Some things could be fake, but the true marketers give away their products so that the people can test it and then give them a testimonial in return.
Nobody knows exactly how much is real or fake. I guess many of them are fake -- If you observe carefully, you'll see many similar faces (usually husband-and-wife kind of photos) in a lot of mlm websites. I've an offline friend (a close one) who does nothing but writing testimonials and taking photographs for both online and offline mlm companies. But the guy is very discreet. So I can never find out much about it. But this guy seems to live a damn cozy life from what he earns. I believe a lot of CB publishers' earning screenshots are real. Stan
I would say true, but with a catch 22. They never tell you how they did it, what their costs were and other very important factors. It is like saying, I made 1 million last year on adwords... and not telling someone you spent $950,000 on PPC to make that million.
they are all fake!. they just grab public domain images!. i saw the same peoples pictures on milk containers
I did notice that the testimonials are from other internet marketing web sites and not from other niches. I haven't seen one where the testimonial is from a web site that has nothing to do with internet marketing.
When it comes to "make money online" ebooks, most will be fake. Like SGBoise just mentioned, if the testimonial even comes from a real person, it's usually a friend of the book's author. But even then, it does not mean the testimonial is authentic! Like this: http://www.netprofitstoday.com/blog/how-not-to-post-testimonials-dvddropship-example/ And this is funny too: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sketchy-testimonials/
You can't just say everything is true or false. You will always find both. I think You have to look at the quality of the website, the quality of the Marketer or Guru and the quality of the product. If You see an ebook for $17 that promisses You to be rich in a day or a month, I would doubt that, I mean I would not even read what they had to say. However, if You decide to go on a coaching program with a guy that's been online for 10 years, with a great reputation and his students paid 2k, 5k, 20k well then it's only natural that they will get great results and they will writte their testimonials because not everything is a scam and if You actually DO something it works! Also, even if You buy a lower price product but You already have a business that small investment can actually mean a lot and get You great results. I don't know what's so strange about people saying they had great results with this or that!?
I would personally trust a personal coach. In fact I would recommend getting one. Everyone I know that are making money have one.