| LED Digest 2332: Presenting a Trustworthy Image |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. January 24, 2007 Issue no. 2332 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Presenting a Trustworthy Image ==-- ~ John Cooper "[A BBB membership] has no unique advantage for you as a business owner." ~ Reid Neubert "...it is crucial to clearly show how the customer can get in touch with you..." --== Browser Compatibility Help ==-- ~ Veronica Yuill "The feature you need is valid HTML and CSS :-)" ~ Ed Clark "I was experiencing the same things..." --== PayPal Changing Things w/o Notice ==-- ~ Tom Aman "...the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease." ~ Donald Nelson "There are a number of companies that take payments for small scale businesses..." ~ Val Waldeck "Clickbank is a really good alternative..." --== Competitors Bidding on Trademarks ==-- ~ Sandy Keller "I spoke [with a Yahoo! rep] and she was going to look into blocking the ad for me..." --== Incoming Links from Virtual Domains ==-- ~ Chris Nielsen "[Don't be] so quick to assume that the launch of a 'network' is going to run into problems..." ~ Jeff Hinds "Links are not created equal." ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: John Cooper Subject: Trust > I have a question about presenting a trustworthy image > online... Do you think the BBB Online seal is important? - Tom Anson, LED Digest 2331 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1720/55/ Hi Tom, I've never had a BBB membership because of the outrageous prices, and the fact that it has no unique advantage for you as a business owner. Being a member or not, if someone complains, you have the same issues to work through with no extra consideration. In my city, you can fill out a BBB profile which they will keep on file even if you are not a member. (If you do this, be sure to include a summary of your return policy and a link to the entire Terms / Conditions in the comments area.) I have had 2-3 BBB complaints over the years. As long as you have your documentation and resolve the issue fairly, the BBB will record each complaint as 'resolved'. Having this semi-positive documentation on file with the BBB has been sufficient for us. If people call in about our business, they are told we are not a member, given a little info about our return policy, and that we have had X# of complains all resolved. Another reason for not having a BBB membership is that I find most people today go ahead and buy where they want. The credit card companies are protecting their purchases better than 10 years ago. If they are not happy, they simply call their credit card company and dispute the purchase (they get a refund and you get a charge back). If you get too many disputes, it can negatively impact you merchant account, which the BBB has nothing to do with and can't help. Good luck, John Cooper Real Armor Of God.com http://www.realarmorofgod.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Reid Neubert Subject: Trust Tom, You are correct that it is essential to present a trustworthy image online. Of course, trust is important in any business relationship. In fact, I recently wrote an article on that very subject -- http://www.neubertweb.com/article_trust.html. For a Web site, a number of factors affect the user's feeling of trust. Logos such as the BBB's can certainly help. As can VeriSign's, PayPal's, your local Chamber of Commerce's, and any relevant industry associations. But there are many other factors that make a difference as well. Studies have shown that users make a decision about a company whose Web site they visit within a couple of seconds. Without consciously thinking about it, they judge the appearance of the site, including how professional it looks, how appropriate to the subject matter or industry, how easy to use it appears to be, and how well it communicates. If it doesn't load quickly -- or immediately on a broadband connection -- this is a red flag. These are all factors within your control, independent of any outside "endorsers" like the BBB. (BTW, your site doesn't display properly in Firefox!) If you want people to do business with you, you have to also tell them where you are physically located and how they can get in touch with you. Communicate about your expertise by telling a little about the people behind the company, and/or the companies history. Including any press you have received also validates you. Make the company real for the prospective customer. For an ecommerce site, it is crucial to clearly show how the customer can get in touch with you by email and by phone -- preferably an 800 number. The UI is especially important on an ecommerce site. It has to be designed to give the customer a feeling of confidence throughout the buying process. It is important, for instance, that he be able to see what his final total will be before giving his payment information and committing to the purchase. If you do all these things well, the outside endorser's logos become that much less important. Best regards, Reid Neubert www.neubertweb.com Smarter Marketing -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Browsers > There is great difficulty in getting our Web site to > work in all browsers, resolution settings, and types > of monitors [dentalquarters.com] > We are exhausted from trying... we wonder if > there is a feature that we can add to the site to > make it compatible for everything. - Kim Yeager, LED Digest 2331 The feature you need is valid HTML and CSS :-) Of course browsers vary, but if you write HTML that complies with published W3C standards it is far more likely to work in most browsers without breaking. Mozilla, Firefox and Opera are all standards-compliant and with the recent release of IE7, even IE, long the bane of web designers' lives, is getting there. A good professional web designer understands the quirks of different browsers and ensures that the code they write performs acceptably in all of them. This means adhering to standards but also knowing what may cause problems in various browsers and using workarounds. The home page of dentalquarters.com contains 23 validation errors, despite the W3C HTML 4.01 "valid code" buttons at the bottom of the page! That's probably one reason you are seeing variable results. Admittedly, most of the errors are not serious and some are caused by the HTML embedded in the Javascript at the top of the page, but I'd fix those first, before trying anything else. Aesthetically, the site does nothing for me (apart from make me want to leave quickly), but that's another matter altogether :-) Regards Veronica Yuill http://www.archetype-it.com/english/index.htm -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Ed Clark Subject: Browsers Hi All, For Kim's question about the fit on pages in different browsers. I was experiencing the same things and did some research for an answer. The problem usually is: if you use tables and fixed div tags, different browsers have different fixed amounts of built in cell padding. Thus, making one of the table elements to drop down. I experienced it with Firefox but I had no problem with this when viewing Kim's site. So I don't know which browser is causing a problem... but if she looks into the absolutes that are set, and changes so it allows for some cell padding it usually fixes the problem... Hope this helps Kim... I know the fustration. Ed Clark -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Paypal alternatives > A call to PayPal about this has so far not resulted > in the promised email with instructions on fixing this... > Does anyone have suggestions on an alternative to PayPal? - Susie Redfern, LED Digest 2331 First, it really is true that the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease. Keep bugging PayPal and do it on a daily or even a twice daily basis. In your situation, the "promised email" should have been sent within minutes or at least hours of you raising the problem. So maybe it is time for you to "raise a little hell" with PayPal, preferably by phone. Be nice about it, but demand service NOW and make sure they understand if they don't fix it quick, you will use an alternative. And demand a time frame for the promised email and call back if it is not received when expected. For an alternative, check out http://www.2checkout.com/. The only thing about many of these alternatives is that you have to accumulate some minimum amount before they transfer the funds to your account. Make sure you know that minimum and can live with it. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Donald Nelson Subject: Paypal alternatives Kim Yeager asked for payment processing solutions similar to but perhaps better than paypal. There are a number of companies that take payments for small scale businesses that can't afford their own merchant accounts. Technically these companies are reselling your product (to comply with rules of the credit card companies), but they are actually helping you to process the payments. They sometimes have a one time signup cost and then charge a percentage on each order. There is usually no monthly fee. I think they are a bit more expensive to use than paypal. I am sure a number of LED subscribers will answer with suggestions. You can begin with www.2checkout.com . If you have digital products only, then www.clickbank.com is also a possibility. I use www.swreg.org (which is a division of Digital River). I hope this helps. Sincerely, Donald Nelson www.a1-optimization.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Val Waldeck Subject: Paypal alternatives Yes, Clickbank is a really good alternative - www.clickbank.com. I have used their service for sometime and can really recommend them. Val Waldeck www.valwaldeck.com reaching our generation one book at a time -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Sandy Keller Subject: PPC trademarks [In response to competitors bidding on trademarked terms...] Thank you, James and Nathan, for your responses [ http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1720/55/ ]. I just typed "Advantage Bridal" into Google and saw two paid results on the right side of the page, in addition to my Naymz ad. One from the company I had previously referred to (Acme), and now there is another ad. I called the second company and made it clear that I know what they are doing. Acme has no contact information on their site and they only accept PayPal. The kicker is that I attended a Yahoo! PPC seminar last week, and they discussed the required relevancy of ads. There is no "Advantage" and no "Bridal" on Acme's page, and those words aren't hidden in tags, either. The ads should never have been approved to begin with. I spoke to one of the developers while at the seminar and she was going to look into blocking the ad for me, but it is still being served. I guess I'll need to contact her today. It would be different if Acme was selling "Advantage" products. Per Yahoo!, I am allowed to use the trademarks of products I sell. When my customers are trying to find me and they find Acme instead, those are not the quality results that Yahoo! claims they are striving for and they should be more responsive by removing the ads as they are made aware of them. I'll try placing an ad which warns my customers that they should not be misled by Acme's tactics and see what happens. It will likely be declined for lack of relevancy. James, we had a lot of problems when we shipped to the U.K. in years past, so we stopped. Mainly, the credit card companies told us we were on our own accepting foreign credit cards. If there is anything you or your wife want from my site, let me know and I'll arrange shipping to you. We just added our anniversary section last week and will be adding products to it as we can. I'm not sure if you were referring to the U.K. market or the anniversary market, but we are definitely not doing much in serving either of them. Congratulations on your obviously successful marriage! Sandy Keller www.advantagebridal.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Chris Nielsen Subject: Incoming links > ... try this with brand new sites all on the same IP block > and I promise you'll never get those rankings, because > the signals of intent are far more likely to be for chasing > link juice and rank now. - Eric Ward, LED Digest 2330 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1718/55/ For what it's worth I have a partner in California and we have 11 sites that have been up for 2-3 years. All the sites link to each other on just about all the pages and are all hosted on the same IP. The sites all use the same basic template, but have different databases on the backend and different content. The templates are all optimized for what each site is about and the topics vary. All of the sites have PR4 or PR5 and also have a variety of links from other sites. I'm not so sure I would be so quick to assume that the launch of a "network" of related sites is going to run into problems just for the linking as that would be short-sighted. I think how the "network" does would be more a function of the quality of the sites and other normal considerations. Thanks, Chris Nielsen Sundew Search Engine http://www.sundewsearch.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Jeff Hinds Subject: Incoming links Links are not created equal. Google has its own value system for rating links and watches for link footprints such as web designer links, same niche content links, and links from bad neighborhoods etc. Jeff Hinds ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "All are equal Death lays his icy hand on kings: Sceptre and crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade." - James Shirley |
