How to Get Product Testimonials
Because of the natural skepticism most people possess and the growing problem of online scams, many people are hesitant to spend their money on money making products. This is why income proof and product testimonials are very important. In this post, I’m going to cover the latter of the two.
Testimonials are VERY important to making sales of your product. Having a sales page with a list of real customer testimonials is like having a handful of diamonds! But how do you get these testimonials if you’re just starting out and haven’t made any sales yet? This is one of the biggest dilemmas of internet marketing and it can drive a person crazy. Making that ever elusive first sale may actually be easier than getting your first testimonial, since some people will try new products just to be the first to have it. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get them to sing it praises, especially if the product doesn’t live up to their expectations.
So how do you get testimonials?
Well, hopefully, this short list of suggestions will give you a starting point for getting those first product testimonials. Then as you get more of them, they will be a lot easier to get from that point on.
1. If you’re just starting out and haven’t made any sales yet and want to get testimonials right away, there’s a good way to do this. You can give away a certain number of your product to the first X amount of people who visit your site. You need to make it very clear on your sales page that the conditions of this offer are that they agree to try it and if they find it of good quality, they agree to submit a testimonial for the product.
2. Another thing you can do is contact other marketers in the niche. Ask them if they would like a free copy of your product in exchange for a testimonial, if they like the product. You don’t want testimonials that are forced or paid for. You want honest testimonials! This way, if they have some problems with your product you might get some valuable feedback that you can use to make improvements.
3. One more thing you can do is offer a number of bonuses to your customers. Put information about the bonuses on your online business website sales page so visitors know they are getting a lot of value for their purchase. This may give buyers an incentive to take you up on your offer and give you a testimonial for your product in exchange. Make sure you over deliver on the bonuses and product or this will backfire on you!
4. Still one more thing you can do is go to an internet marketing forum, or a niche specific forum on the topic of your product that has a downloads section and offer the members of that forum your product for free in exchange for a testimonial if they like it. Then in the future you can remove the free download once you start selling it and have a lot of testimonials.
These are just a few things you can do to get your first few testimonials and start selling your product. Then, as you start making more sales, you will be able to gather many more testimonials over time. Certainly, if your product is of high quality, you’re going to find plenty of people who will compliment you on it. If somebody sends you a praise about your product, ask them if you can use it as a testimonial.
There is no doubt that testimonials are critical to launching a successful product online in today’s business climate. While getting them at first might be a little tricky, the above tips will make getting your first few quite a bit easier.
Dedicated to your online business success,
Trent Brownrigg
Home Business Ideas
5 Surefire Tips for Mastering Email Marketing
If you haven’t mastered the incredible power of email marketing, then this article will be very profitable for you. Using the tips revealed in this article will drastically increase your email marketing conversion rates and overall internet profits. You can also transform visitors who would have never purchased anything from you into profitable, paying customers.
The multiple communications email marketing allows you to have with your prospects is what makes it so effective. Most people need to be exposed to your message up to 7 or more times before they trust you enough to pull out their credit card. Email marketing gives you this opportunity.
So, let’s discuss exactly what it takes to make your email marketing campaign a huge success:
1) Provide useful information in your messages. This is the top tip and it’s absolutely essential. People opt-in to your mailing list so they can get valuable information. They expect to read something useful. If you fail to give them what they want they will not be happy and they will opt-out of your list. You need to provide your list with informative, helpful emails that will make them look forward to hearing from you.
The key is to make people anticipate your messages and read them fully. The best way to achieve this is to give them something they have a desire for. In this case they may have a desire for quality information that will help them with a problem they have. Provide the info they are after and they will love you for it. This is a great position to be in to make a sale and a long term customer.
2) Personalize the subject of each email. This is also very important. Research has revealed that you will get a much higher conversion rate using personalized subject lines as opposed to non-personalized ones. People respond favorably when they see their name in the subject line of the email you send them. It makes your relationship with them seem more personal. They feel like they are corresponding with an actual person and not a machine. Build a relationship with your mailing list and gain their trust.
It’s also good to use their name in the body of your messages. This will help increase the personalized feel of your emails even further. A good autoresponder program will personalize emails for you using your reader’s first name wherever you choose. I highly recommend the Aweber autoresponder; they are very reliable and the most popular among internet marketers.
3) Make sure the email address you send your messages from is recognizable to your readers. If your readers don’t recognize the email address of where the message is coming from they are much less likely to open it and read it. This puts you at a serious disadvantage to ever get them as a customer.
4) Make the subject line as enticing as possible. The email subject line acts in the same way as the headline on a sales letter. Great headlines capture people’s attention and make them want to continue reading. One of the best ways to do that is to arouse the curiosity of your reader. This will make people want to open your message and check it out. You need to have great subject lines for all of your messages if you want to be successful at email marketing. Strive to increase the percentage of people who open your messages by creating better subject lines each time you broadcast to your list until you have it mastered. You can’t make sales off people who don’t look at the emails you send.
5) Keep your marketing message towards the end of the email. This will let your readers take in all of the valuable information you have given them before you make any attempt to market your product or service. This is important because people will feel more obligated to order from you after you have presented something they thought beneficial. Plus, if you start out with a marketing message they may not read any further because they will think you are just trying to make money off them.
Don’t include anything that sounds like a blatant sales pitch. Simply mention your product or service at the end of the email and include a link to your site. This non-aggressive approach tends to work very well. People hate being pressured into anything. For this reason, only include a brief product offer after you have given them valuable information. This tip works like magic.
There you go, five surefire tips for mastering email marketing. Put the above tactics into practice and you will be able to market your product or service much more effectively than ever before. Email is a great way to keep in contact with a list of current and potential customers, and is essential to your internet marketing success!
Do You Want Free Business Advertising?
Advertising your website is an essential step in building a successful online business. Some say the best things in life are free, so you might as well take advantage of free business advertising every chance you get. It can’t hurt!
Below you will find a list of places to advertise for free. It has been developed by the great members of the WhyDoWork.com community and was started by a fellow forum moderator and friend of mine, known as Ladybug.
I recommend you bookmark this post and/or save it to your del.icio.us favorites, then visit each site and put up an advertisement for your business on them. Be sure you are posting your advertisements in the right place on each site. Many of the sites have specific areas where advertising is allowed.
Here is the thread with the list of free advertising sites: Free Places to Advertise
Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg - “The Online Home Business Guru”
P.S. - If you are looking for an extremely effective and strong converting advertising method on a highly ranked home based business website, then check out these options: Home Business Advertising
Recurring Income – Your Ticket To Intelligent Wealth Creation
Every single human being on this planet has the potential to be wealthy. Bar none!
That’s a pretty bold statement, but it’s true. You can create your own financially independent lifestyle in a multitude of ways. Today, we’ll look at recurring income as your wealth creation vehicle.
Recurring income is money that flows into your bank account on a regular basis. Some of the common business models that take advantage of recurring income include subscriptions and membership fees.
The most common recurring online plans, pay out on a monthly basis. Some pay out on an annual or bi-annual schedule, depending on the payment plan. Many independently wealthy people have developed their empires using these business models.
Subscriptions and Membership Fees
Subscriptions and membership fees work in a similar fashion. The subscriber or member is granted access to a product or service in exchange for a regular recurring payment.
This business model guarantees the subscriber/member continued service and guarantees the provider a locked in, guaranteed income.
But there are pitfalls. If you’re thinking about creating a recurring billing product, you could be in for a wild ride. The following case study is the real life journey that I took, while creating The Business Professional Private Members’ Site.
CASE STUDY: The Business Professional Private Membership Website
President and CEO: Terry Telford
Vice President: Edwin Ryan Development Start Date: December 15, 2003 Website Launch Date : May, 1, 2004
In the research phase, I decided to keep everything in-house except for the payment processing. This gave me greater control over the entire process, but created a lot more work in the beginning.
The basic modules that needed to snap together and make the membership area run, were:
1. Membership software to create logins and passwords
2. Affiliate software to track affiliate sales and commissions
3. Autoresponder
4. Payment Processor
Discovering what software to use was a matter of trial and error, but I finally ended up choosing:
1. Membership Manager from GroundBreak
2. Ultimate Affiliate Manager to handle the affiliate and autoresponder functions
3. PayPal / 2CheckOut to process recurring payments
The next step was to have a programmer connect the dots and make all three programs play nicely together. This was the step where I realized I’d done everything backwards.
Instead of finding the software and then the programmer, I should have found the programmer and let him decide how to create the system. I was now at a fork in the road. Do I scrap the software that I already purchased and start from ground zero, or do I invest in a programmer to attempt to make all the software play together.
To make a long story short, I decided on option two and paid a programmer a small fortune to attempt the impossible. In the end, The Business Professional works 90% on autopilot and 10% on manual.
It was a long and costly process, but a fantastic learning experience. And the adventure was far from over.
Now I had a cool Private Membership site, with a $5,762 price tag. Next, I had to fill it with content. It took another two months to top up the content and get things rolling.
Fast forward to today.
CHALLENGE:
Both Edwin and I are spending 80% of our time marketing The Business Professional and don’t have enough time to build solid content into the member’s area.
SOLUTION:
Outsource the marketing to a handful of skilled entrepreneurs, so we can focus on upgrading the member’s area.
The marketers collect and keep 100% of the membership fees, and we get a continual stream of new members who order our products and services. This cooperative business model builds a stronger, more profitable business for everyone.
SUMMARY:
Generating a monthly recurring income by building a membership website is a great concept. In practical terms, it’s a costly way to learn the ropes.
My recommendation to anyone who is considering a recurring monthly income is, start out promoting an existing product or service. You’ll save a lot of time and energy and can start generating a profit, your first month in business.
Without expenses, it’s all profit 
About the author:
Terry Telford is a business developer with experience on and offline. Telford‘s training system for helping other entrepreneurs build and develop their own businesses can be found at www.MonstersOfCash.com