Difficulty in Creating a Web Based Business

Starting a home-based business through a brand new, never heard of website can be one of the most difficult tasks. Creating the actual website itself is the easiest part, the hard part is getting people to visit the site or even purchase your merchandise not knowing your brand or even who you are.

There are several things that are working against the new website business owner than the businesses you may find around the corner formed on solid ground and one in which you can look in the window to see the merchandise. Once you do get visitors to your site your site has to prove they are professional, trustworthy, and a place that they feel they can spend their hard earned money without fear of a loss.

A website owner today can spend hours upon hours creating credibility for their business and their product, but that credibility goes nowhere without those customers sharing your name to their friends, family, co-workers, etc... Here are just but a few ideas you can keep in mind when marketing and selling your credibility to your potential customers.

The Website

First and probably most important, your website has to look professional and contain a great logo with a business slogan that explains your business in just a few short words. If your website is overloaded with graphics that you believe catch the customers' eyes then you're wrong. Best advice, go simple. The only graphics should be your merchandise graphics and advertiser banners (not too many advertisements though, it makes you look desperate). People want to see what you have to offer with merchandise pictures, but they also want to see what you have to say about your business. What you have to say is extremely important as this sets you out from all the others. Be convincing, but be real and truthful. DON'T be overly persuasive as this will look bogus and bring you back to the level of all the other thousands of sites just like yours.

About Us

This is another extremely important page on your site. One of the first places a customer goes when they aren't familiar with the site is the about us page. Don't advertise your business here, but rather explain how your business came about and who founded it and when. Use your real name and tell the story of your business from the very beginning. Another good trick is to add the owner and executive bios as this will add even more credibility and a more business like atmosphere. This also creates transparency which is very important. Your customers will believe what you say when your business is transparent.

Contact Us

By golly you MUST have a contact us page. One of the biggest reasons people do not purchase merchandise from an online business is because the customer cannot contact you. Make sure the mailing address is correct, the phones numbers will lead to someone on the other end, and the email addresses are correct and read on a normal basis. If a customer contacts you and you respond professionally in answering their questions; you just made a sale and they will come back again.

I have owned several online businesses and all of them have been generous to me, not because I sale great merchandise, but because I am transparent and professional in every meaning of the words. This has added much credibility and in turn brought hundreds of customers.