HighConversions - 5:24 am on Mar 1, 2007 (gmt 0)

It doesn't matter to me if I see a seal on your site from the BBB or trust-e or anyone else. The hacker safe one is relatively new and a lot of companies are using that...it's probably free. But, I don't know how much that effects 'buyers'. Maybe it does more than I'm aware of? I don't ever remember clicking on the BBB seal to 'verify' that the site I was at was a legit member either. Don't know how many people do that?

I think the BBB and trust-e where a pre-2000 thing when websites where trying to gain customer confidence. That confidence exists now, for most people, and I think that there's better things you could invest in to sale more online.

Any time I'm buying from a new site I do a couple things. First off, I usually won't buy from a site with a poor design. A poor design in the sense that it's a 'cookie cutter' design and easy to quickly shut down and replicate as an identical site with a different name. Usually those sites buy Pay-Per-Click and come and go pretty quickly. They don't exist long enough to rank well for much in Google (not Froogle mind you). Additionally, their prices are substantially lower than anyone else's.

I also do searches on Google to see how customers have rated the site and the company. This often tells you if it's a scam or not. If I don't find good reviews (or any reviews) I just won't buy from that site.

So, to answer your question.... I'd spend the money on SEO, upgrading your systems to 'up-sale' customers or spend it on Pay-Per-Click, newsletters and such things. $7,000 could probably be invested in a much better way than buying a seal in my opinion.