I know I've alluded to this before, but it's worth repeating:

The retail store cash register is no place to "sell" magazine subscriptions, extended warranties, add-ons, buyers club memberships, or anything else. The cashier should have one job - take the money.

Retail stores, in the face of increased competition online, have done the unthinkable, really - they have made it MORE inconvenient to shop at their stores. It's not enough to put impulse items around the register (which I have no problem with.) Every store I go to now seems to have the cashier "selling" a variety of items, all requiring an extended checkout process while the customer asks questions and fills out forms.

One instance had the guy in front of me take 15 minutes to ring out. He bought the extended warrantee, and filled out that form. Then he "ok'd" the free magazines. Filled out another form. Then he joined the buyer's club.. well, I assume it took 15 minutes, because I walked out when he said "ok" to the buyer's club. I left my $70 or so worth of purchases on the floor.

Can anyone who makes marketing decisions for a large retail business tell me why you are doing this? It just seems so counter-productive.

Testimonials can be a very effective marketing tool. Kind words from happy customers go a long way in making potential clients feel good about your product, service, or company.

In fact, they are so useful, that many people cheat when it comes to testimonials.

I have to let the cat out of the bag here - very early in my writing career, I'd write testimonials for customers if they asked.

Being young, dumb, and broke, at one time, I'd write just about anything if you paid me to. And trust me, some people paid me to write testimonials. And sign them something like "Debbie K from KY" or "John J and Family, NY". Or "Joe's Pizza, NJ"

Notice the one common thread? Nothing verifiable. No "real" last names. No actual towns. No website links. Lots of  "Dan F from NY". But no "Dan Furman, Kingston, NY"

So, here's some general advice on spotting a fake testimonial:

1 - No real last names. Or all the last names are amazingly common. In this age of the internet, pictures are even meaningless.

2 - No real cities. Or only big cities. Or all testimonials come from towns in the same 4 states (trust me, coming up with different sounding cities and towns is more work than most fake testimonial people want to do.) Obviously, a local business is exempt from this rule.

3 - No website links. This is the biggie. There should be a few testimonials with real, working website links.

I have a lot of testimonials on my website. Most have a link, all but one have a last name (the one requested it not be used, but I'm sure in the face of all the other proof I supply, I can be cut some slack there.)

Trust me - 15 testimonials and not one link to a business prettymuch means all the testimonials are fake (the only exception here is if the end users are completely non-business consumers, and even then, it's very unlikely that not one of them owns a business.)

And, of course, it goes without saying that "Joe G, Alabama" really doesn't think all that much of the product. In fact, "Joe" is the writer's father's name, and "G" represents his childhood friend's nickname (Goober.) 

It took me a long time to build up the testimonials I have. And I'm proud of them. Anyone who has real testimonials will tell you the same. That's why I want to tell you how to spot the fake ones.

And no, I don't write them anymore. It's just not fair to the people who earned them.

<sarcasm> And now that my conscience is clean,  let me get back to this term paper I'm writing for some rich kid. </sarcasm>   

Just want to wish everyone a happy Easter, happy Passover, and/or a happy beginning to Spring. Regardless of whether you are religious or not (I'm not particularly, although I am Catholic), it's a nice time of year.

And on the Catholic thing, I must apologize to Nana. She's up in heaven now, but she'd be pretty angry knowing I ate meat today (being Good Friday and all.) But Nana... in my defense, it was sausage pizza. I did ask myself "what would Jesus do?", and I concluded that after 40 days in the desert (or whatnot), he'd devour that pizza in about six seconds.

So I ate it (not that I ever need much coaxing.)

If you read my site, you know I'm writing a book. Here's an update:

Book Link

Cool, huh?

• Have good, relevant content that people will read. Yes, it should include your best keywords.
  
  
• Have a website that logically flows and will get clicked through. Make it a place people want to visit.
  
  
• Write lots of articles and press releases (or hire me to do it), and frequently update your site. Your articles can certainly focus on keywords. You should also post articles and messages on relevant online message forums.
  
  
• Do some minor SEO stuff, like make sure your H1 tags and picture alt tags have the relevant keywords.
  
  
• Wait. It takes time. Like up to a year. If you cannot wait, pay per click is a nice alternative (I use it a lot).