IMPORTANT: Multiple users have reported that using the Lasso plugin breaks Amalinks Pro shortcodes. Either something in their code or possibly one of their settings does something to alter our shortcodes – thereby breaking them. Last we knew, the Lasso plugin is incompatible with AmaLinks Pro®. Amazon affiliate WordPress plugins should not conflict with each other – and this conflict is solely on the Lasso side.
First off – I didn’t want to write this post and I never intended to play it this way. I didn’t want to act like a prick and totally slam another software program. I’ll do my best to clearly explain what the Lasso plugin is and how it differs from AmaLinks Pro®. But… apparently, the Link Lasso wanted to play it a different way. Here’s a little lesson in what not to do in marketing if you hope to stay friendly with other players in your space.
For starters, I want to show you what they’ve done over at Lasso. They actually did the EXACT same thing for other competing tools, by attempting to compare their plugin to several others that they feel are their main competitors. Check out the URL’s for their comparison posts…
- https://getlasso.co/vs/pretty-links/
- https://getlasso.co/vs/easyazon/
- https://getlasso.co/vs/amalinks/
- https://getlasso.co/vs/simple-urls/
- https://getlasso.co/vs/aawp/
- https://getlasso.co/vs/geniuslink/
- https://getlasso.co/vs/thirsty-affiliates/
Lasso Published FAKE Comparison Posts
I didn’t hyperlink the URL’s above – but I’ll just tell you what they’ve done. They DID NOT compare their Lasso plugin to each individual competitor AT ALL! In fact, every single one of those posts is EXACTLY the same, with the exception of the title being different and swapping out product names and pricing info for the competitor in a few places.
If you ask me – this is just a lazy-ass way of publishing FAKE comparisons just to try to create the perception that your product is better. In my opinion, this is just really bad marketing – as the truth always wins out in the end.
Furthermore, this is an obvious SEO ploy designed to trick the search engines into thinking that they actually wrote unique comparison content for their product versus all of the others. The sad part is… it’s working for them! For now… until some of us start to fight back.
How do I know it’s working? Because as of the day that I am writing this post – their crappy “AmaLinks Pro® Alternative” post is ranking #4 in Google for the search term, “AmaLinks Pro®” – not cool man! I mean, I’m sure they think it’s cool. But we don’t – so we’re fighting back.
The TRUTH in Rebuttal to Their Absurd Claims
You don’t have to look any further than the opening sentence on their post… “Are you an Amazon associate who uses AmaLinks Pro® to manage your affiliate links?” I’ll just tell you right now – NOBODY uses AmaLinks Pro® to manage their affiliate links – because AmaLinks Pro® is not a link management plugin. AmaLinks Pro® is only used to create and insert different types of Amazon affiliate links – NOT manage them.
But that’s just for starters. I’ll go through several more of their ridiculous claims and then tell you the truth.
Claim 1 – AmaLinks Pro® costs $67/year per site
Yes, our Blogger plan is currently $67/year for one site – but our other plan levels actually bring down the cost ‘per site’ if you do the math. Our pricing plans are designed to offer savings to those who choose to purchase plans that accommodate licensing for more than one site.
Lasso doesn’t even offer multi-site plans! At least not at the time I am writing this. And their pricing is outrageously more expensive than the pricing offered for AmaLinks Pro®. Scroll down to the Pricing subheading below to see a fair comparison.
Claim 2 – The free trial
This one is actually true. The Lasso plugin actually comes with a free 14-day trial. AmaLinks Pro® does not offer a free trial.
Why don’t we offer a free trial? Because we offer the next best thing – a 30-day no-questions-asked, 100% money-back guarantee. You can try AmaLinks Pro® for up to 30 days and if you don’t like it – just ask us for a refund. You don’t even have to tell us why (but we sure would appreciate the feedback).
Lasso also offers full refunds – although I’m not sure why given that they offer the free trial.
Note: To get the Lasso plugin 14-day trial, you must enter your payment information and you will automatically get charged after 14 days if you do not cancel.
Claim 3 – Lasso offers real-time customer support
Okay, so maybe they do. When they are there. And when they feel like it. That’s great. But they aren’t always there and they don’t always feel like it. How do I know this? Because we’ve tried their “real-time” customer support chat box several times and have yet to get an immediate response.
Lasso doesn’t even use a professional email ticket support system as we do here at AmaLinks Pro®. Their ‘support’ page consists of a search box where they want you to search through their help articles – then includes their not-so-responsive ‘real-time’ chat box down in the corner. Here is what it looks like…
Back in 3 hours, huh? That’s not real-time to me. To me, I’m online now and I won’t be on my computer in 3 hours. I’m not impressed.
Here at AmaLinks Pro® – no, we do not offer real-time chat support. But, we do offer something better. We have a trackable & professional email ticket support system. We have multiple support agents and we always respond as quickly as possible – even on weekends!
Claim 4 – Feature comparisons
Lasso plugin features versus AmaLinks Pro® Plugin Features: The rest of the ‘comparison chart’ on their page lists out a bunch of Lasso plugin features that the Link Lasso plugin has that AmaLinks Pro® does not. Well, that’s fantastic. If I wanted to – I could do the same. I could list out all of the features that AmaLinks Pro® has and Lasso does not and place them in something that looks like a comparison chart just to make them look bad. I’ll go over some of these, specifically, a little bit later in this post. Maybe I’ll even list out a bunch of features that AmaLinks Pro® that Lasso does not! We’ll see…
Claim 5 – People are making the switch from AmaLinks Pro® to Lasso for affiliate marketing
Oh really? I communicate with our customers all the time and I’ve had lots of conversations with people who discuss what they like about some of our competitors. Not a single one of the people that I’ve talked to has said anything about the Lasso plugin. If they are making the switch – they aren’t telling me.
Oftentimes, people will specifically point out to me things that our competitors do offer and ask me how we can do the same with AmaLinks Pro®. To date – nobody has mentioned anything that Lasso does and has asked for it. Again, I’ll go over the reasons for this in the Apples & Oranges section below.
Claim 6 – When using Lasso, it feels like you’re not even in WordPress. Can’t say the same for AmaLinks Pro®.
First off – you are in WordPress! Why do you need to feel like you’re not in WordPress?!?
Regardless – this statement is false. AmaLinks Pro® also has a very modern interface that you access directly from your WordPress post or page editor. Check out our demo page to see exactly how it works.
Claim 7 – You can import your URL’s from AmaLinks Pro®
No, you cannot. AmaLinks Pro® does not offer export options which means there is nothing for you to import into Lasso from AmaLinks Pro®. AmaLinks Pro® simply gives you the ability to easily create and insert several different Amazon link styles into your posts or pages.
Once you insert your affiliate link – it’s part of your post or page. That’s it. AmaLinks Pro® does not store all of these links separately in your database, with the exception of comparison tables.
Lasso Link Displays – Use at Your Own Risk
The Lasso plugin gives you options within their affiliate product boxes to add elements and features that will totally put your Amazon Associates account at risk. Let me show you one example. I found the following Lasso link display “product box” on this page – https://amagicalmess.com/slow-cooker-banana-bread-recipe/ – here is a screenshot of how it looked on the day that I wrote this post…
Looks nice, doesn’t it? Now let me show you everything that’s wrong with it and how it could put this person’s Amazon affiliate account at risk.
- Displays the Amazon Prime logo – this is a violation of Amazon’s policies. Click the link for proof.
- Offers Buy buttons for Amazon and Walmart – you cannot promote products on other retailers if you use data from Amazon – I have proof here
- Affiliate Disclosure – there is nothing wrong with this disclosure overall – except that a proper Amazon affiliate disclosure is not included anywhere else on the page – at all!
If you are promoting products for sale on Amazon, as an affiliate, you MUST disclose your relationship with Amazon (specifically). A simple and acceptable affiliate disclosure, in Amazon’s own words, would be – “As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases”
Note: it appears that the Lasso plugin allows you to edit your affiliate disclosure – so this is not a fault of theirs – just something I wanted to point out in this specific box that I showed as an example.
I will give credit where credit is due – one thing that the Lasso plugin has that AmaLinks Pro® does not is the ability to add products from any affiliate program into their product boxes. AmaLinks Pro® only works with Amazon products – and we’re perfectly okay with that. Amazon is the most powerful affiliate program on the planet and here at AmaLinks Pro®, we’ve chosen to focus solely on serving Amazon affiliates.
Lasso is ‘helping themselves’ by displaying their logo in YOUR product boxes
The Lasso plugin gives you the option to ‘brag’ about them in your product boxes. This option can be turned on/off by you – but if turned on, their logo displays in the bottom corner of your affiliate boxes (as shown in the example above). Not only does it display, but that little logo is also linked back to their sales site!
How do I know this? Because I was checking their backlink profile and noticed that they have a LOT of backlinks already, considering that they are just a few months old. They have more backlinks than AmaLinks Pro® (at the time this post is being written) – and we are well over 2 years old at this point!
As I scrolled through the list of sites that are linking to them – I noticed that several of them were obvious affiliate sites. It didn’t take me long to figure out how these links were being obtained. Not cool Lasso!
AmaLinks Pro® DOES NOT give you the option to brag about us. You will never see our logo in any of the elements that we allow you to insert onto YOUR website. And we will ABSOLUTELY NEVER steal backlinks from you by placing links to our sales site within our Showcase Boxes or Comparison Tables or anywhere else!
Apples & Oranges
Comparing the Lasso plugin to AmaLinks Pro® is truly like trying to compare apples with oranges. The 2 plugins are totally different. Sure, Lasso does one or two things that AmaLinks Pro® does. In addition to giving you the option to insert text links, they also give you the option to create product boxes. They call theirs, Affiliate Link Displays. We call ours, Showcase Boxes. But that’s it! Those are the only 2 things that both plugins do that are similar.
AmaLinks Pro® offers SO much more than Lasso does, as far as high-converting Amazon link types. And Lasso offers so much more than AmaLinks Pro® does, as far as other tools for affiliate marketers. Do you see?! Apples & oranges. The 2 plugins are not the same and should hardly even be considered competitors of each other.
If you want to compare the Lasso plugin to similar plugins – you might compare them to something like Pretty Links or Thirsty Affiliates. Those would be more similar, overall. Lasso offers full affiliate link management options, similar to what those plugins offer. AmaLinks Pro® is an Amazon affiliate WP plugin only – and does not offer link ‘management’.
As for me – I’ve used Pretty Links (the free version) for many, many years and I’m perfectly happy with it. It does what I need it to do. I’m content using Pretty Links for my other affiliate programs and AmaLinks Pro® to insert all of my Amazon affiliate links.
Lasso Plugin Pricing
Here is where Lasso can’t even come close to AmaLinks Pro® – the pricing. At the time I am writing this – Lasso costs $19/per month PER site. They don’t even offer multi-site plans!
So, if you want to use the Lasso plugin on ten websites, it’ll cost you $190/per month (or $1,900/per year)! AmaLinks Pro® offers a Platinum plan, good for up to 25 sites, for only $197/per year.
Or maybe you only have three websites. The Lasso plugin will cost you $57/per month (or $570/year)! AmaLinks Pro® offers a Basic plan, good for up to 3 sites, for only $127/per year.
Okay – maybe the one-site plan makes sense. Think again! $19/per month (or$190/per year) for the Lasso plugin and only $67/per year for AmaLinks Pro®.
AmaLinks Pro® destroys Lasso in pricing. Not that it matters, because the plugins are totally different – as explained in the Apples and Oranges section above.
Note: Prices mentioned above were accurate as of the date this post was published and will likely change (on both platforms) over time.
AmaLinks Pro® Does This and the Lasso Plugin Does Not
Okay – here is the part where I list out some of the things that AmaLinks Pro® does that Lasso does not. Except I’m not going to put it in a fancy table.
- Image Links – basic plain Amazon image links (choose from ANY image available in the Amazon API for that product)
- CTA Buttons – create and insert high click-thru-rate CTA buttons
- option to choose the ‘Amazon compliant’ Buy Now buttons (provided by Amazon)
- option to create your own buttons with many options for styling
- Showcase Boxes – 100% compliant with Amazon’s policies – Lasso can’t say the same
- Product Comparison Tables – mobile responsive product comparison tables that connect to the Amazon API
- No Need to Open Amazon – AmaLinks Pro® allows you to search Amazon and select products from right within WordPress
- no copying Amazon URL’s then pasting in
- no copying Amazon ASIN’s then pasting in
- Step-by-Step User Interface – insert ANY of our link types with self-explanatory ease using our wizard-like interface
- World-Class Support – we have multiple agents constantly monitoring our support portal and we track and manage all support tickets forever
- Extremely Detailed Documentation & Tutorials – Lasso’s are mediocre at best compared to the detail we offer
- High-Value Blog Content – we work extraordinarily hard to publish valuable content on our blog that will help all Amazon affiliates
Don’t Be a Prick!
It’s really too bad that Lasso had to play it this way. They could have contacted us and inquired about ways to work together to help promote each other – since we’re really not even competitors. But they didn’t. Instead, they went after us as if we are their top competitor – and they didn’t do it in a nice way. Do you know what I would call a person who does something like this? I would call them a prick!
When I think about it… it’s really a compliment that Lasso looks at AmaLinks Pro® as one of their top competitors. We must be doing something right!
Not only did Lasso write their garbage ‘comparison’ post in an attempt to trash AmaLinks Pro® – but I’ve had a look around their site and I can CLEARLY see that they are copying a whole bunch of stuff that we’ve done on our site, over the last couple of years, as far as marketing tactics and the way we educate our customers.
I’m probably going to regret writing this post – because… people who are pricks usually do prickly things. I’ve now given the Lasso guys the opportunity to improve their tool based on everything I’ve written in this post.
Why “Lasso” Anyway…?
Could they just not think of anything better that day? The word Lasso has 194 records found in the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. Why would they want to create a product around a name that is already trademarked?
Not to mention – Lasso.com was already taken. They didn’t even use a .com and instead went for a lame URL – getlasso.co – lame!
Reminds me of the one real competitor that AmaLinks Pro® has – AAWP – who also couldn’t get the .com domain for their product so they used getaawp.com – lame!
So, is the Lasso plugin really a better alternative?
I guess if you are a serious affiliate marketer who cares more about other private affiliate programs than Amazon affiliate links – then maybe the Lasso plugin WordPress might be a better option for you. We admit – we don’t even want to be the solution for those types of marketers.
AmaLinks Pro® is an Amazon affiliate WordPress plugin only. We focus on one thing – giving WordPress users THE best options for creating high-converting Amazon affiliate links that are 100% compliant with Amazon’s policies.
Do other affiliate programs pay better commission rates? Yeah, sometimes. But do they convert like Amazon affiliate links? No! Not even close. Amazon is the king of conversions and AmaLinks Pro® is the king of Amazon affiliate WordPress plugins.
You can use Lasso if you are one of those rare affiliates who are able to make it work with other affiliate programs. But if you want the very best WordPress plugin for Amazon affiliates – then you’re already in the right place. AmaLinks Pro® is it! Click the button below to choose your plan and get started today.
This article is great and it has cleared up a lot about Lasso.
I just purchased you 3 site plan and I cannot believe that I have not used you in the past. Prior to using Amalinks I did everything manually. It would take me hours to get images, resize them, dump them in my Media folder and then place them in the Post…and then add the links…
You will save me hundreds of hours.
I thank you and now I will have more time to cook….
Dr. Bob
Thanks Dr. Bob! When you say ‘get images’… I hope you aren’t referring to downloading images from Amazon to then upload to your Media folder. That would be a total violation of Amazon’s policies and could put your Amazon Associates account at risk! Anyhow – super glad you finally found your way over to the good side. Here’s to making lots of money as an Amazon affiliate by using AmaLinks Pro®!