Forum Moderators: skibum
One of my sites is a service site and the testimonials have really helped conversion rates. They seem to build confidence.
Fake ones are unethical IMO.
wellzy
And real customer who give testimonials won't leave their contact around anyway, so how does a surfer know if it is real or fake?
As a surfer, I normally ignore testimonials as I can't tell if they are real or fake. There just too much BS aroound ;)
One time I wrote a fake testimony about a weight loss program. It was about how this woman was sad and lonely until she found .... The woman lived in about a hundred optimized cities. Couldn't get the pages to rank well. But if they did, the site would have been a money maker. I wasn't very proud of my day's work, but it's not unethical.
I wasn't very proud of my day's work, but it's not unethical.
... sorry can't agree with you on the unethical part.
Fake testimonials are as unethical as fake hits. Can you imagine being hit a zillion times with fake hits?
Fake testimonials are misleading and is a form of false advertising.
I'm not sure if it applies to the net but it should.
From the ethics point of view:
If your product is crap, (be realistic, we know when some products are just plain crap) then it is unethical because you are selling a product based on something that is effectivly not true.
If your product is actually useful (and again be realistic), then writing your own testimonial that says the product is good because you are not deceiving the customer.
From the business point of view:
At the end of the day, your in business to make money. If you can increase sales by writing a testimonial and get away with it - without damaging your reputation - and without providing a false representation of the product - then do it.
Who cares?! Testimonials are selective anyway, it's not like anyone publishes the bad ones - so they don't give a full picture anyway.
If it's a purely moral dilemma, do it, give some money to charity and I'm sure your karma will be back in line!
If your product is deserving of a positive review, then get one from an independent source. (Getting your mother to write one for you is also unethical).
If it's not, then don't put one up.
Of course, at the end of the day it's up to your personal conscience, and with the collapse of society I doubt it's the worse thing that would happen today - but you're still lying through your teeth when you write a personal testimonial.
It'a a review. Evaluate the product as objectively as you can, using whatever expert knowledge you can bring to bear. Make sure it's clear that you wrote it. State your affiliate relationship clearly in your site policies.
And to enhance your credibility, don't just write glowing reviews. Write some mixed ones, write a few that really pan a particular product (those can be really fun to write!). That shouldn't be hard to do.
To use the usual widgets metaphor, anyone with a site about widgets knows who makes good widgets and who makes inferior widgets. And who makes the premium widgets for which it's worthwhile to pay extra. Pass on that knowledge!
