Numerous people have been asking me what I really think of Wordpress Direct. I am one of those who has been lucky enough to use this as part of the Thirty Day Challenge, where it enabled thousands of challengers to get new blogs online quickly (and contributed to some excellent and fast rankings). But, with the big launch now taking place, the question I am being asked is, what uses does Wordpress Direct have and is this system right for my needs?
Wordpress Direct is a system that quickly creates multiple Wordpress blogs. You can set them up in seconds, once you have researched your main keywords, and the blogs come with the most useful plugins and are fully optimised. Unlike many other blog creation systems, all the blogs are hosted with your own blog host and you own the domains and overall control of the blogs (should you ever cancel).
Wordpress Direct will also create automated posts for you, legally gathering the information from other websites, so your blog can always look active to the search engines even if you don’t have much time to put into them.
Wordpress Direct is the perfect tool for anyone who: wants to create multiple niche blogs quickly and easily; wants their blog to be optimised for their keyword phrases; and isn’t concerned with every post being 100% original.
Wordpress Direct is not for anyone who is creating one or two personal/business blogs that they want full control over and intend to write for and build-up over time. While it would still work for setting-up your blog quickly and provides a good optimisation structure, it probably wouldn’t be an effective use of your money. You would be better to pay to have someone create a blog that is unique to you.
Yes, these are essentially Wordpress blogs with a number of carefully selected plugins. If you know how to set up a Wordpress blog then you could create multiple blogs yourself (there is even software to enable you to clone previous blogs so you can do it quicker). The automated content is drawn from different places online (Youtube, Yahoo Answers etc.), which you can do yourself or pay someone else to do. You will also need to re-create the linking and blog structure for optimisation.
Wordpress Direct is perfect for: creating multiple Wordpress sites if you don’t know how and don’t have the time to learn; reviving old websites and/or domains that have been sitting gathering dust but which you don’t have the time or interest to build-up; creating blog networks each focused on a different microniche to build traffic and authority to a niche blog/website/ecommerce/service site. If you
You can then sell the individual blogs or networks based on traffic and/or PR, or use them to bolster your main business.
And, as the Thirty Day Challenge has shown, the system can be used to test microniche keywords quickly for traffic and commercial potential, without needing to invest too much time or money.
The current offer is:
$1 trial for 45 days leading to the Bronze package at $37 per month (up to 10 blogs)
Silver is $97 per month for up to 20 blogs
Gold is $127 per month for 100 blogs
Platinum (currently unavailable)
As well as these subscriptions you will need to pay for domain names and hosting with one of the accepted cpanel hosts (I use Hostgator and Bluehost).
* Wordpress Direct is quick and easy to set up. Doing this yourself will take a lot of time and continuous effort.
* There is no need to create new, original content all the time (those worried about duplicate content should know that the content is presented in such a way that doesn’t appear to receive any penalty – even if duplicate content is a true issue, which is another blog post in itself)
* Blogs are optimised for you
* You can add banner ads, one-off offers and adsense
* You can still monitor and select the auto content you like (and set it to supervised content)
* There are a number of useful videos that show you exactly how to set-up your blogs and automated content.
* You can easily install Google analytics and track your ranking within the dashboard.
* Some monitoring of auto content is needed to prevent odd stuff appearing or suddenly seeing 15 posts appearing all at the same time
* Wordpress Direct can only work with a limited number of hosting companies
* My own support issues were answered relatively quickly and satisfactorily, but I know others that have had genuine problems with the support system.
* There are still quirks in the system that need ironing out, such as multiple themes not working well with the system and/or having funky code in them (Wordpress Direct is working at pulling out or amending the dodgy themes)
* You cannot set up posting to go out at specific times or days like you can with Wordpress blogs (Wordpress Direct have said this feature will be implemented within the next few months)
* Images do not always format properly (I usually have to login to my main Wordpress admin to re-format the pictures).
* This is not a blogging panacea. While I had one blog rank well for a phrase match keyword phrase just from sitting there minus content, this is not to be expected in every case. You still need to implement a backlink strategy.
A number of people have asked me this question and I find it difficult to answer, because it really depends on you and how you will use it.
Yes, I recommend Wordpress Direct if you are keen to build your own network of multiple Wordpress microniche blogs and/or revive old sites/domains with minimal effort (both of which I am doing). If your business model require blog clusters and siloing techniques then this is ideal for you.
You still need to monitor the sites and content and you still need to be prepared to build up backlinks and authority in order to rank well for your keywords. You will also need to be prepared to work with the quirks and not expect great things when you require support (that’s not to be unkind to WPD, just to point out that customer service has not been an overall strength so far).
I wouldn’t recommend Wordpress Direct if you don’t have a strategy in place to use the software to its full potential. If you only want a few blogs or hate the idea of allowing automated content onto your sites, then you have probably not grasped the concept and value of the system. These are not the sort of blogs that will gain you problogger status. The blogs are not “pretty” – you are not going to win any design awards for them, and some people can’t bear creating unremarkable websites. That said, they are not “ugly” but the themes are all fairly standard.*
Many people are going to hate the notion of Wordpress Direct because the blogs it creates are not personal, unique blogs like this one. There is no (or should be no) emotional attachment. This is another tool to test niches, build traffic and PR, and assist your linking strategies.
I am happy to recommend Wordpress Direct as a system for creating and maintaining multiple Wordpress blogs if you are going to use the system to its fullest, but if you simply want one or two blogs then I would suggest finding a good Wordpress course (there are some excellent free and paid tutorials available) and/or spending the money to have someone create a blog for you that you can update yourself on a regular basis.
There is a 45 day $1 trial, so if you are still undecided you can trial the system before you make your final decision.
*Since writing this, a number of people have pointed out that Wordpress Direct blogs can be personalised and made to look more ‘pretty’ and have even shown me evidence of this. So, I back down on this one and agree that there is scope for making your WPD blogs unique and personal. This involves logging into your admin panel and playing with the theme design, which will depend on your experience level with Wordpress blogs. I haven’t done much to mine as that isn’t the object of my use of Wordpress Direct.
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Great information Lisa, I value your opinion and you did a fair concise job of expressing it:)
I appreciate the review. I just started the 30 Day Challenge, got the offer, and didn’t know if I should jump on board or pass. You described my situation with: don’t have a strategy in place to use the software to its potential and hate the idea of allowing automated content on your sites. Thanks for saving me some heart ache.
But don’t forget you could instill some personality into each blog because you do have direct access even from your own domains Cpanel. This is a good solution to an optimized blog without having to go through the process of uploading WP, installing plugins, etc. This solution does that for you in seconds.
Mike Hill
Hi thanks that is pretty clear. What Im uncertain of as a non tech bod is how much the Wordpress.org tutorials will apply to this platform…I mean am I getting a bit of a head start with the set up and then can I still apply plugins from Wordpress.org and learn wordpress this way??? Or is it just too limited can I change the designs? I understand themes will keep evolving at wpressdirect…ta
Agreed, I have changed the review to mention the fact that like any Wordpress blog, there is scope to personalise it. I have seen some really great looking WPD blogs.
Ruth, the Wordpress.org tutorials will definitely help you learn more about Wordpress blogs, which also applies to WPD blogs. They should help you make changes to your themes and add some of those personal touches.
Mike, it is a good solution for creating optimised blogs in seconds, but I question whether it is worth the price if you are only going to create a few blogs. Is paying what I believe is now $37 per month for up to 10 sites (bronze membership), if you aren’t using the system to its full potential?
However, there is a $1 trial so people can find that out for themselves and see whether this is something they will use or not.
[...] depends what you are intending to use it for. I have written a blog post with my own review at: Wordpress Direct - The Review: Multiple Wordpress Blogs in a Jiffy! | IM Geek Girl It is too extensive to detail everything here, but I have tried to be as honest as possible about [...]
[...] Geek Girl has a great review of WordPress Direct. Lisa has used the service and points out the pros and cons. It’s a joy to find this type of Web [...]
Thank you Lisa, this has been very insightful and very helpful -
Smiles to you,
Yvonne
As slow as their support can be (it’s gotten way better lately) their answers have been great on the issues I’ve asked for help on. I have tried what WPD does on a “do it yourself” basis with poor results. Everytime I broke something in wordpress I had to go begging in forums for help, or in one case hire an elancer to fix something.
So for all the (sometimes justified) complaints about WPD support response times, that is actually part of what I like about them. They even were able to give me a hand with an issue they could easily have pushed back on my hosting but didn’t.
Thanks for the review, Lisa. It’s great to hear from a lady/girl IM.
I find it amazingly interesting and have already checked out the website. My concerns are the high fees vs. ROI (WPD), and being delisted from the eight hundred pound gorilla, which is Google (like you already didn’t know that…) Google changes their algorithm like underwear, so I really don’t know…
Hi Lisa, I have been checking out wpd the last couple of days. Thanks for your post. I don’t get what is says about commissions on the signup page. Certainly they are not keeping 66% or 50% of your of your commissions are they?
Are you still using WP Direct?
Thanks,
Buddy
This is a great post! Funnily I just finished conversing with WPD about what their actual benefits really are - glad to have found this post - very helpful.
It is true that if you are not going to make several blogs, WPD is not worth the price.
I have since tried to duplicate my WPD blogs on WP and found it very time consuming learning how to do everything and have now decided to return to WPD. When I was previously a bronze member I didn’t use auto-posting feature at all as I did not understand it.
You can create 3 free WPD blogs and I recommend this for beginners as they are already optimized, plus 30day challenge gives clear instructions how to get started. Best of luck to all!