This is something I've been wondering about for a while now, as I have done one or two jobs that would be difficult to actually show in my portfolio, so a testimonial would at least show that I have done these things.

 

The thing is, a point my husband brought up and one I had been considering, is that how does anyone know you haven't just made up the testimonial? Do people actually trust them? I personally do, in most cases; I am however very gullible and overly trusting in general.

you should attribute your testimonials. If I was serious about hiring somebody I would likely contact the authors of the testimonials. If it's development work I am going to want to see the work undertaken

 

Harry Roberts runs testimonials on his website http://csswizardry.com/ along with case studies of some of the work he has carried out, but he is a consultant and no longer builds projects.

 

The agency I contract to also run testimonials - that also state metrics like how much conversion was increased by and so forth. If at all possible you should link to the work you have done.

Edited February 23, 201610 yr by rbrtsmith

Ah yes, the false testimonial.

 

Also known as a testismonial, (plural: testesmonial)

 

I've often wondered if it might be feasible to set up a business called 'testimonials-r-us.com' and for a small fee people would sit on their arses all day fielding enquiries as to the veracity of the testimonial they placed. Continued support as to the veracity of the testismonial would be dependent on the client maintaining their monthly subscription.

 

It would mean changing my name by deed poll to Ivor Goodpear but the money might be worth it.

Good question; I personally never trust what is written on a website, it's just a paragraph at the end of the day. I believe they still dupe the older generation but that's only going to work for another 2 - 5 years max until that generation is retired.

 

I do however trust Google+ reviews, facebook reviews as they are more time-consuming to fake, fb ones are most likely to be genuine though oddly enough I prefer Google+ reviews. Probably due to Google being the main player in search engines and therefore most likely displayed as results and improved ranking.

Like I put if they are properly attributed then they can generally be trusted, because then they know people might go and contact the author of the testimonial.

Okay, thanks for the replies. There aren't really any metrics I can mention, as the jobs I'm talking about were just writing code people wanted who couldn't do it themselves for whatever reason. I will attribute them, though.

 

Social media is a good idea, although I haven't done very well with that yet (actually, my Facebook and Twitter pages are purely used for following people/sending messages, can't think of anything to post ), so it probably wouldn't be the best option for me.

People love testimonials, as long as they're relevant, properly attributed and honest.

 

It's called social proof, and it's one of the oldest techniques in the book. By showing that you can do a job and you have done a job, you remove the element of risk.

 

I have three types of testimonial on my site.

 

1) Footer testimonials - genuine feedback from clients, with full names and business names, so that anyone checking up on my work can get in touch.

2) Case studies - explanations of what I did, why, and for who, all with client feedback attached

3) Review site links - links to trustworthy external review sites where anyone who's of Precise Formwork's mindset can get a little added reassurance!

Testimonials are client reviews about the service and product they hire / purchased and their experience about the product /service provider. If we take example of eCommerce web site products are reviewed by their users and new users are buying by reading and understanding the product quality and much more.

I don't think the OP was asking for a description of what a testimonial is ^^

"Properly attributed" what exactly is meant by this?

 

I think the only reveiws worth any salt are facebook reviews, even they are vulnerable to abuse as it takes mere minutes to create a profile. I've heard about competitors creating fake profiles to slander their competition and self-promotors artificially increasing their ranking so I don't pay too much attention to them, however I must say out of instinct I do not pay too much attention to firms with several negative ratings.

"Properly attributed" what exactly is meant by this?

 

I think the only reveiws worth any salt are facebook reviews, even they are vulnerable to abuse as it takes mere minutes to create a profile. I've heard about competitors creating fake profiles to slander their competition and self-promotors artificially increasing their ranking so I don't pay too much attention to them, however I must say out of instinct I do not pay too much attention to firms with several negative ratings.

 

Properly attributed means it clearly states the name of the person who wrote the testimonial and if necessary a way to contact them.

Look at testimonials here: http://csswizardry.com/ which are properly attributed and I can bet my bottom dollar, they can be trusted.

 

I would trust these over Facebook reviews as I know those who wrote them know what they are talking about and are big names in the industry.

Edited February 29, 201610 yr by rbrtsmith

I think I would prefer to see authentic-sounding testimonials (it helps if the client speaks about a specific problem fixed, improvement, or solution delivered by the company), rather than (as the example above) "Jim is a cool web developer". I usually look at customer reviews before signing up to a web hosting provider, or before using web-based software.

 

Having examples of the work would help. And let's say, for whatever reason, the client stops using the product I made for them, I would go and remove that link/example from my portfolio.