Blinkweb Review
Griz recently pointed out a new free web site generation tool, Blinkweb, from the Callen Brothers who’re well known for other products like SEO Elite, Keyword Elite and Hyper-VRE. This new product promises to produce quality sales page style websites with little effort or technical programming know-how required. While the product hasn’t been released yet and we don’t know all the final details, lets take a look at what we know so far.
BlinkWeb Overview
The information we have indicates that this product is a drag and drop, online based, content creation system. Based on the video it looks a bit like Squidoo page generation except simpler and more basic. The drag and drop interface looks simple and intuitive. I think most people should be able to get the hang of it quickly although the proof of this will be once the program is released. You can make anything look good in a demo.
We will have to wait until the final release to do a full review of Blinkweb. It looks promising for the novice to use and perhaps time saving for the power user. Certainly the price, free, is right. But are there any catches we might want to concern ourselves with at this point?
A Means to a List
The Callen’s are expert list builders. Over the past few years they’ve amassed quite a list of Internet marketers that they can sell new products to easily based on the quality of their previous products. By offering a free product like this it not only allows them to further build their list but to offer upsells in the future. While this is good for the Callen’s is it good for you?
Given that the Callen’s aren’t egregious spammers like some in the Internet marketing game, being on their list isn’t too bad. They don’t abuse the privilege. Their products are generally high quality and do what they say they do although some are a bit over hyped on videos. Their products require a certain level of Internet Marketing and SEO knowledge and using them without that knowledge may be an exercise in frustration for some.
The Fine Print
Being a computer programmer plus someone who has studied law I tend to analyze things in depth. So I had to read their long and boring Terms of Service page. Essentially what I gathered is this.
First, it looks like the web site created by Blinkweb will be hosted on the Blinkweb site, not on your own site. This isn’t all bad. After all Squidoo, Hubpages and others are like this. However, this could have some other implications, good and bad, for search results, Google indexing and so forth. We have seen how Squidoo has fallen in and out of love with Google.
Next, like other similar services, you don’t fully own the content but you grant virtually unlimited rights to the content to Blinkweb.
Adult oriented content and other illegal or bad neighborhood content are, of course, prohibited. This is good Blinkweb News.
One thing I’m not sure about from reading this TOS is if the Blinkweb site will be injecting it’s own advertising along with yours or if you will have to pay a commission on sales you make through the site. This could be limit the effectiveness of the site if this is the case. It would also be good to know if outbound links from Blinkweb will be followed, nofollowed or at the page creators discretion. We will have to wait for a Blinkweb Update to find out more about this situation.
The Bottom Line
My initial thoughts on Blinkweb are that it may be a good idea but there are a few caveats I have. Do you have any thoughts on this product? If so, leave your Blinkweb thoughts in a comment below.
Blinkweb Update
Now that Blinkweb is up and running I created a Blinkweb page for my Link Luv Post Builder program just to get a feel for it. My initial impressions were kind of so-so at this point but I’m impressed with the programming quality represented behind the scenes. I’ll have a more complete review update article on Blinkweb in the next few days as I work with it some more.
Nicely done Frank. Yup - a glorified hubpage builder is the most likely result of this program but it may be useful. The linking structure will play a huge role in how effective this is and of course how the monetization is to be shared. Nice review - I was planning on spreading all that over 4-5 posts due to the lack of any new info coming forward. lol.
I’m thinking you need a link now…
Hi Griz,
I just had to see how it would end up. Google does like you better than me though.
It will be interesting to see how Blinkweb compares to existing single page or mini-site builders.
I’m mixed about the products these guys put out. I like the “Elite’s” but the “Submitter’s” are pretty crappy, despite the latter being free. HyperVRE I thought was junk.
If it works like Frank describes it, I’m not sure what the upside will be of using it. Why not just use Squidoo, Hubpages or any one of a zillion other page builders out there like Geocities or Google Pages? The last thing I need is something else distracting me from simply getting content to the web and collecting links.
Hi Splork,
I know what you mean about having yet another page building system to deal with. Lord knows I’ve already got enough dead pages out there that not even Googlebot will visit on a regular basis.
The real make-or-break for me on Blinkweb will be how well the pages index in Google and if the links are followed or not. If they do well sort of like another Squidoo or HubPages (without the dofollow restrictions) then Blinkweb may be well worth the time. If it doesn’t perform well in search and has bothersome restrictions and limitations or annoying upsell attempts, then there are other, better, alternatives out there.
Hey guys. Great post jfc
If I may, I’d like to answer a few questions/comments:
1. Users will be able to choose whether they want their website as a subdomain of Blinkweb OR a domain owned by them.
2. There will be no advertising on user’s websites. The only advertising done would be advertising done by the creator of the website.
3. There will be no nofollow links, robots.txt files, or any other crazy restriction like that.
4. Blinkweb will be nothing like a Squidoo, Hubpages, or Geocities. We’re raising the bar on this completely.
Again, excellent blog post. Have a great week.
Brad
Hi Brad,
Thanks for stopping by and for clearing those things up.
I agree with the others, Frank, this was an interesting summary of Blinkpages so far.
That was a timely visit by Mr.Callen; I too am curious to see where this will all end up. I am curious about something though:
“1. Users will be able to choose whether they want their website as a subdomain of Blinkweb OR a domain owned by them.”
So I wonder if the self hosted will be free while the Blinkweb hosted page/subdomain will cost you (like with other online storefront hosting websites) or viceversa or if both options would be free?
Also, I am curious to see how they will ‘raise the bar’ on Squidoo, Hubpages, etc.
Hi Stephen,
It will be interesting to see how Blinkweb plays out. I’d like to see it where you could download the HTML and FTP it to your own domain. I like plain HTML mini-sites and a free/low cost tool that would make building them faster would be good.
I am anxious to see how this plays out also. If Google likes Blinklist and it can place well in the serps I am not against it. Plus the dofollow is always good for me.
I have a hard time dealing with hubpages so this might be a nice alternative. Time will tell as others have stated.
I have had a few mini sites before and some have done well and some not. Actually I just use XSite Pro for mini sites but it is a costly program. And who doesn’t have HyperVRE?
Squidoo has been great for me to get high PR and redirecting traffic. This is a totally different program however.
I agree another page to forget about on the whole mess of sites.
Hi Denise,
I haven’t even tried Hubpages at this point. It just seems like a lot of work as compared to Squidoo and other free alternatives. Google likes them but the big ‘G’ also likes other types of sites too that are less hassle to deal with.
XSite Pro seems like a good program. I know Splork likes it. It isn’t something I would buy because I already have several web development tools I use in my work but it’s a good site builder for someone who doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know the ins and outs of HTML/CSS/Javascript.
Blinkweb has some potential for being as good as XSite Pro when it comes to certain kinds of mini-sites, plus having the advantage of being free. It will be interesting to see what the final product looks like.
Hi,
We just opened the site to the public less than 10 minutes ago.
HOWEVER, we’re only accepting 1,000 members RIGHT NOW, as we want to
make sure that Blinkweb can handle the server load before we let
“everyone” in.
After 1,000 users are reached, we’re TEMPORARILY closing the site
down to new users . We’re not sure how long… enough time for us to test some things and see if we need to tweek anything from issues that may arise.
Because the demand for Blinkweb is so high (you can see just how
“hot” this service is by going to one our single video blog post
that generated almost 2500 comments), we know that the initial
1,000 user limit will be filled extremely fast!
If you try to sign up and the site is closed, simply fill out
the notification form that will replace the signup area, and you
will be notified IMMEDIATELY when Blinkweb re-opens.
To sign up, go here now:
http://business.blinkweb.com
Thanks!
Matt
Hi Matt,
It filled up in under an hour. Amazing. I wonder how many people signed up more than once though.
Hi guys, to comment on the question regarding, “will subdomains be free and domains cost” question. The Blinkweb site creation tool will be 100% free. A Blinkweb subdomain will also be 100% free. Should users decide to purchase their own domain, the domain will ALSO be free. We’re spending our money to purchase the domain for BW users. Should a user host with us, month 1 will only be a buck. Month 2 and beyond will be a very minimal cost to cover our bandwidth to host member’s websites. We’ll be providing LOTS of marketing and analytic tools that users can purchase. These tools are being worked on right now, and it will be an ongoing project. Inside the member’s area, there is a section where BW users can request specific tools etc. they would like us to integrate. Our longterm goal is to provide BW users with EVERY type of marketing/analytics/website tool you would ever need, all the while, making them SUPER intuitive and user friendly… unlike most of the techie tools out there.
btw, we’re hoping to open BW up permanently on Monday, as we’ve not had any major problems after the brief launch to 1,000 members on Friday (knock on wood!)
Hope you all had a nice weekend.
Brad