Need Advice: How to get testimonials and feedback for a new product?

Do you have any stand-out buyers? Anyone who contacts you and asks you questions... is using your product as you intended? Ask them if they would mind offering feedback.

Other than that there are always people willing to review. If you watch the WSO forum, you will see a few of them who are asked to review often because they are respected and give honest feedback.

The easiest way to get what you want is to ask.

Give it away for free to a limited number of people, in exchange for testimonials! Ask the users if there is anything they'd like to see improved.

Chris

Give your product to a few warriors here or your future customers and then ask them for an honest review. I am not sure if this is still allowed to do.

Send it to other people in your niche who have products and ask them to review it. I have done this to get reviews from some very notable people in my niches.

It also helps to build a JV relationship and can open up many other opportunities for you that you didn't see or weren't available to you at first.

Your product should speak for itself. If you feel it's good it should not be a problem at all

Give it to a number of people for free or at huge discount but the catch they must give you a review.

Wow.... it's gettin a little steamy in here.

Just to weigh in with my two cents....

I have to agree with JaRyCu that incentivzing (is that a word?) reviews is good business; with a strong note that the incentive should not sway the reviewers opinion but rather encourage a review be it a good one or bad. There is a lot of gray area with this, but I don't think it is hard to be ethical about it.

I see JaRyCu's point about not giving away your products for free. Rather than saying which method is right or wrong... maybe let's look at the pros and cons.

Both methods (giving a few copies away and not giving away free copies) are valid, but as JaRyCu pointed out, giving away "review copies" runs the risk of diluting the value of any review you might get.

So, in regards to whether or not to give away review copies, the value of the review hangs in the balance.

However, if you were sure to take careful steps to give your review copy to the right people, the free review copy could still work and you could still get solid reviews. Here is how I think you could do it...

If you make sure to only give your free review copies to people whom have a reputation for properly and thoroughly reviewing material as well as make sure to point out in plain view that the people who have reviewed the material are known to be good solid and reputable people, then I think your reviews would carry more value.

Additionally.... or maybe optionally.... if you don't have solid people you can count on.... you could give your free review copy only to people who will provide a case study along with their review.

Good luck to all
Anthony (The Real GigglePhish)

One way is to offer a review copy at a discounted price. The person who purchases the copy at this special price has an obligation to give feedback.

Sell your product at a low price to get instant sales, then contact your list of buyers about what they thought about the book, and if they can give a testimonial for you. Offer a free gift if they agree to the testimonial.