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Ecommerce / Web Marketing Ezine
April 14 2002
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View the TTB Ezine Archive
Taming the Beast Ezine - April 14 2002
Contents:
1. Site and Internet News
*Google refreshes database - yippee!
*InoculateIT winds up free antivirus - an alternative
*Site navigation improved? - you be the judge
2. Article Summary - Been burned? Here's what we've learned!
3. Full Article - Reassuring your visitors
Many articles are available from our site, free for reproduction on your web site or ezine. Subjects covered include Web Design, Ecommerce, Internet Promotion and Marketing, Security and of a general cyberspace related theme. The free reproduction article index can be viewed at:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/
articles/articlemain.htm
Don't forget to check out the other great resources on TTB! We're adding new tools and tutorials on a weekly basis! Have you tried out the online Flash and DHTML generator as yet? Find it here:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/
generators/codegenerators.htm
Please forward this newsletter on to those who you feel may be interested in the subjects discussed. Unsubscribe details at the end of the newsletter.
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Site and Internet News
Welcome to all the new subscribers of our ezine! I hope you find this publication to be useful and I look forward to your feedback so we can continue improving it.
Google refreshes database
We noticed another sharp jump in visitors in the last week, bless Google's socks! Google has begun refreshing its databases, which is bi-monthly ritual that all Search Engine Professionals wait for with bated breath. We have noticed that it hasn't settled yet, this is also a feature of the Google search engine known as the Google "dance". Pages appear and disappear in the index for a week or so. So before planning your next Google optimisation, give things a bit of a chance to settle.
Inoculate winds up free antivirus updates - an alternative:
For the past couple of years, the good folks at VET (Computer Asssociates) have made a great free antivirus program available - Inoculate ITPE. We've used it for some time and our systems have never been compromised apart from one malicious bookmarking script. This is a great record considering we usually receive around a dozen viruses a week. Thanks to the Inoculate crew for a great service.
Unfortunately, all good (free) things come to an end and Inoculate ITPE updates will no longer be free from May 2002. Adios!
So what's the alternative? Some months ago a TTB subscriber wrote to me about AVG, a free anti-virus program from Grisoft - thanks Fozman! We've been trialling it for a while now on a couple of different flavors of Windows and I'm pleased to report that it appears to be an excellent product. It has several advantages over Inoculate, one of the best being the integration with Outlook and Outlook Express. You can specify that all incoming and outgoing email is scanned and then an verification note is added to the bottom of each email. This is a great feature!
I'm always concerned about the number of programs running in the background on my systems. Once upon a time, having antivirus software running in the background was not a necessity. You just had to be careful. This is no longer the case. My system tray is now so bogged down with security utilities that my monitor leans to the right ;0). Another positive feature of AVG is that even with all the options turned on, it takes up less resources than Inoculate. GriSoft releases easy-to-install updates on a regular basis and AVG is continually independently verified as being 100% effective.
All that for free - not a bad deal at all!
So, if you are looking for great free antivirus software, give Grisoft's AVG a try. You can learn more about Grisoft antivirus solutions here:
http://www.grisoft.com
Site navigation improved?
In the last two weeks, we've added a drop-down box to the top right hand side of each page in an effort to improve site navigation. Any feedback? Keep it or lose it? Your comments would be appreciated.
2. Article Summary - Been burned? Here's what we learned!
Finding the right clients for your advertising inventory is a major challenge for any web master! There are so many advertising agencies and affiliate programs on the Internet being run by unscrupulous merchants.
Web master/site owner forums are littered with complaints from affiliates of problems with payments and the questionable business practices of some affiliate program providers. Here's some tips and our recommendations for network advertising agencies:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/admin/marketing.htm
3. Full Article - Reassuring your visitors (revised)
The Internet is a now a tangled web. There are many dark alleys and dangerous places. The average surfer is becoming more and more aware of "little nasties" such as web bugs, email taps, invasive web site monitoring -the list goes on.
It is getting more difficult to convince our visitors that we are not there to fleece them, rip them off or con them. I guess you can't blame people, there are many among us that will. We've found this out the hard way in recent times through dealings with some of our merchant advertisers. It doesn't seem to matter the size or stature of the dotcom, corruption is rife throughout the online world - just as it is in the physical world.
How can you reassure your visitors that you have good intentions?
Forget Photoshop or other popular stock images
Not so long ago, a professional veneer on your site would convince many visitors that you are in fact professional. If you are in the process of developing a site for your business, don't take this as being the case any more. No longer can a designer take a Photoshop image CD and make a small operation look like a Fortune 500 company - people aren't that stupid. In fact, a seasoned surfer can spot a Photoshop image a mile away! Use some originality if you are going to use images - use photos of "real" humans; the staff in your business, tasteful shots of yourself etc (with clothes on). If you have a presentable bricks and mortar location, include a couple of shots of the building.
Show a commitment to visitor privacy
Another way to gain the trust of web visitors is with the introduction of a Privacy Statement. It is a declaration to your visitors about what your site contains. The privacy statement also declares what type of information you gather from your visitors and how you use it.
If you have read a Privacy Statement, you may feel that you need a team of Californian lawyers and a huge bank balance to draft one! Actually, you can make them up free of charge using a number of generators available on the web. The generators take you through the process, step by step, with explanations of the various sections that you should complete.
You will be asked to supply the following details:
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Type of data collected from hit counters and server logs (and why)
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The use of cookies on your site (why you use them)
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How you secure the information that you gather (is it stored on the server etc.)
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Public forums and discussion boards (warn visitors about revealing personal information)
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Advertising arrangements (do your advertisers use cookies with their banners?)
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Whether you have external linkages from your site (many visitors don't realise that they are clicking on an external link until they have been redirected)
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Options for visitors to unsubscribe from lists.
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How visitors can contact you
If you are able to collect the above information before beginning the statement generation, it will make the whole process a great deal more efficient.
It will take approximately 30 minutes to an hour to complete.
A privacy statement not only puts your visitors mind at ease, but also adds professionalism to your site. A reassured visitor is more likely to purchase something from you.
Please note, a privacy statement is a legal document - think carefully before implementing one.
The following are a couple of reputable sites where you can generate your own Privacy Statement, free of charge:
http://cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/pwv3/pwhome.htm
http://www.vt.edu/misc/publish/privacy/
Implement a Company Profile page
Whether you are a one person operation, totally reliant on cyberspace, or a traditional bricks and mortar
organization, visitors have a natural curiosity of what goes on behind the scenes of your business - especially before they purchase. A company profile page will establish a great deal of credibility for your online representation.
A company profile or "about us" page shouldn't contain too much hype. It needs to give visitors a sense of who you are, where you have been and where you are heading as a business. "We're No.1" just doesn't cut it. Your company profile page should express your stand on customer service, product/service quality commitments and any important affiliations you have with other well known companies.
Contact Us, Contact Us & Contact Us!!!!
Before someone will purchase your offerings, they will want to be assured that their purchase will be supported with good after-sales service. It is very important that at every available opportunity, you encourage people to contact you with their questions. Often they will send you a question when they already have the answer just to test you out, so ensure you respond to them rapidly. If possible, include telephone (I'm told some people still use telephones) and fax numbers on your company profile page along with a map of your street location.
Satisfaction Guaranteed or 100% Money Back.
Refunds - the word that sends shivers down the back of any retailer. Nevertheless, the offer of a refund on goods and services will be the deciding factor in many purchases and also lends to your credibility. The offer of a refund tells a customer that you are confident in your product and that you have represented it properly. While the offer of a refund may not be viable in some cases, it should be a part of your business policies wherever possible. And if you use the strategy, flaunt it! Don't tuck it away in the fine print for fear that people will actually take advantage of the offer. Research carried out into refund offers shows that:
a) The offer increases business through boosting customer confidence.
b) People usually won't take up the offer, even if the product doesn't totally meet their expectations. They just want to know it's there.
Have you ever been in a busy marketplace in the physical world? People use all sort of tactics to get your attention and your dollars. In the virtual world it's much the same. We need to employ special coding tactics to attract search engines and to structure our pages to hold the interest of our visitors. Now take the eye candy one step further to increase your sales. Add another string to your marketing strategy bow.
Add honesty, integrity and transparent business processes to your arsenal - then flaunt it!
It will pay dividends.
Related reading:
Basic Ecommerce web site development:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/
articles/ecommerce-site-s1p1.htm
Communications and the global Internet community
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/
articles/globalinternetecommerce.htm
Email Etiquette
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/
articles/email.htm
Michael Bloch
Taming the Beast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community.
Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions.
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Copyright information.... This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety & this copyright statement must be included. Visit http://www.tamingthebeast.net to view great articles, tutorials and tools for site owners, web developers and Internet marketers! Subscribe for free to our popular ecommerce/web design ezine!
That's all for this Taming the Beast update! We are very open to feedback, so please don't hesitate in contacting us.
Regards from Australia
Michael Bloch & Katherine Tyndale
Taming the Beast - Established 1995
michael@tamingthebeast.net
kathy@tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community
Marketing, eCommerce and Web Development Services
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