R.M. Blackledge TheWorkAtHomeBlog.com © Copyright 2005

The internet is known as "the global information superhighway" for a good reason. As this year's unfortunate Tsunami in South Asia demonstrated, information can zip around world in seconds, because internet makes that possible. In first few hours after disaster ordinary citizens had available first person accounts and video on their desktop almost as comprehensive as what was shown on CNN and Fox News channel.

The internet is as advantageous for global marketing as it is for news business. But how many of us realize that depending on products we have on sale, our most reliable customers may live thousands of miles away, and yet be extremely vital to our corporate bottom line.

That fact can be both a blessing and a curse.

Let's see.... If customer has a complaint about a purchase they've made, well they're much too far away to do anything about it except send off a few tersely-worded emails. But, all kidding aside is it very comfortable to have your most reliable spenders on far side of globe?

Afterall, if they're so far away, then these individuals are indeed strangers.

This is point of our article. An anonymous website may earn you money, but a website that has your picture and name up near top can help establish strong customer loyalty, and gives consumer confidence that they are dealing with a real live business with responsible people on other end of keyboard, and not just some robotic web page that is eager to gobble up their credit card information.

In such a circumstance, miles between website owner and customer is meaningless.

You may not have realized it yet, but your name and your face can be an extremely valuable asset even if you don't have much personal involvement with product you have for sale, beyond fact that you've given product your tacit endorsement by placing it on your site. And if you've produced a product on your own, such as an e-book or software, then your name personalizes product.

Afterall, wouldn't most people prefer to purchase "John Smith's Valuable Internet Marketing Essays," rather than just an e-book entitled "Valuable Internet Marketing Essays."

Nowadays of course, this truism is utterly irrelevant thanks to Internet. Location is last thing someone needs to worry about if they are thinking about going into retail because you can operate from anywhere on planet and sell to anyone on planet!