As a business: Does anyone use real testimonials on their website to help sell their product/service?

As a user: Do you read the testimonials on a website and give them much weight in your decisions?

Honestly I think testimonials may help a bit as a host, but in these days of abuse I don't think they are overly effective. You just see one too many fakes out there and it removes a potential client's trust in them. I think that perhaps testimonials in say a forum might have a more positive effect, but they're still open to abuse.

As a user, I do tend to read through them just to check them out. Quite often it's easy to tell if they're fakes or not IMHO. Even if I don't deem them to be false, I still don't put much stock into them. Typically I try to rely on independent sites for reviews if I at all can.

As a user, I never read Testimonials, I find them pretty much worthless..

Trifolic, do you find them worthless because you do not believe they are real? or Do you not consider other people's opinions valuable when doing your own evaluation of a product/service?

For the most part, because I do not believe they are real.. If I saw some that said that the service was "Ok" "but had troubles in this area or that area" Then I would IMMEDIATELY show respect and trust towards that company. Not afraid to show that they aren't perfect..

Most testimonials talk up about the company WAY to much to be true..And only include initials, not full names and contact info.. So I definetly don't believe the:

Another thing I strongly believe in is if you are as good as your testimonials say you are, your work or service will speak for itself. You don't need to go plastering it all over your site to ensure that people know how good you are..

If contact info is listed - at least a name and a company name, I'll put more weight on what is being said, and as long as it doesn't sound 'fabricated'. You see some testimonials out there, and you KNOW no one would actually say that - in "those" words.

I agree completely there. I usually almost automatically discredit a testimonial if it just has the actual testimonial or name only. I like to have a url, and I don't think that's too hard to provide (at least I've never found it to be). Honestly I've never been one to solicit for testimonials that much, I've direct a few to a 3rd party site in the past, and we've made available a forum if they would like to speak up.

As said before word of mouth speaks a lot. I also think that with many established companies, the silence can also be just as good as a testimonial sometimes although it's not always the case.

Who would put up something on their site saying that the service was only OK? Would you?

Maybe someone would do case study and explain how the problem was solved but no marketer would do that, regardless of how honest it was.

You see some testimonials out there, and you KNOW no one would actually say that - in "those" words.

I feel the same way. I tend to beleive them a little more if they are said in "everyday words" Maybe even with some poor grammar :) . But still, that doesn't mean it can't all be made up.