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Perhaps you’ve heard of Affiliate Video Brander or have received an e-mail recently promoting the product.
The company that developed Affiliate Video Brander is starting a relaunch and allowing people to resell this product on their own.
What does this mean for you? Well pay attention, I’ll tell you in just a minute.
But first, the reason I’m doing this review is that I have a very good friend who bought the product and could not make it work. So I offered to help her make it work.
The video of this attempt follows:
This is the story of that effort.
So, before you start thinking, "who is this guy?", let me tell you.
I worked for Intel tech support providing over the phone support for the Satisfaxtion fax modem product line, network print servers, Intel Smart Video Recorder, Proshare Video Conferencing and others. I also spent six years as a quality assurance test engineer working for McAfee antivirus, Network Associates, Certive Corporation.
Here are some sections from the sales letter, and these are the items that I decided to evaluate.
providing an easy way for anyone to earn commissions branding online videos — without having to create any videos themselves
Affiliate Video Brander With Resale Rights
Is A Turn-Key Profit Generator
Geared For Your Success!
This presents a big opportunity for us to capitalize on our product once again by re-launching it, and utilizing the much larger network of joint venture partners that we are now affiliated with.
AVB is perfect to resell your PLR videos you get from PLR video membership sites.
In fact, it’s the one perfect tool to present PLR videos as there’s no other like it that performs the way it does!
And most significantly:
WARNING!
That’s enough to get started.
First impressions:
The application screen size is very small for the amount of information that is presented.
The layout is cluttered and the button and field orientation doesn’t provide a logical work flow.
There is no logical path or work flow as he says in the video tutorial, you can click on anything in any time except for the Clear button, which clears all the fields of any data.
The update function is just another way to get YOU on another mailing list and doesn’t actually update the software.
The Save Settings function might work but, the Load Settings function stops working after a certain number of saves are made.
There is no documentation other than a 15 minute video on how to run the software which seems very chopped up and disorganized.
I believe this reflects the design approach for this product.
During the video he shows you what the final output page is supposed to look like in other words, what this product actually does for you.
But you better look quick, because it only spends three seconds showing you what that page might look like. He also never shows you a full shot of the screen pages scrolls through it and shows you three 1 second glimpses.
Unless you know how to find and use the tutorial video, I’m not sure many users will even get this far. I also believe the nameless person in the video tutorial remains nameless for a reason.
Functionality:
Its main feature doesn’t work. Which would be the redirect of a video after playing.
The web pages it creates are poorly laid out too much blank space below the video for the links that you create.
You have to create a directory for your output before you can use to choose output function. Any software written in the last five years would allow you to create or make a new directory why your choosing directories. This is just another example of how the software was just rushed through without much thought given to specifications or usability.
As shown in the video before you can choose an output folder, you have to leave the program and create the output folder. Most programs written in the last 10 years that want you save your information to an output directory, allow you to create one within the program.
If you do however put in all of your information and press the Clear button without selecting Save Settings first, it will clear every field without asking you for confirmation. Confirming that you wants to erase all of your work is also a feature that’s included in most professionally designed programs in the last 15 or 20 years.
Clicking on the AVB updates button, I would assume would allow me to update the software, which it badly needs. I may be repeating myself here and later.
But, No. It makes you sign up for Affiliate Video Brander updates, and then takes you to a link to download 5 more e-books and for more product offers that will distract you from doing what you’re supposed to be doing in the first place.
What this really should do is provide you updates to make affiliate video Brander work.
I did however, sign up and still have not received any information about updates, which this product sorely needs.
Usability:
The video instructions say that you can complete this in any order, I think that would lead to confusion on the part of most users. Providing step-by-step instruction on how complete the process would probably encourage people to use the product.
If people actually used this product I think you would find that most of them would be very disappointed
Since I made the video, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the software to see if it works any better. IT STILL DOES NOT WORK.
Also, let say you want a brand 10 or 15 videos. Well, saving may still work after 10 or 15 but loading what you’re saved settings work doesn’t work. I’m not sure the exact number, but there’s something wrong with the way they’ve save the array of saved files that will not allow you to load them after you reach a certain number.
Who is promoting, endorsing and recommending this product?
The list of names is directly from the sales page for affiliate video Brander. They have all left a testimonial block according to the sales copy.
- Anik Singal
- Chris X
- Joel Comm
- Rob Benwell
- Rick Butts
- Stephen Luc
The testimonials on the sales page are from name brand Internet marketers.
I wonder if they’ve ever used the software or if they’re just trying to sell it and get links back to their sites. Most of these testimonials talk about what a good idea this product is. With the exception of perhaps one. None of them actually talk about using this product specifically.
David Guindon doesn’t seem to have a testimonial on the page, but, he is one of the people marketing this product. I received an e-mail from him Promoting Affiliate Video Brander this week.
Now I’m not bashing David Guidon and I own some of his eBay specific products. They work fine. He also is one of the few people to provide some really great information about how to create linked pages using eBay.
Here’s where I have an issue
Part of his current sales pitch of this product implies how much money you could make selling this product. He shows how much money he made selling it when it was first introduced.
I see a couple problems with this. The people who are selling you the resale rights for this product are going to expect you to provide tech support for your customers.
If your customers are having as much trouble as I am and actually ask for tech support, you are going to be swamped with problems, problems, you can’t fix because the software doesn’t work like it’s supposed to.
Was does that mean to you as a Internet Marketer try to run your business:
- Refunds
- Time lost dealing with tech support issues and refunds
- Raising your bad reputation level as a marketer.
A final word about the bonuses included with the offer. Most of these bonuses are available for free across the Internet or at the least as part of membership sites as resale products. Search Google for them and you’ll find them.
I think the highlighted text from the license agreement below really says it all.
BY ACCEPTING TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, YOU ALSO REALIZE THAT THE OWNERS, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY AND ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR OR FROM HOW YOU USE THIS SOFTWARE.
As I said before, this may be the most significant portion of their sales copy
WARNING!
I would love to hear your comments about this software review.
27 responses so far ↓
1 Lynn // Jan 25, 2008 at 7:42 am
Your review is spot on, Dave. I asked for a refund. I would never consider selling this to other people. It doesn’t work.
2 Edward // Jan 25, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Not going to become and affiliate, thats for sure.
3 Jim // Jan 26, 2008 at 2:06 am
In the process of researching the progress of my own video on an identical theme I came across yours on YouTube. What can I say, except that I couldn’t agree more. I only wish you’d continued the title for another couple of words. I wasn’t quite so restrained I’m afraid!
Unless Eric & Michael can fix the unfixable very quickly I think they will have a lot of angry customers and resellers to contend with.
Cheers!
4 Jim // Jan 28, 2008 at 3:07 am
I’ve discovered that the product can in fact do a redirect on the rare occasions on which it succeeds in downloading a video.
If you check “Movie Length” and dial up the minutes and seconds the page it builds will do a timed meta redirect. Not really ideal if the user pauses to buffer up the video over a slow connection for example.
5 Comment // Jan 28, 2008 at 5:17 am
Hi Dave –
I think I noticed in the video that you missed clicking the “Movie Length min/sec” box, and you didn’t set the minutes and seconds length of the video. By doing that, you may find that the auto-redirect works.
6 Dave // Jan 28, 2008 at 8:32 am
Hi Comment,
First, I didn’t miss it. Second why won’t you tell us who you are or use a valid email?
The Tutorial video states repeatedly that the Movie Length field is optional.
Here’s a video that "tries" to explain the Optional Movie Length field.
I appologize for sounding so surly in the video.
Here are some other problems:
To use this you need access to readily available videos. The sales page say these are available at "membership sites". So, now you also have to Join ($$$) some membership sites and HOPE they have created the PreSales videos for you.
This software is an example of what is called WAPD in software development.
WAPD stands for "Works As POORLY Designed".
Only the developer knows how to use it.
The guy doing the Tutorial video couldn’t even make sense of this.
What else does it take for the Originators to take action and make a REAL USABLE product?
7 Eric // Jan 28, 2008 at 10:34 am
You skipped the most important step. You need to put in the length of the video before you click to download the video. You can see that plainly in your video.
The redirect is in the HTML, not in the SWF or FLV file.
8 Eric // Jan 28, 2008 at 10:38 am
Also you do not need to join membership sites to find brandable videos. Many product sellers have videos on their sales pages. If you’ve been around the internet marketing world for some time, you should recall seeing “camtasia” screen capture videos created by various vendors to advertise and/or demonstrate their product. Those are one example of the type of video that can be used.
9 Eric // Jan 28, 2008 at 11:46 am
oh, and regardingthe optional redirect. It’s optional because some users might not want to create a redirect. I thought the tutorial was pretty clear that you need to utilize that feature if you want to redirect the page. Also we are releasing a written user manual today, which hopefully will make that more clear.
sorry for leaving 3 separate comments… i was sort of just responding as I went down the page…
10 Dave // Jan 28, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Three comments are fine, I like comments.
I’m glad someone finally decided to address some of these issues.
As you can see I’m using Camtasia to review this product. I guess a precursor to buying Affiliate Video Brander, would be knowing that the product you want to promote actually has videos, in the correct format, without their own redirect links, that you have permission to download?
Based on your comments above, your really not branding the video here just creating an HTML page with a redirect after a certain about of time, correct?
What happens when a user downloads a video that already has a redirect built into the FLV file and then enters his own redirect with a timer? ( Like the your tutorial) Which one actually happens?
I’d be interested in reviewing the manual also, if you are willing? I’m wondering , if the product has been out as long as it has, why a manual now?
What about the fact that after restarting the AVB software you can’t load anything?
When will AVB updates actually be available as opposed to a way to collect more e-mail addresses and market to more people?
Why don’t you allow the user the ability to create an output folder while they’re searching for one like any modern program would do?
After watching the video again getting to the point where he explains how to add the opt in code. I now understand what he means by adding more copy to the page. You can type a whole bunch of stuff here if you want to and then not use the form for the opt in.
The way it’s worded however doesn’t make much sense and shows a lack of forethought.
Nowhere in the section on adding headlines and sub headlines does it tell you that those checkboxes have to be checked so that the headlines in sub headlines show up on your page.
Also to get to the "headlines" section yet to click on a button called Add Opt in Code. I think most users would assume that if they typed text in those boxes it’s going to show up on the page. But, it won’t unless you additionally check the boxes.
Also in the same section where you have a button to add a break seems to add a carriage return, so you see the guy using this program having to delete the carriage return each time he presses the button for the break. ( The Link Settings add break button does the same thing.)
How hard would it be to fix that so it only does what the button says, add a break code want to do?
Next he addresses the "link settings field". He states, and I quote, "what ever link you’re trying to forward the person to".
In link settings the Title label should actually be called Link Text or a Visible Text. It’s not a title.
He also says during the description of Link Settings that the "redirect link will automatically direct the person to this link".
Once again, no mention of having to put in the movie length.
What he really means is the link you want them to click on to open the sales page.
My understanding for "forwarding" is it is pretty much an automatic event where as having to click on the link is totally up to the user at the other end.
Now we finally get to the movie length field and redirect link.
Once again I quote tutorial instructor, "It forwards your viewers to the redirect link after a certain amount of period".
He repeats after filling in the movie length "that’s optional it’s something you can do if you want".
Now if he’s actually talking about movie length field or if he is talking talking about the entire redirect field, he should be clear.
Maybe the movie length field and the redirect link should also be in another pop-up box so they are together and you know, you need both.
Now about the page that it creates. If you don’t have a 640×480 video there is a lot of blank space at the bottom of this video before you get to the link at the bottom.
After trying to put a movie length of 17 seconds which is the actual length of my movie and saving in branding and uploading the files to my server.
It still doesn’t redirect.
When I restarted Affiliate Video Brander the Load Settings button doesn’t work.
Also the most important part of this program is the uninstall and after it uninstalls it leaves the installation directory and two files without asking if you want to delete those also.
What about the various testimonials on the sales page that don’t talk about your product but, talk about how video Is a great way to market?
Don’t they imply that these people are actually using your product and are advising others to do so?
11 Eric // Jan 28, 2008 at 1:18 pm
“I guess a precursor to buying Affiliate Video Brander, would be knowing that the product you want to promote actually has videos, in the correct format, without their own redirect links, that you have permission to download?”
-Well that sort of depends on why you’re buying AVB. If you’re buying it for the purpose of promoting one particular product, then yes you would probably want to make sure that a compatible video is available. But I think most of our customers are more interested that there are plenty of brandable videos out there in the marketplace.
As far as redirecting the video file itself vs. redirecting the HTML page… that’s really a technicality as far as I’m concerned because it achieves the same thing.
80-90% of our customers (based on my knowledge of our market, which comes from surveys and working in it for several years) are “newbie” internet marketers, not software testers such as yourself. Many of them either don’t know how or don’t want to create their own web pages. So we created a simple solution that builds the page for them.
Why some of the functions of the software do not work for you, I do not know. It works for me.
For customers who do have problems such as this, they have two options… they can seek support from our support department. And if that does not satisfy the problem, they can ask for a refund within the 56 day guarantee.
Regarding the user manual. We did release a user manual with AVB 1.0 along with the software when it was initially launched.
Now we are releasing the user manual for AVB 2.0. We are also releasing extra support documents for troubleshooting, and a guide explaining how to find brandable videos. In addition to these 3 documents, we are including a document explaning the source code, for those who purchased private label rights.
We are also including the MS Word source files of all of these documents, so that resellers can customize them (For example if you don’t like how we worded something, you could simply rewrite or add to that portion of the user manual).
I would also suggest a 3rd option for experienced software developers such as yourself, who might not be happy with the features/performance of AVB (and I would imagine there are a handful of you out there). You could buy the private label rights and make the program better, launching it under your own brand.
I’ve personally done this in the past. For example a few years ago I found an article site building script that was broken. I partnered with a coder to fix it, and we made 10’s of thousands of dollars selling the fixed version.
Now I’m not saying that AVB is broken, but if you see ways to make it better, it could be a good opportunity.
I personally am not on the software development side of AVB so I can’t say whether it will be taken further by us or not, but I’m sure that at least a couple of our PLR buyers will turn it into something bigger and better.
Lastly- and the thing I should have STARTED with- is to say I am sorry for any trouble that the program caused for you. Of course it’s not our intention to cause grief for software testers. Fortunately, the vast majority of our customers are not having these issues. I do stand by the product, and of course we stand by the money back guarantee.
thanks for the opportunity to respond on your blog. Eric
12 Comment // Jan 29, 2008 at 6:45 am
Hi Dave,
I’ve noticed that to get the redirect to work when testing that I have to use a fresh browser window each time, it seems the browser remembers the redirect code somehow.
And…
If the video has it’s own redirect embedded in it, simply set the Movie Length in AVB to 5 to 10 seconds shorter than the full movie length, that way the HTML redirect will trigger before the end of the video redirect.
Regarding the name “Comment” — I don’t want to get caught up in any “crossfire” — just trying to be helpful.
Best,
Comment
13 Dave // Jan 29, 2008 at 7:05 am
Thanks for the input. Eric tells me that new documentation is coming soon, even today maybe.
Your’s is the sort of information that it should include.
I’m sure that if as Eric says ” 80-90% of our customers (based on my knowledge of our market, which comes from surveys and working in it for several years) are “newbie” internet marketers….”, they will need these workaround steps.
As far as crossfire, I hope I’ve come across as civil yet concerned for those, like my well qualified friend, who have similar trouble running the AVB software.
14 Dave // Jan 29, 2008 at 7:08 am
Eric, I’ve never heard anything bad about you as a marketer.
As a fellow Coloradan I wish you the best and appreciate the follow up you have provided here.
15 Jim // Jan 29, 2008 at 7:11 am
Hi Eric,
I’m pleased to meet you at long last.
I’m also a PLR and OTO customer of your AVB 2.0 product. I haven’t used up much of the money back guarantee period as yet, but if you check out my blog and the video sites you will realise that I am contemplating asking for a refund. I have also very publicly requested suggestions on how the product could be improved.
I’m interested to discover that you feel the shortcomings in AVB 2.0 provide a good opportunity for purchasers of the Private Label Rights, such as myself.
I started programming computers in 1969, so I guess I count as an experienced software developer. You are undoubtedly an experienced internet marketer. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind popping over to my blog and making some suggestions about ways in which you feel the product could be improved to make it more useful for the "Average Joe" internet marketer, just starting out on the rocky road to unlimited riches and the opportunity to take on Mavericks whenever the wind and swell are in opposite directions.
16 Jim // Jan 31, 2008 at 10:28 am
Dave,
Absolutely fantastic analysis of AVB. As someone who bought and used AVB (2.0) just two weeks ago, I have to say that your analysis is incredibly detailed and factually accurate.
BTW, I just received my AVB 2.0 documentation via email and it’s pretty sketchy — only somewhat useful and certainly not professionally written and edited.
Question? In your first video (above), you state that you had to use a .flv video in order to make the redirect work. Did you mean that you downloaded into AVB a .flv video which already had a redirect link embedded in the video? Or did you create an flv video after the fact? I would like some clarification. AVB 2.0 can NOT download anything but a .swf file.
I sure wish I had found this post before I purchased.
17 Dave // Jan 31, 2008 at 11:15 am
It’s been a while and what I do know is that: I made an FLV video with Camtasia, since I know they can be redirected. I did this since I couldn’t find a file to download.
Then I uploaded it to one of my sites, since Affiliate Video Brander had to download it instead of being able to use a local file in my hard drive.
This never worked for redirecting unless I used Camtasia to build a redirecting FLV video.
The Tutorial never mentioned that AVB only works with SWF videos.
Just now I rendered the file as a SWF and "branded" it.
I use the term branding very loosely.
But, when I use Affiliate Video brander all it does , in addition to frustrating me, is make a html file with a redirect/refresh section that looks like this:
(some brackets removed to display the code.)
where the 190 is the number of seconds that will pass until the redirect.
18 Tim // Jan 31, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Well I will not be buying the AVB that is for so, selling untested software to people is asking for trouble. The fast buck Joes look very bad, and mess up their names as well.
If it was freeware that would be another thing, who ever made the AVB should of left a limited number of people test it free. Getting feedback and making tweaks before the re release of it, seeing how this is ver 2.0 it should of been a upgrade at best.
This tells me some thing is wrong here, make a mint forget about who gets hurt, because they are selling junkware at real software prices. Take what I’m saying with a grain of salt though as I have not used it, but after seeing the reviews I’m not going to at all.
19 Tim // Jan 31, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Here is a link to the guys blog I do believe …….
http://www.ericstips.com/tips/avb-resale/
20 Dave // Jan 31, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I did visit the Eric’s blog and the link that says “Resale Rights Details Here… “.
But no where on the sales page does it say anything about resale rights.
Also today something has changed…
The other day when I got there the “Don’t refresh your page” price was $67 for a $30 savings.
Today the act now, cuz if you come back it will be $97, but today it’s $47 for a $50 dollar savings.
I clicked through to the order page and saw no mention of the resale rights either.
I wonder if that’s an upsell waiting to happen?
I believe you could save $97 dollars if you think about it.
I don’t think I’ll be spend any more… time on this
21 Jim // Jan 31, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Just one more thing and I’ll quit complaining and move on…
The lack of any mention in the salesletter that AVB only works with .swf files (and they can’t be on your local drive) caused me a high level of pain and agony and time lost.
I found that unforgiveable.
22 Eric // Feb 2, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Dave- the reason that you no longer see the Resale Rights for sale on our site is because that sale ended on Jan 29th, as we originaly stated. The $47 special is for the software WITHOUT resale rights.
Jim- Sorry for the SWF issue. We obviously weren’t thinking that it would cause pain and agony. We’re currently exploring having a new version created that works with FLV (and if we do, all paid customers will get it for free).
23 Jim // Feb 5, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hi Eric,
Can customers like me, who bought the OTO and hence the source before January 29th, expect to receive in due course a new version of source code that compiles into an application that works properly with SWF and FLV at a minimum?
24 Dave // Feb 7, 2008 at 5:40 am
Hey guys,
Just thinking you two (Jim and Eric) might want to take this discussion over to Eric’s blog at http://www.ericstips.com/tips/avb-resale/
25 Avenue Girl // Feb 22, 2008 at 10:59 am
I really can’t stand it when someone does not actually use or try a product they are promoting. I came across your little review here while looking up the product. Thanks for the honest review.
26 Jon // Feb 25, 2008 at 11:58 am
Thank you for your thorough review and lengthy comments. I too, as an affiliate, will not offer a product to people without making sure it’s a solid product.
I think you pretty much spelled it out for us.
We all would like to make money fast, but more importantly, we need to make money “right” first.
This sounds like a well intended product, but I’ll need to wait for better real life examples of using the product (aside from those who swear by it just to make a buck), before I’m convinced it would be good to buy.
Thanks Dave and Jim.
27 Instructional Video News // Mar 2, 2008 at 11:47 am
How does Affiliate Video Brander looks like and how does it work?…
Finally by trial and error I got the first video up on my blog here ( see below). Well it is not my video but one that I found on You Tube. And I choosed one video that was related to one of my actual concern and interest for the time being. So I do n…
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