Let’s be really honest; there are plenty of steps involved with the purchase and receipt of any online product from the release of a credit card number to final delivery – and potential customers will worry about every single one of these areas when it comes to making a purchase from a business they have not used in the past.

About Branding

There is a lot of competition in online sales out there, and some of it is from well-recognized companies that have their own names to create the kind of trust you need from your visitors.

So that is your first step to establishing that trust with customers on your site; build yourself an identity. This step is more popularly known today as branding, and it extends to everything your business does, from the site layout to slogans to a nice looking logo.

Everything you put out needs to look professional and great, or your first impression on a visitor might be the last.

Guard Your Reputation

Next, you have to make sure that you know what is being said about you. Business can be dirty business sometimes, and with the amount of online competition there is no guarantee that yours will play fair.

It is easy enough to go into consumer forums and make false posts about businesses, so make sure that you are doing your own search engine inquiries about your business to have a look at what’s being said.

If you do encounter negative feedback, defend your business honestly and don’t jump to conclusions; try to track down the source of the complaint on your end and remedy the situation, and then post that you have done so.

Social Media Concerns

In the Web 2.0 World, you also have to be very careful about the way you present yourself when on a message board, posting a video to YouTube, on Facebook, and so on.

Most of us are using social media to extend awareness of our businesses, but people can get the wrong impression according to how you conduct yourself. If they don’t like how they see you as a person, odds are that you won’t have their trust, and you even run the risk of them discouraging others from using your business.

Finally, the best way to establish trust with your online customers is to provide them with honest, prompt service and delivery. No customer should ever have to contact you about the delivery of a product.

Instead, be proactive and contact them to inquire about whether or not they have received what they bought, the condition it was in, and so on. This is a great way not only to gain repeat business but to gain testimonials, which are another important tool when it comes to gaining the trust of online customers.

Essentially, Web 2.0 is the "next generation" of how we use the internet to communicate. For example, the invention of new tools and applications such as blogs, RSS feeds, and social networking sites. All of these allow internet users to more freely interact with each other whereas before, this level and type of interaction was very limited. The most important thing to remember is that Web 2.0 is more of an idea or way of thinking about the internet than it is an actual reality. In the most simple terms, it’s the evolution of how we use the internet.

True, it’s not as simple as I’m trying to make it seem so for a more detailed explanation I suggest Wikipedia (ironically, a staple of Web 2.0). But here’s what the buzz is all about and why Web 2.0 is so important. It’s all about having more ways to reach your target market. Before, marketing and advertising took an extreme amount of effort to reach a lot of people.

Now, it still takes persistence and hard work, but the rewards are much greater and the odds of reaching more potential customers has changed the way we do business. Online businesses that cater to niche markets can flourish with customers from all over the world whereas before, such an endeavor would have been impossible.

So if you are starting a new business or have an existing business you are trying to grow, be conciencious of how Web 2.0 can affect your business. It will likely be for the best if you can devote time and resources into exploring these avenues. It’s pretty important not to let this ship sail without you on board! So when you are planning your marketing/advertising strategy, don’t forget to include it in your plan.