About
Several years ago there was a booklet of essential oil testimonials produced by a distributor named Frank Burns. His booklet was helpful in demonstrating how essential oils can be used every day in numerous ways. However, since it was printed on paper, it didn't offer an easy way for people to search for specific topics.
In 2004, thanks to inspiration from the good Lord, Oil-Testimonials was established. The goal from the beginning has been to make it easy for people to discover the truth about how useful essential oils can be.
We appreciate the amazing feedback we continually receive from our members. After 15 years, we now have 142,352 members, and 9,782 testimonials. We have made many enhancements over time which you can read about below. We hope that you enjoy the website and that you return often for the valuable health information that it provides.
| Date | Enhancement |
|---|---|
| Mid 2018 | Be watching for our website upgrade to be complete. More than half of all website traffic we get comes from smart phones or tablets. The current website was not designed to be viewed on small screens and so, unfortunately, it doesn't provide the best user experience. The new website will be responsive, which means the style will adapt depending on if you are viewing our webpage on a desktop computer or small mobile device. We can hardly wait to unveil it. You're going to love it! |
| 1-23-2017 | Today we updated our database to the UTF-8 character set. What this means, in geeky tech terms, is that we now support emoji in testimonials and emails that we send out. 😜 Huge priority right? Well, actually, we mainly did it so we could also better support foreign letters in the names of our registered members. So no matter what language you speak, Oil-Testimonials can now properly display the characters that make up your name, like 名稱. Although we can't guarantee we will know how to pronounce your name when you call us. Plus, we needed to make this major database change before we could migrate over to our new mobile friendly version of the website. |
| 11-02-2017 | For over ten years, when members unsubscribed from the various types of emails we send out, they were taken care of manually by our staff. We are very excited to finally have some automation in place to handle unsubscribes. The system now takes care of the changes in the database automatically without any human intervention. This feature has been a standard feature for many years with large email processing companies like Aweber or Mail Chimp. But Oil-Testimonials doesn't use 3rd party email companies, rather, everything we do is custom coded. This new system also monitors bounced emails. If a few emails are sent to you end up coming back to us, your account will be marked as bouncing, and no further emails will be sent. To fix this, all you have to do is login and make any corrections to your email address. |
| 6-10-2016 | We have several testimonials in the database that are quite short. A change has been made to the search engine to put more weight into testimonials that are a longer than one paragraph. This was done because of feedback from our members. They want to know all the details of your essential oil experience. Keep this in mind the next time you submit a testimonial. |
| 5-31-2016 | Since the launch of our website, members have been able to search for other like-minded essential oil users by zip code, state or country. Today we added the ability to also search by city. Now, go make a new friend. |
| 5-6-2016 | Based on feedback from Debbie B., in addition to reading messages that you have received, you can now re-read messages that you have sent. This will be helpful if you can't remember what you sent to someone. |
| 4-19-2016 | Everyone is welcome to make use of the valuable information on Oil-Testimonials.com. We realize that not everyone is interested in using the same brand of high-quality essential oils. Going forward, people can indicate if they prefer another brand of oils when registering for our free membership. However, people who come here from your Sponsor Link will continue be associated with the same brand that you promote. This will help business builders be more effective with their follow-up efforts, because the leads will now be more qualified. |
| 11-27-2015 | To help you get highly relevant search results, we now filter out words like a, an, and, can, do, for, good, helps, how, in, which, etc. If you use one of these words, which do little to help you to find the topics you are looking for, then an error message will be shown with instructions on how a search should be structured. An advanced spell checker is also in the works. When its released, it will suggest the correct spelling of mis-spelled words, to help ensure you get the information you are looking for. |
| 11-25-2015 | A new feature has been introduced exclusively for upgraded members. Now when you click on a testimonial in the search results, the keywords you searched on will appear in bold text within the testimonial itself. This feature helps to quickly draw your attention to what you are looking for. |
| 11-12-2015 | We have received feedback from our members saying they would like the Holistic Skills search results to include all members, not just those living in their own country. We hear you. From now on, the search results may include anyone that is in the database who has agreed to receive contact and who has logged in within the last 3 years. It's a small world, after all. |
| 11-06-2015 | Today we enhanced the Advanced Search. From looking at the website logs it was apparent that many members were not correctly using the search operators (+, -, " ", *) in advanced searches, which defeats the purpose of drilling down to get very specific search results. The asterisk, for example, makes it possible to find all instances of a particular word. Doing an advanced search of happ* will return testimonials containing happy, and happiness. Some members were using the asterisk at the beginning of the search term. Some were putting quotations around a single word, when really they should be put around a phrase. So we put some additional error checking into the advanced search so if the website detects the search operators are being used incorrectly, then additional directions will appear in an error message. Try out the advanced search today and let us know what you think. |
| 11-02-2015 | It's been brought to our attention that some of our members have a Business Name or Business Website on file that are quite long. The left sidebar was not designed to show lengthy amounts of text, and so it has caused some unsightly display issues where the text exceeds the bounds of the left sidebar. Going forward, if your Business Name or Website Address that you add to your account exceeds 25 characters, then they will be truncated so that they fit in the allotted space. |
| 10-30-2015 | As our staff grows older, we are starting to see how tiny fonts are more difficult to read. Today we increased the font size across the entire website. We also changed how the banner ads are displayed for those who are on the free membership. Having them display on the right side of the page forced the table of searches, favorites, referrals, etc. to be smaller. Amazon.com has recently come out with some new ads that we think will be a better format. These will appear before the table of results on a page, allowing the table to use the full maximum display width available. Of course, by upgrading to the Silver or Gold Membership, all of the ads are removed each time you login. We thank you for supporting us by clicking on ads you are interested in, or by upgrading your account. |
| 10-25-2015 | You may have seen scientific studies below some of the recently posted testimonials. Up until today, they have been manually added by our editors. We have a new process in place that assigns topics to testimonials and scientific studies. The website will now check to see if a testimonial has assigned topics. If it does, then it checks to see if there are scientific studies on file that match the topics. When there are matches, the resulting scientific studies will automatically appear below the testimonial. We are working to get topics assigned to the nearly 10,000 testimonials, and eventually each testimonial should show at least one supportive scientific study. All of this logic happens in a split second, which is pretty amazing! |
| 09-16-2015 | For many years we have been displaying 100 results on the Most Popular, Most Detailed and Most Recent testimonials pages. Recently we decided to add pagination, which will allow you to click a button to go from one page to the next, until you've exhausted all of the results. This not only looks more tidy, but is a more efficient use of bandwidth. What a simple change to be more green. |
| 08-31-2015 | We changed the favicon from an oil drop to a tiny version of our logo. A favicon is the little icon that appears in your web browser address bar for the website you are currently on. We added several different sizes to accommodate the growing list of devices that make use of the favicon. Now when you're in Safari on the iPhone, tap Share followed by the "Add to Home Screen" icon, then you will see our logo turn into an app icon, instead of an oil drop. Thanks RealFaviconGenerator.net for helping us generate the needed 17 images for the operating systems on desktop computers and mobile devices! |
| 06-30-2015 | Today we changed the way we rank our most popular testimonials. Before the list was based on the number of favorites each testimonial has received. Now we take the number of favorites for each testimonial and divide it by the number of views to calculate the ranking percentage. This is much more accurate and fair. |
| 05-14-2015 | We have thousands of distributors in our database and realize that not everyone is interested in building a downline. If you are currently listed as a distributor, the next time you login you will see a popup window asking if you are also a business builder. This will help us know if you would be interested in working with new leads or not. |
| 12-05-2014 | When logging in, you may have seen a popup window that displays different options to you. It lets you know that someone you referred wants to enroll, or that you have new messages waiting, etc. In some rare cases, the popup window would appear again if you happened to click on your browser's back button. This is now resolved....hopefully. |
| 07-10-2014 | We upgraded our messaging system so that its easier for people, new to essential oils, to contact you about the testimonials you have posted. If you are listed in our holistic skills directory, you can also start getting new leads for services that you offer. If you have not already done so, update your personal information to indicate your holistic skills. It will be a great way to expand your business! |
| 04-10-2014 | In case you haven't noticed already, we changed our logo so that it harmonizes better with the look and feel of the website. We also recently introduced "predictive search" in a few different places on the site that offer a search field. When you begin to type your keyword search, results will begin to appear. You can cursor down to select one, or click one of the options with your mouse. This should make searching quicker and more fun. |
| 03-01-2014 | Some members send several referrals to one recipient on the same day. This has led some internet service providers to conclude that our website sends spam email. To remedy this problem you can now send multiple testimonials in a single referral. This way the recipient gets one email in their inbox instead of several. Because, honestly, who likes to get spammed? |
| 05-22-2013 | We are starting to move from using plain text to HTML emails. This will allow color, images and links to be included. These new emails have been optimized for smart phones, tablets and other portable devices. Today we launched our first converted email type, the Search Match. Not only does it look better, but the new Search Match emails will support multiple search matches. If we recently approved 5 new testimonials, and your saved searches matched 2 of them, then both matches will be in your email. We didn't have support for this in the past. The other types of emails that we send out will soon be converted over to the HTML format as well. Goodbye plain text emails....hello beautiful! |
| 01-23-2013 | Today we made a change to how new registered members are associated with their sponsor. The problem arose as some distributors found a link to our website on someone else's blog. When they would click on the link and come to our website, we assumed that their sponsor was the owner of the blog, so we associated the new member's account with the blog owner's account. Over time we would get emails from people saying, 'Why is so and so shown as my sponsor?'. To remedy this, when someone comes to our website from clicking on another person's sponsor link, we only assume their sponsor. Once the new member confirms their email account and logs in for the first time, we now ask if the sponsor we have on file is their correct sponsor. If not, they are able to indicate who their real sponsor is at that time. Hopefully this will eliminate the confusion that some our new members were experiencing. |
| 09-20-2012 | On the My Referrals page, we now indicate which of your referrals not only viewed the testimonial that you sent, but also if they have registered for our free membership. Of course, since this is considered a business building feature, only those who have upgraded to the Gold Membership will see this information. |
| 07-27-2012 | After several months of hard work, we retired the old look and feel and launched a new modern version of the website. Some of the changes included: New layout and navigation menu, Logo that better reflects what our website is about, New tagline: Discover Essential Oil Truths, Ability to search on short words like Joy, eye, ear and R.C., Testimonials now require at least 100 words - no more two sentence testimonials, Added social media buttons from addthis.com, Support for a Twitter feed, New page devoted to frequently asked questions (FAQ), The Personal Guide Link is now called a Sponsor Link, The printed handout was redesigned to be more elegant, Skill search results are now filtered to members in your home country. |
| 12-02-2011 | We now indicate which of your leads have enrolled as a distributor since they first registered on our website. Click on the 'My People' report to see the member status for each lead. This change came from user feedback, so keep it coming. |
| 07-19-2011 | In addition to having a Facebook Like button on our login page, today we also added it to each testimonial page. When you click the button, a new entry will be added to your Facebook wall for all of your friends to see. If one of your friends clicks on the link to read the testimonial and decides to register on our website, you will be notified that you have a new lead to follow-up with. Isn't that a great way to use the power of social networking to casually build your essential oils downline? |
| 06-07-2011 | For years we have been using javascript to validate the fields on the registration form. Today we yanked that out and are now using PHP to check the data. This will now allow people to register that have a q.com email address. Also, when you go into My Searches you will see a reminder if you have turned off the search match emails. Don't worry, you can always turn them back on by going into the Personal Information page. |
| 06-01-2011 | This list of changes made to the website has always been its own history page. It is now being moved into the "About" webpage because it seems like a better place for it. We also have moved the member comments page to the "Contact" page. |
| 11-22-2010 | There will no longer be popup windows when trying to make contact with people in the database. From now on there will be a html popup within the webpage. This looks more attractive and gets around the fact that some people have popup browser windows blocked. |
| 11-19-2010 | For several years there have been some problems with the HTML code. It has caused the graphics in the header and footer to be skewed, showing extra white space. This has finally been repaired. |
| 11-11-2010 | Today we are requiring everyone to login before conducting keyword searches. We have over 14,000 members but most of them NEVER login when coming to the site. It makes it difficult to plan for maintenance and planning hardware upgrades when we don't have a clear number of how many people visit us each day. Having everyone login will help fix that problem. Some people have been concerned that they don't want to make their friends login just to read one testimonial to help them. Never fear. You can still email the full URL to a given testimonial to a friend or even post on Facebook. Anyone who clicks on that link will be taken straight to the testimonial. However, should they desire to search the website with their own keywords, then they will need to create an account. |
| 07-18-2010 | You asked for it and we finally delivered. You can now tag a testimonial as one of your favorites. This has become an increasingly more of a necessity now that there are over 3,500 testimonials to search through. Once you have marked a testimonial as one of your favorites, you can see it on the "My Favorites" page. |
| 04-07-2010 | We have applied the same functionality to referrals. Now when you go into your account you will see an option to view the referrals you have sent. It will show if your friend decided to come visit the website and the date that they arrived. You can easily delete any referral that you no longer wish to monitor. |
| 11-22-2009 | Today we added the ability to manage all of the keywords that you have searched on in the past. This only works, however, if you logged in prior to conducting a search. If you searched on the word 'headache', for example, this keyword will appear in the list. When future testimonials are posted that match the word 'headache', then an email will be sent out to tell you about it. |
| 04-17-2006 | Many of you have been patient from the beginning of this website in regards to duplicate emails. For example, let's say you searched for the following phrases over time: "back ache", "lower back pain", "back pain". If a new testimonial was posted with a title of, "Peppermint works good on back pain", then you would get three emails alerting you. This is because the word, "back" was found three times in your list of saved searches. Well, we finally found a solution that works and the duplication is a thing of the past. One of our next projects is to create a page where you can edit and delete your saved searches. Stay tuned. |
| 03-21-2006 | We have made more changes to the website to make it even more search engine friendly. We just learned that many of the testimonials in the database haven't been indexed by google and some of the other large search engines. This was because, we were told, that we were passing too many parameters in the URL. This makes it difficult for google to view and index our content. Let me give an example. In the past, each testimonial would have and address like:
http://www.oil-testimonials.com/finished.php?testimonialID=1172&memberID=3019 The part that was giving google fits was ?testimonialID=1172&memberID=3019. So with some tweaking we have become more search engine friendly. To view the same testimonial today, all you need is: As of today we have over 700 of the testimonials that have now been indexed by google. This will continue to bring us web traffic of people seeking natural remedies to health problems they face. |
| 03-05-2006 | We have made several changes recently. Probably the most obvious change is the background color. Instead of the yellow we decided to switch to green. Several people have commented that the yellow background made reading the text difficult. We also brought back the Google Adsense ads. We had these early on when we first launched the website, however, many people complained because the ads would often times show all kinds of companies that sell essential oils. We couldn't filter the website address out fast enough so we took them off and replaced them with the Amazon book ads. Recently Google contacted us and asked if we would like to beta test a new ad filter based on keywords as opposed to filtering out website addresses. We were delighted! Over the course of a week or two, and continuing to add more and more "negative keywords" the ads are finally to a point where we are satisfied. For the most part, they are very relevant to the type of person who visits our website. If you disagree, or would like to make some comments about the ads, just send us an email. |
| 10-25-2005 | After logging over 18,000 searches in the database we decided to change how searches are stored. The point of logging searches is to notify the member when a new testimonial is posted that matches keywords they searched on in the past. As it currently stands, you don't have to login to perform a search. Therefore, the database has been filling up with searches that will never be used for search match emails. With the change made today, now searches will only be logged if you login first. |
| 07-20-2005 | Since we are starting to phase out the Amazon book ads, it's come to my attention that some older accounts in the system were having problems requesting their password via email. This has been fixed and everyone should be able to use this feature now. We also made the login field for the email address longer. Some members had email addresses longer than 35 characters. |
| 07-18-2005 | On the login page there is a link that you can click on to have your password emailed to you. Unfortunately, the link was positioned right before the "Login" button. Many people use their TAB button on their keyboard to move from field to field on a website form. Too many people have tabbed from the email address field, to the password field, only to then tab to the password reminder link instead of the login button. They were going in circles trying to login. The text link has now been repositioned below the button, which should take care of this problem. |
| 05-31-2005 | It's been a while, but made some time today to make some more minor changes. We have been busy putting together our sister site, e-downline.net. The change today deals with those registered members who are promoting our website using their sponsor link. Each member gets one of these and looks something like http://www.oil-testimonials.com/121 Now when people come to our website via your sponsor link, in addition to showing your name and email address, there will also be a link to any testimonials that you have posted. This will make sharing your experiences with the oils even easier.
We also fixed the problem on the member comments page. Each member had a link pointing to testimonials they have posted. For some reason, each of these were broken and are now working again. |
| 02-02-2005 | We made a change to the way the search results page functions. Now when you perform a search that brings back results, if you are logged in, your account ID will be embedded in the web address at the top of your web browser. So if you ever copy the address in the browser, and email it to a friend, you will be notified by email if your friend comes to the site and then registers with us. Here is an example. Let's say Rich Dastrup comes to the site to find all testimonials dealing with sleep. He would type "sleep" into the search field and then click the button that would show the results. Up in the address bar of his web browser would be this address: http://www.oil-testimonials.com/m1.php?t=1&q=sleep&x=121 He could easily copy that address and send to a friend who was inquiring about which oils promote restful sleep. Rich's account ID, in this case, is 121 and you will see it in the web address. Now when his friend clicks on this, he will be taken to these same search results. If this visitor goes to the home page, he will also see Rich's name mentioned in the top paragraph. If his inquiring friend also decides to register on the site, Rich will be sent an automated message letting him know. This provides another opportunity to share and follow-up. Our next task is to make this same feature available on the Advanced Search page. |
| 01-27-2005 | While looking over the search logs, we noticed that many people don't understand how to use the Advanced Search page. As the testimonial site continues to grow, it will be imperative that people are able to quickly find what they are looking for. Today we added a sentence in red text, urging people to read the included directions, so they can obtain the best results. This involves knowing how to use quotes, as well as the + and - signs in the search field. These same Advanced Search features can also be used at search engines like google.com to help the member narrow down the results to something very specific. |
| 12-28-2004 | Changed the last few pages that have not been converted over to use header.php. Also updated the path to the stylesheet on the popup pages. The text was not displaying in the font that it should have been. On the search page, the country drop down dynamically shows countries of our registered members. When members went to search for people in Hong Kong, as an example, the results were coming up empty. The reason for this is our one member in Hong Kong does not want to be contacted by our website members. The search page was fixed to only include countries in the drop down IF there is at least one member willing to be contacted. Finally, we added new feature on the page that appears after you email a testimonial. There is a new link that says, "Go back to search results". This should make it easier to return to the list of results that first appear when searches are performed. |
| 12-22-2004 | Fixed search types stored in the database. This was a problem since 12-09-2004 when we moved over the the new m.php results page. All searches were being saved as "keyword" even if it was a country, state, zip code, etc. There were also some other links that were modified so that they all use m.php. This included the "Show testimonials posted since my last login" on the welcome page and "Show my other testimonials" shown next to each testimonial author. The search page was renamed to s1.php and associated match page to m1.php. The Advanced Search page was renamed to s2.php and the associated match page to m2.php. More search engine optimization was also done today. |
| 12-09-2004 | People often perform queries on our site and then copy the website address and send to a friend via email. Unfortunately, the address could sometimes get quite long which has presented problems in certain email programs. I have overhauled the query match pages (keyword, zip code, state, country, skills) to make them shorter. Here is the format we have been using up until today:
http://www.oil-testimonials.com/matches-keyword.php?keyword=bruise Now we will be using: We were also using separate .php pages for each of the match pages, which made making updates time consuming. A new change we wanted to implement would have to be changed in each page. Now we have combined them in one .php page and pass the type of search being performed in the website address. |
| 11-25-2004 | For search engine ranking purposes, added the H2 header tags throughout the site. |
| 11-23-2004 | Created a backend admin tool that allows support staff to quickly pull up any registered member and change their email address, etc. |
| 11-12-2004 | Added this page to document the changes made to the site. |
| 10-29-2004 | Added a member comments page so others can read what people are saying about our website. |
| 10-17-2004 | Members can now view testimonials posted since their last login. This feature is shown on the welcome page after logging in. |
| 10-03-2004 | Added the total number of registered members to the registration page. |
| 09-27-2004 | If someone has registered and has not officially logged in after 30 days, they will now get a reminder email. We are experiencing rapid growth and this feature was added to help us to know which accounts to purge due to inactivity. |
| 09-24-2004 | If a member is logged in, we will now populate the "ask question" and "make contact" email popup forms with their name and email address as a little time saver. |
| 09-19-2004 | When viewing a testimonial, if the author has posted more than one, you can now click a link to view the other testimonials they have posted. This feature has been relocated to the menu bar. |
| 09-16-2004 | Clarified that there can be more than one testimonial viewed or emailed at one time by using red text on the match results pages. This feature has since been removed. |
| 09-09-2004 | Added ability to search for members based on country. |
| 08-30-2004 | With newly added mySQL count query, we can now display the total number of testimonials in the database on the main page, search page and in most outgoing emails. |
| 08-21-2004 | Created a way for members to have their name in the welcome message on the main page. This only works when a person visits our website using a sponsor link that we give to all registered distributors. More information on this feature is available when you login. |
| 08-11-2004 | Started capturing session variables in the header file instead of individual html pages. This will allow for having the green buttons be dynamic. For example, if you are logged into the website, the green button that says "Login" will automatically change to "Logout". This will be another change made in the future. |
| 08-08-2004 | Added the Advanced Search page allowing to be more specific in the results the database returns. |
| 08-03-2004 | If a registered member has not submitted at least one testimonial after being registered for 30 days, the website will send them a gentle reminder explaining this website will only be useful if everyone contributes. |
| 07-23-2004 | We now will send an email if a person you referred to our site registers with us. A great followup tool for those who may be new to essential oils. |
| 07-14-2004 | Added a link to the essential oil resources page for other natural healing websites. |
| 07-09-2004 | Modified the search page so that the member can enter more than one word in the search field. |
| 07-06-2004 | Replaced the green "Register" button with one that says "Login". |
| 07-04-2004 | Added form field verification. No longer can people enter ill-formatted email addresses. Certain fields are now required for registration and can not be left blank. |
| 06-29-2004 | Added code that will email the member when a new testimonial is posted, if it matches a topic they have searched on in the past. This only works if the member was logged in at the time of performing the search. This feature works for all of the various types of searches that can be performed (keyword, state, zip code, country, holistic skills, etc) |
| 06-23-2004 | Changed code so that when you see the results of a given search, they are no longer ordered by the popularity rank of the testimonial authors. It's now ordered by search phrase relevancy. |
| 06-21-2004 | When viewing a testimonial, we now show the holistic skill of the author if they have one. |
| 06-19-2004 | Added code that displays Amazon.com book ads based on member's topic of interest. This works only after a member has logged in. |