Testimonials/Reviews

How to confer their authenticity...

[tolachi]

My site uses testimonails/reviews extensively and it is one of the top reasons people cite when we ask why they buy from us. And yes, they are all real. Because we only sell our own brand we are in a different category as stores such as Amazon, and our bias and honesty are much more likely to called into question.

In a prior thread it was mentioned that being tainted by other sites with fake testimonials is a concern. Therefor if you do have real testimonials how can you confer their authenticity, and diferentiate your site from what we can assume are a humongous number of fakers. And all the sceptics that this perception has generated.

Here are a few ideas I have:

• Near all reviews include a link to a form that allows a review to be submitted.

• List name and address information (city, state).

• List date.

• Include some somewhat negative or critical comments.

• Include and e-mail address (with their permission). I almost feel that it is unethical to expose someone to that much potential spam, perhaps e-mail obfusctaion [gazingus.org] would be called for.

• Amazon links the post to a user profile, if available.
  

Those are my thoughts. I hope some of the other lurkers around here have experiences/ideas in this area.

Pete

[Shak]

Tolachi,

nightmare scenario on trying to find the perfect balance.

but for others here is a link to a thread previously discussed, I am assuming the same 1 as Tolachi is referring to:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Shak