In Part 1 of this review I reviewed Zoundry Blog Writer as a blog software editing tool and I went into some of the specifics of its features. I'll conclude this review with a look at the Zoundry service component and sum up my experience with using this tool.

Master Affiliate: Zoundry As A Service

Zoundry as a service serves as a one-stop product search engine and master affiliate. You can search through the Zoundry catalog of major affiliate programs and create links easily as you blog with Zoundry Blog Writer.

Currently Zoundry supports the following merchants:

Amazon.com
Buy.com
eBags.com
Ritz Camera
Brookstone
Apple iTunes

The Zoundry Product Chooser and Link Converting makes searching for products easy. Zoundry charges 30% to 20% of qualifying revenues as a transaction fee. Referral rates from the list merchants range from 3 to 7.5%. As a master affiliate Zoundry is managing and centralizing your affiliation with these merchants for you. If you count the time and cost to manage multiple affiliate programs and then insert affiliate links (finding and inserting them), their percentage may just be worth it to you. You decide on this one.

I know for me that managing affiliate links can be time consuming when you consider searching for and getting affiliate resources that are compatible with your blog and articles. Having and quick and easy way to search for matching content that is time efficient is a plus in my book.

Easy Updating

The left hand pane makes checking for and updating the software a cinch. I downloaded version 0.9.123 if I recall and checked for an update. A new version of 0.9.126 was available. I downloaded and simpled installed it on top of the current version. The installation automatically located the current installation directory. Careful though as after I updated and ran the Check Update wizard, the software detected the previous version 0.9.123 (older) as a newer version to be downloaded. I had just upgraded form the 0.9.123 version. Zoundry is in a beta phase right now so this should not be a long term issue.

Other Cool Stuff

Tagging

The Tagging feature in Zoundry is a nice touch. You can select from a number of Tagging services to use when you post. Zoundry remembers tag words that you've previously used and stores them. You can then easily access previous tag word from a pop dialog list and just check the ones you want to use with the tagging service you've selected. Even cooler is that when I configured Zoundry to for my BlogHarbor blog, it imported tags that I had previously used on my blog. Nice touch. Zoundry also support configuration of a custom tag space if you desire to do so.

Template-Based Previewing

Zoundry allows you to preview content based on your blog template. This is kind of cool I think. For each blog you have an account configured for within Zoundry you have the option of having Zoundry download or import the template that each blog account is using. You can then preview your content exactly as it should look on your blog. Unfortunately this blog and my Success Motivation blog didn't display well graphically although the text styles did. A little more tweaking here I guess but cool nonetheless.


Dragging and Dropping

Zoundry allows you to drag and drop images and mp3 files and while automatically upload these files to your media repository that you've configured. A nice touch. I like it even though I couldn't figure out how to get Zoundry to stop auto thumbnailing my images when I dragged them into the Editor window.

The Bad

Content Inflexibility

All is not gold however and there are some shortcomings that a bit glaring. The ability to not be able to save content as .txt, .doc or .rft is one big drawback in my world. Asking for an option to export to adobe format is probably up there with miracles but I understand since most of use are probably using some sort of adobe software for document conversion anyhow. However, I like to have flexibility with content so that one can easily repurpose their blog content easily.

As we write lots of content over time we should want the ability to export that content to common file formats for both repurposing and backup/retrieval. Having content and articles locked in a proprietary format that only Zoundry can read is a no-no. A straight export and save to a common file format is a must have for this software.

No Spell Check!

What?! No spell check or grammar tools? C'mon folks...let not skimp here. No writing tool should be creating without editing features like spell checking and/or grammar checking. The brilliant design of this tool is severly undermined by this and one wonders if this is just a means to their end of getting people to use their affiliate master services.

This is quite perplexing to me since on the other hand it seems that Zoundry was truly designed with the blog publisher in mind. How could they have missed this??? This has to be more than just an interface to a cooperative revenue service for Zoundry. In order for Zoundry Blog Writer to be truly effective it needs to go a few steps further. It is a very strong entry into the realm of blog writer software but my desire is to see this tool go the distance as a full featured blog writing and editing tool. No spell check means it is not a fully featured editor.

Summary

Zoundry Blog Writer is a software tool as a service offering. It services as a standard blog writing software tool with support for some of the most important features to blog publishers such as mutli-blog management, trackback support and discovery, remote post management, and WYSIWYG editing and publishing.

As a service Zoundry offers integrated product search and affiliate link creation, that allows you or your favorite charity to profit from your blog publishing efforts. You can very easily leverage this blog software and affiliate service to your advantage if product reviews and marketing are a influential part of your blogging profile.

Overall this this tool is very cool. If you can deal with having to be perfect as you type this tool works well. Very well. If you have a habit of composing content in a different editor like MS Word and them pasting into a blog software publishing tool, then this tool will well for you as well. However, if you are like me and you want to commit to a tool that will fulfill is purpose all-around then this tool may not be for you. The affiliate master service isn't required but can be a plus if you are okay with their cut of revenue stream you will generate. I rate this tool (*** / *****) 3 out of 5 stars.

BlogHarbor users can go here for easy setup and configuration options: http://forums.blogharbor.com/viewtopic.php?p=3566#3566. BlogHarbor users should also email BlogHarbor support for the details on the Zoundry offer for BlogHarbor users

I've also taken a read of the Zoundry Blog for some feel of the roadmap for this software from the publishers themselves. They seem to have a clear vision of Zoundry as a enabler of affiliate marketing for bloggers. A very effective one at that. I hope they don't lose sight of features and functionality for publishing the blog post and not just the blog profits. If they keep the tool effective as a writing and publishing platform then profits will follow soon enough.

Related Links:
Zoundry Blog
Zoundry Forums
Zoundry Blog Writer
Zoundry Service
Download Zoundry Blog Writer

Technorati : Amazon, BlogHarbor, Zoundry, affiliate marketing, blog software

Introducing Zoundry. A recent entry into the blog software tools of blog writing and editing. Yet Zoundry isn't just another blog software editing and writing tool. Zoundry is also and affiliate service that attempts to bring blog publishing and affiliate marketing together into a cooperative publishing for profits solution that I've not quite seen before.

With that said and to repeat...Zoundry is both and blog writing software tool and Zoundry is also a service. By the website copy they are first and foremost a service.

Zoundry As A Blog Writing Tool

Zoundry Blog Writer is currently and windows only tool with plans to develop and Mac and Linux version based on demand and user feedback.

As a blog writing tool, Zoundry Blog Writing is easy to use with a pleasant interface that allows any publisher to get started without much need for a help file. For the most part it is a pretty straightforward and typical software installation experience.

I found Zoundry Blog Writer rather brilliant in some spots because of simplicity of design and effectiveness of useful features such as multiple tags services and post management but fell short in areas of content export/backup and basic content editing considerations.

One question I had as I read the copy for this tool before using was whether or not this tool was just the means the end for Zoundry. In other words, would the tool fall short because of a focus on the Zoundry affiliate service or would the Zoundry Blog Editor be a fresh entry into the blog software arena bringing a solution that understands the needs of blog publishers.

Let's find out.

Getting Started with Zoundry Blog Writer

Installation is a snap. Just run the downloaded Windows .exe file and step through and standard Windows installation. Once you launch the program using the program icon you are presented with the Zoundry Blog Writer editor interface as seen in Figure 1 below.

Set Up and Configuration


Figure 1. The Zoundry Interface

2. Set Up your blog

Launching Zoundry User Settings Wizard kicks off the Account Wizard. Go to 'Blog Accounts' click 'New Account' and 'New Blog Account' wizard starts


Figure 2. The Zoundry Blog Account Wizard Interface

3. Enter Account Details


Figure 3. Entering Account Details

4. Confirm settings. Detection of Upload support.


Figure 4. Discovery and Confirmation of Account Configuration

5. Finished


Figure 5. The Zoundry User Settings Interface

6. Custom Directory for uploaded media? use FTP config and confirm Settings


Figure 6. The Zoundry Interface - Configuring FTP/Media Repository



Figure 6a. Zoundry Tests FTP Settings


Writing and Publishing


Figure 7. Selecting Your Blog - Multiple Blog Accounts Supported


Figure 8. Support for Categories


Figure 9. Support for Multiple Tagging Services


Figure 10. Support for Blog Templates


Content Editing and Management

Zoundry supports downloading posts from your server, editing and then republishing articles. Great time saver of course and a nice necessary component for the busy blog publisher. I think it could be a bit more intuitive or perhaps I'm just to exacting here.

You access the POST menu and then select Download Recent Posts. You can select the most recent 1-150 posts. Once downloaded however it isn't really clear how to access them. After some clicking I discovered that big orange folder icon whose tool tip says 'Open Entry' is the way to access these previous AND your saved content that hasn't been published yet. That icon is rather non-descript but most windows user would eventually click it anyway because it just screams of Windows File Explorer.

Once opened, your previous posts are there clearly label with Title, Date Modified, Date Posted, Blog (which blog the post is published to) and Status (published or unpublished-local machine).

I also think the in-context right-click menu is well excecuted. It focused mainly on linking in general and link to products. This tool truly makes affiliate marketing a time efficient exercise.

Posting to the Future

I'm not sure if the posting to the future is an auto detect feature or not. I configured Zoundry to work with my account here at BlogHarbor and over at TypePad, both of which support 'scheduled posting to the future'. Since the software did a good job of detecting if the support for FTP uploads I figured it might be in play here to. Let me know if you find this is not the case.

Blog This URL

This is one of the weaker spots in the software. If you want to blog a URL you can to copy that URL to the clipboard and then from with Zoundry access the FILE menu to access the Blog This URL option which opens a dialog box to paste your URL into. When completed however, Zoundry does of good job of autodiscovering the TrackBack URL if available.

In cases where you may want to link to but not trackback someone's content you may be able to avoid that by manual insertion of the URL as you normally would as Zoundry doesn't seem to offer a option to turn trackback autodiscovery on or off other than not using the Blog This URL feature or the TrackBack dialog box the is ever present in the UI of this editor.

In that case I would assume it works like other blog writers I've used in the past that don't support trackback and that is leave it to the blog software application. BlogHarbor allows you to turn trackbacking and autodiscovery of trackbacks for links in content you publish either on or off and on a per post basis. Some editors that don't support trackback have not always support your server settings either when you have autodiscovery turned on for your server software and which you published that article from the blog editor instead of the web-based editor available with all blog software installed on any server whether it's your own or with and blog hosting service.

SideBar of Champions

While finding where all those posts went that I downloaded wasn't immediately apparent (okay, it took me about 3 seconds to figure it out), the sidebar does a super job of allowing you to manage your entries.

From the VIEW menu you access the SIDEBAR menu where you have 3 options: Getting Started, Check for Updates and Blog Entries.

Getting Started clever outlines the setup and use of Zoundry and a series of easy steps to follow make it very easy for novice blog publishers to use this tool right out of the gate. I like the fact that Zoundry isn't complicated to configure and doesn't overwhelm you with detailed options.

Check for Updates is a feature I covered in a previous section of this post but is easily accessible from the sidebar.

Blog Entries is the heavy hitter here. You can only populate your blog entries area by either composing an article/post and saving it as unpublished content on your local machine before publishing or by the Download Recent Post as I discussed above.

When viewing your blog entries from the sidebar you can view your entries by Account, by Tags or by Links. I find this extremely powerful and highly effective in its historical capacity as well as it's useful as a content and resource organization tool. You can easily identify clusters of information, articles and topics depending on the filter you use. You have to try this in order to fully appreciate what I'm talking about here.

Now, when you select any recent post entry or saved entry in the sidebar you also activate five smaller icons specifically associated with the sidebar entries. They are:

Open for Editing: Allows you to edit the post you downloaded or the post you've saved as local.

View Post Online: Launches a browser session taking you to the specific entry you have selected. You can only select one entry at a time.

Create A Link To This Post: This is great! If you are composing content and you want to easily link to a previous post you've already published in you blog you can simple select that entry, click this button and Zoundry inserts a link to that article into the post you are current composing. It will use your previous post subject line and the linked text and of course you can only link to the previous post from here if you have it already downloaded in Zoundry as a Recent Post Entry. Great time saver!

Properties: Launches and dialog with tabbed information about a specific recent post entry (General, Links, Media). Great way to get summary content and properties about and post and you can also insert the link to this post and view the post online from this dialog box as well.

Delete Post: Obvious. Don't want it? Push this button to delete a recent post or saved post.

In Part 2 of this review I will talk about Zoundry as a service and sum up my opinion of this tool.