Testimionials

[EditorDude]

Hi - I am interested to hear of different ways of getting testimonials that other people here may have used, developed or experimented with. I read Tim's stuff ofcourse about contacting journalists and giving lectures and seminars on the subjects but does anyone have any other ideas to add (particularly for a downloadable ebook product). I don't want to sound cynical but those testimonials on the PX Method website, well how shall I put this - are those genuine? Not that I'm suggesting otherwise - but you see my point - how does the customer know? Which leads me to the next question - do a lot of these types of sites manufacture their own testimonials? I am in no way suggesting whatsoever that Tim - or anyone else - uses underhanded methods - on the contrary - I want to know how credibility as perceived by the potential customer is maximised in order to increase the likelihood of gettting a sale. Thanks.

PS: Sorry if I inadvertently offended any one - Tim, you're my hero!

[Grayman]

Give the product to your friends and tell them to give you a glowing testimonial.

Unless you somehow get a testimonial from a well-known person nobody is going to know the difference.

I really don't think many testimonials are really that genuine. The creator picks and chooses the best ones so they're already biased. Testimonials are nice and seem to be a must have right now but I can't say I really use them as an indicator of quality.

[mascij]

I have to do this now for my muse. I was going to put something on the craigslist > jobs > etc section.

Buy a couple $50 gift cards to Best Buy or something and go to an online survey page that lets you create your own surveys. Put a listing on craigslist that says 'chance to win one of many $50 gift cards to Best Buy for feedback on ebook'. If someone responds to the add, send them the link to the survey and ebook, with a couple general questions 'was this ebook helpful? did you find this informative? would you recommend this to a friend? did you find this better than resources available for free online, etc etc'. At the end include a 'please your own comments in this field for and extra entry to win the gift card'.

for $200 you just got a bunch of feedback w/o much work. you can use any specific feedback as a testimonial or you can just say something like '9 out of 10 readers prefer us over the top websites in the field!'

blah blah....you get the picture