How to Build Credibility Online

Written by Craig Lock


HOW TO BUILD CREDIBILITY ONLINE

by Craig Lock

I find this a most interesting and somewhat complex subject, as there has to be TRUST in any business relationship before any exchange is made. This can be quite difficult to achieve, when you have never met your customer (prospect) face to face in another part ofrepparttar country...or evenrepparttar 119111 world.

Having been onrepparttar 119112 www over four years, here are a few pointers that we find helpful inrepparttar 119113 online sales process:

1. Have your OWN DOMAIN NAME (not expensive - less than $20 a year from www.000Domains.com see http://www.craiglock.com )

2. Offer GUARANTEES (money-back) on your products or services

3. BE YOURSELF IN YOUR WRITING (on your web site).

4. OFFER TESTIMONIALS

5. Have a PRIVACY POLICY for your online business.

In this article I'm covering points 3 and 4. When writing copy for your website, we suggest writing down information (valuable) that can inform and most importantly, HELP others. Write in your own UNIQUE and distinctive style - what comes naturally to you. Really BE YOURSELF and "totally honest" in your writing and you will find thatrepparttar 119114 words will flow....and your unique personality and writing style will "shine through in cyberspace". All this adds to your credibility ... and most importantly, INTEGRITY online. Do this and you WILL get sales.

USE TESTIMONIALS

We find using testimonials from customers helps add to our credibility (these are always unsolicited). Other than having one's own domain namesWe find that PUTTING TESTIMONIALS from satisfied customers on our web sites helps greatly inrepparttar 119115 sales process - through establishing BELIEVABILITY (a big word, but still shorter than credibility!) in your claims of satisfying customer needs.

The reason: people are naturally reluctant and usually a little apprehensive about spending their hard-earned money onrepparttar 119116 www. (Well these are still early days in buying products or services online.) Doing this, I believe, adds value torepparttar 119117 "perceived quality" of your product or service, through building uprepparttar 119118 prospect's CONFIDENCE in you and your products. A few more thoughts on this topic of using testimonials ... Be SPECIFIC in how your product helped meetrepparttar 119119 customer's needs. "This course greatly helped increase my vocabulary, confidence in writing articles, etc". ("hint, hint, plug, plug!") The key result = INCREASED SALES. A final word of advice regarding using your testimonials (note word carefully chosen!) ...

Who's Peering Into Your Computer?

Written by June Campbell


Have any passwords, love letters, naughty pictures or sensitive business information stored on your hard drive? It's almost embarrassingly easy for a hacker to break into a networked computer and retrieve your personal information.

Does your computer have an interior microphone or an interior video recorder? If yes, these technologies can be activated without your knowledge. Hackers can not only get your data files, but they can record sound and video files ofrepparttar conversations and activities taking place in your work area.

Almost everyone knowsrepparttar 119110 importance of protecting their system against viruses. My anti-virus software knocks off at least 3-4 viruses every week. And most people with a direct Internet connection (i.e. cable, ADSL) knowrepparttar 119111 importance of installing firewall software. My excellent (and free) Zone Alarm firewall (www.zonelabs.com/) protects me from hacks coming through open computer ports.

But recently I learned about a third threat --repparttar 119112 potential danger of malicious codes coming in through ports that I must leave open in order to accessrepparttar 119113 Internet. Hostile ActiveX codes, Java codes and Windows scrap objects can be buried in Rich Text email, embedded in documents, hidden in games and electronic postcards, or downloaded from web sites.

It's a safe bet that no responsible webmaster has knowingly placed hostile code onrepparttar 119114 site. However, many sites are vulnerable to attacks from hackers, and hackers have no such scruples. Imagine logging on to your favorite sports site and unknowingly downloading hostile code that damages your operating system, installs software that allows third parties to use your computer for denial of service attacks, or makes your personal data available to prying eyes. For full information, refer to an article recently published on ZDNET. http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2764074,00.html

To discover whether your system is vulnerable, visit Finjan web site and try their three online tests. They'll check your system for vulnerability to hacks from malicious ActiveX, Java and Windows scrap objects. I was shocked to discover that Finjan's code was able to hack my system easily and quickly. As proof, it created a desktop folder and named it You Have Been Hacked. The folder contained a sampling of Word documents found on my hard drive and a ten-second .wav recording ofrepparttar 119115 sounds in my workstation. Scary. This information, and more, would have been readily available to anyone who wanted to hack in. Needless to say, I installed Finjan's free SurfinGuard Pro software for protection. I'd recommend any Windows users try these tests. You might be glad you did (http://www.finjan.com/).

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use