Increasing trust factors
If you want your store to be as successful as possible, it needs to gain the trust of your visitors. It is a fact that people will not buy products off a website that does not look legitimate.
Domain Name
One of the most important parts of a website is the domain name. You want something that looks legitimate and is easy for people to remember.
If you are using a Vanity Domain, try upgrading to a custom domain. Vanity Domains are a great way to get started but a good custom domain will generate an extra bit of trust.
See our section on Choosing a domain name for more details.
About Page & Contact details
Adding some more details to your "About Us" page and Contact page will increase the trust. Even if you don't yet have an official business, you can enter some details about yourself, a phone number, and an address.
Adding a real-world address to a website will gain peoples trust. For obvious reasons, you may not want to put your house address on there, so get yourself a PO Box / Mailbox. There are lots of services out there that can supply you with an address you can use.
You can use a second sim card and set up call forwarding to your home phone or mobile – this way you are not having to carry around 2 phones and it won't cost you any extra other than the price of the sim.
Visitors will be unlikely to call your number, but they will be more confident in your store when they see one.
Logo and design
Add a unique logo and custom images to your store. You want your store to look more professional so adding a logo can really help. You could design one yourself, or you could hire someone on a website like fiverr.com to create one for you for a small fee.
Customize your colours and design to match your logo.
Press releases
Creating press releases for your website is a common practice. There are lots of websites and pieces of software out there that can help you with this, so if you have something important to tell people, a press release is a great way of doing it.
Social media
Creating social media pages is essential and is covered elsewhere in the Profit Playbook. Not only will this improve your traffic but it will allow your users to interact with you via your social accounts.
Get yourself some page likes by using Facebook adverts – they are really cheap and can get you genuine likes that will give you good quality traffic. You can use them to target specific groups of people based on age, sex, location and interests. You can also have your friends and family follow the page and comment to help with the trust factor and get other people commenting.
Videos
Adding videos of you unboxing and showcasing products you are selling can show people that you are a real person and are serious about your store. You can also use Fiverr to hire someone to do the videos for you. You can write up a script for them to work with.
You can do a lot more with videos such as product reviews, a site description (what your store is about), and even videos on product discounts or giveaways.