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We all have either seen or even used Reviews, Testimonials or Endorsements on other peoples or our own sites. They are an important part of todays marketing world.

But how can can we become an expert in giving and using them?

Lets first take a close look at how they are different from each other.

1. Differences between Reviews, Testimonials and Endorsements

The main differences are the size, the use and the reliability of those three.

Reviews are usually article size and have 500 or more words in several paragraphs. In it you will be able to read about the pros and cons of a product or service. If you really want to know all about a product or service before you decide to buy, I would recommend to read one or more reviews about it.

Testimonials are much shorter than reviews, commonly just one or two paragraphs that reflect the opinion of one user of a product or service. You will never find a testimonial from a completely dissatisfied customer, so they tend to show only the pros. I personally dont thrust them if they dont show the complete
name plus an email address or URL that allows you to contact the person that gave the testimonial.

Endorsements are article size and show most of the time only the pros of a product or service. They are mostly used in solo ad style emails and are far less reliable for the customers education than reviews are.

Next lets take a closer look at what steps should be used to create an excellent review, endorsement or testimonial.

2. How to build an excellent review

To write an excellent review, it is important that you really study the product or service from the inside out. Make notes of all the pros and cons that you find.

Then describe each of them and dont forget to explain why you believe it is one way or another. Write in a style that shows your own experience with the product or service.

Since reviews are usually presented on a web page, take screen shoots that show the points that you handle in the review whenever possible.

An excellent written review will help you to pre-sell a product easily. Dont leave any con out, but make sure you give tips on how to overcome them.

3. How to create a great endorsement

The main purpose of an endorsement is of course to sell the product or service, so it will contain mostly pros of the product or service.

But to make it perfect, mention also at least one con and give tips on how this con can be neutralized or even be turned into a pro.

If you make the endorsement look like a review, it will pre-sell even better than if it looks like an endorsement.

4. How make an outstanding testimonial

An outstanding testimonial should describe the most important benefit you gained by using a product or service.

It should also show real numbers whenever possible to make them even better. But make sure you have those numbers and comments backed up and dont make them up just to gain some free publicity... this could on the long run back fire on your own creditability.

Allow the person that you give your testimonial to use your full name and URL or email address. Also, if you can, provide a professional looking picture of yourself and an audio recording of your testimonial.

The audio recording service I personally use to provide audio testimonials is: http://audiogenerator.add2it.com/

5. Essential points that testimonials, reviews and endorsements should always have in them

If you are writing either one, you have to always write your own opinion and dont exaggerate. Doing so will on the long run damage your creditability and cause more trouble for you than its worth it.

6. Examples of testimonials I have personally written

These are some of the testimonials I gave...

a) jvAlert: http://www.jvalert.com/invite.aspx?id=87

A long time I have searched for a smarter and not harder way to do JVs... now I finally found it!

jvAlert.com is a great service for every online marketer. It allows you to get JV deals in an instant, without all the hard work! Simple and fast you can not only get your JV offer in front of many top marketers on the Internet, but also be one of the first people that gets to know about the JV offers of these top marketers.

I love jvAlert.com, it is simply incredible!

Frank Bauer
Owner of http://add2it.com/
Scripts & Services for Webmasters

b) Dont-Touch-My-Ads: http://www.myviralwebsite.com/redir.php/add2it-9/

After testing Dont-Touch-My-Ads thoroughly I can now say with confidence that I have found a way to get free advertising that really works! During the last weeks my ad with them has been shown 2,474 times with zero cost for me. :) And all I did was to send out one little email to my More4you Newsletter subscribers, use their software and add one line of HTML code to my link exchange page. If you are not yet using Dont-Touch-My-Ads, I highly recommend that you check it out now.

Frank Bauer
Scripts & Services for Your Web Business
http://add2it.com/

c) MyViralAds: http://myviralads.com/homepage.php

I want to let you know that this is so smart!

I just tested it myself during the last couple of weeks and advertised with small Google style ads as well as banner ads on the same site...

The result was really clear: A 63% higher click-thru rate with the Google style ads!

Mikes Dont-Touch-My-Ads concept was already great and brought me tons of exposure with zero cost, but this program will surely top that result!

Fantastic!

Frank Bauer
Scripts & Services for Your Web Business
http://add2it.com/

Whatever you write... after you finished it, wait for a couple of hours and read it over. Then fine tune it.

Would that what you wrote motivate yourself to take the action that you want your reader to take? Be honest with yourself... and re-write if necessary.

A lot of what I learned about marketing, I learned from online or telephone conferences as well as recordings of those.

One of my favorite resources is the jvAlert Perpetual Learning Series. You find it at: http://www.jvalert.com/LearningSeries.aspx?id=87