Displaying all testimonials on the site
Posted on 17. May, 2010 by Martin in Recent Changes
Whilst vouchforthis is essentially a tool for building a portfolio of testimonials to display on your own web pages and blogs, we think it is important for members and visitors alike to see that other testimonials are being added to see what sort of testimonials are being created.
So we have added a new page… Latest Member Testimonials to display in reverse chronological order the latest active testimonials.
Hopefully, this will attract a little more search traffic to the site as well as showing visitors that the site is active. We’ll update it over the next few days to include upload dates, and hope to extend it further over the next couple of months so that it becomes a full-blown, searchable directory of testimonials helping visitors to search for companies (YOU) that can demonstrate verified testimonials for products and services that they are looking for.
Ultimately, we believe that this will greatly increase the value of vouchforthis to your business.
Even more credibility from Vouchforthis
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Martin in Recent Changes
A few weeks ago I was trying to persuade a community of website users that getting their website testimonials verified was a good idea (and that they should join vouchforthis to do so!). One of the group raised the point that an unscrupulous website owner could copy the style of a vouchforthis website widget and place it onto his own website, thereby making it look like his testimonials had been vouched-for when in fact they weren’t.
So in order to make it just a little harder to ‘forge’ a vouchforthis widget we have changed the link at the foot of each widget so that instead of giving a link just to the vouchforthis home page we now link to a vouchforthis page which verifies that the person using the widget is actually a vouchforthis member. It even names the member in case the forger tries using a link belonging to somebody else. If a link does happen to point to an invalid member then we are sent an email alering us to this fact so that we can investigate and ask the offending website owner to take the widget down.
Passing products off as authentic when they are not is a problem affecting all walks of business life, from handbags to music to software. At the end of the day we are delighted when website owners try to mimic our widgets, as it shows that they have appreciated the value of our system of verifying testimonials. What they should also be appreciating is that at just £9.99 per year it is far better to own the real thing.
A new order for your testimonials
Posted on 19. Mar, 2010 by Martin in Recent Changes
We have changed the order in which testimonials are displayed in your widgets. Previously, testimonials were displayed in the order they were uploaded. This means that your newest testimonials appeared at the bottom when displayed on your website. Ideally, we would have wanted to allow you to determine the order in which they are listed, as you might prefer to show one particular testimonial at the top of the list. However, this is too big a change for us to consider right now and so what we have done is to change the system so that when widgets are added or rebuilt (e.g. when a new testimonial is added or when you change the size or colour of your widgets) your testimonials will be listed in reverse chronological sequence. This should have a positive effect on your testimonial display as the most recent testimonials are probably the most significant for your potential new customers.
We think that this is the best default for testimonials displayed on your website, with the newest testimonials being displayed in a more visible part of the browser window.
Please note : you will need to rebuild your widgets manually if you want this to take effect on your websites straight away. To do this, simply go to your My Widgets page and click Edit , Preview and Save against each of your widgets in turn. This will fool the system into thinking you have changed your widget and so it will rebuild them, changing the order of your testimonials as it does so.
Let your website visitors add a testimonial for you
Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Martin in Recent Changes
So far, you have been able to use vouchforthis to add and verify testimonials that have already been given to you, and also to prompt your customers to add a testimonial for you. It’s up to you to manage this, and whilst I’m sure most members are pro-active in asking for testimonials where they think they have done a good job, there are lots of situations where this might not be practical. So we have added yet another feature to the website to enable you to passively ask for testimonials from people who visit your website, blog or social media profiles.
You can find out all about the new feature here, but in a nutshell :
- We provide you with a choice of graphics
- You paste the graphic into your web pages
- Your website visitors can then click on the graphic and be brought directly to Vouchforthis where they can leave a testimonial for you
- The testimonial will be automatically verified, and all you need to do is log in to your vouchforthis account and activate the testimonial if you are happy with it
Why not try it out by clicking one of the sample graphics on the right of this post?
A simple, and we hope, effective tool to help you get more testimonials. As well as receiving testimonials from “casual” browsers of your website for whom you may have previously worked, you can also point your existing customers to your website page and ask them to click the link if they would like to leave you a testimonial. This greatly reduces your own involvement – and you end up with a testimonial that is already “vouched-for”.
Don’t see a graphic that you like? Want something a little more customised for your website? Why not ask us to build one for you?
Rewarding you for spreading the word
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Martin in General, Recent Changes
We have decided to create a referral scheme to help build our client database. All members of Vouchforthis can participate, and a generous referral commission of £5 is payable for each new paying member that you introduce.
As awareness of the vouchforthis website increases so should the credibility of the testimonials we display – and that means yours too! So please help us to spread the word (and earn some valuable commission in the process) by encouraging your contacts to join by passing your referral code on to them verbally or through emails. Increase your earning ability even further by displaying our adverts on your website.
We think this is a great way of spreading the word about our product, and we hope that as many of you as possible embrace this opportunity to introduce your contacts / friends / colleagues to vouchforthis.
To find out more about the scheme, please visit our Referrer Information page.
Our widgets in action
