Internet Psychologist Graham Jones

Can your website visitors trust you? 4 things that you can do

21st February 2012 | Please add your comment

Before people purchase something on your website, they have to trust you. If your website does not look trustworthy, then you won’t get many sales no matter how many visitors your website has.

There are four things that you should do to show your website visitors that your company can be trusted:

1. Show that your website represents a real company

It’s amazing how many Internet businesses don’t list their postal addresses. Do these businesses have something to hide? If your customers don’t know who you are and where you live they might refrain from doing business with you.

Real life example:

You can find our full contact information here. We link to that page at the bottom of every web page. In addition, our full postal address is listed in the footer of every web page. We do this to make sure that our visitors know who we are.

You can see our tax number, our trade register number, publications in which our company was mentioned, etc.

What you should do on your own website:

If you’re serious about your business show your visitors that you have nothing to hide. List your full contact information on your website.

white hat 2. Show your website visitors why your company is better

Why should someone buy from you and not from your competitors? Is there anything that distinguishes you from the rest?

Real life example:

We distinguish ourselves from other SEO software companies by using only ethical search engine optimization methods. Our products do not use any shady tactics that will get your website banned from search engines.

We want our visitors to know that they can trust our products and that they are safe to use. That’s why we link to our code of ethics in the footer of every web page.

What you should do on your own website:

Show your website visitors how you’re different and why they should use your products or services instead of the ones of your competitors.

testimonials 3. Show your visitors that other people tested it before

If other people have tested your products and services then it’s less risky for new customers to buy from you. Your website visitors want to be reassured that you’re a serious business.

If your company or your product has received awards then show them to your visitors. If your current customers have something positive to say about your products or services, list these testimonials on your website.

What you should do on your own website:

Show your visitors how other people benefited from your products and services and what other people say about you.

4. Offer your website visitors guarantees

Web surfers don’t like risks. That’s why guarantees will help you to sell more.

Real life example:

It is 100% risk-free to test our products. We offer two guarantees to make it as safe as possible to buy our products:

You can return our website promotion tool IBP within 30 days for any reason. Even if you tell us that the dog ate it, that’s no problem. You will get your money back.

IBP is a tool that helps you to get your website on Google’s first result page for the keywords of your choice. If you use IBP as described in the manual and do not get a top 10 ranking, you will get your money back. This additional guarantee is valid for a full year!

What you should do on your own website:

Show your website visitors that you’re 100% sure that your product or service really delivers. Give strong guarantees so that your website visitors can only win if they try your products.

It’s important to have a trustworthy website if you want to sell something on the Internet. Show your visitors that your business is real and that they can trust you by using the tips above.

Article by Axandra SEO software

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Comments: Please add your comment
Categories: Ecommerce, Internet Marketing Articles, Selling
Tags: buy, internet business, testimonial, testimonials, trust, trustworthy, visitors, web page

Four Free Or Open Source Shopping Carts Compared And The Powerful New Winner

29th March 2011 |

Author: Greg Nicholl

Your choice of an e-Commerce Shopping Cart is very important. The software will either be suited or ill-suited to your type of business and your skills. A Wrong choice can make things more of a burden. This article talks about my journey to find a free Open Source Shopping Cart that I could use on my Shared Hosting accounts. Some carts had plenty of functions but lacked important ones like SEO modules. Some were well known but looked old like Web 1.2. One had plenty going for it but took up a ton of PHP memory. After this discovery adventure I present my top 2 choices.

The Journey Begins

When I began my search for a shopping cart I first looked at Zen Cart since I had had a little experience with it before. I find that Zen Cart looks a little bit stale by modern standards. It is noted as a very respectable and stable PHP shopping cart. However, there are few free templates available in the Zen Cart community. Most of what I\’ve seen didn\’t seem to meet the style demands that I was looking for. Granted, I could adjust templates and CSS in order to make it look better. I was not in the mood for that sort of work at the time. Zen Cart has a lot of nice features but the back end and catalog system seems overly complicated. In my opinion, it could take the newbie quite a bit of time to get used to the features of the Zen Cart back end. I decided not to go any further with Zen Cart.

Heavy Duty Stuff – Too Much To Cope With

I began to do some research and I came across a newer offering called Magento. Magento is starting to get a lot of acclaim. It is a very full featured Shopping Cart, in fact some insisted that it is a full business system rather than just a cart. At first look I thought that I had found what I was looking for. I downloaded Magento (you have to register to download it) and began to set it up. Magento has a free Community Edition that can be used. The fuller Professional Edition is available which comes with a paid support package. The Professional Edition comes with a price tag of $2,995 per year. That might hinder the participation of many small business persons. Magento Community has a lot of themes and extensions (otherwise known as modules). The Magento script has an onboard upload feature which connects to Magento Connect, the site where extensions and themes are made available. Some free things are available at Magento Connect but many of them are offered with a price and some with a hefty price tag. I had quite some trouble with installing a free module from Magento Connect. I\’m not sure just what the trouble was but the installation of that extension caused the total destruction of my site. I entertained the thought that I might have uploaded the wrong version of the extension but I had come to the belief that Magento Connect was going to safeguard me from that. At any rate, the site would need restored through a database backup or a total re-installation. I opted to do neither.

Another problem sprung up earlier which helped me to give up on the notion of using Magento. Shortly after I installed the software and started to configure it I received a blank white screen and a PHP memory error. I set up a php.ini file and increased the php memory. The problem did not go away. I did a little research and found out that Magento typically takes a whopping 128 MB of php memory. The more the weight of the php script the higher the amount of memory that is required. Magento is a little hefty. This would create a real problem. I used to run some Drupal sites on GoDaddy. Drupal with a significant number of modules can require from 60 to 90 MB of memory. When I ran into that situation Godaddy said no, I could not have an increase like that. I found that some other hosting companies will allow this on shared hosting accounts. I think it is doubtful that many hosting companies are going to want people to run php scripts at 128 MB. This could necessitate people obtaining Virtual Private Hosting or a Dedicated Server. This does not mean that Magento is bad, but it means that it is not what I am looking for. Magento is rich and feature full but it is for the online merchant who has need of a larger and more powerful site. I deleted the Magento installation and emptied the tables of the database to make ready for my next trial.

Does Not Have Features I Want

Somewhere along the road of discovery I tried Zeuscart, whose website is at http://zeuscart.com/. Zeuscart is a commercial Open Source shopping cart. with a free version. It is not Open Source in the way that Drupal or Joomla are. You are allowed to modify the source code but there is not a large community of developers for support and what community exists is not directly responsibility for the direction and upgrades of Zeuscart. The company AJ Square Inc., is apparently, responsible for maintaining the software. You may use the free version but must pay for the more advanced version with support.

Zeuscart seems to be a nice shopping cart. It has a modern look and feel and is very presentable. It did not have the extra Search Engine Optimization tools that I desired and that caused me to want to keep on looking. Someone on a forum had raised the objection that Zeuscart had had a security issue which could lead to Cross Site Scripting. Hints of this can be found across the Internet with This Site being one example. People tend to think that software owned by a company rather than a volunteer based community may not, and I stress may not, get speedy attention to security issues. I loved the way that Zeuscart looked but I moved on primarily because of the SEO and security issues. Another quirk was their registration process. When you receive your validation email you proceed to the site and are told that you may now change your password. Try as I may on a couple of occasions, I never found a member area and found no place to add or modify any information. That was sort of an ominous sign to me.

A Cute, Fast, Usable Cart

After some research I decided to try Cube Cart. Cube Cart is a nice little cart which is easy to install and is light weight. I found that there a number of really nice themes and modules available for Cube Cart. There is a tendency for sites which offer themes and modules to require registration and to then have them domain restricted. The theme which you register must have a key applied and then will only work on that exact domain. I obtained a very nice free theme called ‘Orange Crush’ at http://www.mycubecart.com. I had to jump through some hoops to get a registration key and get it registered. It will work at that domain only and it has their link in the footer which cannot be removed without paying a licensing fee. These limitations didn\’t seem too intrusive so I kept Cube Cart for one of my two sited. I find that Cube Cart is very user friendly and dependable. It was very easy to set up. The categories are easy to establish and the pricing, payment and other modules were very easy to cope with. For selling digital downloads there is no upload feature. To set up digital downloads one must use FTP to upload them to a folder on your server. This means that you must be sure to list the exact file name, to a tee, or the download will not be available. You can use Google AdSense easily with Cube Cart. In fact I find Cube Cart to be very appealing with an easy interface and it looks sweet. My shop is located here and I like it. The cart does have some limitations in the area of SEO, not offering a complete set of tools to aid Search Engine Optimization. I believe that if I had 8 to 10 solid hours I could have my cart set up and ready to go online.

Presta Shop – A Great New Cart

I wanted to install one more store and I looked further for a good cart with good SEO tools and options. I found that PrestaShop was an up and coming Shopping Cart which was getting some very favorable attention. PrestaShop is a very light weight shopping cart which has nice modern looks and a very good feature set. I found PrestaShop to be very easy to install. There is a large number of modules in the stock installation of PrestaShop. There are modules for meta keywords and meta description, Google Sitemap, traffic analysis, Google Analytics, newsletter, customer notifications, specials, canonical url and many more. The features of PrestaShop offer a lot of ways to gather and analyze the traffic and visitors to your site. Several of the payment gateways are with foreign companies, since PrestaShop originates in France. It does offer the option of PayPal and also Google Checkout also. The shop is fast to load even though it is loaded with a large number of modules.

It was easy to set up categories and to begin to install products. Setting up your display of products is very easy and there is a color selector feature for products which come in a number of colors. Upload of Cover images is very easy as well as the upload of digital products. Digital products are very easy to deal with and they are uploaded to a secure place on the server without the need to use FTP. Prices can be set at $0 on digital products if you want to offer some free items. The selection of a free item will make it available instantly as a free download. Pricing of products can be set with a discount which will expire after a set period of time. Registration is required for purchase of products with PrestaShop but modules are available for a fee, which will enable a one page checkout for people who do not want to register to buy. Some free templates are available for PrestaShop and customization is possible through templates and CSS.

This is the outcome of my shopping cart comparison in. There are many others that I have not covered. However in my opinion, Cube Cart and PrestaShop are fine php shopping carts – my top two picks. After I got my PrestaShop set up at this address The Ebooks Planet and was pleased with it I noticed that I had an email asking me if I wanted to vote for PrestaShop for the 2010 Open-source Award in the E-commerce category! I did vote for this fine cart software and was glad to do so. Then I found that on November 18 PrestaShop won the Open-Source Award for 2010. I pick PrestaShop as the big winner.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/four-free-or-open-source-shopping-carts-compared-and-the-powerful-new-winner-4407992.html

About the Author

Do you need an Ecommerce Shopping Cart solution for your products? Find the whole process comfusing and distracting from your main business focus? Why take time out from the things that you do the best to learn a new field that is foreign to you.

Allow me to set up an effective online store for your business. I have 12 years experience in Web Design and 4 years experience in CMS and Shopping Cart design. I am a qualified Website Designer.

Categories: Ecommerce, Selling
Tags: comparison, e commerce shopping cart, php shopping cart, software, zen cart

eCommerce for Import Export Companies

13th March 2011 |

This year, according to eMarketer, one billion people worldwide will have Internet access and nearly 250 million households will have broadband. Although, Asia accounts for 56 percent of world population, but only 10 percent has access to the Internet at present. With the rapid economic development of Asian countries this figure will increase dramatically in the coming years. This ubiquitous presence of the Internet is forcing companies to embrace the Internet as a marketing and sales channel aggressively. Many companies have adopted Internet based technologies to streamline their crucial business processes and benefiting enormously from it.

Import Export companies are no difference! Most export import companies are using the Internet to augment customer base, tap into new markets, research competitors, find new products and evaluate country opportunities. However, many of these same companies are still slow in implementing eBusiness features in their daily business activities and, as a result, fail to garner true value from the use of the Internet. Trading companies – those which are still not doing online business transactions – should follow the examples of their retail counterparts and adopt eCommerce strategies.

According to a recent study conducted by Forrester Research, retail sales are expected to rise 20 percent to US$ 211.4 billion – a two fold increase from only three years ago. Whether you are in exporting or importing business it does not make any difference, by using eCommerce and adding some of the basic eBusiness functions to your website you can also profit from this trend.

Electronic commerce is the process of selling products through the Internet. There are two distinct segments of eCommerce – Business to Business and Business to Consumers. Retailers are mostly involved in B2C and import export traders are often more in the B2B sector. That’s why you need to realize that the components of eCommerce you may need in your website will be based on your business specifics. In general, all eCommerce sites are a combination of some of the following business functionalities:

• An eCatalog so that buyers can browse through the products you have to offer

• Product specification that gives detailed technical and delivery information

• A feature that allows sending request for quote online (RFQ)

• A product order placing system – normally a shopping cart

• Ability to view order status

• Sending a notification if a new product added to the catalogue which was requested by a prospective buyer

• At least one payment method. For small orders you should have a merchant account.

• Purchase order sending ability. Buyers should be able to send PO for the products readily available or the contracts already negotiated with you.

• Billing system should generate invoices automatically

Once you implemented these features there is virtually no geographic restriction on where you can sell your products. If you are an export company you may consider translating your eCommerce site to the language of your targeted market. This gives you an extra ability to leverage your sales endeavour.

Benefits of eCommerce

Increase revenue: By implementing eCommerce you are opening a new sales channel. Study shows, a well prepared eCommerce strategy can increase sales from mere 10 percent to several times within the first six month of implementation. There is a possibility that order size per customer will also increase thanks to some eCommerce functionalities like advanced eCatalog, Notification service, order status viewing system and ability to offer related products.

Expand client base: Depending on the exposure of your site, you can acquire customers from every corner of the world. You are no longer confined to any geographic area.

Reach niche market segments: You can market your eCommerce site by pin pointing a specific market segment with the help of the Internet.

Lower operating costs: Your eCommerce site will eliminate or reduce workloads of sales and support force. Marketing on the Internet is significantly cheaper than in offline world. You will also benefit from lower telecommunication costs, losses incurred from document errors, inventory and sales management costs. This will have direct impact on your company bottom line.

Better customer service: The ability to provide decisive information, real time interaction with customers and customer relationship management functionalities allow you to serve your customers better and help increase customer retention.

Enhance your company image: A well-managed, robust and user-friendly eCommerce site enhances positive image of a company.

Are you ready for eCommerce?

Before you implement an eCommerce plan, you need to figure out as an exporter or importer how viable it is for you right now? Are you going to receive the benefits mentioned above? Will the customers from different geographical location benefit from your new service channel? How critical is a well-described product specification for your customers?

Any company no matter how small or big it is from an eCommerce site no doubt it will benefit immensely from an eCommerce site. But the question is, are you ready to commit enough time and money to make your new venture successful?

Developing your eCommerce site

Depending on the type of eCommerce site you are planning to build it might take somewhere from three months to over a year.

There are several ways of starting an eCommerce site.

Building in house: You should consider developing your eCommerce site in house only if you have significant experience in this field. In order to build a successful eCommerce site you will need a team of experts in programming, designing, copy writing, and, most importantly, a project manager with the knowledge of your business model, enough technical proficiency and experience so that the system gets developed on time with expected business functionalities.

Outsourcing: There is no doubt that outsourcing is more cost effective and less time consuming for most of the companies. The only thing is you have to choose the organization which will build your site carefully and professionally.

Using web stores: If you are constrained by time or would like to take advantage of eCommerce immediately you can also get eCommerce site from online service providers. These web stores have all the needed functionalities for a true eCommerce site. Some of them are also capable of providing supply chain management and other key business automation abilities. Check out sites like Rusbiz.com.

While implementing eCommerce strategy you need to remember that eCommerce just enhances and complements your present business model but the fundamentals of your business remain the same. However, eCommerce with it’s innate flexible nature may open new business horizons for you with all the risk and reward implications.

Nowshade Kabir is the CEO of http://www.rusbiz.com, a leading B2B portal with many unique B2B functionalities. On http://trade-leads.rusbiz.com you can post export import related trade leads. For outsourcing your eCommerce website requirement check out http://www.rusbiz.com/design_package.html.

Article from articlesbase.com

Starting a Business Online – 8 Things You Need

18th October 2010 |

By Carolyn Anderson

If you are thinking of starting a business online, there are important considerations you have to make. Of course not all businesses online become successful thus it is also important that you plan it very well from the start to make it a success.

To help you have a good start, here are some things that you will need in starting a business online.

1. A good business plan. Business plans are important part of any business and even if you want to venture into the online world, it helps a lot to have a concrete plan on how you can go about with your business. Write down your business plan before even thinking about investing money. This will save you from the losses of a business that is not carefully planned.

2. An easy to remember domain name. Your domain name is your unique web address and you can get one for a minimal fee. This will help make your business easy to remember and gives your business a established identity online.

3. A professional looking website. Your website will be your online store and you have to make sure that your website is something that people find interesting, easy to navigate and use, and pleasing to the eyes as well. It is important also to customize your website according to what pleases your online readers as well as the search engines. Make sure that photos load easily, and that your colors and fonts are not distracting. If you are selling something online, you also have to consider putting a secured website where customers can have confidence in paying online. Make sure also that you accept easy and convenient mode of payments such as accepting credit cards and other online money transfer mechanisms to encourage easy sales from your customers.

4. A shopping cart software that allows your online customers to select the products they want and pay it in bulk later. This will also take care of your electronic catalog and makes online ordering easy and convenient for people online.

5. Security tools in your website to ward off virus, malwares and spywares that may attack your site or your customer’s computers. Putting up security tools in your website is indeed important to also gain the confidence of your online customers.

6. Shipping and delivery. One of the biggest considerations in online businesses is the delivery and shipping of products all around the world. Pick a courier services that allow you to deliver goods in good condition and on time. These are two of the most important things you have to consider with your delivery. Also make sure that you have products that are not breakable, or too fragile to be shipped to other parts of the world. This can be a lot of risks especially during shipment and may solicit more arguments with your customers.

7. Stable Internet connection. If your online business is not just about delivering goods to customers but delivering services, make sure you also have a stable Internet connection that will allow you to deliver your services on time.

8. Good customer service. Of course, a good business today should always take care of the needs of their customer and that businesses should be backed up with good customer service.

Carolyn Anderson maintains two successful businesses online. If you want to learn an easy business to make money online, check out cash formula. Also check out Legit Online Jobs, where you can find work from home job opportunities to allow you to make money at home.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carolyn_Anderson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Starting-a-Business-Online—8-Things-You-Need&id=5182426

Categories: Ecommerce
Tags: search, website

Are You Offering Freebies the Right Way?

14th October 2010 |

By Stephanie Foster

One way to get attention to your home business is to offer freebies. Or so they say. Freebies certainly get people’s attention, but are they doing what you want them to?

Only if you’re offering them in the right way.

Offer the wrong ones and you get lots of freebie seekers but not so many buyers. That’s not going to help you build a successful business. You need people coming to your site who are willing to spend money.

Some tactics are usually best avoided.

1. Giving away your services.

There’s a limited use to giving away your services. It’s a way to build a portfolio, sure, but once that’s done, get out of the freebie way of thinking.

This can be tough when someone’s asking you to give away your services to help them get started too, as often happens. However, you need to be firm. Your services are valuable, and people don’t take things they can get for free as seriously.

2. Giving away information you usually sell.

Giving away information correctly is a powerful way to show that you know your business. Giving away information you usually sell because someone says they can’t afford it isn’t your smartest business practice.

The main problem is that, once again, people don’t respect the things they get for free as much. Just think of all the free downloads you probably have on your computer. Would you have paid more attention to it if you paid for it?

3. When people say they can’t afford your services.

It’s hard to hear from people that they really need your help but can’t afford your prices, so they want them free. But if they can’t afford you, where’s the benefit to you in helping them? It may feel good for a time, but you’re trying to run a business. Giving your hard work away just to be helpful makes your life harder.

It’s not a bad thing to have simple freebies such as a PDF for those who can’t afford your usual services – they might be able to later. But don’t give away your best stuff.

When Should You Give Freebies?

Most of us like to be helpful in our businesses. That means we’re going to give away a lot of things. They can build your reputation and bring in paying customers when it’s done right.

You should give freebies when:

1. They help build your business.

Blog posts, free reports, teleseminars, videos, all of these are tools to help you build your business. They should be focused on the goal of building your business, either directly by offering a relevant product or by improving your reputation as a business owner.

Give away everything and what can you sell?

2. It doesn’t take more time than the potential return is worth.

A freebie that takes too much time away from paying work isn’t a good plan most of the time. A freebie which gets people buying from you without excessive effort is worth the effort.

Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/ about running an online home business. Learn how to promote your online business with a free e-course at her site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephanie_Foster
http://EzineArticles.com/?Are-You-Offering-Freebies-the-Right-Way?&id=5170430

Categories: Ecommerce
Tags: blog

Can your website visitors trust you? 4 things that you can do

Useful items

Four Free Or Open Source Shopping Carts Compared And The Powerful New Winner

eCommerce for Import Export Companies

Starting a Business Online – 8 Things You Need

Are You Offering Freebies the Right Way?

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