I am a vBSEO customer and I am NOT happy. Stay away from it like the black plague Why is the vBseo software encoded? vBulletin, (you know the people that ACTUALLY do all of the work, while vBseo releases an addon that costs about as much as the FULL software) don't even encode their forums. And they are the ones with all of the marbles to lose. For anyone running an ecommerce site (or any site that takes payment details) I read that it illega (depending on where you live) to take such information when there is encoded software on the server that you didn't develop. What's there in the encoding that I am not seeing? What kind of information is being taken from my forum installation and sent back to the vBSEO server? My member's email addresses? Passwords? Backups of my forum database? I should be allowed to see the code that is causing my forums to create a HIGH server load on a DEDICATED server. I started 2 forums at the exact same time and promoted them the same way (whenever I went to gain backlinks I made sure both sites were on that page, so if I went to testsite.com to exchange links, I made sure I exchanged links with both my forums). They are both in the same niche as well. I used the Zoints mod on one, and vBSEO on the other, and both got more Search Engine traffic than standard vBulletin, but the SEO was equal. Six months later, the only difference is that one was free and the other was $150. I could have just gotten a used vBulletin license and phpld license for that price. vBseo DID increase my traffic, but so did the Zoints SEO mod for vbUlletin which is FREE unlike the $149 for vBseo. I got suckered into buying this worthless software because I got tricked by the vBseo staff members who disguised their ADVERTISEMENTS as posts. Most people praising vBseo and linking to their site are usually affiliates and staff members. I even read this on the vBulletin forum: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1327309&postcount=48 That is all.
This post is very useful to me as I was contemplating between buying vbseo (especially since they have a discounted pricing special going on until tomorrow) or using zoints which is free. I'm going to go with zoints.
I can assure you vBSEO is not interested in any of your data. Our only goal is to provide you with the absolute best SEO for your forum. Encryption is used to protect our source code.
hmmm.... from what i read in your post, no offence, but i don't see any solid grounds of your complains. Personally, i've not tried this vbseo and don't know the full details, so i'm speaking from a neutral party.... Did they declare that you'll be able to see everything in their source code? If not, then you really have no grounds to complain abt this except that you should perhaps have clarified this b4 your purchase. Having the same performance as zoints is also nothing wrong at all, from what i see. Unless they guaranteed somewhere that 'our performance will be BETTER than zoints'. Otherwise, i really don't see how you can be complaining abt this? The fact that it performs better than without the vbseo, is testiment that at least your $$$ is not worthlessly spent. You perhaps have the right to recommend and maybe SHOULD advice friends that this is $$$ not worth spending since zoints is free. But i wldn't go so far to say that they have cheated you of your money since they did deliver as promised, which is to enhance SEO from a normal vB. No hard-feelings intended, just wanted to share my 2cents
He was was advising from his own experience and was sharing his experience. I'm sure that many people here will welcome this thread.
Pls don't get me wrong. I do appreciate his sharing. Afterall, I will probably avoid it after reading this. Just felt that it was appropriate to differentiate between a bad product & an expensive product that's all. But you are right, there are valuable lessons to be learnt here
I'm supposed to beleive you because you said so? I'll beleive it when I see the source. Not only do you charge more than a vBulletin license, you feel that you have more to lose or "protect" than the company you piggyback off of. Whatever. Ok. If you are not familiar with the software, then you won't see the points. They never stated that I would NOT see everything. If vBulletin (The people who do all the hard work while vBseo piggybacks off of them) doesn't encode their software (which vbseo needs), then it would make logical sense that vBseo doesn't either. Check their FAQ: http://www.vbseo.com/faq/ You have to search for what you are looking for? How am I supposed to check the faq if I don't know the features it has? It's supposed to be a page with all of the information I need to avoid something like this. You can't even get a refund for vbseo. But, you can get a refund from Jelsoft for vbulletin. I never said performance wise it was lacking. I clearly stated that they pperformed about equally. The only difference is that the Zoints mod is FREE ($149 cheaper than vBseo). On second thought, look up. jward ( a vbseo staff member) says it himself here: They are not the 'best'. I advised in my post to stay away from vBseo. I never sai I was cheated. I was suckered into buying it. Look at vBseo's posts on this forum (the user). Have you ever seen a thread where a staff member contributes to this forum? NO. All they do is spam spam spam with their vBseo promotion.Check out this staff memeber profile: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/member.php?u=12042 Find all of his posts, and they are all about vBseo.
If you pay for software, then you should receive source code, not the encoded version. Just my 2 cents.