Why I am no longer using Topaz Labs Software.
As of the 17th of June 2022 I am no longer working with Topaz Labs to promote their software.
Topaz Labs terminated our joint partnership which honestly came as a bit of a surprise to me as I had been working with them for quite a while to help promote their software. This post really shows how fickle the world of photography is.
Why am I writing this post and why now you may well ask yourself.
The reason for this post is when people ask me why I no longer use Topaz Labs Software and why I switched to ON1 Products I don’t have to write out a long winded response every time, I just direct people here (so that’s why you are here, sorry). So it’s not me having a grudge or anything childish like that it’s just so I can explain to you in detail why I switched to ON1 Software (reviews here and discount code also). It also helps to give you a bit of background on how strange the photography world is.
How it all happened…
Apparently, the reason I am getting for this is I had not been supporting the product or offering reviews or tutorials on how the product works but instead just sharing my promotional code with people. With well over 15 pages at the time on this website (I also have two other websites with pages on Topaz Labs products) dedicated to Topaz Labs products and reviews, which all ranked in the top 5 reviews worldwide as well as several videos I had online. I found it all more than a bit strange and immediately thought this has to be a mistake.
I emailed Topaz Labs or should I say Hillary the person I had always dealt with straight away to discuss what happened and to try and understand why they terminated our partnership, of course I pointed out the 15 plus pages on this website dedicated to their products and reviews with hundreds of people per week reading them every week.
This all happened on the 17th of June 2022 now more than 14 months ago (updated on the 6th of Novemebr 2023). I emailed them several times to try and figure out what went wrong and still not a single reply to any of my emails that were sent over a year ago!
I will of course update this blog post if I ever do get a reply from them but a year and 4 months later I am never expecting one now at this stage.
I think in this day and age that’s very poor form and I wouldn’t have expected that from any company.
As it ends out it was a real positive move for me so I have to say I am thankful they behaved the way they did.
I have to say one of the very strange things about Topaz labs is that I never got commission if someone used my discount code. I only got a commission if they used my link which is a bit of a tricky one on their behalf.
As I was sharing my code on social media and I never got a cent for it.
I think that’s a bit of a nasty move towards content creators if I am being totally honest wth you.
I am still fairly sure this was a mistake somebody made but why they simply just cut me out without even a simple email first to discuss it or even respond to any of my emails was a very strange move and a bit rude but hey we all know the world is full of rude people.
I personally like to deal with nice people and good companies and thankfully I am at a point in my career where I can pick and choose my clients which makes life a lot easier, who needs drama right? Life is just too short for that…
Now, you may well be thinking to yourself “ah he is writing this out of anger, hatred or pure vindictiveness for Topaz Labs” well the simple answer is I am not. I work as a commercial photographer and I can tell you that you need a very thick skin on commercial and fashion shoots so I would see this as funny more so than anything else and it all turned into a positive for me in the end thankfully.
Why do I think Topaz Labs dropped me?
Well, I think it could possibly be down to 3 things the first is…. a few weeks before that I put links in my Topaz Labs reviews linking to my reviews of similar ON1 Products which in my opinion worked as well and were cheaper and in some cases actually worked better.
If I am providing a balanced review I should be able to do that, so everyone can see for themselves what software might be better for them and the other options you have before you make up your mind to purchase their products. I am not paid for these reviews by any company and I always write down my honest thoughts on the products and that’s something I should be entitled to do and I believe we should all be demanding in reviews.
For example I never share my reviews before I publish them and I believe it’s the right way to do it otherwise it’s just paid advertising. I have had several offers to purchase very positive reviews on a few of my websites and I refused them all, heck they even offered to write them for me so all I would have to do is publish them and make some nice money.
It could also be because I was personally no longer using Topaz Labs products myself in my workflow. I switched to the ON1 range of plugins and editing software at the start of May 2022. To be fair though I never said that in any of my videos or social media but I did post reviews of the ON1 products on my website at the very start of June which is a funny coincidence.
Commission and discounts are the other aspect to this and as I point out in all my reviews if I have done my job right and you click on a link on my website and purchase a product I get a commission for referring you. So why is that and issue for Topaz Labs?
Well, I was sharing my discount code with you so you save money and then they pay me a slight commission also, which at the end of the day means less money goes to Topaz Labs. There was nothing anywhere in our agreement that stated I couldn’t do that.
What I always found interesting though is that if you used my discount code but you didn’t click on my affiliate link then I didn’t get paid, which meant a lot of clients and readers went onto to purchase products and I never got a commission for it even though they obviously came from my website because they had my discount code!!!
If you would like to know more about what I do with these affiliate commissions then please do check out my affiliate and discount code explanation page here.
A very fast explanation of it….
There is no advertising on my website, so I don’t sell advertising space to google or other companies to target you with ads.
I don’t sell your cookies to third parties, yes, that’s a serious thing and that’s how companies target you with advertising.
Finally I plant a tree for every product I get paid commission for as my way of giving back.
These commissions basically help me write reviews, post videos, run this website, try and get more discount codes from other companies, it also helps put a tiny bit of food on the table and the rest of the money goes into the Porsche, private jet and the 90 foot yacht in my private harbour… if only 🙂
All of the above reasons and why I believe Topaz Labs may have dropped me were never in anyway in violation of our partnership by the way, just so we are very clear on that.
Yes, I read the whole partnership agreement more than a few times and I have copies of it 🙂 That’s time in my life I will never get back again.
I have to specify here I don’t think there is anything wrong with Topaz Labs software and it’s still good software so let’s be very clear on that. God only knows if things change I might be back using it again in a year or two. As I still have an active topaz labs subscription and paid for all my Topaz Labs software myself.
If Topaz Labs ever reply to me I will update this post but I honestly wouldn’t hold my breath for that but ignoring two emails from anyone is bad form in my book. It also possibly explains why so many people contacted me about issues they were having with their software. I fortunately never had to contact the Topaz tech support myself. Any issue I had I thought it was worthwhile figuring it out myself in order to be able to help others going forward.
So, I wish you well with your Topaz Software and as always if you have a Topaz Labs software problem or question I am more than happy to help you nothing has changed there.
See you out there,
Kieran.