Even in traditional brick and mortar world of off-line sales, people need to touch and see a product before they have enough confidence to buy. That's why stores like Sears and JC Penny do so much more walk-in business than catalog sales. In an online business, this consumer apprehension is intensified by not having a physical store, or in many cases even a phone number to turn to if a product doesn't meet expectations.

Add to that common fear many consumers have about credit card transactions in cyberspace, and it's not hard to see that you need to put your prospective customers at ease if they're to become buyers.

How can you make your customers feel that doing business with you is not a risky proposition? The answer is incredibly simple...offer a money back guarantee!

Let's take a look at up-side of offering a guarantee. First, it provides a statement of personal confidence in your product. To be blunt, if you lack confidence in your product - you shouldn't be selling it anyway!

The same is true even if you're marketing someone else's product for a commission, or an affiliate program for a multi-level marketing sales program. If parent company doesn't eliminate risk by offering to refund fees within a clearly stated time frame, find a different program to market. You'll be amazed how much easier it will be to sign up new affiliates if you eliminate risk.

More on up-side - A solid guarantee policy gives your enterprise a clear image of professionalism. After all, only a legitimate business would offer to give dissatisfied customers their money back, right?

There are so many entrepreneurial start-ups on Net today, that many opportunity seekers are skeptical of any program giving appearance of being a small home business. The assumption is: "They're no bigger than I am, and may not be in business next month, so why risk my money with them?"

Offering a money back guarantee dispels small entrepreneurial image, and alleviates skepticism more than you can imagine.

Now let's take a look at downside. If you offer a money- back guarantee, you'll be deluged with refund requests, right?

This is only true if you're selling something that is not as you describe it in your sales literature. If you've done an accurate job of explaining features of your product to customer before they make their purchase, there won't be any surprises that will trigger their refund reflex. In other words, give them what they paid you, and they'll be unlikely to complain about it.

It seems however, that lately I've been hearing a great deal about difficulty of doing business online. Put aside talk about hype and scams. They existed from first day Internet was commercialized. They are becoming more sophisticated with their promises of earning millions, but as people become more experienced, they quickly see through them. Fake email addresses, spam and broken dreams will continue to abound until either legislation forces them to do business ethically, or well of suckers dries up.

Sounds pretty negative doesn't it. Under other circumstances, it would be enough to put someone off trying to do business on net. But let's look at positive side. I don't know about you, but I've met some pretty fine people on web. They are honest, hard working and a pleasure to do business with. While there are a few "bad apples" (and aren't there offline as well), it's amazing how many friendly, helpful people there are out there.

In early nineties, before entrepreneurial invasion of Internet, only game in town was proprietary bulletin boards such as run by Prodigy. Anyone who "dared" become commercial was summarily banned from boards, and "blacklists of offenders" were actually shared between board moderators. But, as commercialism crept in, and old bulletin boards joined ranks of dinosaurs, a whole new strategy started to evolve.