If you want people to buy products from your web site, they must believe they can trust you. Having an "About" page that tells people all about you can go a long way towards that.

1. Create a personal profile

New customers don't know you from a bar of soap and they want to ensure they're not giving their hard earned cash to a fraudster. So having a "Personal Profile" or "About" page that reassures them is good for sales.

When someone buys something from my web site I like to look through the web site logs. They show me each page my customer has visited on the way to their purchase.
Customers often visit my "About" page before they buy, so I know they want this information.

2. Show them how you can help

Remember that all your prospect cares about is "what's in it for me?"
Start your "About" page by telling your visitors how they benefit from doing business with you.

It could be that you have very specialised knowledge or the best local knowledge, so you can help your customers make the best choice of product. Or maybe you have free nation-wide delivery, the widest range, the lowest prices or the best quality in town.

3. Tell your life story - as benefits

Tell your life story and few will read it with interest.
But tell it in a way that shows your prospect how your skills and experience can help them, and you may convince them you are the person they should buy from.

For example, I don't mention how I used to feel like a sardine in my corporate cubicle when I worked for someone I had never met. Telling my prospects how great it is now to be my own boss now, able to write an article sitting on a deck chair in the sun, does not show them how I can help them.
I do say how I've always wanted to work with small businesses and how I'm using my skills to help people like you increase your sales.

4. Prove that your experience helps them

Your prospect doesn't want to know about every task of every job you've ever worked on. But some of those tasks have developed the skills you can use to help your prospect.

So if it shows your prospects how you can help them and reinforces how good you are at what you do, consider telling about your experiences.

5. Show your face

Opinions vary about putting your photo on your web site. Some think this is seen by your prospects as an ego trip.
I really don't know if that's a problem or not. I do know that a photo proves you are a real person, and a lot of web sites will benefit from that.

So build yourself the type of profile we've just discussed. Add a friendly looking photo of yourself (I prefer a casual one, but it probably depends on what you sell).

Now back it up with several ways to easily contact you, and you'll look like a real person who's an expert at what you do and easy to do business with.

Phil Donaldson
Since 1998, Phil has helped clients like ZooDoo (www.zoodoo.co.nz) and Creative Energy (www.creativeenergy.co.nz) consistently increase Internet sales every year. Phil's "e-Focus" web site and shopping cart package comes standard with the best features of his most successful clients web sites. It includes secure shopping cart, pages optimised for search engines, professionally written sales copy, and a level of support that will stack the odds of success in your favour.
We highly recommend it:

http://www.guerrillaretail.co.nz/e-focus