The Underrated Way To Make A True Recommendation People Trust

by Philip Twyman · November 3, 2026

“How can I start to earn an extra income” without turning into one of those people who won’t stop selling you something? That’s the question underneath the one most people ask.

Nobody wants to become the person whose emails make you groan before you’ve even opened them. Nobody wants to be the one tagging three friends under a post that promises the world and delivers a login page. And yet when people start an online business, that’s often exactly what they think they have to become.

Think about the last time you unsubscribed from a list. It probably wasn’t because someone made one specific recommendation. It was the opposite: constant pitching with nothing behind it.

You don’t.

The honest recommendation, the one you truly believe in, does more work than any pitch ever will. It’s quieter. It takes longer to write. But it’s the one people remember, and the one they act on.

Selling Without Explaining Is The Problem, Not The Answer

I’ve seen plenty of marketing that names a product and nothing else. No explanation of what it does. No reason it might suit the reader rather than someone completely different. Just a name, a link, and an assumption that you’ll trust it because it’s there.

Picture an email that reads, ‘Grab this, it changed my life,’ and stops there. You’re left guessing what the thing even does, who it suits, and whether it has anything to do with your own situation. That gap is where trust leaks away.

That’s backwards. A reader trusts you when they understand why you’re pointing them at something, not simply that you are.

The same goes for support. Plenty of people selling things online promise help if you get stuck, then go quiet the moment you need it most. That’s a fast way to lose someone for good.

I’ve written a bit about this shift in how people buy in other articles I’ve shared recently, but it’s worth saying plainly here: an honest recommendation beats a loud one, every time.

What An Honest Recommendation Looks Like

It looks like telling someone what something does, who it suits, and, just as importantly, who it probably doesn’t suit. It looks like explaining your own reasoning instead of asking for blind trust.

Long before any of this, I trained as a hairdresser. I paid for courses in cutting, colouring and perming, and every one of them was useful. But what made me competent was practising what I’d been shown, colour by colour, client by client, until the reasoning behind a choice became mine rather than something memorised.

My mentor, Nick James, has never once pitched me anything in that pushy way. When he’s pointed me toward an idea, it’s always come with a reason attached, “do this, not that”, and usually a sentence explaining why one approach beats another for where I was at the time.

Asking for help like that doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Admitting you’re stuck can feel uncomfortable, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it’s often the fastest way to the next step. The advice has helped me more than I can properly measure, and it’s always worth thanking the person who gave it.

What made it land wasn’t confidence or polish. It was that the reasoning was there to check. I could see why he thought it would work for me, not just that he said it would.

That’s the same test worth applying to anything you recommend to your own readers. Would the advice still make sense if someone asked you to explain your reasoning out loud? If it would, you’re on solid ground. If you’d have to bluff your way through an answer, that’s worth noticing.

Showing Beats Telling, Even In A Simple Email

You don’t need to be a video editor or a “techie type” to put this into practice. You just need to show your working.

Instead of writing “this tool is great for building an email list,” write what it let you do that you couldn’t do before, or did more easily. One small, specific detail does more than ten vague ones.

Here’s what that looks like with real numbers rather than a vague boast: my first payment from an online campaign was $12.50, and the next was $27.50. Small figures, but naming them exactly is what makes them believable. A specific, modest figure is what makes a reader lean in; a round number dressed up as a triumph is what makes them click away.

When I moved my own email system over to eShowcase, I didn’t write an email saying “this platform is brilliant.” Instead, I described what it handles, hosting, email list, and pages, all in one place, and admitted I’m still getting used to how it fits together. That’s the kind of detail a reader can picture, rather than a glossy claim they have to take on faith.

That’s not a sales pitch. That’s just the truth, told plainly. It happens to work better than a pitch ever would.

Recommend What You’d Stand Behind

This is the bit people skip because it’s slower. Before you recommend anything, ask yourself plainly whether it’s something you’d stand behind if the reader came back a month later and asked how it went.

If the honest answer is “I’m not sure,” don’t recommend it yet. Wait until you can answer properly, or point them somewhere else entirely.

Think of it like being asked, a year on, whether something was worth a reader’s money and time. If you can picture a clear answer, point them to it. If you can’t picture answering it at all, that’s the clearest signal you need before you say anything.

Readers can tell the difference between a recommendation you believe and one you’re simply attaching your name to. The first builds something that lasts. The second gets you one click and nothing after it.

Start Small, And Start Honest

You don’t need a big audience to put this into practice, and you certainly don’t need a script. You need one honest recommendation, explained properly, sent to the people already reading what you write.

You don’t need to publish daily, or chase a big launch date, to put this into practice. One email a week, built around one thing you’d stand behind, does more for trust over a year than a dozen pitches ever will.

Pick one thing you believe in. Write down, in plain terms, why it helped you and who it’s for. Send that instead of a pitch.

It takes longer than copying a template. It also tends to work for longer than a template ever does.

Each day another step, as I like to say. This one is a small step, but it’s the kind that holds.

Best regards
Philip