If you want your business to be profitable, you must establish trust between you and your potential customers. Providing information about yourself and your business will help you establish credibility which translates to trust.

Post Contact Information
You must have your contact information listed on your web site. Your business address, phone number and email address are the most important elements of your contact information. If people can not contact you they will most likely feel uncomfortable and leave your web site.

Provide Company History
How long have you been doing business? If you are selling informational products, what makes you an expert? It doesn't hurt to add some background information about you and your employees (if you have them). This gives the customer the feeling that you are not hiding anything from them because you are, in essence, showing your visitors that you are a real person.

Present a Professional Image
Every customer contact, either through your web site, email, mail correspondence or by telephone must be completely professional. If your website looks as if it were haphazardly thrown up on the net, odds are you won't make many sales.

Display Testimonials
This doesn't mean make up a bunch of nice things about your business or product, slap on some fake name and viola! Instant testimonial. WRONG!! This will only end up doing major damage to your business. Use REAL testimonials written by REAL people.

Give a discount on your product to a few select individuals in exchange for a written testimonial you can use on your site. Ask permission of course before posting their comments and link it to their web site or email address. This will be one of the best references you can provide.

Always Give a Guarantee
When you provide your customers with a guarantee, you will be building trust. Certainly a business that would post "No Guarantees" or "Products As-Is" is going to make the customer feel uneasy and cost you a potential sale. By offering some type of guarantee, you are showing that you stand behind your product. It also gives your customer that warm, fuzzy feeling that they're safe shopping with you.

There are too many scams on the internet and many people have been burned. People are becoming more careful about who they hand over their hard earned cash to and are even more cautious about giving out their credit card information. By making your visitors feel they can trust your company, you will find that more of your visitors turn into buyers.

Kim Haas is a WAHM and Founder of Womans-Net.com, a popular online networking community focusing on working from home and women in business and owner of Article-Host.com To learn more about Kim, visit http://kimberlyhaas.com

Copyright 2005 Kim Haas