One of the most important aspects of online business is 'trust'. Your clients and those of your clients, are purchasing services or products from a 'faceless' company often in a different Country. It's therefore very important that your web site visitors have trust and confidence in 'you' and your company. Your customers must trust you, if they don't then they simply won't buy from you!.

So how do we 'create trust'? here's a few tips for you to consider:

    Make sure that your web site and it's pages have a professional design
Your web pages have to look as near perfect as possible. I appreciate that many web hosts start of on limited funds, if you can't fund a preofessional design, try negotiating one.. perhaps in return for hosting or other services that you may offer. If funds are available, then hire a professional web designer.

Double check and make sure that all links on your web site are intact and fucntional. If possible steer clear of cheap automatically created web pages. Some software programs on the market allow you to automatically create pages that are supposedly "optimized" for a special keywords. Take it from me, these doorway type pages don't work anymore on search engines, there day has come - and gone!
Apart from search engines being a lot smarter than they were, human web surfers are turned away by that kind of pages. While doorway type pages might look attractive, web surfers usually hate them. These automatically created doorway pages usually look ugly to human web surfers. Often, they consist of nothing more than a list of scraped key-words...... My advice, don't fall for the sales hype, save your money and treat yourself to something else .... 

    Don't hide, tell your web site visitors who you are
Just because we are operating via the internet, it doesn't mean that we can't offer the 'personal touch'. Try to make sure that your customers know that a real person is sitting behind your web page, someone who is interested in them and wants, where possible, to help.
I understand that when you are just starting out as a web host, having a 'bricks and mortar' address is not always possible. Even though I am now fortunate enough to have my own 'Limited Company', with my own offices and staff. It wasn't always this way! In the early days I sat in my front room, and had a Post Box for a postal address....  But, that doesn't mean that you potential customers won't trust you.
My advise is to include as much of your your full contact information on your web site that is possible and make it easy for readers to find. If your visitors don't know from whom they will make a purchase and how to contact you, they won't buy anything! If you have one, show your privacy policy, terms and condidtions etc...

    Offer free trials and show your refund policy
The most common way that companies use to establish trustworthiness is to offer a free trial and a money back guarantee. Not so easy if your a web host... or web designer I hear you say ;) Well, it is if you think about it and become a little adventurous with your offers. Remember, if your customers know what they'll get, they'll be more likely to purchase.

    Display testimonials
This is not always possible, but if you have a client who has sent you a 'thank you' email or letter, ask them if you can display it as a testimonial. Its far better if other people say nice things about you than you saying nice things about yourself (hint - don't be tempted to make them up... chances are you will always get found out, and when you are it's hard to get anyone to trust you again). What are the benefits of testimonals? Easy... testimonials from satisfied customers will show how 'you' and your business can do a better job than your competitor when it comes to customer satisfaction, services offered even value for money!