Mark's Overall Rating
When I first heard that there was a phpOStock WordPress plugin coming out that allowed anyone to tap into the popular Overstock Affiliate Program, I had to jump over and grab it immediately! I have been using some of Alan’s plugins to expand phpbay already, and know that he goes the extra mile to build in the functionality we all want in a WordPress plugin! One of the main reasons I jumped so quickly, was the ability to diversify my affiliate website marketing efforts into different areas. Having all your eggs in only a few baskets is never a good idea! In addition, the Overstock affiliate program uses a 14 Day Cookie, versus many others that only use a 7 day cookie!
The phpOStock plugin is basically a point and click method for inserting item feeds from the extensive Overstock catalog! Regardless of the market your site may reside in, Overstock usually has a category of matching products that will compliment your content very well!
Installing the phpOStock plugin is no different than any other WordPress plugin and once you have it uploaded to your host, its just a few minutes to activate the plugin and configure the settings for your own site. I had the plugin up and running and displaying relevant listings on my site within 5 minutes of completing my purchase! That’s a rarity!
Features of the phpOStock Plugin
The first and most important feature of this plugin, is that it installs as a WordPress plugin! If you are already using WordPress to publish content to your site, you will love the simplicity of this plugin! Riding on the back of WordPress is one of the preferred methods of building any website these days, the content management system is just too powerful to be overlooked!
- Add on for the Popular WordPress CMS
- Earn Up to 7% Referral Commission from the Overstock Affiliate Program!
- Adds Relevant Product Listings to your Posts or Pages with a single line in the Editor!
- Create any Number of listings per page that you Want! (I prefer 4)
- A Sidebar Widget allows you to Add Product listings to your Sidebar with Ease!
- Ability to List Items from thousands of Different Store Categories!
- Ability to List Different Items on every Page or Post!
- Several Free layout Templates to get the layout to Fit your Overall Site layout!
- Free Lifetime Upgrades!
- Many Configuration Options within the Plugin Setup page, to bring in all types of different Product Descriptions, Features, Pricing models etc!
- One Single License allows you to install on as MANY Sites as You Own!
Pros and Cons of phpOStock Plugin
Pros of phpOStock
- Designed as Addon for the very popular WordPress CMS
- Instant Download after Payment
- 5 Minute install
- All Configuration on Single Screen in Admin
- Allows Diversification into different Affiliate Programs
- Extensive User manual!
- Unlimited License!
- Lifetime Upgrades!
Cons of phpOStock
- Adding the listings to each page of an existing site can take some time. If there was a way to simply extract post keywords or tags, and automatically generate the listings, it would be priceless!
- Took me a few minutes to locate my Overstock ID and get it Placed in the Plugin configuration screen.
About the Developers of phpOStock
If you are familiar with BANS and phpBay, you already know the developers of this plugin! Alan has been an active member in the phpbay community since day one and has used his own experience and needs, to develop this plugin for Overstock. Ben, has been a fixture in the BANS community for quite a long time, as well as an affiliate builder on his own network of sites. The combination of these minds has put together a plugin that will easily compete against and beat every other Overstock plugin out there!
Cost and Licensing of phpOStock Plugin for WordPress
- One Time Cost/ Unlimited Websites: $30
- Cost includes 4 Extra layout Templates, that are easily customized if you choose to do so!
- Develop as MANY Websites as you like with a single license!
- Free Lifetime Upgrades at no additional Cost!
James on Wed, 13th May 2009 8:04 am
Overstock switched from Linkshare to CJ about a month ago. If it weren’t for Ben and Alan, I would have never known they switched. Apparently Overstock overlooked the need to notify their affiliates. The new phpOstock update has been in the works for quite a while and was supposed to be released last week. As of this post, the new update has not been released and my site no longer redirects visitors to the Overstock site from Linkshare. If anyone can contact Ben or Alan, it would be nice for the rest of us to know when we might expect an update. The email updates apparently are not being used on the phpOstock site.
Mark on Wed, 13th May 2009 9:20 am
@ James –
I knew the changeover was coming from LS to CJ, and swapped my OStock listings for ePN listings in the interim.
Ben was actually just here yesterday commenting on one of the posts for PLRPro. I will shoot him out an email about the update.
Thanks for coming around and commenting!
Mark