Comments on: Why Cybercrime Hurts Online Startups

By: Frank J

Frank J — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:37:13 +0000

Kristi,

You have to also watch for bogus testimonials as they’re easy to write. Nice comment!

By: Frank J

Frank J — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:34:49 +0000

Sanya,

It is very important to have a web site that has a good user experience. I agree with your comment!

By: Sanya

Sanya — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:52:34 +0000

I think a good web design which looks serious and business type also important. Many people make snap judgment just by their instinct. A serious looking design with not many distracting ads and graphics and persistent design with good color combination will let them stop and read further.

By: Kikolani

Kikolani — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:23:25 +0000

On the testimonials, if possible and especially for a graphic design or programming company, try to get a link to the customer’s site as well. I find that I don’t trust testimonials where it just lists “This product is great” from Jeff in Missouri. Anyone can make that kind of thing up, and there’s no way to actually confirm it as a reference.

~ Kristi

By: James

James — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:35:25 +0000

If you see physical products like we do, encourage your customers to make “package receiving” videos and post on youtube.com . you can embed in your site to show visitors and have a very legitimate source of feedback for customers to view/visit. a customer did it first and it’s now become our best WOM marketing tool.

By: Frank J

Frank J — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:47:26 +0000

Even the good guys get affected. I know that Google is working on something to keep those misleading web sites from appearing in their index.

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:44:56 +0000

Sound advice Frank.

With the financial crisis hitting so many the increase in fraudulent, malicious and phishing activity has seen a massive boom for the criminals.

There are many who still fall victim to the many scams that abound without doing any background research, which is essential when buying and selling online and as the saying goes : ‘If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is!’…especially with the increase of pyramid and Ponzi fraud schemes.

By: seobro

seobro — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:33:28 +0000

This is good advice. A picture of the owner, physical location of your warehouse, and an 800 number help assure the viewer.

Many scams are fly by night so I often check to see if the biz has been around for a while. This hurts startups, but in time you get your props.