For instance you state that testimonials are now useless without verifiable facts and figure after you talk about some of the big marketers giving away products for free purporting that it is due to the testimonial issue.

On the giveaways – no one can really say why they’ve done it but they gained very little since they made no money from it.

But on testimonials – why are they useless and why would A list marketers run from them

If you read the guidelines you’ll quickly realise that it is quite easy to continue using testimonials that are entirely compliant while still using inflated figures.

But lets be honest, inflated figures appear in all forms of marketing in every type of media.

The problem with these guidelines are:
1. The US supreme court ruled long ago that freedom of speech in advertising holds the same rights as for a private individual, making the guidelines unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable. But we’ll need to wait for a test case.
2. Mainstream media – TV, Radio, Film etc, is not bound by these same restrictions. ‘Bloggers’ have been singled out making it somewhat discriminatory.
3.As long as testimonials either don’t use specific figures, group respondents together, or can be verified they can still be used just as they were previously.

Some real world examples:

In the examples given in the FTC guideline the testimonal “I lost 50Lb with WeightAway” proceeded by a “Most women lost 15Lb in 3 months with WeightAway” statement is perfectly legit.

By the same token therefore, if I want to release a new product, I give it away to 10 top marketers, they all succeed wit the system a verifiable copy (with disclaimer included) could read something like “We gave the product to the top 10 internet marketers in the world, who each used the product everyday for 30 days and each of them made $XXX or more” then include the individual testimonials.

This is perfectly legit and is stated as such right there in the guidelines.

But thinking that this is a win for IM and for blogging by “giving it it’s rightful place”, is I think, way off base.

It singles out online marketers and bloggers yet makes no amendment to the activities of traditional marketers who are no less cunning or unethical, as well as impedes the rights of businesses and individuals simply because they made thier comments on a blog rather than a radio, a TV program, an infomercial, or even a regular static website. That’s right! Read the guidelines closely and you’ll see that only bloggers are required to provide such extreme disclosure.

How can you honestly call this a win?
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1. build trust with your readers by
a) being an authority in your niche
b) being trustworthy in everthing
2. Give your readers an email list to keep up to date with you.
3. Provide opportunities for readers to purchase items to your benefit.

Anyway, that’s my take on it
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Mike Filsaime gave away his $10k course – you only pay for shipping

The truth is that most earnings are inflated. Mostly, the guys who testify
without figures to prove it are the major culprits who play on the emotions of those who want their
hopes met. i think the weight loss guys will still be using testimonies.

@Davor
Times have really changed. Sometimes, it is so scary.

@Self Improvement
You are welcome

@Eric
Thanks for the comment
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I have to disagree with you on that one.
Sure, some, maybe many testimonials were fake, but let’s look at the cases where the testimonials were real: Why put up testimonials (obviously the most glowing ones you can get)?

Because people, by and large, don’t want to buy a product, they want their hopes and dreams confirmed. They dream of being rich, thin and attractive and don’t want to do any work for it.

The best converting sales-pages are those that confirm those dreams and essentially say: “Yes, this thing you have been dreaming of for so long is possible!”

Is this a good thing to do? Is it ethical? Is it something I personally do and condone? No, no and no.

But smart marketers will keep finding ways to essentially sell hope to their customers. I don’t think the new regulations do anything for reducing deception and falsehood in online marketing.

But we’ll see how things develop.

Otherwise, I think the two posts on the FTC regulations are very well put together and this is a great source of information!

Cheers,
Shane
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The times of even greater changes are, however, yet to come, I have a feeling that a lot of other things, online and offline, will change (hopefully to better) in next few years.
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I think anything worth doing is worth doing right and if you’re trying to scam someone you should be caught anyway. If you’re supposed to prove the product is real, that’s definitely not a bad thing.

Great article, Nick!
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