Yesterday I wrote about “How To Save 20% On Ebay — Ends Soon.” The main topic was about how to use compelling headlines on your copy to persuade people to read the rest of your article.

Today, we will continue with that discussion by talking about something called “social proof.” The web is a big place. And like big places in the offline world, people explore them with their guard up. People are skeptical of claims and hype. Can you blame them?

In order to soften people’s attitude towards what you are writing about on your website, you will need to provide proof. People want to see evidence. They want to see that what you claim works.

Social proof comes in several forms. They can be testimonials from others who have had success with your product or service. They can be screenshots of your accounts backing up your claim. They can be endorsements from authority figures like government officials, doctors, lawyers, celebrities, and religious leaders. They can be trust seals like those from the Better Business Bureau, Trust-e. security sites, independent test labs, and universities. In actuality, social proof online is not much different than social proof offline.

Now let’s take the “How To Save 20% On EBay” example from yesterday. I made the claim that you can get up to 20% of your EBay purchase if you use Live.com, EBay, Buy It Now, and Paypal. The procedure is to search for a product like the Nintendo Wii Fit using the Live.com search engine. Click on the sponsored ad from EBay.com. Find the item that you like on EBay with a Buy It Now button. Check out with Paypal. Then get paid your 20% cashback from Microsoft in 60 days.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But it was only a claim. Most people will need to see some social proof that this works before they try it. Remember that the web is full of hype and scams. So people are naturally skeptical.

In this case, let me provide a screenshot as evidence that this cashback program using EBay really works. I bought an item on EBay using the procedure that I described. Today I received an email from Microsoft showing my cashback amount. See the evidence below:

The product that I bought was a bargain even at the Buy It Now price of $654. It became an absolute steal when I get my $125.80 in cashback from Microsoft. This makes the final price to me at $528.20.

If you would like more information on this cashback program, visit the following EBay page: