 |
Clarifications On “The Road Ahead” | ||
|
| ||
|
I’ve received a TON of great feedback since releasing my free report, “Internet Marketing 2010: The Road Ahead.” (Thanks, everyone!) But I want to clarify a few things… 1. My statement about “remove all testimonials.” I was referring to RESULTS-BASED TESTIMONIALS. That’s what the new FTC guidelines affect and the context of when I stated that. Someone posted on a marketing forum that I was ‘crazy’ for giving such advice. That as long as testimonials weren’t full of hype and outlandish claims that they are okay to use. WRONG. According to the latest guidelines (and again, I’m not an attorney and this isn’t legal advice) marketers cannot use testimonials that contain results from a product that the AVERAGE buyer of the product doesn’t achieve. In other words, even a ‘tame’ testimonial that just says, “I really liked your book. I made my first $50 a few days after buying it.” According to the FTC guidelines, if the average buyer of the book doesn’t make $50 a few days after buying it, such a testimonial is considered MISLEADING and it’s against their new guidelines. Yes, that’s how LAME these new guidelines are. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone stating how much they liked the product and what they got out of it, etc. but ones that state actual RESULTS (big or small) are the ones now under scrutiny by the FTC. Will the FTC come after you if you use a testimonial that states someone made $50 a few days after buying your book? Probably not. But according to their latest guidelines it sure seems like THEY CAN. 2. My statement that “Social Media sucks.” Anyone that read all of my comments in the report about Social Media knows that I recommend everyone use it. It’s great for building backlinks, syndicating content, and building relationships — and, yes, finding new customers. I think social bookmarking and doing trackbacks (with great content) is a must. Most of my ’sucks’ comments were aimed at Twitter and Facebook. The sites most people think of when thinking of Social Media. These are the sites that I feel many people are wasting far too much time on. YES, you should definitely use them. No doubt about it. But when compared to other Internet Marketing strategies (PPC, building a list, creating products, making offers, working on copy & conversion, SEO, creating & distributing content) it doesn’t produce as much money. Therefore, I believe one shouldn’t spend as much time using those sites. This is exactly why I mention people should use these sites for a max of one hour per day. Twitter and Facebook have become the new AOL Chatroom. Even if you feel you’re using them “in the name of your business” it’s too easy to waste hours of time chatting and socializing with people on them. If you don’t actively limit the amount of time you use them, they WILL hold your business back.
|
|
« Internet Marketing 2010: The Road Ahead | Income.com Asia Comes To Life » |
October 13th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I thought your report was great. Thanks for putting out the good content…keep it coming.
todd
October 14th, 2009 at 12:26 am
An hour? How about Twitter in 10 minutes a day?
http://bit.ly/twitten
Dr.Mani
October 14th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Great report!
Two question?
1) I subscribed to Money Mindset, you said you are going to refund, when?
2) I subscribed to opportunity.com , still a good product? I should keep my subscription?
Best, Roman
October 14th, 2009 at 3:40 am
couldn’t download the report,
John from what I have read, people can put testimonials about their product,
they also just have to mention what typical results are.
How could the FTC go after that online when tv, radio, mail order, magazines
all use testimonials. What about all the hyped headlines [lose 10 pounds in 7 days],
that is more misleading than a testimonial from a satisfied customer who took action.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Dude,
The report was amazing, Thank you so much for writing it.
I know this is a bit forward to ask but I was wondering if we could have a Skype chat sometime in the near future?
Thanks,
Adil
October 14th, 2009 at 8:34 am
ROMAN - you should have received an email from Mercy about the refund. If you haven’t received it please email her at mercy@income.com.
JER - please try again. You should be able to download the report now.
ADIL - I don’t have any free time for a Skype chat at the moment. I’m working against a deadline to complete the Money Mindset course. Thanks for asking, though.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Hey John,
You didn’t answer Roman’s second question..I have the same question.
Thanks…and all the best!
October 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
John, what are you talking about?!?!
It doesnt say in the FTC guidelines that you cant use results based testimonials.
It says and I quote
“An advertisement employing an endorsement reflecting the experience of an individual or a group of consumers on a central or key attribute of the product or service will be interpreted as representing that the endorser’s experience is representative of what consumers will generally achieve with the advertised product in actual, albeit variable, conditions of use.
Therefore, unless the advertiser possesses and relies upon adequate substantiation for this representation, the advertisement should either clearly and conspicuously disclose what the generally expected performance would be in the depicted circumstances or clearly and conspicuously disclose the limited applicability of the endorser’s experience to what consumers may generally expect to achieve. ”
It says unless your testimonials are reflective of the consumers average experience with substantiation to back that up, you have to disclose that it is not the average experience of the consumer and tell them what IS the average experience.
And to further clarify
“Guide 2, Example 1: An advertisement presents the endorsement of an owner of one of the advertiser’s television sets.
The consumer states that she has needed to take the set to the shop for repairs only one time during her 2-year period of ownership and the costs of servicing the set to date have been under $10.00. Unless the advertiser possesses and relied upon adequate substantiation for the implied claim that such performance reflects that which a significant proportion of consumers would be likely to experience, the advertiser should include a disclosure that either states clearly and conspicuously what the generally expectable performance would be or clearly and conspicuously informs consumers that the performance experienced by the endorser is not what they should expect to experience. The mere disclosure that “not all consumers will get this result” is insufficient because it can imply that while all consumers cannot expect the advertised results, a substantial number can expect them.”
This is not legal advice. Im not a lawyer.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Limiting time spent on social media sites is a must. I can log on thinking it will be for fifteen minutes, and then I easily spend two hours.
October 14th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
John - I admire you for telling your audience where you stand on these difficult issues.
It will indeed be a different 2010 and beyond.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
ROMAN/WHATNOW? - sorry I forgot to answer that. Obviously, I’m biased and think it’s a great product and service. We have almost 10,000 affiliate programs in the directory. That itself makes it a valuable resource alone.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Hi John!
Loved the report. My only question….
New FTC rules… If you are using yahoo pay per click to promote an affiliate link to another persons sales site ( so you don’t even have your own site ) how or where could you possible state that you may make some money if they buy something?
Thanks for your open honest lessons!
Jody
October 14th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
P.S. Thanks for being so “real”! Your a non-hype so very trustworthy guy!
October 14th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
John, thanks for the report. It had more information in it than I’ve gotten from
$2000 a month coaching programs.
Craig
October 14th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
http://www.box.net/shared/static/y576k2d1q7.pdf
still does not come up, must be my location in asia,
happens sometimes
October 14th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Philip - I don’t think John or anyone who recommends not using results-based testimonials says that you CAN’T. I think the point is the FTC is effectively making testimonials that report exceptional results ineffective, so there is likely no point in using them.
Here’s a few problems:
- You have a customer who lost 15 pounds in the first week, so you post their testimonial and have to follow it up with, “Jane’s results are not typical. The average user loses about 0.3 pounds the first week of using the program”. Ummm…the testimonial becomes ineffective, possibly damaging.
- For a company to figure out the “average results” is quite difficult and for many smaller businesses, nearly impossible. How do you measure this? How do you take into account that some don’t even use the products they buy? And of those who use it, how do you have them measure and report their results.
So, instead of shooting oneself in the foot many, including John, are suggesting leaving these types of testimonials out. Makes sense to me. Some people may still want to include them, but they need to tackle those hurdles listed above.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
John,
Thanks again - from someone who has invested well over 7 figures on programming teams…and pre announcing - we read your report yesterday and finally made the decision to build our own in house team.
I appreciate you sharing the truth - and being transparent…
Any more advice on hiring local programmers?
My challenge - is I am not a programmer - so not sure best way to hire and know that I or our COO are not being BS’d when we interview for this position?
any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks.
Jeff
October 15th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Awesome report! I totally agree with you on the social media thing. Twitter & Facebook for me was once nice, new & shiny and now it’s…well…now it’s old and so blah. Plus you don’t tweet anymore so LOL not the same in tweetland anymore without Johnny… Right guys?
Godspeed
October 16th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Hey John,
For social bookmarking, I do agree with you. No need to spend all day there. I didn’t even get started with facebook yet.
I’m twitting and I didn’t see any change in my income. It’s just a way to communicate with people.
As for testimonials, yesterday I was reading Michel Fortin’s blog and he made a good suggestion and said that we should think about changing them to testimonials.
Awesome stuff.
Again, thanks for the report.
Franck
October 16th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
[…] He recently released a pdf entitled, “Internet Marketing 2010: The Road Ahead.” Go to John’s site to get a copy and read his blog. Can you find a better domain name for an Internet Marketer than […]
October 17th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I wonder how ones own testing or pointing to others testing falls under the testimonial umbrella. When is a fact (gaslone allows cars to move) separate from the context it runs in (your mileage might vary) e.g. I’m referencing Perry Belchers work on how good the Belcher Button is, but I haven’t done such tests myself. I just built a better version of it.
Great point about the value of twitter. I wish they would put Surgeon Generals messages saying social media sites and video games are addictive substances hazardous to ones productivity.
One of the reasons I’m so productive in my business is segmenting hard personal from work (including different companies from each other) email. Quaranteening ALL internet marketing email into a separate folder (NEVER let it hit your inbox) and only checking that once a week.
Good for the pocket book too.
JEFF—
Hey Jeff, I do outsourcing all the time. Key to not being BS’d is just like dating. Never let them get to first base until they know how to bat, give them toy problems to solve. Keep trolling looking for better fits.
If you don’t speak tech you need to have a tech liason (safety buddy), even the strongest engineers will sense they have the advantage and use it against you.
Troy
October 17th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Where are the moneymindset refunds? I and others have asked for FULL refunds as promised!
If I don’t get it in 24 hours, I will be disputing it with PP - keeping on to the money is FRAUD!
October 18th, 2009 at 4:46 am
[…] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,560501,00.html Frank Kern and comments clarifying John Reese and his take […]
October 18th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
JAY - it should have been processed for you if you replied to Mercy and told her you wanted a refund. Email me your full name and I’ll make sure it’s taken care of personally -> john (at) income.com.
October 18th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
John,
Question, I would be very curious to know if you (or anybody you know) have started split testing webpages with no performance based testimonials vs pages that have them? Also would like to know if you or anyone you know have tested performance based testimonials with a disclaimer (i.e. John made $50,000 using Traffic Secrets. John’s results are not typical, the average person using Traffic Secrets made $500)
Roosevelt
October 18th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
ROOSEVELT - none that I know of yet. I’m sure many will be testing these things very soon.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:46 am
I found a great dating site http://www.Richkissing.com The best dating club for seeking the rich singles, sexy beauties and even hot celebs.. what’s the most important is that you dont have to be a millionaire.but you can meet one. I think everyone need to meet some miracle after all the terrible stuff in the news and the economy.You should check it out!!!
October 19th, 2009 at 8:54 am
[EDITED by John. See my response below.]
Hi John,
I was actually EXCITED to see you be PASSIONATE about something again (cars). I thought you were on the RIGHT TRACK (no pun intended). Yet, you’ve quit because you failed a couple of times and lost a bit of money? Come on John! TEST, TEST TEST! I’m shocked you didn’t keep going… you were in a NEW GAME THAT YOU LOVED. Why quit at something that is your TRUE PASSION TODAY? And you’re creating a new product called “Money Mindset”? Hopefully creating the course will help you rediscover your own money mindset.
No matter what you do! I still think you’re a good man with great intentions and I’ll be rooting for you!
Jeff
October 19th, 2009 at 11:45 am
JEFF - first of all, THANK YOU. I really appreciate the kind words and thoughts and you taking the time to post all of that. It’s obvious that you care and aren’t just posting a bunch of criticism. I modified your post because a lot of what you said is some very personal stuff and I’d prefer to leave it off the blog. If you wish to talk about it with me you can email me at john (at) income.com. Thanks again, Jeff, really appreciate it!
October 20th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hi John,
I’ve just downloaded your free report. Thanks for providing it. I’ll read it shortly.
Your clarification of your 2 points in this post makes a complete sense to me.
When I first read about the new FTC rules and some of the views about it, it seemed very scary.
I’m certainly no fan of government agents policing everything. But if things are going to shape up the way you think they will then it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Even though there is no way of providing average results since most people don’t take action with what they buy (that sadly sometimes includes me), not giving any results numbers may actually be better.
Testimonials saying the product was helpful and I’m happy I bought it may be even more useful.
I never really believed the big $$$ numbers anyway, meaning that achieving them for most people always seemed too far fetched.
As for twitter and facebook I tend to think that you are right about them. They are useful but overrated.
Vance
October 21st, 2009 at 4:18 am
[…] John Reese’s thoughts on what this means for internet marketers. […]
October 21st, 2009 at 8:28 am
A few things I’ve gathered about the testimonial guidelines (I’m not a lawyer, blah, blah, blah):
1) If you mention specific results, the FTC’s testing showed that many people are going to think they’re supposed to be typical no matter how loudly you scream “these aren’t typical results” — unless you state what is typical, you’re on shaky ground.
2) If you include details about how the consumer used the product, and their results are typical for someone who uses the product that way (and you have sufficient evidence to prove it), you should be covered. But to be safe, you might still want to include a disclaimer about how people who don’t use the product that way aren’t likely to see the same results.
3) Although the FTC will have the burden of proof to show that the testimonial mislead people, winning your case (if you do) will be small consolation when you still have to pay your lawyer and make up for the time you lost while dealing with the case.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:14 am
[…] SEO, PPC, list building, content creation). I’m not alone in these sentiments, check out John Reese’s comments on this in his recent report, and my friend Eric Holmlund’s awesome The State of Twitter report (extensive). […]
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
How about a testimonial saying “I bought your book actually OPENED it and USED the material and made $50 the first day.” I think that’s a realistic expectation for anyone who buys it.
October 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
hi I agree with your second opinion because I see Twitter and Facebook has turned into a chat room and of course for the marketer is a waste of time, and I seem to see that those who join in the Twitter and Facebook are people who just want to find a relation only … so my opinion if there is wrong and ask the spirit of blogging
October 27th, 2009 at 9:32 am
I couldn’t agree more John,
I find myself wasting hours and hours a day on Facebook and/or YouTube. Less than one hour a day would suffice. Coupled with rubbish conversion rates (if any) means that I will be spending 15 mins just talking to friends. Also I will try and understand Google Adwords much much more!
Nice ebook
Ryan
October 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Hello,
I just came across your blog and enjoyed it very much. I’m a banquet manager & hope you will enjoy mine. Please visit and let me know what you think.
So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager
October 31st, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Hey John,
Newbie internet marketer here..I joined your opportunity.com site about a month ago and following your recommendation, I signed up for the AffiliateTheme package.
Well…what a complete waste of money! Working with AT was a complete nightmare. Tons of technical issues, and even forced me to sit up one whole night learning HTML CC codes!! Quite a far cry from saving me time, money and having to touch one line of code..as advertised by them. And the best part, when I ask for a refund, as I have been for the past 2 weeks, I am ignored!
Affiliate theme is a scam, in my opinion and I would advise you to look into what their customers are saying. I am not the only one who is frustrated with their themes. Save your reputation buddy, and don’t recommend them to your customers!!!
I have opened up an investigation against Unique Blog Design with PayPal and the online BBB.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Those FTC rules are absolute rubbish, you can’t police something like that like you can’t police people downloading music. I’m glad I live in the UK and have more protection against these made up rules.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Great post. I was slightly confused about the FTC changes, but things are much more clear for me after reading your post. Thanks.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:00 am
so if your testimonials are praising you personally or just saying your book is well illustrated & well written - this is cool
November 11th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Great post clarifying your take on the new FTC guidelines on testimonials.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Great content! My mission is to find honest Internet Marketers. I just saw the video with Frank Kern and Tony Robbins. Good stuff.
January 5th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I agree. Focus on the fundamentals. Twitter and Facebook are additional tools etc.
I am currently doing the first part of your new programme, which is the 3 part exercise to reboot ones brain! Over the last few years i have ended up gathering so much information and just getting overloaded with it, trying to sift out the best stuff from it all. It’s very easy to end up doing nothing at all because of it! One has to be ruthless, keep it simple and and take action. You John are one of the top guys and i’m glad i was lucky enough to discover you. Thanks…