Low confidence of online purchasing has been identified by a U.S. study which showed that only 21% of consumers were confident over their personal information being transferred when involved in an online purchase. That is why these dimensions of trust in connection with interface design, IT-security and electronic payment can be enhanced and thus Internet vendors can gain and maintain consumer trust. We should keep in mind that trust is created at different stages and to a different degree. Trust starts with the interface design and perceiving and approving it, and then moves on to security and privacy where transaction are made. If an Internet vendor can control the three stages with the right tools and well-designed systems they will ultimately win trust. All the three stages are mutually exclusive and one cannot be foregone on the cost of another.

Informatics perspective on consumer trust

Interface design

Initial trust starts at this point. Just as you may enter a physical store and witness the aisles and shelves and see products and advertisements your impressions are being constructed. In a similar way as a store is organized and designed so must a virtual store-front be. This initial trust is pivotal to keeping consumers on the site and making them come back (retaining). A few characteristics of good interface design (suggested by expert authors) that will attract customers and keep them coming back, are: Ease of navigation, consistency, learnability, user guidance, and perception. These all belong to the usability of the vendors’ website and are important sources of trust.

• Ease of navigation: Ease of finding what you want and knowing where you are in the Web site.
• Consistency: In human-computer interaction, consistency is recognized to be able to improve user performance and user satisfaction. It applies internally to the web site and external
  Social Software? Check Out Google Map Mash-ups
  I asked a colleague from work today if he had any news about new Internet phenomena that would be cool to check out. He told me about the concept of social software. Social software is where someone takes an existing computer program and combines it with another idea to make it more personalized for people. A perfect example of this comes in the form of a new craze taking over the world: Google Map mash-ups.http://maps.google.com/ is already a cool site that has taken a personalized approach to many different ways of helping people. For example, I typed in ‘Pizza restaurants’ into the finder with the name of the town my father lives in near Atlanta, Georgia, USA and it showed me exactly where all the pizzas were, the names of the restaurants, and contact details (if I wished to place an order over the phone). Pretty cool. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Other people around the world have taken the Google Map software and combined it with their personal interests to create a whole array of exciting maps filled with photos and information. The ultimate site to check some out is http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/.Let me give you an idea of what people are doing out there on the Internet to make the world a more informed place. I’m planning on going to live in Japan pretty soon. Well at http://www.bento.com/tokyofood.html I could find a map of the Kansai region (where I will probably live) which showed me exactly where all the
  .S. study which showed that only 21% of consumers were confident over their personal information being transferred when involved in an online purchase. That is why these dimensions of trust in connection with interface design, IT-security and electronic payment can be enhanced and thus Internet vendors can gain and maintain consumer trust. We should keep in mind that trust is created at different stages and to a different degree. Trust starts with the interface design and perceiving and approving it, and then moves on to security and privacy where transaction are made. If an Internet vendor can control the three stages with the right tools and well-designed systems they will ultimately win trust. All the three stages are mutually exclusive and one cannot be foregone on the cost of another.

  Informatics perspective on consumer trust

  Interface design
  

  Initial trust starts at this point. Just as you may enter a physical store and witness the aisles and shelves and see products and advertisements your impressions are being constructed. In a similar way as a store is organized and designed so must a virtual store-front be. This initial trust is pivotal to keeping consumers on the site and making them come back (retaining). A few characteristics of good interface design (suggested by expert authors) that will attract customers and keep them coming back, are: Ease of navigation, consistency, learnability, user guidance, and perception. These all belong to the usability of the vendors’ website and are important sources of trust.

  • Ease of navigation: Ease of finding what you want and knowing where you are in the Web site.
  • Consistency: In human-computer interaction, consistency is recognized to be able to improve user performance and user satisfaction. It applies internally to the web site and externa
    Small Businesses Win with Cross Promotional Advertising
    Cross-promotion is something that has been utilized in business to business (b2b) marketing for many years. However, many small business owners either fail to realize the value of this type of marketing or they simply are unwilling to make the connections necessary to develop a web of promotion for their business.If you want to think about how cross promotion actually works, put it in the frame of reference of a barter system. When you promote a business on your marketing materials, that business provides an advertisement for your business in return. The benefit of this technique is the cost.IT IS FREE ADVERTISING! Yes, the technique of cross-promotional marketing really just seems too easy to be effective. However, this simple and primitive advertising swap really works well in a lot of situations. The question is – will it work for you?The answer is probably yes if you are a local company that provides products or services that can be easily matched with other local service providers or retailers. For example, if you operate a window cleaning company, you would be able to trade ads with a window manufacturer, a window installer and perhaps even some different cleaning companies (house, office, carpet, etc.).And, the answer is probably also yes if you are an internet based business. Actually, internet cross-promotion is much easier than brick and mortar style cross promotion! You can use a link excha
    ign and perceiving and approving it, and then moves on to security and privacy where transaction are made. If an Internet vendor can control the three stages with the right tools and well-designed systems they will ultimately win trust. All the three stages are mutually exclusive and one cannot be foregone on the cost of another.

    Informatics perspective on consumer trust

    Interface design
    

    Initial trust starts at this point. Just as you may enter a physical store and witness the aisles and shelves and see products and advertisements your impressions are being constructed. In a similar way as a store is organized and designed so must a virtual store-front be. This initial trust is pivotal to keeping consumers on the site and making them come back (retaining). A few characteristics of good interface design (suggested by expert authors) that will attract customers and keep them coming back, are: Ease of navigation, consistency, learnability, user guidance, and perception. These all belong to the usability of the vendors’ website and are important sources of trust.

    • Ease of navigation: Ease of finding what you want and knowing where you are in the Web site.
    • Consistency: In human-computer interaction, consistency is recognized to be able to improve user performance and user satisfaction. It applies internally to the web site and externa
      Are You Making These Mistakes In Your Business?
      You’ve probably heard the statistic that 95% of small businesses fail in the first five years. That’s not a very encouraging number! Although being part of the 5% that succeed is not easy, it’s definitely possible. What it takes is a lot of common sense, some marketing and sales skills and the ability to learn from the mistakes of others.To get you started on the road to success, here are three of the biggest mistakes small businesses make and some tips to help you avoid them:Mistake #1: Having a Poorly Defined Sales ProcessThe key to making money with any business is to stay focused on how you can “sell”, “sell more” and “sell more often”. Unfortunately most businesses don’t consider all of the ways they can make money from customers and end up losing potential revenues.There are three ways you can make money from your site:1. Get More New Customers – This is the sales activity that most small businesses spend 90% of their efforts on. Although it’s an important element of your sales process, it’s only one of three ways you can make money. Don’t neglect the other two because you’re focused on only attracting new customers.2. Make More Money From Each Transaction – Upselling is the process of increasing the value of a customer’s order. Offering additional products and services at the point of purchase is an effective way to increase the value of the transaction.3. Sell More Often To Existing Cust
      as you may enter a physical store and witness the aisles and shelves and see products and advertisements your impressions are being constructed. In a similar way as a store is organized and designed so must a virtual store-front be. This initial trust is pivotal to keeping consumers on the site and making them come back (retaining). A few characteristics of good interface design (suggested by expert authors) that will attract customers and keep them coming back, are: Ease of navigation, consistency, learnability, user guidance, and perception. These all belong to the usability of the vendors’ website and are important sources of trust.
      • Ease of navigation: Ease of finding what you want and knowing where you are in the Web site.
      • Consistency: In human-computer interaction, consistency is recognized to be able to improve user performance and user satisfaction. It applies internally to the web site and externa
        Tools for Adsense
        If you're just boarding on the AdSense train, and looking to find a quick way to make the profits you've seen all being pulled of all over the Internet, you might be interested in a couple of tools.These software tools are designed to aid AdSense publishers in getting a better understanding on how traffic flows through their site. Some will help you in understanding which keywords gain you more money and which locations give you the best AdSense payment.One of the best such tools available is AdSense Gold (http://www.profitbooks.com/go/astracker) which allows you to have a better understanding of which ads and formats actually get more clicks and which are useful or nearly useless.This program works by tracking views and clicks on all the publisher's pages. It even goes as far as offering you the possibility to see which referrer each visitor came in through.There's a free tool called SynSense (http://www.singerscreations.com/RSS/Posts/235.asp) which is more of an AdSense monitoring tool. This sits in the tray and offers actualized AdSense stats as you hover your mouse over its icon. It's a very nice tool for those which like to be informed on how their AdSense is doing at all times of the day.Google provides you with stats in a csv format on their site. So someone made a tool that can automatically download such files and extract a lot of information from them. The name of this tool is CSV AdStats and it is
        : Ease of navigation, consistency, learnability, user guidance, and perception. These all belong to the usability of the vendors’ website and are important sources of trust.
        • Ease of navigation: Ease of finding what you want and knowing where you are in the Web site.
        • Consistency: In human-computer interaction, consistency is recognized to be able to improve user performance and user satisfaction. It applies internally to the web site and externally to other websites through standards and conventions.
        • Learnability: A well-designed interface should be easy to learn. This is achieved through the use of simple and clear language, meaningful display and logical grouping.
        • User guidance or support: A good user guidance scheme will improve learnability and decrease the mental workload.
        • Perceptual limitation (perception): A good interface design should embed the considerations of human perceptual organization limitations.
        
        Navigation and learnability of a website must maintain its simplicity and prioritize over what information is the most important to be displayed on the front page. Making the navigation user-friendly and clear, at the same time making the site intuitive so the next revisit will be already familiar with the functions it presents, is key to usability.

        Furthermore, for example, user guidance or support can envisage an Internet vendor having a thorough step-by-step guidance on procedures done on the website. Like having guidance on how to successfully search an e-catalogue, or even more importantly display a step-by-step payment method so the customer will feel safe/secure before engaging in purchasing something from the vendor. Coupled with providing FAQ and pages that answer most commonly asked question, the feedback system is well prepared. Intuitively we can conclude when it comes to the interface design that the perception (the initial impression) serves as the most significant determinant of trust. For example, competence of a firm is seen through the professionalism of the site, based on institutional-based trust.

        Research on interpersonal/ visual cues have determined the impact it has on consumers assessment of Internet vendors professionalism and competence. What is meant by this is that the availability of graphics/p