What kind of income proof is most convincing?

I definitely tend to believe a video Clickbank income proof much more then a screenshot which I tend to hardly believe at all.

Just my 2 cents

All proofs of income can be faked. I believe the ones from people I have grown to trust.

George Wright

Videos can be faked just as easily as screenshots so I wouldn't believe either.

Also, even if the video were not faked, what's to say the earnings they are showing you are actually a result of the method they are trying to sell you. In most cases people are just using money they have earnt through one method to help sell another.

Rule of thumb -- never believe proof of incomes. Majority of them are BS.

While people here tend to NOT believe income shots, videos, etc with good reason, that does not disqualify them. There are thousands (if not more) people who use screen shots/videos as part of their decision making process.

That being said, other forms of proof need to be there as well such as social proof, testimonials from current customers, etc...

When the average person see's proof of income they immediately start thinking "now those kinds of earnings or even a quarter of that amount on a consistent basis would do it for me and this product might just be the thing that gets me there".

Psychologically they start looking for things on the sales page to qualify that statement.

Thanks everyone for the input. Seems like a tricky one.

How about while doing the video walk through of the Clickbank account, I take you through key areas of the account, eg summary of vendor income, showing what site in the account is generating all that income, and then doing a video walk through of my bank account to show money in / money out?

Again, I know that there's no perfect solution ... people are always going to doubt, with good reason ... but would that at least be more convincing?

Also, would it pay to have an official representative from Clickbank go through the video walk through with me, to verify everything is real?

Also, perhaps it would pay to do a video walk through of certain campaigns, where I'm buying a ton of traffic, to show the profitability of each campaign? Might be too time consuming to do this with every traffic source, but at least a few?

Thanks Mike, definitely aware everyone pays attention to different proof elements, it's really interesting to see what some people trust over others.

And yep, I'll be doing email marketing for sure. Your idea for getting feedback from the non-buyers is very interesting, thanks!

Income Proofs,
Testimonials,
Claims,
these are all designed for one purpose-->that is to make a SALE.
that's why these are in the Sales Page after all.

If you are trying to study how you can validate if the Offer works
or not: then you need to resort to research and results from peers
who already had a test drive on the product.

Cheers!

The best income proof IMO is the income you make them in a specific amount of time. There was a launch recently on Clickbank where the guy took people off the street and made them money- of course that was bullcrap but if you can REALLY implement that then you will have the most convincing income proof there is....

Hi David,

I would believed in a video with the time on when the marketer records it, show the analytics, recent earnings and website WhoIs ( to know that the marketer owns it ).

Regards,

Ronnie

You can fake anything, including videos, if you really want to.

Income proof is just one credibility factor that ties into the decision of whether you buy a product or not.

If we would narrow it down to the most important factors that determine your eagerness to buy a product, the following factors make sense:

-Social Proof
-Brand
-Professionalism
-Income Proof
-Marketing Gravity
-Uniqueness
-Urgency Factor
-Need Factor

Hey guys, I really appreciate your input, but I do get that income proof is just one part of the puzzle. I guess what I'm really asking here is what elements do you want to see in the actual income proof...thanks!

The one thing I learned is that if you take a look at those websites that show income proofs of $100,000/month and how they are able to do that every month, the one thing 99.9% of the people don't realize that they did this with the help of many of their affiliates and not by themselves.

People get excited when they see this and think that if they just made 10% of that, they would be rich.

They don't realize that they are just not ever going to get to that point unless they have their own product.

The best income proof is when it is a video shown in real time. The guy logs into his account and shows you live how he is producing. Those are harder to fake than a screenshot.

IMHO, another person's income is a mute point and not relevant in determining the value of a product.

What if someone made 100k and another made 20k on a product? It doesn't mean anything about the product being sold. Among countless other factors, it could be that the person who earned the higher amount put more effort into his sales, his strategy to market the product could have been better or more unique and appealing to his buyers, or it could even be just his targeted market.

So much more information and documentation would be required to compare earnings potential either for oneself or in promoting income potential to buyers.

A copy of an income tax return is the only "fool proof" proof for me. If you fake that you are in DEEP trouble. If it say you made 250,000 last year then you better have made it. Forgery of a federal document is not a good idea.

I'll tell you a secret. There is one proof that is even
more powerful and subtle than income proof and
that is lifestyle appeal.

Rather than saying "I'm rich look at my bank account,
IMPLY the kind of life your money allows you to live--
vacations, cars, home, etc and this would be a lot
more persuasive than any income proof.

But to answer your questions, I think a video
of you logging into your bank account provides
believable proof.

-Ray Edwards

First off, thanks for the input!

Long story short, I think what I'm gathering here that would work best is:

1) A live log in of the CB account, where I navigate live to each area of my account, showing the website I'm using to generate the income, showing how much of the income comes from my own efforts (not affiliates), and what company the cheques are being paid to.

2) I'd then show proof I own the company, and show my tax returns, with contact information for my accountants at Deloitte. Like the person mentioned, it would be illegal to fake this information, and I'd end up in hot water if I did. Way more trouble than it would be worth, and hey, it can all be verified with a simple phone call anyway.

3) I'd also do a live video login of my bank account, showing money in and money out. That way you can see profit and loss.

4) I'd also do a live video login of some of my biggest traffic campaigns, where I'm paying for the traffic myself. This is to prove the profitability of each campaign. Like someone mentioned you can make $100k, but you could also spend $100k to make it, or even more. So the key would be to prove my biggest campaigns are consistently profitable. And also that I'm driving the traffic myself, not just relying on affiliates.

5) I'd also do a mini documentary of my lifestyle. I'd do a video walk through of my house, my car, the type of vacations I take, where I eat, etc. Pretty hard to fake all that (but not impossible - I know).

6) I'd also get some of the top vendors on Clickbank to vouch for me, that are well known. I'm not talking about "gurus" in MMO, but in the health and fitness niche.

7) I'd also get some very well known and trusted internet marketers to vouch for me, both here on the WF and in general.

Again, I guess there's no perfect way, but I think this exact process would be very, very difficult to fake, not to mention illegal. Definitely more trouble than it was worth.

At the end of the day, it's not what is convincing to US - it's what helps your sales page convert.

Try all the types of "proof" you're thinking about and then split test those ideas on your sales page.

That is the only real way to KNOW what works for your readers/market.

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

I find seeing the seller in person sitting in front of an enormous pile of cash convincing. Anything else ... not so much.

I've seen a video that someone did refresh and got 70$,there was a cut there it was FAKE,I would say a screenshot but keep in low numbers,2K a day is so fake for noobs.

I would think that any income testimonials that don't get the FEC yanking your site down and slapping you with fines might be a tad more convincing that anything else. If you show your results, you need to be able to show, also that your results are typical.

I'm surprised that people even go this route in advertising anymore.

All proofs can be faked, even the videos. I only believe the proofs when they are live screen shares on Skype or when in the same room with a person.

People still buy in droves... even though income proof can be faked. I'm surprised nobody has been called out on their false income claims.

Is this for your Million Dollar Project? (edit: yepp, just read the thread.)Income claims are usually either falsified or real income claims from product launches - not from the method(s) being advertised.

I don't need or want to see income cliams. I want to see who you are, what you do, why I should listen to you, and what's in it for me. IE I'd buy something from Alexa or Paul a lot faster than I'd buy anything from a no-name in the WSO section. It's all about showing off what exactly you KNOW, not showing off shiny objects, greenbacks, or lines on a screen.

I've seen real accounts live in person with people having earnings of 5 - 6 figure earnings in only one day. The earnings you see can be real and some times truly are. The thing is that a lot of marketers use those earnings (screenshots) to promote other products indirectly which creates an illusion for them being fake.

The type of proof of income that I love most and am most inclined to believe is when the marketer puts an opt-in box on his salespage where you have to enter your address to get the proof of income.

He then proceeds to come to your house with a large suitcase stuffed with wads of cash, and starts throwing the money all over you. And then he starts screaming, "You want proof? This proof enough for ya??!!??"


Oh man! I love it when they do that! :O

YouTube videos of whoever with lots of hundred dollar bills would convince me.

I tend to believe video proof over screenshots, but even those can be faked.

Anything can be faked....what you need to do is use common sense. Look at what their program is promising and think to yourself "is this realistic?", "could the average person do this?".

More importantly, don't worry about what others have done, focus on what you want to do. If it's a workable business model that you are interested in, go for it, regardless of how much others have made - forget about all that and just focus on growing your business.

The income can be proven to be fake, but if you have references to customers that are satisfied with your product or service, that goes a long way.

Video proof is the most believable. I know from having them. Screenshots are ok but you will get more opt ins and sales with video proof.

If you are talking about a sales pitch, I don't find any "proof of income" to be convincing proof since anything can be faked. The fact that some may take a little more work to fake doesn't really hold much sway with me.

If you are talking about proof of income in the sense of buying a business, then I would always recommend that you look at several different sources of numbers and make sure that they are all consistent. Bank deposits, statements from Clickbank, tax returns, etc... Even people that are good a faking screenshots or bank statements may not be good enough to avoid tell-tale inconsistencies.

In the end, the best "proof" is the reputation of the person providing the information.

As can be shown from some of the massive fraud cases or schemes like Madoff's, even expert auditors and accountants can be fooled by faked documents.

The deal is .. it does not matter that the WF knows everything can be faked .. does the average MMO vict .. umm .. seeker realize it? If you are putting up true information, hope, want, or greed will do the rest and the three letter agencies can do nothing about it.

Go to faking such information and you need to look through bars for a while .. plain and simple.

Cold traffic and semi-warmed traffic need several triggers to buy. If the triggers are hit, they will buy. Think for a moment.

What if that traffic was actually given something they thought they were going to need to buy first? What if that product actually did exactly what the sales page stated?

What if through email you had helped this person even more than the working product you gave them?

If the next product you offer them is actually complementary to the first, relevant even, do you think the person you have already truly helped will even need an income claim to buy?

I didn't read about this in an ebook. I didn't think this up and convince myself it would work. I have done this over and over and will do it again. Yes .. you heard it hear first ... many a time I don't even send a list member to a sales page. I simply place the pay pal "buy now" link in the email.

People buy from people who have already proven themselves a lot better than they buy from even friends or family.

video proof and pictures with real people holding real checks etc.

I don't fully believe in anyone, I know that a few
of them are true but who knows which one is the real one.

Re: What kind of income proof is most convincing?

When you personally know the person and are allowed access to all their bank accounts and financial history.

Just because someone shows you a video of them logging into their paypal/clickbank/amazon or any other money making accounts, this doesn't necessarily tell you the whole story.

How much did they spend to make that money? How much money do they owe the bank for that exotic car or nice house they use in the backdrop? There is a lot of 'smoke and mirrors' in this game which people use to give outsiders the illusion that they are making a killing online. But the sad fact is the majority of people who need to show you 'income poof' in order to make a sale are more than likely not making anywhere near what they claim (if anything at all).