an Enterprise version that allows campaigns to be done on your behalf. Pay a little more and there ya go.
These guys have provided the most powerful marketing tool on the planet at an amazing price, and it is still easy to use given the promotional power. There have been some challenges at times when they have gone through updates, but SYNND is complex. When issues have come up, many times when it has not been their fault (e.g. social network changes something), these guys make up for it by offering free credits, which is as good as cash! They don’t have to do this, it is money out of their pocket to help the SYNND Community.
Some companies who offer a single type of campaign syndication (e.g. for videos) charge more money, often a lot more, with less promotional power. SYNND will do anything with a URL.
In regard to Amy’s comments, my articles submissions are working well and my bookmarking campaigns are on fire!! I hope that the people reading this blog (which I like by the way), will understand Charles’ frustration. These guys do a lot to provide a great service at a great price, and it may not be enough for some people. You can always go back to doing it by hand if you would rather…
No thanks. I highly recommend SYNND. It is a great value that is unmatched anywhere else.
As one of the co-owners of Synnd I’ve pretty much stayed in the background as this discussion of our software has unfolded. Synnd has been in development for close to four years now (if you include the time spent to build the JAVA foundation that undergirds the current Synnd engine). It was designed to be the first fully automated content syndication network capable of utilizing every online and offline marketing channel that manages to survive the ongoing digital shakeout.
So…in addition to Synnd’s current Bookmarking, Social News, Article Distribution, Twitter Re-tweets, Blog comments, and other social proof dynamics…imagine the addition of such things as: Press Releases, Podcasts, various forms of Mobile Marketing, new RSS configurations acting as secondary sub networks for both dynamic linking schemes as well as avenues for the syndication of viral content, Synnd based plug-ins that facilitate the emergence of a growing Blog Network among Synnd members…with highly segmented and categorized themes that produce powerful linking results, Video distribution that goes far beyond Traffic Geyser in its syndication and “buzz” capabilities, Internet Radio and TV that can be branded to your personality or to your product or service, Book Publication networks, the top 300 Social Media Sites all organized and segmented to align with demographic research, Contest systems that provide fun social engagement as well as motivation for staying connected with you and your company for extended periods of time, Social Network Software that can be built from scratch to provide a custom and personalized center for people to engage with you and others, new Social Email systems that are just emerging onto the market, Local Social Networks like FourSquare–Groupon–Meetup–and a growing host of others…all part of your extended online community…which each day accumulates more and more social proof for you and those close to you, conventional Offline Marketing like Post Cards, Classified Ads, Billboards, TV, Radio, Snail Mail, and traditional PR Systems.
I’m leaving out several other channels we have slated for development, but these should be enough for you to get the basic picture. Now…imagine that you are standing at the center of this expansive network and you have with you all your most valuable content and company intelligence…knowing that at any moment you can distribute this content out through all these valuable and proven marketing channels.
But it doesn’t stop there…if it did it would only be a more robust version of SENuke, Traffic Geyser, Content Buzz or Bookmarking Demon…but it’s not. Synnd’s unique power is seen in this next step…because after you place your content in Synnd…and after Synnd automates the distribution of that content…then the real social magic begins…as hundreds (and soon to be thousands) of Synnd members begin to interact with your content in a variety of natural and logically motivated ways…all from the their own computers and their own unique IPs…creating a natural and ubiquitous presence for everything you have just syndicated…and for the brand…message…product… service…or person who lies at the center of your company.
This is a VERY simplistic and cursory overview of our vision for Synnd…but perhaps it’s enough to help you understand the scope of the project and the difficulties that might be involved in such a task. At times it is indeed frustrating…(as my dear partner Charles has so un- eloquently expressed above
…and believe me, I’ve been in the same boat. The size of our vision should never be an excuse for not delivering what we promise regardless of the programming difficulties we encounter. I can say that with our new version 3.0 of Synnd we have reached a new developmental milestone. With two new programming teams currently at work on the additional channels for Synnd, we have a renewed confidence that these new modules we be easier to integrate and more trouble free for our members.
Thanks to all of you who have supported Synnd, either through your paid membership or in your patience and consideration for the developmental processes we have encountered over the last few years. Finally… a big thanks to Daniel for his open minded willingness to let us test Synnd on his excellent blog and to engage his members. My one hope is that over time we can replace all the negative frustrations that are expressed here about Synnd with a new voice of confidence and excitement over their expanding and vibrant levels of Synnd generated traffic. That is the goal of each member on our Synnd team…and we will get there…as we have come too far to stop now.
Sincerely,
Thomas Rozof, CEO Social Media Science LLC
I think I’ll run a re-tweet campaign on this post to drive a few more eyeballs here.
Re-tweets currently sit at 4… Let’s see what happens.
- Charles
Twitter Update… this post moved up several pages for the key term Synnd (in Google) within the last few hours by virtue of just the re-tweets… More evidence of “social buzz” being a ranking factor.
Next up … We will run article distribution campaigns on the running case study key terms next week.
- Charles
I can totally understand Amy’s frustration. The main issue it seems is that almost everyone who has a problem with Synnd has a bigger problem with customer support. We all can understand waiting for something to work if it is broken, but at least treat us like human beings. If we open a support ticket, at least reply in a timely manner. I have resorted to asking questions in the forum, in which I have a better chance of getting an answer from a user than someone who runs Synnd. But even then, that forum is dead. Way too many posts have zero replies for way too long.
If the article submission tool actually works as they say it’s supposed to it will be worth staying with Synnd. But if not, it really is not worth the time and frustration. I am longing for the day when everything actually WORKS with Synnd.
I love the quote to Amy from Charles. “We really don’t need you.” It seems this is the basic mentality with the program for everyone else too. But if no changes come to customer support the bigger issue Synnd will face is when it’s users say “We don’t need you” right back.
Still clinging to hope that Synnd will live up to it’s claims,
Jon
UPDATE: 2 months later
KW1- Network Marketing Tips
* Google Ranked #27, down 10 spots
* Yahoo, not in first 8 pages (no change)
KW2-Blog writing tips
* Google Ranked #14, up 4 spots
* Yahoo ranked #14, up 16 spots
KW3-Link wheels
* Google Ranked #30, down 13 spots
* Yahoo ranked #22, up 18 spots
KW4-Get Backlinks
* Google Ranked #7, up 15 spots
* Yahoo, page 4 now, down 1 page
KW5-RSS Submissions
* Google Ranked #9, down 1 spot
* Yahoo Ranked #4, up 4 spots
Jon,
Sorry to hear about your support difficulties. If you will let me know your full name and write me directly I’ll do everything I can to help you get the support you need. We are posting some new information on the Synnd login page (wedge page) regarding the Synnd article marketing module. These include critical protocols that members need to follow in order to set up their articles properly. Many of our members are not following our guidelines, so we are posting them again to insure better compliance. We also discovered some errors on our end within a small number of Synnd member accounts, most of these should be fixed by now. Lastly, we completed some additional small refinements that should result in a more stable syndication process for all articles.
Regarding Charles comment that we “don’t need you”… well this is never the case as we have needed the patience and understanding of every one of our members, especially during this past year when we redesigned and refined several elements of Synnd’s core infrastructure. I’m afraid he wrote that post in a moment of frustration at the end of a long shift. Whether you are a Synnd member or not you should always expect from us a high level of cutesy and understanding…and even more so if you are a member seeking support.
We are constantly working to improve our support department. The problem, however, is not that we lack support (as we have many people on staff whose principle role is to provide quality support). The problem we face is that many of the support issues we encountered this past year were either completely new events (thus requiring deeper research and discovery…which is often a lengthy process) or the final solutions were of such a highly technical nature that they were beyond the capabilities of our support team to understand and to accurately articulate to our members. Therefore it took us time to both solve the issue and to write up a lay level explanation that would satisfy the specific questions being asked of our support team. This produced a much longer than normal response time and it led to members thinking that we were not attending to their needs. Nothing could be further from the truth…but without specific feedback (which we could not give due to the time frames needed to execute the research and resolve the issue) we often left our members with an unfortunate impression that we did not care about their support need. This was never the case…
It was this kind of “support catch 22″ that led Charles to throw up his arms in frustration and declare in the post above that “we do not need you.” What he meant by this statement was not that we did not need our members, but that we did not need NEW members. Both, of course, are untrue…but most of our original Synnd members are much more aware and understanding of the support challenges we face and therefore they automatically give us the space we need to resolve our technical challenges. On that day Charles was looking for some “space.” He knows he did not respond appropriately…but I understood the true spirit of his comment immediately…even though I also cringed
.
You see…our core members know from experience that we are working day and night to get things right…and even when we don’t respond to them in a timely way they know we have read every support ticket (which is true) and that we are working on the problem. They have also learned that Synnd is more like a development community than a pure membership network. If you follow many of the post around the net related to Synnd you can often read our members coming to our defense and sharing this dynamic with newer members in an attempt to help them understand how things work…while at the same time encouraging them to hang in there…as the rewards of the Synnd software working properly is truly unique and powerful. Evidence of this can be seen in things like twice selling 30 lifetime Synnd membership at over $3000 each in less than 24 hours (something we have only offered twice). Why would people make a purchase like this if they thought we were not doing our very best to insure a stable and effective software experience? The fact is…they would not.
I’d like to close by thanking all the Synnd members who have supported us over the years. I also want to invite any new members to come in a join this amazing community. But please join with an understanding that Synnd is not like the typical broadcast or distribution software that many compare it to…it really is unique. With each new module our members are seeing the collective power of Synnd. It’ is our hope that every founding member will one day look back and say: “Synnd was one of the best business investments I ever made.” Thanks to each of you who are helping us arrive at this goal.
One thing I can say about the Synnd executive team is that they are some of the hardest working and most sincere people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with in over 15 years of Internet marketing.
Thomas Rozof,
Dan,
Is there an update on this test you are doing with SYNND?
Thanks
Is this a dead issue now?
What is the issue?
We started several campaigns and they were all successful … What more do you need to see?
Charles, the one for get backlinks kw was somewhat successful, but even I don’t know what’s really been done here, what project types and campaigns.
RSS submissions, network marketing tips, other kws tested. I haven’t chatted with you so I don’t know what’s been done nor going on.
My traffic goes up every month, rankings for some terms have fluctuated, but I really don’t see how Synnd’s benefited me, except that the rss submissions url and the get backlinks url get read a lot in relation to other urls on this site that are newer, and on front page.
Historically with a blog layout like mine, the front page posts are mostly widely read. I saw your post on your site about our test and it cited only 1 url for the test. If that’s the whole test we did then yes using Syndd helped out here and was successful, but I don’t know what’s been done externally by you and Synnd for this site url.
Charles they say social factors are becoming or might become, increasingly important as a ranking factor.
And with Google algos wreaking havoc with people’s rankings, social media generated traffic is becoming more alluring.
I’m saying both those things because I want to be a believer, but it’s hard to unless I know what’s been done and what it did achieve.
I’ll do anything and pay anything to prove the concept
The kw “get backlinks is not that hard to rank by the way, just saying…
So Daniel,
Which services would you recommend for social backlinks, including facebook and twitter?