Privacy: Reduce your Customers’ Concerns by Building Trust First

Written by Anti Spam League


Before making a purchase from you, buyers need to trust your company and think that your products and services will do what they are supposed to. Do your marketing and online practices help establishrepparttar trust necessary to convince prospects to buy from you? What isrepparttar 108711 connection between privacy and trust? Evidence shows thatrepparttar 108712 two are closely correlated.

Sincerepparttar 108713 beginning of interpersonal communication, trust has been perhapsrepparttar 108714 most important influence on information disclosure. Then, when commerce started, people would trade with those individuals whom they trusted and would avoid those who were perceived as non-trust-worthy. Intrinsically subjective and hard to define, trust is a function ofrepparttar 108715 amount and type of control one has in a relationship. Social exchange theory advocates that individuals weigh bothrepparttar 108716 costs and rewards in deciding whether to engage in social transactions. Aided by a little common sense we can conclude that ifrepparttar 108717 rewards outweighrepparttar 108718 costs, thenrepparttar 108719 individual is likely to enter into an exchange relationship whereas ifrepparttar 108720 cost outweighsrepparttar 108721 rewards there will be no exchange. This trade-off occurring inside people’s minds should not be overlooked since it ultimately determines whether they will buy from you or not.

The same process takes place in cyberspace. That is,repparttar 108722 risks of disclosing personal information are weighed againstrepparttar 108723 benefits when deciding to provide information to a website. Hence, trust is critical to disclosure in both interpersonal and online relationships. This is where privacy concerns come in.

In a previous article; “How to write a privacy policy”, we said that privacy involves protecting our integrity as individuals and our right to disclose or not to disclose our personal information to third parties. Since technology has become such a powerful enabler of data collection and utilization, one ofrepparttar 108724 biggest IT responsibilities is making sure thatrepparttar 108725 personal information their systems collect is protected from misuse and abuse. Who drawsrepparttar 108726 line that separates them both? This seems to be quite an intricate issue.

As a consequence ofrepparttar 108727 terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, increased security is a reality in today's world. Asrepparttar 108728 US government collects more personal information about its citizens, are Americans really confident that their personal information is being safeguarded without their privacy being compromised? A survey conducted byrepparttar 108729 Ponemon Institute, a leading privacy think tank, in September 2003 uncovers some interesting findings. The more than 6,000 Americans who participated in this first annual Privacy Trust Survey were asked to indicate their confidence, as it relates to protecting privacy, regarding 60 different government agencies. The overall results indicated thatrepparttar 108730 majority of Americans surveyed (83%) consider privacy a matter that is important or very important to them. Nonetheless, many respondents indicated they have a high level of uncertainty aboutrepparttar 108731 government agencies that collect and use that information, thus creating a negative impression of those organizations. The survey also showed that protecting personal information is important to people of all ages, education and income levels. Amongrepparttar 108732 organizations scoringrepparttar 108733 highest were hospitals, doctors, banks andrepparttar 108734 U.S. Postal Service. Those ranking lowest included retailers, grocery stores, telephone companies andrepparttar 108735 newly created Department of Homeland Security. Although at a first glance it might seem somewhat strange that two federal government agencies could score so differently onrepparttar 108736 survey, a closer look would explainrepparttar 108737 apparent discrepancy. When you comparerepparttar 108738 two, it is easy to see why consumers trustrepparttar 108739 mailman more thanrepparttar 108740 people fighting terrorism. The Postal Service has more than a century of proof it can be trusted, whilerepparttar 108741 Department of Homeland Security does not yet have such proof.

A number of studies of interpersonal exchange situations have confirmed that trust reducesrepparttar 108742 perceived risks or cost involved in revealing private information. As a case in point, Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky in their ‘Internet Consumer Trust Model’ (1999) found that trust increases confidence in a company, which lowersrepparttar 108743 perceived risk of electronic exchange with that company and, therefore, increasesrepparttar 108744 likelihood of consumers engaging in electronic transactions. Similarly, Swaminathan et al. inrepparttar 108745 ‘Exchange Model’ (1999) established that consumers prefer to do business with web sites that they perceive to be reliable, honest, consistent, competent, fair, responsible, helpful, and altruistic, all of which are main components of trust.

All ofrepparttar 108746 above indicates thatrepparttar 108747 role of trust in facilitating disclosure is especially critical in online exchanges, where computer-mediated communication replaces physical contact. Other potential issues onrepparttar 108748 Internet include; technical difficulties for people who are new torepparttar 108749 online world, lack of ability for consumers to physically inspect goods prior to purchase, and new companies that have not been inrepparttar 108750 market long enough to establish good reputations. Trust is important because it contributes to building a good or bad image ofrepparttar 108751 company beforerepparttar 108752 customers’ eyes. Negative images are very hard to change. This is why this is such a delicate and critical issue.

5 hot Internet businesses for 2005

Written by Nowshade Kabir


If you are planning to start a new business in 2005, you should seriously consider one ofrepparttar many Internet based businesses available today. The online businesses have numerous inherent advantages in comparison to their brick and mortar counterparts.

Investment is relatively small The basic elements to start an online business arerepparttar 108710 followings: a good product or service, an online presence, and a good marketing plan. All these things can be done on a shoe-string budget. You won’t require more than US$ 2000 to start any ofrepparttar 108711 business described below. In most ofrepparttar 108712 cases,repparttar 108713 investment can be even lower. Quick to launch Once you know, what products or services you are going to sell, you can, basically, start your business within three to four weeks. Some ofrepparttar 108714 online businesses don’t even take more than two to three days to start.

Large audience Internet is big and it’s getting bigger! Whatever business you prefer to start, Internet allows you to tap instantly into a huge number of potential customers, which is, virtually, impossible to do with a brick and mortar enterprise.

Huge growth potential Withrepparttar 108715 Internet, sky isrepparttar 108716 limit! If you have a good product, service or idea, you can create a dot com behemoth over night! Smart guys are doing this! Internet success examples are abound.

Work from home The best thing about online business is you can take care of it even while you are on vacation. No office is necessary; you work from home, if that is what you prefer.

Less paper work Since starting for your quotation and purchase orders torepparttar 108717 invoices and shipment tracking, everything is done online; you hardly have to do any paper work. Check out an example of how easy it is to manage your business processes online at http://www.rusbiz.com/deal_manage.html

Flexible time schedule No longer have you had to work nine to five! You set your own schedules. Although, with any new business, initially, you have to work very hard, however,repparttar 108718 time flexibility allows you to do other important things whenever it’s necessary.

There is no limit to Internet business ideas. Savvy entrepreneurs are constantly coming up with mind-boggling online projects and striking rich in no time.

Here I have chosen several ofrepparttar 108719 online businesses with great upward potential with proven success history.

Selling information

If you are asked, what do you do onrepparttar 108720 Internet most ofrepparttar 108721 time? The answer, most probably, will be searching or retrieving information. You are not alone! A survey conducted by Neilsen Media Research shows that Books and Information Category tops repparttar 108722 highest selling product and service onrepparttar 108723 Internet with a significant margin in comparison to other categories. This makes information a natural product for sale onrepparttar 108724 Internet. Information sells online inrepparttar 108725 formats of e-books, articles, reports, data, whitepapers etc. If you have expertise in any specific field, you may consider selling your ideas in one of repparttar 108726 mentioned format. Check out Clickbank’s marketplace to get a good idea what people are selling. You will be truly amazed byrepparttar 108727 scope of ideas!

Resources

http://www.clickbank.com http://ezine.rusbiz.com/article/13.htm

Travel agency

According to Jupitar Researchrepparttar 108728 U.S. online travel market has grown at a fast pace overrepparttar 108729 last year, totaling $54 billion in 2004, or 23% of travel purchased. The online market is projected to grow to $91 billion in 2009, or 33% of travel purchased.

Apart from being a soaring market, travel agency is also highly rewarding and satisfactory business. The interesting thing about this business is your own network of acquaintances is also your potential customers.

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