OptimizePress Review

by Genevieve Mari

I’m not going to lie; I am a huge fan of OptimizePress. In fact, it is the platform and plugin I recommend most and it is the only platform I work with.

Why? Because, 99% of the time, it is the perfect answer to ALL of my clients needs.

But despite my love affair with OptimizePress, I am still very well aware of where it could be improved and why some might shy away from it.

OptimizePress is Different

First things first, I want to make sure you really get what you get when you chose to work with OptimizePress.

See while most people speak of it as a membership plugin, it is so much more then that. In fact, OptimizePress is NOT a membership plugin, it is a theme (with a plugin version of it’s theme) that COME WITH it’s own membership plugin called OptimizeMember.

So many are unclear on that and this is where it really stands alone to most other “membership” type plugins. Not only can you lock and load your content, you can fully build your site (as well as specific type pages) with the OptimizePress Theme. In fact, you can even build a blog site and never even use it’s membership capabilities.

So let’s go over all the WHYs OptimizePress has won me over.

1. It’s affordable!!!! Who doesn’t want to save money right??

At its lowest price point, you get 3 API keys, which is the equivalent of three separate sites. And that includes over 30 templates for you to use to build your site should you not feel brave enough to start with a blank page. I especially enjoy these templates when looking for inspiration!

2. It comes with over 30 templates.

Seriously, who can’t manage to build a site with over 30 template to chose from? And I’m talking about all sorts of templates; Landing and optin pages, sales pages, course/membership pages, webinar pages, Thank You pages, etc.

Best of all, all these templates are 100% customizable so that you can give every page you build the exact look and feel that you want. Your branding will following you with this platform!

3. You can build your pages/site from a blank canvas!

While daunting for some, many enjoy the freedom of creativity that a blank page can offer. So if you are bold and design-inclined, you have the power to create anything you want when using the blank page as your starting point.

4. It comes with it’s own membership plugin

This is actually an incredible partnership of theme and plugin, meaning that your membership plugin integrates seamlessly with your site. And this plugin is fairly straightforward to configure, although I would say that most of the “user” errors happen in this part of the set up. After comparing it to other membership plugin, I feel it is the most user-friendly plugin in town.

Moreover, it integrates with PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and many more shopping carts as well as a variety of email marketing services such as Mailchimp, Aweber, Infusionsoft and Ontraport, just to name a few.

5. It has a lot of advanced features.

Like the overlay optimizer (think two step opt-in boxes) and launch funnel set up. And if the nitty-gritty is what you are after, you can really get it completely customized to your needs. Whether you are setting up one or many courses on the same platform, OptimizePress’s advanced capabilities mean that there is very little stepping in the way of you have the exact site you want.

What You Should Watch Out For

Now, despite my love affair of OptimizePress, I am well aware that there are reasons for some to be less then thrilled with it.

First of all, if you already have a theme installed and set up on your own site and want to use OptimizePress, then you need to use the OptimizePress plugin. This is where problems can happen. OptimizePress is a very robust and big theme/plugin, and therefore can sometimes clashes with other themes and plugins. So before installing OptimizePress plugin, it is highly recommended to verify the compatibility of your theme with the OptimizePress plugin. You can do so here (https://optimizepress.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200553686-Incompatible-Themes-Plugins).

Fortunately, the work around to this incompatibility issue is to create a sub-domain or sub-folder and house your OptimizePress install (it would be the theme at this point) there instead.

Secondly, and speaking of it being such a huge theme and plugin, it also requires a good hosting package to support it. The basic hosting requirements can be found on OptimizePress’ support site as well. For some, this might present an issue but for most entrepreneurs running a business, you basic hosting package should be just fine.

I won’t lie, there is definitely a learning curve to using OptimizePress and most of my clients will hire me to set up their membership while they build their pages. But it’s not impossible and with some guidance and support, I’ve seen some really nice sites come from some of the members in my OP support group.

My OptimizePress Wish List

Now here is what I would change.

I hate the drip content featured in OptimizePress. It is set up to work based on when someone signs up to your course/membership site, and not to a date you set in the system. Which means that if you want the content to drip over a weekly period, the startup date of each sequence will be set up based on when each user purchases registration to your site. This is less then ideal for entrepreneurs selling packages where they want to follow their group through the program.

What I would love to see incorporated within OptimizePress is an affiliate plugin or structure embedded into the OptimizeMember plugin. Because OptimizePress doesn’t always play well with other plugins, this would fulfill a need that many course builders have.

Also, an easier integration of other shopping cart systems, like SamCart, I feel would be appreciated by those trying to move away from PayPal.

But all and all, as a “full package” platform, with a theme, membership plugin, templates, and more…all for less then $100, OptimizePress is pretty hard to beat!

Webinar software can be really pricey and unreliable. But webinars are a great way to reach out to your followers and make a real connection with them. I recently did a live review of Webinar Ignition – a WordPress Webinar Plugin that wraps management features around a Google Hangout on Air.

I’ve been using Webinar Ignition for a few months now to host my own webinars and while it hasn’t been completely snaffu-free, I’ve had a great experience with it. In fact, I’m impressed enough with it that it’s one of only four plugins to date that I’ve become an affiliate partner for. I’ll only partner with plugins that I personally use and love – so that’s saying a lot.

You can watch the recording of the LIVE Plugin Review below, but since it’s kind of long I’ll highlight the pros and cons of this plugin first.

Webinar Ignition – The Pros

The Price is only $97 One-Time

Let’s face it – if you’re new to webinars you don’t want to spend a ton of money until you know that your followers are going to respond well to the format. Webinar Ignition has a low price point at $97 one-time fee. And, at the time I’m writing this they offer a 30-day money back guarantee (check their website to be sure that hasn’t changed). I’ll be honest – this is what clinched the sale for me. I spend a lot of money each year on WordPress plugins and so when I find a plugin with high value and a low price tag, I’m in WordPress heaven.

It all mostly happens on your domain name

First of all, Webinar Ignition is a WordPress plugin vs a webinar service. So all of the functionality happens right on your website. This is great for SEO – you’re driving traffic on to your site instead of driving it to a landing page on a different domain. That also means that you don’t have to worry about the webinar service going down – as long as your website is up everything should work fine. You do need one or two other connected services; Google Hangouts on Air and if you choose to have a love chat you’ll need to connect to a third-party service like Livefyre or Chatwing.

Landing Page Integration with Other Tools

The three webinar registration pages that come with Webinar Ignition are not the greatest, I’ll admit. They’re pretty standard along the lines of many registration pages you’ve seen before. However, this plugin integrates with other popular landing page solutions like Optimize Press and Leadpages. So if you’re savvy enough to own those tools you can create any kind of registration page your heart desires.

Easy to Use Interface

As you’ll see in the Live review, the interface is super easy to use. You can walk through each tab and complete the fields or turn off sections on the pages. If you miss a field, placeholder text is displayed that saves you from embarrassing mistakes. As with any webinar software, there are a few things you need to pay attention to during the webinar and it DOES take practice! You’ll see me struggle a little bit in the video because I forgot to log into the third-party chat before the call and I couldn’t type a comment. I also had three monitors going (you’ll see my setup when I pan the camera around). I recommend that you have at least two monitors so you can screen share and monitor the chat at the same time.

Google Hangouts on Air for the Video

Google Hangouts on Air (or HOA as we lovingly call them) is a great way to deliver a webinar on its own. Add Webinar Ignition to them and you’ve got full-service registration and reminders that will help you build your list and sell. After the webinar, you can just copy the embed code from the HOA and you have an instant replay.

Good Customer Service

I have had a couple of issues during the setup and also with the functioning of Webinar Ignition (see the cons for details). Embarrassingly, most of those issues were user error. The Webinar Ignition customer service team always responded quickly with an answer and kept me up to date when the issue was something on their end. It’s a ticketing system, not a phone number so you do have to wait for an email response.

Webinar Ignition – The Cons

Google Hangouts on Air for the Video

Yes, I’m putting HOAs in both the pro and the con section. There is about a 45 second delay when you use HOAs. That becomes an issue when you are using the live chat feature in Webinar Ignition. If you ask your audience a question, they won’t hear the question for 45 seconds – during which time you’re sitting there like an idiot because nobody is answering you. I’ve learned to get around this by asking the question first, then giving some explanation while I wait for the answers to appear in the chat.

In the video, you’ll see a “Join the Conversation” box pop up in  the Google Hangout. I’ve seen this same issue on webinars I’ve attended. My friend David Vaughn was kind enough to make us this short video to explain how to get rid of that pop-up so that your attendees don’t click on it and navigate away from your webinar screen and the live chat.

No Live Customer Service

If you have an issue right before a scheduled webinar you can’t call Webinar Ignition to get instant help. You’re kind of on your own. However, because everything is present on your actual website I don’t know that they could help you anyway. Any issue you are experiencing is likely to be user error (like mine), an issue with the third-party services, or an issue with your web host.

It’s Susceptible to Normal Plugin Issues

As with any WordPress plugin, Webinar Ignition is susceptible to the same issues as other plugins. Cross compatibility with other plugins, themes, or WordPress core could rise up and bit you. I had one experience where a bug in an update cause my countdowns to disappear. I recommend not updating the plugin the day of a webinar – always do your updates and test it when you’re not in a time crunch.

During my initial plugin setup, the webinar pages weren’t rendering properly. I’ve seen this issue on occasion with other plugins that auto generate pages. You need to set your permalinks to a certain format. Even if they are already set in the right format, be sure to click Save on the Settings>Permalinks page anyway our your pages won’t render properly.

I’m not pulling any punches – Webinar Ignition is a great plugin and at $97, you really can’t go wrong. If you want to see it in action before you buy, take a gander at the live webinar recording below.