nick usborne's blog

If you use testimonials, should you worry about the new FTC guidelines?

I received an email yesterday, with following question:

"Your son's website business and abilities seem to be just about what I need, and I very well might be taking him up on his services sometime soon.

Just wondering, though, doesn't he need to be concerned about the FCC ruling I'm hearing so much about online?  And if not, why not?"

My son’s website is called MidnightDonkey and he has some testimonials from happy customers featured in the right column of his home page.

Should he be concerned about the FTC guidelines, which come into effect tomorrow, December 1st?

I don’t think so.

From what I understand so far, the FTC is not worried about testimonials of this kind.

What they will be targeting is testimonials like any of the following:

“I lost 30lbs in 30 days!”

“I made a million dollars in 30 days!”

“I beat cancer in my sleep!”

When they are being half-way honest, companies typically take the very best results their products or services have achieved, and highlight that best result in a testimonial. What the FTC guideline requires is that these companies also declare the typical result achieved. It is no longer enough just to say that “results may vary” or something like that.

This guideline, which is a good one in so far as it will hopefully cut back on some of the more outrageous and misleading claims in advertising, is currently causing many marketers some headaches.

For instance, I sell some products of my own. I can no longer use a testimonial which talks about how someone took my course and then started making a six-figure income within six months – unless I also declare what the TYPICAL results are. The trouble is, I have no way of measuring or knowing what the typical results are. I just don’t have access to those figures. All I know is what people choose to tell me.

My situation is shared by thousands of legitimate marketers, both online and offline.

Anyway, returning to the original question – I don’t think testimonials that simply praise the quality of someone’s services are going to be a concern for the FTC.

And certainly in the short-term, the FTC will be using its resources to target the big fish who are genuinely and deliberately misleading their readers.

Do websites do better than blogs in achieving high rankings in search engine results?

This is a question under discussion in a private forum I belong to.

The thrust of the thread was suggesting that you are more likely to find websites on page one of the search results, and less likely to find blogs.

I felt compelled to contribute the following (slighly edited since posting)...

I think the fact that Google search results deliver theme-based websites more often than blogs has very little to do with the platform, and everything to do with the quality and content of the website or blog.

As every webmaster knows, success depends a great deal on staying the course. The tortoise beats the hare. And as every successful webmaster will tell you, you have to get over the hump and keep adding more and more content.

To succeed, you have to be stubborn, hold the faith and keep writing and improving.

I think the reason why so many blogs fail to do well is that blogging platforms attract people who are impulsive and want a fast result. They want an inexpensive, easy to use platform that allows them to get started right now. They don’t want to do the hard work.

Blogging services attract people who want the easy button.

Those same people would likely also fail if they wrote a theme-based website.

It’s not the platform, it’s the people.

Let me give you an example.

Check out SingleServeCoffee.com. It’s a blog, built on a rather old and unsophisticated custom platform.

The subject is single serve coffee. It was started by a fellow call Jay Brewer a few years go. His site is number one for dozens of very profitable keywords. In fact, he did so well with this blog, he created a work-from-home company called Blogpire.com. He now publishes ten or more theme-based blogs, all on the same, rather clunky platform. Does it work? It works well enough for him to have several remote employees and pay their salaries.

His secret? The same as ours. He works hard and never gives up.

Another way to check out the fact that blogs are perfectly capable of dominating page one of the search results is to explore some specific topic areas. Go to Google and search for “technology gadgets” or “high tech gadgets”. The blogs win hands down. Not because they are blogs, but because they are really good blogs and better than the competing websites.

I could go on and on. (And often do.)

But I’ll just restate my main point. There is nothing about a good website that gives it an advantage over a good blog when it comes to search results. The Google algorithm doesn’t care whether it is looking at a website or a blog. It doesn’t give one platform more gold stars than the other.

The differentiating element is not the platform. It’s the people or person behind the platform.

Not Me Mondays: Dr. Ralph Wilson.

I have known Ralph for over ten years now. He was perhaps the first person to thoroughly explore the needs of small business online. It may be hard to imagine in today’s world of instant gurus and miracle marketing solutions, but back in the mid-nineties very few people were thinking about how small business could succeed online.

Ralph jumped right in there. And he has been delivering help and advice to small business online ever since. That kind of continuity is very rare...sticking with one vision and one purpose for a decade and a half.

In fact, this year is the 15th anniversary of his website, Web Marketing Today.

When you go to his site, you won’t find a fifteen-year old site. By that, I mean the information there is not in the least “old”. There is a vast amount of useful and current information there, tons of articles, Ralph’s own books and publications, and a terrific collection of videos with other industry experts.

If you want to know more about marketing your business online, and are tired of listening to young gurus with surf boards and fast cars, you’ll find that Ralph delivers the kind of solid, proven advice you really need.

Here are three of his time-proven tips. They may not be hip or leading edge, but I know from my own experience that he is hitting the nail on the head every time.

1. Get a professionally designed website. Your site needs to present the best possible face to the world. It's the 'store front' of your business today. A good website builds credibility and trust. Use a content management system so that you can change and add content to the site yourself.

2. Make sure the site content is optimized for search engines. If people can't find you then you are missing out on lots of business. Many web designers still do not offer SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Title tags are the most important factor and the content on the page has to align with your title tags.

3. Start an email newsletter or a blog that people can sign up for by email. Use this vehicle to stay in touch with people and build a relationship with them. Use an email newsletter service -- they are not expensive and make it very easy to do yourself.

Learn more at Web Marketing Today.

Some generous reviews of my book, New Path to Riches.

“In this brilliant book, Nick Usborne lays out a proven path to passive income with niche websites.  His chapter on how to make readers like you is solid gold and worth 100 times the cost of the book. You really can do this and Nick’s book is your perfect roadmap.” – Michael Stelzner

"I recommend Nick Usborne's New Path to Riches for many reasons, but - most important - I respect its realism and restraint.

For too long, the majority of books about Internet marketing have included the word "millionaire" in their title. Nick's book, however, makes no such claims.

Instead, it describes how he created a part-time, "enthusiast" site that earns him $4,000 a month in passive, or residual, income. This is a far more realistic approach that doesn't oversell prospective readers." - Roger C. Parker

"This little book is just fantastic! It has completely opened my eyes to the huge opportunity that lies in creating income-generating websites about topics I'm already passionate about.

In fact, it has enabled me to pinpoint why one of my websites has always struggled to make money. Using Nick's ideas and strategies from this book, I will soon be reworking my entire strategy and approach with that site.

If this economic downturn has taught us anything it's that depending on just one source of income (your employer) is foolish. In this book, Nick shows you how to develop a passive income stream that will help you diversify how you earn a living, giving you more freedom, choices and peace of mind." - Ed Gandia

"A lot of people talk about making money on the web, but only a relatively small number actually do it, and Nick is one of them. A lot of people publish their writings online, but only a small percentage of them actually make a profit from it, and Nick is one of them. In this book, he reveals a specific and proven model for making money on the web with your writing. It is different than the method I use and teach, and it works. Get the book, read it, learn it, do it." - Bob Bly

More about New Path to Riches...

Billions of questions are asked online every single day.

Here is the opening paragraph of an article in today’s The New York Times.

"Two companies that produce massive quantities of new content every day, Answers.com and Demand Media, are rapidly moving up the list of top U.S. web properties, as measured by comScore. Answers.com has risen from #26 to #13 in just two months, and Demand Media has risen from #24 to #15 in the same time period. Answers.com has nearly 38 million pages of content on the Web so far; Demand Media produces 2000 new pieces of content a day."

Put simply, a billion people worldwide go online in search of answers to their questions every day.

Maybe they want to know where to find a squirrel-proof bird feeder.

Or how to age a pair of new jeans.

Or where to stay on a trip to Paris.

Or how to make low-acid coffee.

Or how to find a spare part for a vintage motorcycle.

The list of questions is endless. Hence the extraordinary growth of Answers.com.

What does this have to do with you and me?

Well, it certainly is of interest to me, because my own website, CoffeeDetective.com, is based on answering questions.

Every page on the site provides answers to question people have about making coffee. Thousands of people type questions into Google and find my site as a result. I also have a dedicated Q&A page to answer specific questions people post to the site.

And you can do the same – becoming a trusted source of answers on a topic that interests you.

Can we compete with sites like Answers.com? Sure we can.

Our sites may never be as big, but we have some advantages.

1. Our sites are focused on one topic only. This means we can present ourselves as authorities in that area. At Answers.com you have no way of knowing whether you can trust the answers to your question.

2. Our sites have character and personality. Answers.com is just a vast silo of questions and answers. There is nobody there, behind the counter. There is no personality to the site. It’s big, but it isn’t personal.

The growth of Answers.com isn’t something for us to worry about. But it is a sign that more and more people are turning to the web for answers to their questions.

And that is great news for those of us who write our own money-making websites.

Our sites are poised to answer people’s questions in a human, personal and authoritative way.

To find out how to tap into this vast and growing appetite to find answers online, get a copy of my book, New Path to Riches.

7 Little Choices that Can Wreck Your Business, by Rick Butts.

I just finished reading this 28-page e-book by Rick Butts.

The sub-title of his book is: A Giant Clue for Authors, Speakers, Coaches, Consultants and  Other Idea Entrepreneurs.

I have known Rick for a few years now. Although we have never met, we have a number of things in common. We are neither of us spring chickens. We have both done the speaking circuit. We have done the consulting thing. We are both students of online marketing. We both do coaching work.

And we have something else in common too. We try to discourage people from the compulsive, impulsive purchase of the next great course that will make them a million dollars, but doesn’t.

In his book Rick leads you by the hand and guides you back into the real world of building a real and profitable solo-business online.

No more fluff. Good-bye illusions. Hello real life.

He invites you to take a deep breath, pause and avoid these 7 mistakes:

- Tying Your Business Identity to a Trend

- Creating a Phony or Silly Marketing Persona

- Failure to Accurately Identify Your Ideal Customer

- Not Writing a Book

- Trying to Make a Million Billion Dollars

- Always Chasing Opportunities

- Failure to Continually Motivate Yourself

He goes into each point in detail and delivers some very sound advice.

While many of the points he makes are eminently quotable, I particularly like a paragraph that comes towards the end of the book.

“Idea entrepreneurs rely on our own fuel. We burn our own emotional calories to create new ideas, to solve problems, and especially to persevere when everyone else has gone to bed, given up or quit. You cannot outsource the central fire that keeps your business lit.”

So true.

And you need to be sure that when you burn those calories, you are focused on a task that is absolutely in tune with a clear vision of a future that is right for the person you really are.

Rick’s book is free. Highly recommended.

Get your copy here…