I thought this would be fun.  A year ago I wrote a forum post about the things that annoyed me most from the consumer's point of view about those testimonial letter websites.  It was a chance to give a fresh look from a non-marketer about some practices, food for thought.before I took the training. It got two pages worth of responses, one guy was going to use it in his training course as an eye-opener.

So ONE YEAR later, I am reprinting it here, and  will comment on what I think NOW  if my opinions have  changed, my outlook adjusted etc.

1. THE OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS IN HEADLINES. You can grab attention, entice with a bit of realism and without the extreme.

Nothing changed here.  I still believe that it makes the rest of us look bad when claims of thousands of dollars a day or millions of dollars a month are made.  Even when the tactic I have read about  where the disclaimer is the first thing on the sub-headline or article. It,  is tacky, and for me,

NOW that I know the business, I absolutely would never click on it-  I know who wrote it knows better, and CHOSE that route.

2. MANY READ LIKE AN INFOMERCIAL WRITTEN DOWN- We are reading, not watching, don't need all that repetition.

Again, nothing changed.  These things get too long. 

I do understand the power of a P.S.   I have no problem with that.  And I understand the power of Call to Action links every few paragraphs, I have no problem with that.    But after I have read three to four pages I honestly do not want to read it all again. 

Bullet points are effective for me,

AND if I learned my lessons correctly and opt-in form with a free gift and follow up emails will be more effective.

3. SOB STORIES- one paragraph about the struggle to get where you are today is enough, the rest is (gag) blather.

NOW that I know the business, I KNOW those sob stories are a bunch of gunk and over hyped blather.  Most people are affiliates trying to get people to the vendor site.

You can talk about the problem in detail including the pain and frustration, and present a solution to a problem without the sappy gag.

4. INCOME SCREEN SHOTS that are not current. 2006 or 2007 income info is useless in 2009.  or 2010. They need to be current since the economy has changed so much..

5. JUSTIFYING PRICE -No author gets paid based on the "painful years" they researched or how long it took to write. 

no change here either. 

6. JUSTIFYING PRICE - giving a fake price(or two or three) first, then making us think the real price is a "deal"--

Now that I know the business, i see the fine line here.  You want to make it look like there is a deal, to make a sale, people respond to that, and giving deadlines , or count downs  will spur a sale.  I get that too.  But if I thought this then, and KNOW it now, won't most people see through this? To me, one price with a slash and then the real price should be enough. but may-be the average consumer is not as skeptical as i am by nature.

7. E-BOOKS PRICE too high. Print book authors get paid penauts, eBook mostly profit. Price should be same as print book.

I realize that was a little naive, but the general idea is still something I feel.  If I can buy a book on a cure to whatever for $25 at Amazon, why should I pay $47 for a digital book?That author will be lucky to get a few dollars per sale, where a digital  author will end up with about a third to a half.

Also someone must have said this is effective but  I absolutely HATE it when the vendor website does not include the price, you have to go to the clickbank page to find it.

8. TESTIMONIALS-a puzzle--you need them, often come across as fake or are just other marketers-?? never know about them

I think the new FCC rules took care of some of this.  A few good ones are something Google likes to see, so I know you need them. I understand Beta testing now and this is where many of these come from.  I myself never read them .

9. TOO MANY BONUSES-- make you think you are paying for the BONUS and question the value of the orginal poduct.

NOW?  What I have discovered  from the things I bought over this past year iis some of these bonuses are outdated OR end up being an upsale promotion for something else .  Others have helpful, useful information.

The problem with too many, is  not the value of the original product, for me NOW it is time it takes to read through the bonuses . 

I like the audio video ones best where a bonus will show you how to do something,

I have trouble reading some of the stuff i download that is not a text file.  There should be better instructions for how to upload it!  It is really easier to go to a server and watch the videos than download!

10. OVERKILL in general. Most are WAY TOO LONG, you can condense and simplify and still use effective IM tools.

I do no understand why some of these are still so long. Pot Pie Girl says 250 words is the attention span of most people these days and for ezine we have to do 400 .  People want there information quickly.

HOWEVER i will agree that when I am really interested in something and on the verge of buying, I will read every word, several times.   So...  again from above, I also do not want to read all that blather and sob stories.

So that was THEN and NOW.

What I can ADD July 2010

1. From what I have read, testimonial pages are not being promoted as being effective.  Review pages and relevant content that talk about the problem/solution angle seem to be the trend today.
2. After reading what Carson and Kyle had to go through on here justifying the WAprice, may-be there needs to be some of that, people wanted to know the whys of that.
3. It seems there are two strategies being pushed today.
1.  opt-in page, free report or gift,  and follow up emails are what is being suggested as the most effective strategy, as opposed to long single webpages.
2. Wordpress or other pages with one site lots of shorter pages KW specific, and regular blog posts, again not too long,--This is what seems to be the trend.

So that is THAT

One Year later---- I feel I am on the verge of a break through  I hope so!

Sue