Building Credibility Online: 4 Helpful Tips To Build Credibility On The Internet

Author: Jeremy Gislason

Internet marketing has become much more competitive in recent years; and as a result, consumer confidence has lowered. The trust factor has been lost in many people surfing the Internet, and it is harder to build up a reputation than it has ever been.

Here are a few things you can do to help show your customers that you are there for them all the way, and not just some fly-by-night individual or company that has only dollars signs in their eyes.

Credibility Building Tip # 1: Be Accountable

In everything you do, be accountable. Be accountable for your actions, your products and your services. In order to get this done, you will have to be available for your customers in one way or another.

Have you ever had the experience of buying a service or product, and trying to contact customer service for some type of support? In this day and age, it has become a given that many times support will not be offered, and you will be on your own to fumble your way and find your own answers on the Internet. Marketing has taken an all time low with scammers trying to make a fast buck.

When you’re first starting out, you will need to answer your e-mails as fast as you can and let people know that you are there for them. As you build up your business, you can hire customer service representatives to work on your behalf. The main concern here is letting people know that you are there to back up your product or service.

Many times people just contact customer service to see if there is anyone at the other end. At other times, customers really appreciate an answer to their question, even if it does not give a solution. They are thankful to just get a reply to an email or support ticket.

If e-mails cannot be answered quickly enough, you will lose customers. Try to answer all of your mail within a 24-hour period; and if you’re unable to do so, let people know that you will respond within 48 or 72 hours. People can usually deal with this time period if they know ahead of time that there will be a short wait.

Credibility Building Tip # 2: Offer a Photo.

A photo of yourself, or you with your family, allows people to see that you are a real person, and not an unknown. It is best to show people who you are, and it really does not matter what you look like.

Some Internet marketers have a misconception that they should look all shiny and polished; when in reality, the average customer can relate better to someone who presents himself honestly.

Fast cars and money jars full of gold used to be applied for Internet marketing advertising, but the average consumer distrusts this type of flamboyant hype and is more drawn to honesty and integrity.

It is also best to use your real name along with your photo. It is a sign that you have nothing to hide, and are willing to present your true self.

Credibility Building Tip # 3: Show Your Results

People want proof before they buy a product, in many cases. And if you can show them that your product or service outperforms others, then you have a much better chance of selling to them.

It is a good idea to make a video of you using the product yourself, so that others can see that if it is good enough for you to use, then it must be good enough for them. You can also show the results you got by using this product or service right on your video.

Making a video of yourself in this fashion will also raise your trust factor by again making yourself more real. The video is very easy to make, and if you plan it out ahead of time it won’t take long at all.

Credibility Building Tip # 4: Stand Behind Everything You Offer

Your guarantee is everything, and most Internet consumers are looking for a guarantee before they make a purchase. You need to stand behind everything you offer, and let people know about this before they make their purchase.

It is important to make your guarantee stand out above the crowd of other guarantees. Let people know what they can expect before they make their initial purchase, and then stick to it no matter what.

Whenever you offer a product or service, your reputation is at stake. Take a look at what you are offering and make sure that it is something that delivers value and not a devalued moneymaking scheme.

As an affiliate, test everything you promote or you might find yourself losing some credibility by offering a bad product.

Your credibility, your honor and your values should be part of your Internet marketing business. If you can show others that you have set this kind of standard, then you will have many followers that will stay with you forever.

About the Author:

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Building Credibility Online: 4 Helpful Tips To Build Credibility On The Internet

I Have a Domain Name – Now What?

Author: Robert Goodwin

Define Your Website Goals

Whether your website is a corporate website, an ecommerce website, a niche social media site or a totally new online business concept, you should put your website goals on paper.

Website goals should clearly state the purpose of your website and what the website should accomplish when someone visits your website.

For example, the goals of an ecommerce website is a self-service purchase of products or services and to create a customer for life, whereas a corporate website may be more informational or designed to pre-screen prospective customers and generate leads for your sales department.

Every business is different and every website will have very specific goals. By writing down your goals and working backwards, you can design a website that supports your website goals.

Create a Site Map

A site map can be as simple as an outline or list of the main pages your website and sub-pages your website will have.

A typical small business site map will look like something like this:

Home

About Us

- History
– Mission Statement
– Our Founder

Our Services & Products

Frequently Asked Questions

What Our Clients Are Saying

Request a Quote

Contact Us

Your site map is a great way to organize the general navigation of your website, before you start designing the look and feel.

Special Website Features

Special website features are capabilities your website will have, beyond a standard website page.

Special features typically include:

- Form Pages – Sending form information by email and database capture.

- Newsletter Subscription – Automatic signup by visitors for email newsletters.

- Autoresponders – Automatic sending out of one or more emails in response to a request for more information, series of tips, online course, etc.

- Photo Gallery – Slide show or thumbnails of product images.

- Shopping Cart – Ability to allow users to purchase products or services online.

- Flash Presentation – Audio and Video presentation to be downloaded or viewed within a website page.

- Registration and Login – Ability for customers or prospective customers to register and receive access to website pages and information not available to the general public.

- CMS (Content Management System) – Ability for you and your staff to update website pages, delete and add pages to the website through an Administration page.

- Knowledge Base – Support for products using a database and content management to offer many topics with support information for each.

- Survey – Series of questions which captures survey responses into a database.

- Trouble Ticket – System for customers to contact your support team to resolve issues, track responses and issue resolution.

- Online Operator (Chat) – System for chatting with potential customers and customers who have questions in real time.

- Project or Job Status – System for allowing customers to check on the current status of their job or project.

Approaches to Building Your Website

Even if you have a small website project, you should look for an expert to help you build your website. A website designer can save you both time and money, and help you with the many technical issues that you will encounter along the way.

Rent or Own? – There are some online website building sites that let you “rent” space on their server and create your own website using their software. This approach should only be used to build a quick website presence or to create a “prototype” of your website.

Renting “Gotchas” – While the low monthly fees of a do-it-yourself website building website vendor are tempting, keep in mind you never really own your website. Later, when you decide to move your website or add more complex features to your website, you will find a rented website to be a major headache.

Content Management – You should have a content management system for several reasons. Google likes content rich websites, and having an easy-to-use CMS will encourage you to add more content your website frequently, and free you from having a webmaster make update for you.

Branding – Your website should reflect your branding. Make sure your logo and corporate color scheme is used in your website so all your marketing materials look like they belong to the same design family.

Website Requirements – Before you hire a website designer, put all your website requirements on paper so there are few if any assumptions made about your website. For more complicated websites, be sure to put together a RFP (Request For Proposal) and ask several website design companies to give you a proposal.

RFP – A Request For Proposal, if properly detailed, can help ensure you will have a proper response by several different website design companies so you can choose between several approaches to creating your website.

Website Proposals – Evaluate all proposals to make sure the proposal fits your RFP or website requirements. Be wary of proposals that are extremely low or extremely high. Talk to the different vendors who respond to your RFP so you can get an idea of how well they communicate and what it will be like to work with them.

Get It In Writing

Be sure to have a formal agreement with your website designer and make sure you understand the agreement before you sign on the dotted line.

- Out Clause – Make sure you have a way out of the agreement in case there are problems or you find your vendor delaying the project or not delivering what the proposal calls for.

- Website Ownership – Ideally, you should own all the website project files, graphics, website code and files upon completion of the website, but sometimes this is not spelled out in agreements.

- Hosting – Be careful if the website vendor is providing hosting. In the event you part company with your website designer, you will need full access to the hosting account in case you want to move the website to another hosting company in the future.

- Additional Charges – Your agreement should spell out how additional project requests are to be handled so you do not have unexpected charges after the fact.

- Time Line – Your website proposal should include a project plan and at least a simple week by week time line so you will know how long the project will take.

- Project Management – Who will be responsible for managing the project? Your website design company should do this, but if you hire a freelance resource you may be assuming some project management.

- Vendor Payment Schedule – Most website designers will require an up-front retainer fee, which is either one fourth or one third of the total project price. Additional payments should be paid as work progresses. The final payment should not be paid until the website is approved by you and ready for launch. Never pay for a website project in total up-front.

Building your website can be very challenging when you consider all the small pieces of the puzzle that have to fit together to make the project complete.

If you have a large website project or one with many website features and custom programming, consider creating your website in phases. Focus on getting a basic website up and running in the first phase, then use one or more future phases to add additional features.

Working with a website design professional will make the process go faster and more smoothly, and provide you with a sounding board for your ideas to make sure your website will be professional and technically sound.

About the Author:
Robert Goowdwin is a website consultant, and has worked on website projects since 1997. He is a frequent contributor to http://www.expert-website-design.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – I Have a Domain Name – Now What?