WoodWorking 4 Home - a HUGE database of plans

[diver doug]

Hi All,

Here's something that I found called "Woodworking 4 Home" and thought I'd throw it up here for anyone who's interested. It's a huge searchable database of woodworking projects for pretty much everything and anything you can think of! I bought it and thought I'd write a review for it for anyone else who's interested.

Good points

1) Easy to read format - the plans are top quality, printable, written in plain speak and are tailored to people with limited woodworking knowledge but would like to improve. Experienced builders will have no problems with any of the designs.

2) All materials needed (including total lengths) for each project are listed - this will save a lot of time before and during your trip to Bunnings (aka my wife's favorite supply shop)

3) a wide variety of projects - these projects are for inside and outside of the home and are organised into various categories.

4) Simple to advanced projects - similar to above, there are some projects that barely require more than a handsaw and a hammer, while others require some more advanced and expensive tools (good excuse to go to Glenford's !)

5) Price - $50 - need I say more ??

6) Money back guarentee - if the above doesn't interest you, then this would


Bad points (note: I wouldn't call these totally bad, more looking at the other side of the story)

1) 14000 projects ?!?! - Even though I liked a lot of the projects, there will be many projects you will never even attempt. It seems a waste, but there are DOZENS of projects that really interested me. I'm still finding new projects too !

2) North American-oriented - although pretty much 95% of the projects I saw are for anywhere, some of the cuts of wood may be hard to find in an Australian lumber yard (ie Imperial vs Metric). Some minor modifications to measurements may be needed, but so far I haven't seen anything that would render a project impossible to make here!


In all, I've been very impressed with what I've seen and found it to be well worth the money . I've tried free plans that I've found on the net, but this really saved me a lot of time, and gave me new ideas I hadn't thought of before (go the chicken coop!)



Has anyone else had any experience with this? I figure that if I get stuck with any of the projects, this forum would be a good place to get some help/hints..

Hope you found this review worthwhile!


Diver Doug

[LiliB]

Hi Doug

I guess what becomes immediately apparent when you look at the categories of his DIY plans, there are just so many that we, in Australia, just don't make.

Apart from that, though, I think $50 US isn't exactly a fortune for a range of plans for the home handyman. We buy plans from Sydney for model wooden cars, and they can cost upwards of $25 for one, so this sounds like a good deal.

Thanks for the tip

Cheers
LiliB

[Master Splinter]

Why does that first article smell of tacky ad-spam to me?

Could it be the cut and paste from 'Jack Y' at http://www.reviews4you.net/woodworking4home.html (a 'review' site with only one review) of sentences like "North American-oriented - although pretty much of the projects I saw are for anywhere (about 95%), some of the cuts of wood may be hard to find in an Australian lumber yard (ie Imperial vs Metric)."

Or could it be the use of the short URL which includes a referral link so that Mr Doug gets a cut of sales? (75% commission according to the affiliates program)

Or the fact that the same product is promoted in much the same breathless tone on a range of adspam blogs such as http://nodfast.com/woodworking-4-home/ and http://hubpages.com/hub/woodworking4home

Or - and this is the killer - how about that the plans come from free sources - for example, the "Trash can and firewood storage unit" in the animated gif on the sales page comes from here - http://newstore.southernpine.com/images/diyplans853.pdf

If you want plans, try this meta-list http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~flip/plans.html

Or!!!!! - 38,704 plans from http://www.masterwoodworkingplans.com/ for just $9.99!!! (which have probably also been pulled from free sources)

[Spanner69]

diver doug ...... tell me it aint so ... tell me it aint so!
.
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[diver doug]

)
Could it be the cut and paste from 'Jack Y' at http://www.reviews4you.net/woodworking4home.html (a 'review' site with only one review) of sentences like "North American-oriented - although pretty much of the projects I saw are for anywhere (about 95%), some of the cuts of wood may be hard to find in an Australian lumber yard (ie Imperial vs Metric)."

After a bit of a hiatus for a much needed holiday, I see I come back to this. Interesting...

Master Splinter - how the hell else would you describe a set of plans that are heavily Imperial oriented??? That's why I would describe it as "North American-Oriented" (Duh!). Besides that, the fact is that it was obviously made by some builder in the US. Having to convert from Imperial to Metric (in the version that I got) was just one of the things I didn't like about it, but is easily dealt with. I was talking to a Yank builder a while back who told me when he first came out here, he had a hard time trying to find cuts like the North American staple "two by four", as he was saying the cuts here were slightly different (ie in metric, which is pretty hard to find in the US and Canada, which I'm assuming you already knew about two of the three countries that comprise North America). Therefore, when some of the plans talk about two-by-fours, I had to find measurements that were close enough.
Also, if this was meant to be spam, wouldn't it make sense for me to talk about it EVERYWHERE on this forum ???
1) It's a product
2) This part of the forum is called "PRODUCT REVIEWS"
3) I reviewed the product and gave my impressions and opinion, both good and bad points.(sorry if my vocabulary seemed a bit sales-like. As a former literacy instructor, I tend to expand on points, hence I don't feel the need to cut and paste, which is the sign of a true spammer. If you'd prefer I gave my review in grunts and small, one to two syllable words, let me know...)

In all, it's just a link a mate gave to me and highly recommended it to me. I investigated it, liked what I saw, and so I bought it. I thought other people on this forum might find it as useful as I did. Other people may find it as useful as I did, or maybe they'd just like to have a big set of plans for a small price (as per LiliB's earlier post) instead of paying $25 for one set of plans.

Am I to know where the author got his plans from? He may well have ripped them off from other sources (ie free ones), but I didn't know. It sure saved me a lot of time from searching for them myself. Thanks for pointing out the free plans anyway.

So if you don't like it, heck don't buy it. I find it ironic that you are calling my post spam, yet you've posted a link to a similar site selling plans as well...are you getting kickbacks from them?

Anyway, thanks for your opinion, MS. I feel you are off-base with it, but that's the beauty of a forum. Everyone else can make up their own minds.

Later, fellow wood-chucks !


Diver Doug

[Master Splinter]

Diver Doug - my apologies, I can see that I was wrong in calling your post spam. I don't know what made me think that.

Regarding my link - nope, no kickbacks for me, it's just a plain 'ol URL, which was the first woodworking plan site returned in a google for woodwork plans.

They can keep all of the $9.99 from any sales.

In fact, I clicked on the Google adwords link for it, so I cost them some money. Dammit, I had to turn off Adblock Plus (free, Firefox only) to do so, but I think it was worth it!

If I was using a kickback (sorry, affiliate) link I would have a disclaimer noting the fact that purchasing via this link would reward me financially.

But that's just my style - it's not like there's an ethics patrol on teh intarwebs.

I do believe that I have got you mixed up with someone else - there's you - Diver Doug from Capalaba in this forum, as well as a Diver Doug from Capalaba posting on the "Warrior Forum - the #1 internet marketing forum since 1997" (free registration required to read posts, but hey, that's just a disposable email address away)

Amusingly enough, according to this post, (which is all about squeeze pages and other 'separate a sucker from his money' devices) using an affiliate link anywhere in the bravely named Warrior Forums gets you the banhammer!! Talk about not wanting to take their own medicine!!

But of course, you can't be that Diver Doug, as his interests on the Warrior Forum (that site name sends shivers down my spine) are listed as:

"Web marketing, homebrewing, photography, diving"

Nothing about woodworking or building wooden play houses there, so it can't be you - and I mean, who would have a website on wooden play houses and join a woodworking site and post things if they didn't really like those activities!!

Nothing about n-scale trains, either. Definitely not you.

Now, this Diver Doug from Capalaba from the Warrior Forum (that site name just chokes me up, it's so bold and forthright) has said things like:

"I've come across a niche that I would love to exploit..."
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ds-domain.html

"My site is http://(keyword)info.com (all other top-level sites were taken)
Now here's what I don't get..."
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ml#post1522803


Also, this Diver Doug seems to know about the etiquette of kickback (sorry, affiliate) links:

"[mentioning another site] In summary, it worked great for me ! (note:it's not an affiliate site or anything)"
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/157879-google-juice-gov-edu-they-great-link-building.html#post1523615

And this Diver Doug has even done such things as:

"I've joined numerous topic related forums and placed a hyperlink in my signature as well. "

"One of them even let me put a direct affiliate link on it as a product review! Got heaps of hops out of that one!"
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ml#post1522962

This Warrior Forum Diver Doug has even said:

"I don't think it really matters if it's a little bit of a lie."
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post1713721

So that Diver Doug is not you. Sorry for any confusion there, I don't know how I could have been so wrong, your post is certainly not spam!

PS. I like how - on your wooden play house site - every single post of yours has a link (save for the Youtube link which goes to someone else's video) that goes to your affiliate site!

How are the n-scale trains? Have you seen the model building subforum here??

[RedShirtGuy]

[diver doug]

Very well done MS. I see that being in the land of the feds makes you quite the investigator.

so, for the record, yes of course that is me, and yes, I am an affiliate. I never denied being one. I figured that I'd throw it up there, and figured that since no one (ie the moderators) said anything about it for over two months, I figured there wasn't a problem with it (considering the forum itself has Adsense links with the same product, other people are making money as well). However, since you've obviously got a bee in your bonnet, why not just make a complaint to a moderator and have the thread taken out? I don't know what your definition of spam is, but a single link in a thread where no one is being bombarded with advertising hardly constitutes invasive spam.

so for the record, Serpico, let's establish some facts:

1) The post was in a forum for product review, where I liked the product and gave my opinion;
2) I never denied being an affiliate or getting any commission for any sales generated through it;
3) The post was available for over two months with no complaint from any user or warning from a moderator, hence why I figured there was no problem with it;
4) If a moderator had asked for it to be taken down, I would have happily complied and apologised for it (I obviously didn't read anything specifically stating it was against the rules. If this is the case, then again, I apologise);
5) If I had truly wanted to spam the site for the product, there are bot programs out there that would have put a post in every thread on this forum with links to the product. Were there links all over the place? No, just one. If you were to look around this forum, you'll see Google adsense ads for the same product, so obviously I'm not the only one you've got a complaint with.

So are you happy now? Oh ya, also for the record, N Scale train modelling is also another recently acquired hobby of mine which gives me another avenue for a woodworking hobby. If I can make a little bit of extra money to support said hobby, I'll do it. If you've checked out the photo section in this forum, you'll also see one of the wooden playhouses I built for my kids. Would I waste my time with contributing to this forum if I was a spammer?No, I'd be picking people like you to bombard their email boxes with useless crap like advertising online buying of Vicodin or Xanex. Instead, I spend some time here looking for any ideas or tips from other people, and maybe even swap a good joke or two.

Is that a problem ?

[Ch4iS]

Google adsence is the say of the owner they can do what they please with the site, dont use it as an excuse, I see it more as a way to keep the site running.

BTW it was a good post, some thought was really put into it.

[Master Splinter]

1) The post was in a forum for product review, where I liked the product and gave my opinion; No, you found "a niche to exploit" (your words, not mine) and the product was secondary; what mattered was that there was little competition in the URL namespace for your product so that you could get a higher googlerank. (my previous experience includes marketing for a site getting around a million hits per month, so I am reasonably SEO savvy)

2) I never denied being an affiliate or getting any commission for any sales generated through it; You never said you were. If you are reviewing a product, any financial interests in the product should be stated so that the review can be judged on that basis. (or you could have linked to the site without your affiliate link, and forgone any revenue if you liked it that much)

I spend time posting on this site, and I occasionally recommend the forum owner's products - but that's because I think they are pretty good stuff, and I get nothing out of it (aside from the feelgood 'buying australian product' because it is best of breed, not just because its australian)
3) The post was available for over two months with no complaint from any user or warning from a moderator, hence why I figured there was no problem with it;
4) If a moderator had asked for it to be taken down, I would have happily complied and apologised for it (I obviously didn't read anything specifically stating it was against the rules. If this is the case, then again, I apologise);
Give what is in effect your own product a good review without disclosing your interest in it? Where in the real world is that ethical (that's in the real world, not in the internet marketing world)
5) If I had truly wanted to spam the site for the product, there are bot programs out there that would have put a post in every thread on this forum with links to the product. Were there links all over the place? No, just one.
Yea. Links that appear all over the place get deleted pretty much instantly by the mods, that's why you don't see them.

But sneaky, sign onto the site and make half a dozen innocuous posts then 'slip in your payload links disguised as something else' spam can last longer, until someone twigs to them.

If you were to look around this forum, you'll see Google adsense ads for the same product, so obviously I'm not the only one you've got a complaint with.

No, I see no ads whatsoever on this site aside from the few in the forum indexes. (And those ads are clearly ads, not ads disguised as reviews)

I use a customised hosts file (null-routes major advertising servers), Adblock Plus (gets rid of the ad components of subdomains), Flashblock (no Flash content plays unless I tell it to) and NoScript (Java remains disabled for a site unless I ok it.)

I don't know why everybody doesn't use these ad-blocking techniques. Makes the net so much more enjoyable.

I also use an add-on that modifies Google search results and deletes the results from all domains that I have decided are basically worthless spam (for example, anything on the entire hubpage domain and some of the others mentioned in the Warrior Forums will never again show up in my search results, so it's like those bits of the internet have ceased to exist)

[LiliB]

Hi Master Splinter

Thank you for highlighting the cynicism and unmitigated gall of this post writer. I, for one, would love to see the end of people like this on this forum. The whole internet is thoroughly hijacked and polluted by people with ulterior motives. (Long live capitalism, oops, I mean democracy and FREEDOM)

Those, like me, who use the net for practical purposes only, cannot begin to see the depths of the undercurrent of misuse that others have used the web for.

I began using the web as a librarian who accessed the networks for information gathering and research, and nothing else. Now I still use it only for gathering information and purchasing. The cynical world of spam, bots and other jargon is quite a foreign language to me.

I fully expect to get both barrels of a very large US designed WOMD from Diver Doug, probably delivered by Drone!!!

I'm obviously quite naive, having thought your original response was rather cynical and mean-spirited. But that's because I, like many others of my era (I'm a baby boomer and proud of it) think people out there have some ethics and values.


Congratulations on your investigative skills. Viva the Good Guys

LiliB

[Wongdai]

Awesome catch MS!