Web Site Practices

Having a web site for selling in the US is essential.  Without a web site people don't look at you as a real business.  Some things to keep in mind include the following subjects.

Domain Name .com or .com.au
Should you have a .com URL in the US or is a .com.au good enough?  Face it, Americans are lazy and basically don't have any idea of anything outside of the US.  Adding a .au at the end of a URL is black magic to most Americans.  If you can get both the .com and .com.au versions of a URL do so.  Simply redirect the .com to the .com.au and no one will likely notice (or the other way if you prefer). 

US English and Australian English
While I recommend having a set of US and English collateral (hard copy and PDF) I don't believe this is much of an issue for the web site.  It's difficult to maintain two web sites at the same time. 

Contact Info
Have a US based virtual address with an 800 (toll free) number.  If you actually return phone calls and emails you will be better than 90% of US companies!

Important Note: Unless you have a work permit for the US, you are not permitted to work here.  Be sure you make it clear if asked in immigation you merely use the address and/or phone number to forward inquiries to your headquarters in Australia.  If immigation believes you are working in the US you will be deported.  You can of course come to the US to go to trade shows, look for opportunities and recruit for a new business without a work permit.

Email
Do not use email addresses from free services or ISP providers.  Forget Hotmail, Big Pond, Comcast and similar email addresses.  You must have an email address using your domain name.