Whether online or offline, small businesses often show little faith in the quality of their service or product. Instead, they tend to focus on the limitations and lower their prices. This natural insecurity can lead to disastrous financial results because lower prices cripple your return on investment.

Rest assured, you will make sales if you research the market, locate a need and provided a quality solution. Do not let insecurity waste the blood, sweat and tears you expended on the business. Instead, you should focus on building your credibility and displaying it on your site.

Consider the following:

If your product is the greatest thing since sliced bread, why are you selling it for a nominal amount? Sell it at a higher price to build credibility. This increases the perceived value because people associate higher prices with better quality.

Let's look at professional services based on an hourly fee. If I write an e-book on Internet marketing for attorneys or accountants, the price I charge is going to be based on the conversion ratio. These professionals are particularly time conscious since they bill by the hour in their own practice. If my book promises to get them 10 clients each month producing $50,000 in revenues, the book is extremely valuable to them. If I charge $19.95, my credibility goes down the tube. Why would someone give away such valuable information for such a cheap price? On the other hand, if I charge them $599.99, the price adds to the credibility of my claims.

Don't worry about charging too much for your service or product. You can always lower the price to ascertain the best figure for converting clients. It is much more difficult to raise the price for current clients.

Consider offering a free trial or consultation. This increases the perceived value of the service or product. Prospects will view you as credible because you would not give something away if it didn't work.

If you know your stuff, you should be writing and publishing articles on the Internet. Unlike an advertisement, articles build an incredible level of credibility for authors and sites. If sites are willing to publish your articles, you must really know your area of expertise, right? You prospects will think so.

Include as many testimonials on your site as possible. The comments of previous purchasers will raise your credibility.

Give people a strong guarantee. For instance, most profitable e-books sites offer an unconditional 365-day refund policy. Yes, the customer has a full 365 days to ask for a refund. Will some people take advantage of this? Yes, but who cares? An e-book site requires little overhead, so the refunds are not adding much cost to your business compared to the increased sales you will get because of the guarantee.

Don't kill your business by lowering your prices. If you are offering quality, charge accordingly and provide proof of your credibility.