I'm creating my own e-book and am in the process of creating a landing page. I'm thinking about adding testimonials for the site. Question is would pictures of the person help? And around how many testimonials should I have?
Yup pictures definitely add authority, Depend on your product/service but I've learned that never have more than 3 testimonials per section; Example -> Introduction 3 testimonials Product Explanation 3 Testimonial Product Explanation 3 Tesiomonial Payment Info
I'm starting to write my landing page also. I still don't know why anyone would believe those testimonials. Majority of them are obviously fake. For me I am going to use real testimonials from my clients except for the pictures. I think I'll get those from google images.
I say if they are not actually real then dont put them up since many people myself included are realizing that the people are not real
Aww.. you're openly de-promoting your product by exposing the fact that you may use pictures from Google. First, don't do that as it'd be a real bad approach. Second, try to put real testimonials. Like others already said, most of them are fake and some of them may look fake even if they're real. Try to do your best in getting things real as much as you can. Cheers!
Yea I agree, this is just bad business to fake testimonials. I know that A LOT of people do it though, and it is unfortunate to say the least. I think it just brings internet marketing down a notch closer to the "scam" level. Just find someone you can trust and send them a copy to review for a few days. This is what I am doing and it seems to be working well. Jim
I've said it before. Get your digital camera out and invite your friends and family over. Give them a free copy of your ebook while your at it
Picture, first and last name (no acronyms) , city, country, transaction ID if you want. There you go, you have credibility.
Look, I disagree about the pictures. On my pitch page I have testimonials -- real ones -- first name only, no pictures. It IS real. And it IS believable that way. No "real" testimonial writer is going to send you their picture. Very few would allow their last name to be used without compensation. Customers see right through fake testimonials with pictures next to them. It doesn't ADD credibility... it takes away from the credibility of your product because it looks like you paid a bunch of people to write testimonials. My two cents.
I'm going to give my honest opinion, 95%+ of the internet users skip over testimonials. Sure, it gives it a positive feeling, but unless it comes from a review type site like Amazon or something, I never believe them. So, whether their true or not, whether you have the most normal looking guys or not... as a consumer, I don't care either way because I won't be reading more than a few of them.
You can joint venture with well known marketer and request for their testimonial or even their opinion... maybe their will help promoting your ebook to their list.
Yeah, that's what "everyone does" Testiomnials have lost their value over the years, because many scammers have used fake quotes and obviously fake pictures, I once saw a testimonial quote by a random name but had a picture of George W. Bush for a $49 ebook on online marketing - seriously. how stupid can they be? Even legitmate sellers tend to overuse the testimonial benefit, and it's just doesn't have the same sort of "authority" impact as it used too. Then again, surfers/buyers are so used to see testimonial pages, even fake ones that a landing page without testimonials "just doesn't feel right" and possibly scare away potential clients. Just my 2 cents.
I guess it's better not to use pictures instead of using fake pictures. In reality I doubt any of my clients are going to let me put up their pictures on the internet no matter how happy they are. There is a really why everyone has usernames that's different than their name. A lot of the internet marketers use other internet marketers for their testimonials. I haven't seen a testimonial from one of their actual customers. There is a real for that. As mentioned by fireboard, having the web site and a first name is more believable just because if that person reading your page bought your product and you wanted to post their testimonial he/she wouldn't mind having their first name on the internet.
Fireboat, not fireboard. But close enough. haha But, yes, first name is believable... and nobody really minds having their testimonial posted so long as you're not attaching last names and pictures. SOme are actually thrilled to see their testimonial posted on the Web. I usually post 3 or 4 of the best testimonials on the main page. (I don't like overdoing it.) And then I have a link or two called "fan mail" or "kind words" or "testimonials." The link leads to a page with TONS of them. (And, if you have a good product, you will get tons of testimonials in time.) The separate page with testimonials is a good idea because google will see it as another page of "content", which can help your site's overall ranking in time. Hint for getting testimonials: In your product, invite customers to contact you. I invite them to email and say, "I can provide general advice" that relates to the topic of my book. I usually get emails (maybe one a week) with such questions... thay usually start with lots of praise for my ebook, followed by a simple question. I copy/paste the praise on my testimonial page. Then I send them a reply and answer their question. Then they send another email saying how good the customer service is and telling how thankful they are. ...and you can advertise "UNSOLICITED" testimonials on your pitch page. Good luck.
I don't think the average online customer is going to analyze testimonials very much. Most people look them over quickly and don't really "buy" into them...picture or not.