One of these days I am going to throw up on watching/reading testimonials from “real people”. I haven’t really understood the fundamental purpose of these testimonials. Do they really impress people into buying shady stuff? Are people really so dumb uninformed that they easily get suckered into emptying their pockets after hearing testimonials from “real people”? Do they really believe that a $50 booklet will make them $100,000 a month? or that a $59 bottle of pills will reduce their weight by 30 pounds in a month?
I don’t know how you all deal with testimonials, but for me, all links/pages/advertisements with “testimonials” are basically off-limits. There is no valuable information ever in such testimonials. Mostly it is simply fake text/speech for the purpose of self-glorification, or paid content produced by “actors” or “writers” - who don’t have anything to do with the product. I would never make a purchasing decision based on such testimonials.
Here are a few examples of some dubious testimonials that qualified for this rant. 
- Ever heard of the “crazy fox” home business advertisements on TV? The whole premise of the advertisement doesn’t go down well with me. Isn’t “fox” considered a symbol for cunningness - with a definite negative connotation? Remember “cunning as a fox” or “sly as a fox”? And yet people believe an animated fox when it talks about how to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by working from home?
A good part of this foxy advertisement consists of testimonials from people who claim to have made a ton of money by following the fox’s advice. Watch these actors/liars in the video - especially how they enunciate the numbers and fake happiness:
- Another noteworthy source of testimonial BS comes from well-built males and females (sometimes, with names phonetically similar to well-known actors/actresses) who swear that various parts of their bodies were shaped exclusively by various expensive exercising machines. At times, these “real” testimonials are also accompanied by morphed (almost certainly) and/or digitally remastered “before-after” photographs.
- Next, here is an example of some brash touting of “real” testimonials on www.therichpom.com:
Make Money Online - REAL Testimonials
Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all before. Make money online using the Internet, Work from Home etc. It’s all a big scam isn’t it, just like this website?
DON’T THINK SO!
See below - don’t take my word for it. These are real people who have had the balls to buy my product and they have successfully made money online.
I don’t know what kind of balls one needs to tolerate such brash marketing and, and on top of that, believe in some lame testimonials like this one:
“My wife told me I’d been stupid to spend eighty bucks on some Internet ‘get rich quick program’. I told her it was a long-term thing, but even I was surprised when we had earned our rent money in the first month alone. I’m now into my third month and I have quit my job. In a word - thanks”
Quit job in the third month! Wow.. that’s awesome - and I think the dude said that in the same breath as he said “long-term thing“. I guess it’s no wonder then if stupid websites that carry such testimonials are still making money.
- Here is another money making “self-testimonial” from a rather shady website ( www.thousanddollarprofits.com ):
“That’s Me, Sitting Outside Of My Home In Hawaii. Keep In Mind I Haven’t Always Made Over $35,000 Per Week, From My Home… Not So Long Ago I Was Working As A Construction Laborer, Drowning In The Corporate Rat-Race, And Struggling To Pay My Bills. Since My Breakthrough With The ‘Reverse Funnel System’, I Now Make More Money In One Week Than I Used To In A Year - And You Could Too. I’ll Prove It…”
“I am absolutely convinced that my proven System, will create massive wealth for virtually anyone regardless of your background, education, or even your current level of income… I’m going to Prove it!”
That’s right, I have never heard of a “construction laborer” drowning in a “corporate rat race“. Plus, one just has to wonder why these folks, who make $35,000 a week, create and run some low-grade, down right dubious and cheap websites.
- Here is one that claims weight loss by listening to an audio cassette ( www.hypnosisdownloads.com ):
“I have just started educating myself on hypnosis. I downloaded ‘ Weight Loss Motivation‘ and then recorded it on a cassette and have listened to it for about 3 weeks now. I have lost 12 pounds but more importantly I notice that the choices I have been making are a lot smarter. Thank you!!”
“I would you recommend this download to anyone looking to take back control of their life!!”
If only weight loss was this simple - sit in traffic for 2 hours every day and just listen to an audio cassette many times over! Better still, I would love to see something like “Get Rich Motivation” - I will listen to it for three weeks and then claim to be richer! I will probably find something like that if I look hard enough. Sounds like the right kind of product for folks who believe in Dogbert-ism.
- Now, here is one that beats them all by a comfortable margin in terms of absolute testimonial bullshit - and it comes from www.mattersofsize.com. No prizes for guessing the subject matter under consideration:
“I Now Have 8.5 Inches!”
“You’re absolutely one of my heroes. Your inventiveness, sensitivity, and strength are inspirational, as is your progress. Thank you for giving me the 8.5†I have always dreamed of. I joined 3 other programs with no luck. I started at 6†and I tried everything from pills and weights to pumps and potions and nothing worked. After working with you over the past year my dreams have finally come true. This site was the best move you could have made. Now the world will have access to what I have had been spoiled with.”
Somebody please kill me already!
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You’re just jealous because you haven’t had the courage to take the steps that those brave folks in the testimonials did!
I agree though, these techniques are reprehensible. You might not be able to fool all of the people all the time, but these people are placing their bets on fooling enough of the people enough of the times. I wonder what percentage of these “get rich quick” or “buy my program / product” schemes actually make any money. Are there people who’ve fallen for it, figured out who is the only person who actually has a chance to make money from the opportunity is the one who pushes it, and then they clumsily (or not, I suppose) ape those same techniques?
I used to work for a company that did graphic design and surprisingly enough a lot of their custom came through their testimonials page. A number of perspective clients who liked out portfolio contacted the names on the testimonial page by looking up the company and asking them questions. The end result was that the company gained work partly because of the testimonials page. Maybe you should consider the plus side as well as just looking at testimonials as a negative thing. Ebay is a perfect example of the benefits of testimonials (so to speak)
AMEN! I dread the nights I can’t sleep and sit up watching these infomercials! I specially love the ones that tell you can make a boat load of money and you can join their “system”, but nobody ever says what excactly they are doing! My second favorite is the weight loss ones. Taking a pill is going to remove my stomach flab and give me rock hard abs? Really??
I guess the truth be told — if they were GOOD actors — they’d be on a real tv show or even a movie. LOL
I just don’t believe testimonials for anything. Somehow they are different to reviews - probably because it’s not obvious how I can add my own comments.
But I can easily believe that enough people are taken in to justify having them up.
Word. There may be a few of legitimate ones - e.g. some tool to clean your house that you can actually check on the web an read reviews for, but many of these ads are ridiculous.
Occasionally, when you look at “before” and “after” pictures in weight loss ads, the person on the “before” picture doesn’t look at all like the one in the “after” picture. The hair is different, the lips are different, the eyes are of a different color. One would think they could at least find people who look similar or pay money to real people who lost weight. Occasionally there is the same person but in a different pose - tummy out vs tummy in.
Another group of ridiculous ads has to do with all the “rejuvenation” creams. Does anyone really believe that a great looking acress in her late 50s hasn’t had any plastic surgery and only looks young because of some cream? She may also have good genes, but I would bet anything she had some help from modern medicine. If the ad was about her plastic surgeon, I might’ve actually believed it.
As to the “get rich quick” ads, they all remind me of an episode in a Russian children book. In the book two shady characters convinced the protagonist to bury his money in the “Field of Miracles” located in the “Country of Fools”. They told that if he did it and said the magic words, the tree would grow within the next few days with leaves of gold coins. Of course the moment he fell asleep, they sneaked up on him and stole his money. Something like it, anyway, I don’t remember the details. Since then there is a saying about people who bury their money in the “Field of Miracles”.
I with you on the so called “testimonials”. I too think they are a bunch of crap. I’m still laughing at the last one though.
Used Vans Girl - there is a big difference between customer references that legitimate companies provide on their websites and so called customer testimonials on many “infomercials” which are patently fake.
Unlike many of the other commenters, I think that customer testimonials can be a valuable source of information. Like everything else in life - the source and reliability of the information is just as important as the content.
My high-tech company uses customer testimonials and references and our customers really appreciate this type of information, because it is actual… information. Not a fake script.
As far as late night infomercials go - I am fully on board with your distaste…
There’s a big difference between a testimonial and a reference. The testimonials referred to here don’t give you any contact, whereas a legitimate company listing a reference will give you information to contact them, as opposed to “Joe from LA”.
You want want a CD to listen to repetitively to make you rich? Look up Paraliminals. It’s a hilarious product.
Also, check out their “Photo Reading” system. Read a book by flipping through it while in a trance. Only thing they don’t mention is that the photo-reading part is sandwiched between legitimate speed-reading techniques (previewing and plain old speed-reading) which I would argue is the actual cause of the comprehension and retention of information by practitioners. Still hilarious that they want to sell you the system for $600.
Yeah I always wondered how people can fall for these things, but then I watched a special report on CNBC and it became clear to me… There are some weird people out there and someone will try to make money off of them.
But all that stuff really worked for me! Especially the exercise guy - that is my actual picture!
Another great post…
Well, it really depends on the niche and on what these testimonials say, but we cannot go around understating their importance. I know for a fact that clients read and want testimonials. Our clients always ask.
Employers ask too, so see… There is a place under the sund for everyone.
Testimonials are the equal of eye witness in science…useless.
hey, it’s true… most sites with testimonials are those sites that sell things that are always too good to be true. and you know what they say about that…
Jay
DatMoney.com
DatCurious.com
What I want to know is where I can get a job writing the testimonials. I bet I can make $50,000 a week doing it!
Consider this. How come every “New” hot moneymaker or miracle weight loss drug, home gym or you name it always have so many “testimonials” attached to them. If they are so new and hot obviously nobody has tried them yet. How many things have all of you been asked to test and give your testimonials of before they hit the market? Use your brains for something other than hat-racks people. golbguru hit this one out of the park.
There is a market for everything and everybody. People will always need money, and the bad thing is when they are so desperate they will buy anything that promises them to make money. Too bad, but the truth is that “make money online” market is the biggest and most profitable one.
the integration of bad characters in the market are looking forward to distrub the people who are in a deep trouble.
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