We all know that nothing is perfect and Niche Socializer shouldn’t be any different. After reading the good stuff about it and watching the videos, you will definitely want to know any drawbacks that it may have. I know I am, that’s why I’ve done some long hours researching it to find any skeletons in the closet that Niche Socializer might have.
Here’s what I find to be worth considering before buying it:
- The extra fee per site if you want to set up more than 3. I realize that for the average folks 3 sites may be enough, but that extra fee for more is really a little pain in the neck. It depends on the size of that fee, which they won’t tell us until we’re in, but I always find any extra fees after the purchase to be annoying. Honestly, I’d think they could have avoided it, after all there will be only a limited release, but they may be estimating that it’s a necessary evil to keep the competition low. That leads to another possible drawback…
- If they’re so worried to limit the number of sites we can set up, maybe the competition may really be a problem? Now, I realize there are thousands upon thousands of niches out there, but from my experience with other products of this kind, people seem to gather in the same niches. It may be because we as marketers have similar interests, but that still triggers a red light to me.
- Also, I’m thinking, is the social marketing hype is worth it? I mean, isn’t it just another distraction? I’m doing well enough with the affiliate marketing, ppc and all kinda good stuff from the old days, is this new stuff for me? If you’re anything like me, you might want to really consider well. I’m sure even if you don’t buy it today, there will be a relaunch, and you can save the money for now. Or better yet, you may save yourself from yet another unnecessary distraction.
- The easiness for complete newbies. I know they’re saying it’s very easy to use, but for complete newbies who perhaps barely know how to use the computer, it still will be a challenge. You will need to get a domain and a hosting account to set up Niche Socializer software. If you’re that kind of newbie I’m talking about, you may want to look for other, easier opportunities that are out there first.
Those are it. Surprisingly I was hoping for a bigger list. Still these are the drawbacks and are worth considering.
In my opinion though, the pros really outweight the cons and unless one of the latter is really a sore point to you, Niche Socializer is worth the money.
#1 by Maureen - May 25th, 2009 at 21:14
I purchased Niche Socializer. Another cost involved in the site is the VIP membership, which is ofcourse optional, but you do not get all the features unless you pay an additional $97.00 a month and you don’t know this until you check out. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing in and of itself if the software functioned correctly. My software was reinstalled by one of their technicians. I installed it myself first, but when it came time for them to activate my site I was told they had to do a reinstall. Even that wasn’t a problem. The problem is that it has been over two months of going back and forth with their tech dept and my site still does not function correctly. When making a post in Chatroom, forums, articles, IM’s, bullitens, etc. the message do not appear. Some of these features are part of the VIP package which I am paying $97.00 per month for. It really would be a cool software suite if they could have made it work correctly in a reasonable amount of time. The 30 day period quickly passed while I was back and forth with their tech dept. getting help with other issues and it’s too late for a refund. There’s no need to spend time driving traffic to a site that doesn’t work. That’s my two cents worth. Maureen
#2 by admin - May 25th, 2009 at 21:44
Hi Maureen,
Sorry to hear that, it’s a real misfortune. But you know, having dealt with so many different hosts and software, I know sometimes a perfectly fine software just refuses to work on a particular server. Not saying that there may necessarily be a problem with the server, but after going that far to make it work I would certainly carry it to the host support. You’d be surprised how many times it turns out to be a mess with the server even though it appears to be the software on the surface. It does work on other servers after all.
#3 by Steve - June 5th, 2009 at 11:19
I’m also a Niche Socialize customer and I agree with Maureen that their support is not great – slow to respond, although helpful in a limited way. I was told at one point to contact their technical people by email, which I tried several times, but have never had a response from them at all.
More seriously, there has been a problem with all the sites loading extremely slowly for well over a week. Initially I thought it was a HostGator server problem, but ‘support’ eventually explained it was a router problem somewhere and they expected it to be fixed soon (that was after several days). It did seem to fix for a brief time, but now it is almost as bad. You can’t run a networking site that is slow, slow, slow, people will quickly give up. It’s a good job my two sites haven’t gone live yet, but I’m wondering – if they can’t fix these kinds of problems quickly, can I trust them with such a potentially important site to me? I won’t get a second chance in this particular niche if the site fails.
So I don’t know what to do… stick with what is potentially something very good (the admin side of the software is well organised, although you do need some web site skills to tailor it) or bail out and try a different software?
One of the support problems is that they don’t have anywhere (even a forum) where people like me and Maureen can give them quick feedback or help each other.
And don’t I see that Andrew has another launch going on at the moment? It’s a real shame that something so good seems to be going sour.
So
#4 by Steve - June 5th, 2009 at 12:30
Further to previous, I’ve just been browsing the PHPFox site and the Dolphin software site.
I followed a link from PHPFox to one of their featured sites, and that seemed to be suffering the same slowness problem, so maybe it is not just NS. It also looks as though the ‘technical support’ is supposed to be being provided through the PHPFox people, so it’s maybe not surprising that I’ve had no response as they will have little incentive to do so. Although its price is less than NS, it looks as though you have to pay extra for features that come with NS (the basic version).
The Dolphin stuff looks really interesting, although there are costs on top of the free version, but that’s fair enough. Browsing sites created with it, I was impressed by the variety of looks (unlike NS) and also they were loading at acceptable speeds
so I may try it. There is also clearly a lot of support from the developers and lots of other people – the thing most lacking with NS.
My only reservation is that Donphin doesn’t seem to be so well set up for monetizing as NS – but then, if you have many more members, there may be swings and roundabouts . There were advertising spaces, but those seemed to be mostly used for AdSense and I’ve done much better with other forms. I’ll just have to try the free version, I guess, and see how it goes.
#5 by Carl - June 16th, 2009 at 04:35
Hi, I’ve been deligently working my way through each step building my NS site. I must say the videos have been really good. But do agree with the others in terms of support, it does take quite a while to respond, that is if they respond. I am really surprised to hear about the $97/month fee, I thought it was part of the platform we purchased as a revenue source, not something you have to pay for to hopefully make some money, maybe this is a stage I haven’t reached yet within the steps. Nonetheless, my site has been developing and working and working sort of slower than typical until today. To my horror, my site failed to load with a broken link message. Sniffing the trail to find out the problem, like Steve, I found out from hostgator, this is the result of too many processes from pings going back and forth with phpfox confirming licensing, which explains the slowness. I believe this issue is the responsibility of Niche Socailizer and should resolved by Niche Socializer as what is suppose to be a working and performing product as this how they have promote it, sell it and explain it in their videos. Up until this point I’ve actually been satisfied, except support response times, the progress I’ve been making with my site and learing the components of the program along the way have been good, but am starting to wonder now after what I’ve just experienced and what the others have said before me. I don’t have the option to walk away from this nor do I want to as I think this has good potential and can only hope this issue is only going to be a small glitch in the road to prosperous site. Steve if you find a way to resolve this speed issue I wouldn’t mind hearing what youdid resolve it as it is very frustrating right now experiencing this sort of thing after spending so much money and so much time invested only to be stopped as I cannot do anything on my site right now due to this problem.
#6 by Jackie - July 2nd, 2009 at 00:28
Hi Friends,
Well all I can say is it sucks!!!!!!!!!!! I have wasted countless hours building and rebuilding my NS site and I think it is time to take action! How many more people out there like us who are just haveing to cop excuses from NS support and tech staff?
This my experience I have over 60 A4 pages printed out from NS support ticket system. One problem took weeks to fix and to top it of I was told 2 times that the feature was working correctly well I might not me a programer or a techie but I am not a IDIOT.
I want all my money back because I deserve it! How about you guys? I have had some one monitoring internet cafes and trying to log in to my site for about a week now and this is after the NS decided that it was my server that was the problem now your lucky if you can log on once a day.
In regard to the slow issue I was told about 2 weeks ago that the software restriction to my site had been lifted and it was now working super fast yea it was for a while now it has been pointed else where and your lucky if it comes up at all!
I am going to my credit card provider and am going to lodge a complaint against them for not providing the product which was promised and that is probably the best thing you could do if they get to many bounce backs there merchant will lock their account. Please feel free to email me at jackie@extreme-herbs.com I will send you some of my support emails
#7 by kay - August 16th, 2009 at 11:07
I am glad I found you guys. I am paying the 97 per month, but I don’t feel that I am getting anything. The teleconferences have not been happening. There is no forum for us to communicate. I have been getting responses from my support tickets but they’ve been slow. I did get a response stating that they were coming with new updates. Here is the screen shot http://screencast.com/t/KnFBqE8xr This upgrade is free and was suppose to be available first week of August but nothing yet.
#8 by Judy - September 23rd, 2009 at 10:23
I too am glad I found you guys. I didn’t even know about the $97 a month thing and boy am I glad I’m not wasting money on that!
Like all of you, my site was loading at a snails pace with them telling me it was loading smoking fast. I finally had my sister in Arizona and a friend in Colorado write down the time it took for them to load Internet Explorer and a couple of other sites of their choosing and then write down how long my site was taking to load and then how long to log in. I sent that info to tech support and they finally fixed the problem. NS told me that it wasn’t HostGator’s problem it was on NS end, but there is no way they will move the site to HostGator.
I now have new issues, but none of the customer support areas will respond to my emails. I haven’t heard a word from them since August 3, 2009.
Has anyone figured out how to get our money back. I really wanted to have a successful site, but can’t afford to keep spinning my wheels on a site with absolutely no support.
#9 by Sammy - September 30th, 2009 at 07:54
Good Morning,
I am also one of the unlucky ones who decided to buy this app and have only been disappointed with the level of service and support. I still think to this day they have not had their last webinar and I was also very surprised that there was no pdf manual created for the software. I did not mind the price of the product but now I feel like someone stole from me. I have only seen one successful site with this software but maybe it is from a person who has a close attachment to the creators.
NicheSocializer should offer a refund to everyone who purchased it. Also I am sure the 1000 or so people who did buy it will always remeber the two names who are attached to it.
Best Wishes to Everyone
#10 by Ken - October 16th, 2009 at 21:47
Like others that have posted here, I’ve been waiting patiently (and now impatiently) for NS to work properly. Now, of course, I’m waiting for the upgraded software to be loaded for my one NS site, which supposedly will happen in the next week or so (but I’ve heard that one before). They have responded to queries, but it sometimes takes weeks for them to respond. Honestly, if this is how these guys think you should run a business, they need to find a new line of work. And of course, they found time to launch another product while neglecting NS, so I wonder how that one is working out.
So, if they do not come through with the upgraded site within the next couple of weeks, I will be seeking a full refund of my initial investment, plus the $97/month that I have paid for the “extras” for the past few months. They have not delivered as promised, so it doesn’t matter if their due date for refunds has passed. Right now, they seem like the typical IMers that release a prodcut, then abandon it almost immediately for the next quick $ hit.