Lead Evolution Review 2010
Greetings to everyone from Siddharth Rao’s Blog! Today, I’m going to write a detailed unbiased real review of highly priced software called “Lead Evolution” – developed (and marketed) by Dr. Mike Woo-Ming & Brian Koz.
NOTES & UPDATES:
1. This review was written in 2009, however quite a few dissatisfied customers have commented below in 2010 (and will continue). - hence updated the title!
2. I originally had a small screen shot of the image (supposedly called as the “logo”) of Lead Evolution. However, I was asked to take it down under the name of “copyright infringement” - ironically, some other people who write good things about the software are supposedly allowed to use the so called copyrighted image! (just use Google Image search and see it yourself).
3. The owners of this software have tried to reach out to me multiple times and bribe me with “free consultation”, “free training”, “free calls” and best of all - “free copy of their latest and greatest version of the software”! - However, I never bought it and my views below have not changed as of today!
4. This is my personal opinion of the product that I bought and used. I am not affiliated with the makers of this software in any way. I do not get any compensation for writing this review!
FULL REVIEW:
First of all, for those who have no idea what I am talking about – Lead Evolution is a software used to generate “leads” in the form of email addresses of prospective people looking for something on the internet. There are free community web sites like craigslist.org, kijiji.com, backpage.com, etc. where you can go and post a classified ad under “Wanted” or “Looking for” category and post what you are looking for. Other people can then see your posting and if they have something similar to sell at the price you are asking for; they can contact you and you both can negotiate and see if you get what you need.
Anyway, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming and Brian Koz – developed a software that basically allows you to type a niche or a category related keyword/phrase and searches the above mentioned free sites for listings that contain your keyword/phrase – from the respective categories. Then you need to manually read through each of the posting to see if it is relevant to what you are trying to sell. After that – the software has an interface where you can send an email to this person who created the posting and hope that s/he responds back to go one step further towards a possibility of a sale or consideration of a valid business lead – for whatever you are trying to sell.
If you have been using the Internet for a few years and have been disgusted by what we call “SPAM” – you should immediately be thinking that hey, wait a minute – doesn’t this appear to be a systematic way of spamming people? Well, sure indeed! However, the founders of Lead Evolution boast of having a great legal team and affirm that we are only sending solicited email to people who asked for information themselves and the email which we send them is relevant to their posting – Whatever!
Okay – now lets talk about why I am writing this on my blog. I attended a webinar by Dr. Mike & Brian Koz about a month ago. It was a 2-hour webinar where these guys presented about this software (hiding the source of searching leads) and tried to sell it to us by throwing a lifetime support / upgrade packages, etc. etc. I have to say that they are pretty good at selling the software – since they were presenting it very well. However, the software does not even stick to 20% of the potential that they are trying to portray / market! After the webinar – I bought this software and decided to try it out for a couple of weeks or so. They had a 30-day money back guarantee, which motivated me to give it a shot and see if it does what they say it can do.
Now comes the real strike – “Lead Evolution Cost” or “Lead Evolution Price Tag”! The cost of this software is a whooping USD 4491 – to be paid in 3 monthly installments. Alternately – if you pay everything upfront at the time of buying the software license, they give you a discount of $494. So the cost comes down to USD 3997 – if paid in full. Now that is way costlier then some of the “elite” software suites; being provided by software giants out there. One would imagine – either Lead Evolution has to be something revolutionary to justify the cost or something plain stupid, designed to loot people in the name of “hope” of getting business leads in record time.
Unfortunately – the latter is true, in my opinion!
The software is extremely slow when it comes to sending emails to these prospective leads. Moreover, the moment you send over 10 emails, most email clients will flag it as SPAM and not even let it reach these people’s inbox. The software encourages of creating multiple email accounts to trick getting into the SPAM folder of prospective leads – and claims it to be legitimate enough, which “I just can’t understand”!
Typically, it took me 7 hours to search about 100 leads for a specific niche and send 100 emails to promote a product that they were looking for. In return – I find that more then half of them made it to the SPAM folder. Only 50% made it to the inbox. Six of them actually replied back with interest and indent to buy the product. Only 1 of them actually bought the product from me!
Now that is a 1% conversation rate for 7 hours of mechanical donkeywork? And now comes the best part – while claiming my refund, the founders say “think outside the box Sid”! Wow! I tested out 5 other diverse niches and markets and find out that the conversions was less then 1% for those niches. That was it! I decided that I’ve wasted enough time of a piece of crap and it’s time to go and claim my refund.
Now comes the opportunity to deal with their great support team! They have a ticketing system where I had to open a help ticket requesting a refund. The whole support system operates of spammy-looking gmail addresses. I had to communicate back and forth with at least three people from the support team – who responded with a different gmail address every time I updated my ticket.
Long story short – Lead Evolution Sucks Big Time – in my opinion! With a price tag of $4491 and a function of essentially harvesting email address off free sites like craigslist.org, kijiji.com and backpage.com – it is a complete waste of money and it just does not make any sense. On top of everything – the amount of time required to actually use this software to find and convert leads is far more then some of the smart internet marketing techniques already out there.
Finally, all the functionality of this software is available for FREE by another service online at: CraigsHelper.com. They already have craigslist and ebay search integrated. They are working on backpage and kijiji as well. So why the hell would one pay $4491 for the exact same functionality?
There might be some people who are finding Lead Evolution useful to make a few hundred (or thousand) dollars out there. However, I feel that I’m better off making tens of thousands of dollars using legitimate but harder ways of internet marketing & online advertising – rather then using a potential white-hat-spam-software and looking for so called “smart” way of finding leads.
Any Internet marketers out there visiting my blog for the first time and have a different or similar opinion about Lead Evolution, please feel free to leave a comment on this post!
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Comments
I have had problems in getting a refund from these guys. I found their product to be not as presented. They only gave me 14 days for a refund (I was one of the first purchasers I think 11-08. I didn’t get the download for 9 days after purchase, then told them it wouldn’t work for me and asked for a refund. They have put me through hell with back and forth emails and had declined to provide the refund. I would not purchase anything Dr. Mike has to offer ever again
[...] I’ve received a few comments for my previous post on “Lead Evolution Review”. A couple of comments we from one of the founders (Brian Koz). I have not approved his comments [...]
WOW. Thanks for the thoughtful post on this software. I just attended a World Internet Summit today with Mike and Brian presenting their software. I think in the end the price tag was $5,997 AUD. Dozens of people went out to buy it.
My main concern was that the niches they searched for live were ‘baby’ ‘real estate’ and ‘foreclosure’ and it came up with hundreds of leads.
Since all of us are living in Australia we were concerned about the local searches and to test it live they searched for American women looking for Australian men. Go figure. Not sure of the relevancy for business but a great diversion in any case.
I truly hope it does work and their software gets better so those that invested didn’t waste their money.
Hi Siddharth –
I’m sorry if you feel that you must censor our statements on our blog. Again you are free to post whatever you wish- but preventing Brian or myself from letting us reply prevents the type of healthy interaction your blog wishes to strive for.
Let us allow us to comment. This is truly not fair.
Response by Siddharth Rao:
Hello Dr. Mike,I am not disallowing you guys to comment here. However, Brian’s two responses were complete sales letter copies. And I did not want my blog to be another misleading sales letter. You both are founders of this software and whatever you write has a very high possibility of sounding like a sales copy. If you can write your views as a regular user of this software and write your positive experiences, I am totally open to approve those comments. You (and Brian) are welcome to do the same.
Thanks,
-Sid
Thanks Siddharth for allowing my comments–
First email functionality -our latest version,
Lead Evolution 1.50 was released soon after
you refunded, and it has probably gone through five
more incarnations since you last owned a license. We admit the email functionality was
a bit clunkier and is much smoother and more powerful than before. I do question
your poor deliverability because I am unsure how you would differentiate
what is going to the spam filters and what is not (as opposed
to email open rates). I believe this is more of a reflection
of the content of the email.
As for spam, we went through considerable cost
and effort to obtain strict internet compliance
with a top Web 2.0 legal team. I’d be happy to put you through
to our attorney if you have further questions about this, because
I don’t think there would be much more I could say otherwise that would
change your mind.
As for your 1% conversion rate, I do not know what offers you tested,
but again I think that is based on the offer, not the deliverability of the software.
I have no idea what markets you tested or what offers you used.
Customer service - I agree with you - it was bad. I am no longer a fan of outsourcing
customer support and believe it now should be under one roof, monitored and periodically evaluated.
This was a big concern and the result was we ended up firing
support people who performed below our standards. We did away with gmail
and used an online helpdesk, and have a new customer service manager, with years of customer service experience. Our new customer service employees,
are completely in-house, provide daily telephone support,
have had extensive, extensive training on the software and are adept at searching several niche markets.
In addtion we have internet marketing coaches who provide expertise on affiliate marketing
and CPA offers available to our members as well who are available
by phone coaching appointment and this is included with the membership.
Since we have been providing daily telephone support for the software, the positive
feedback has been tremendous. We are certainly not there yet, but it is much, much improved.
To Marlene - I’d be happy to retroactively review your case if you feel
you did not get to adeqately test the software. I would be sad to lose you as a customer.
To William - the price you quoted is a bit lower if you pay full price. Again we can only cover so many demos in 90 minutes (we went over time actually).
If you want your own personal demonstration you
can contact us on our website and someone can contact you, so you can decide for yourself.
Again, we can only do as well as the success of our customers. We have had
a number of successes with our members, including a gentleman who made $12,000
in the first 4 hours of using the software. Another business create 120+ new jobs
and created a national network. We have a seminar consisting mostly
of Lead Evolution members next week in San Diego to share their experiences. We work at it every day to see
how we can best please our customers. On a personal note, certainly negative
reviews are a part of any business, but I was in particular dismayed at the tone of your
review using words such as “loot” and “steal” which would suggest otherwise (I know
my mom would be after reading your review)
Again we are sorry we lost you as a customer, and if we agree to disagree that is certainly fine. But
suffice to say, your concerns were heard loud and clear, validated and improved upon. Every customer who decides to refund or cancel is personally contacted on what we could have done to better improve their experience. We are trying.
Dr. Mike
Lead Evolution
Add me to the list of someone who found the software to be an overpriced amateur effort. I also had to resort to threats to get my refund.
To paraphrase a previous commenter — you need to work if you want to build a successful online business.
There are no pushbutton shortcuts — but there are plenty of asshats willing to take your money and sell you one.
Hi there!!! I do have this software “lead evolution” and i would agree to the fact that it hardly provides specific leads but it allows you to go through the general terms of finding leads from posted ads… yes it does collect a lot from advertising sites but there still is a need to clean up some irrelevant emails. Most of the time 5% of the total collected leads respond back.
Hey There,Great Review i must Say.
I’m a LeadEvolution Users Myself.
I’m telling the truth here,I Do CPA and
after 3 Months of testing&twicking offers,Lead Sources,Sending out hundreds of emails per day to different niches,Talking endlessly with the support staff and all the “experts” (How are Not using the software to there own Business) I’m having maybe 2-3 Leads a Day to a free offers.
This is insane to waste my time like this but i was always wondering “Maybe I’m doing something wrong” But Now,I think Not! When i first saw LE i was positive that this is the answer to all my prayers but after a few months of useing it i can see that i need to come back to web2.0,PPC etc.
Maybe that some of the problem with classified sites that its more like a ROBOT classified sites with all those Auto posters and many more software smiler the LE selling out there but much cheaper.
Anybody can create a software like this for $500-700 when outsourced to a skilled programmer on guru.com or whatever.
this is absorbed to get less then 1% conversion rate after working my ass off everyday drying different things hoping to find a “Winner” offer.
On a Personal Note,Dr Mike,If you reading this,YOU REALLY NEED TO MAKE SOMETHING REALLY SPECIAL TO MAKE US BELIEVE IN YOU AGAIN…..and why in all your presentations you always Hide the Lead Sources?! Don’t want people who pays you 4K to know the truth?! or they will find this out on there on After they Paid You?! Jesus!!!
Hi,
I am planning to buy “Leads Evolution”. Could any of the users explain as if they have any other effective functionality except Craiglist, backpage and kijiji.com.
I have used another similar software. It was free of cost. and it uses all above mentioned functionalities. But I found that software a complete faliure. As it just provide leads of sellers almost 99% of time.
Brian, on warrior forum is claiming to have much more than craiglist. Please share your views.
Moreover, Myself being in UK, feels it to be less effective.
Looking for your views and experience.
[...] India vacation) – it looks like my blog has been spotted by a few BIGTIME spammers! The “Lead Evolution Review” post that I did a couple of months ago seem to have been added to some automated [...]
how can u say its spam when u are replying to what people want and i know someone uses it and akes real good money with it and i say a webinar and the software went pretty fast to me. the software works really good from the people i talked to i mean u cant please everyone . I for 1 one would never bought software that jst came out ause u bound to have bugs in it . i plan to buy the software u people sound like a bunch of winers.
I did the intro webinar. While the demo was running, I was checking craigslist in another window. Sure enough, one of leads came right off craigslist and like all CL ads, it says clearly at the bottom “DO NOT SOLICIT”. Granted, it was a craigslist.org email but that’s irrelevant. They claim these are good leads who want to be contacted. Obviously, they are less then truthful.
the whole le product is now outdated
cl will fo after you if you spam.
i was an affliate of le and the refund rate was an ostounding 80%.
and i found koz and dr mike to be cocky and full of hot air.
Has anyone an update on this software.
Dr.Mike came down to Australia and demonstrated it.
Worked well as far as finding buying leads for the searches he did in the demo.
He said it was just updated while on his Aussie trip in the last month.
I got caught up in the emotion to rush up the back and purchase but pulled back at the last minute.
If the updated software can do what it says I would certainly have a use for it.
Any current user with feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Terry
Sid’s Reply:
While I have not used the so called “updated” software as such, nor do I know anyone directly who has the updated version of LE, all I can say is “BE CAREFUL”!! I’ve heard that the makers of this software are traveling around the globe marketing their bull crap with full force. Apparently it appears that almost every one in the US and UK has discovered uselessness and waste factor of their software, so now they are down to Australia, NZ and some other European countries. Regardless of what they do, their software can NEVER do what they claim or promise to do.My sincere advice - DON’T waste a fortune of money and be in the hope of getting leads using LE. You’d be terribly disappointed and you’d find yourself chasing them for your refund, in no time!
Good luck!
Hi there!
My opinion is this software price has really overpriced.
In fact “Lead Evolution” (LEvo) is clone of another software that easy can buy online just for a 10% of “LEvo” cost. With a FREE Trial for limited Version.
Limited Version does mean that software will appear just 25-50 leads searched per every keyword or item you looking for.
I really couldn’t understand “LEvo’s” marketing. It looks more like a greedy way to get paid for a simple software.
My opinion that Software idea is Brilliant and helps saving the time for collecting relevant ads and leads online, but marketing with over 100% friction.
Enjoy!
Has anyone used the new system called Instant Leads Engine? I’m starting to wonder if the new one I bought is just a revamped version of Lead Evolution.
I bought into the system off a webinar last night.
Instant Leads Engine seems the same clone as Lead Evolution, but with recurred payment marketing only.
What the reason to pay for Instant Leads Engine $300 or $1K per month, if possible to find similar software (other brand name) with unlimited Leads option and with $70 per month?
But ok. I forgot. It is “friction marketing”… 
Where’s more friction - there’s more money required.
Thanks for the very honest review Sid! It’s refreshing to see an actual review without someone just trying to score a hefty commission. I’ll definitely be following your blog.
HI Guys & Gals
I was also blown away by the presentation last week at MArble Arch in London.
At last - prayers answered
Now having read this diatribe above - it was too good to be true!
JK
1) What are the actural sorces other than craigslist, kijiji, and backpage?
2) What is another program that you recommend. I am interested in getting leads for Business Opportunity and Real Estate Sellers.
Thank you ALL for you help and for answering my questions!
Stacey
I have bought this software in 1998 in New Zealand. I tried to make it work for almost one year..never made a dime out of it..I tried to get refund after one year..no refunds ofcourse and I tried to sell it …they threatened me not to post on warrior forum and but sell it on ebay..to date i still have the software but its basically useless..you can get a much powerful software for free if you google it. These guys are scammers and targeting noob internet marketers. Not only them the whole world internet summit guys are the same. It’s a business model to target noob marketers who don’t know anything about internet and sell them crap products..jus be warned.
You know what you should do? Uplaoded the software to Megaupload or Rapidshare or something so every one can share in this product and piss off those people who made this product.
Hi All,
Thanks Sid, for your very accurate review of Lead Evolution. I can’t imagine anyone being that bullish to buy the product after reading the above reviews.
To begin with, I purchased LE in it’s early days, October, 2008, with a 14 day money back guarantee. The originators, Brian Koz and Dr. Mike made huge promises of unending leads. I found their tutorials totally amateurish, having to sit for an hour and sometimes more of two people’s futile attempts to explain their software, while I am getting more frustrated by the minute. Having paid $4000.00 for the product, I was expecting something a lot more professional.
And then Dr. Mike and Koz would send emails boasting about some successful marketer getting 5 to 10 leads in a week. I was trying to calculate how long it would take to pay back the initial payment for this product.
After trying it for over a week I found out that the one source, Yahoo, would be the only one that might bring in enough leads that would be acceptable for my business. However, Yahoo was not working satisfactorily, and I decided to cancel my membership and ask for a refund. When I submitted the cancellation, they promised that they were aware that Yahoo was not working properly and that they were in the process of getting it operational. They assured me that it would be working within the warranty period. That did not happen, and when I demanded a refund, they claimed I was passed the 14 day limit. I wrote emails and spoke to people on the phone and they refused the refund. Brian Koz and Dr. Mike can deny all they want. I have all the correspondence to prove the caliber of businessmen they are.
It’s one thing to have problems with a product, but conning customers with lies and broken promises is totally unacceptable. I see that they are involved with other marketing activities on the Internet. All I can say is that it’s guys like that give the Internet a bad name.
Wally
I was just about to give my credit card number for LR2 when I decided see what the “buz” was about the LR2. Has anyone used the new version? If so, how is it working?
JC
AWESOME Review Siddharth. Nice to see someone give an honest review for a change.
-Stephen