Internet Marketing Information: Making Money With International Markets

This post was written by Internet Marketing John on November 10, 2010
Posted Under: Internet Marketing Information

smart-globeMaking money with International markets is for some reason not often pursued or even considered by most Internet marketers.

Unfortunately many Internet marketers believe that selling to other languages is way too much work.  Most of them simply have no idea where or how to start selling to other languages, so they just avoid doing so.

The fact is that making money with International markets is easy, once you realize that all you are really changing in your marketing strategy is the language you are targeting.   The marketing strategies for the most part remain unchanged.

Here are some facts about making money with international markets that will astonish you.

  • Of all the languages used on the Internet, English makes up only 29% of them.
  • If you are currently marketing to only to English speaking countries, you’ve been missing out on 71% of the potential buyers in your niche market.
  • Of the more than 1.7 billion Internet users worldwide, Europe and Asia comprise over 1 billion of them.
  • While Europe has over 395 million Internet users, Asia is estimated at 658 million.

This means that over 1 billion people in Europe and Asia could be your potential customers.  It also means that billions of dollars of potential income are being left on the table for other marketers to earn.

  • About 40% of all the people online are in Asia.
  • China has 30% more people online than the United States has.
  • And finally, well over half of the Google searches made online, are not made in English.

Making money with International markets is what all of the top Internet marketers are tapping in to; specifically non English speaking markets.

Globalization is with us and to tap into non English speaking markets to grab your piece of the International pie, there are some things you as a small business owner need to understand.

  • Since the inception of the Internet, the world has become one market.
  • From the first day you start your business, you need to think globally.
  • Lack of vision is the greatest enemy for expansion of your business.
  • When making money with International markets your websites must be “multilingual friendly”.

There are basically three considerations you need to remember when constructing your site.

  • Site Design
  • Localization
  • Website Optimization

Because not all languages have the same length and structure, language is a primary consideration if you ever convert your blog or website into another language.

Depending on the language you are translating into; you may end up not having enough space for your text or you may wind up having unduly large blank spaces on your web pages.

You can get around this issue by keeping your content and design separate.  To do this best, create your web pages using cascading style sheets (CSS).   This allows your text to expand or contract without creating spacing problems, regardless of the language you are translating into.

Think locally when making money with International markets.  Go global but think local.

In addition to spending more time choosing your words, remember that colors and even symbols mean different things to different cultures.

You can use Google Translate to take care of your text, but it’s still a good idea to get a local translator to proof read your final product in order to make sure it makes sense to the local reader.

The same goes for colors and different symbols which may translate badly into different cultures.  For instance, we use the phrase “wise as an owl” or use the owl symbol to denote wisdom or show intellect.  Some mid eastern countries regard the owl as a symbol of pessimism.

The same goes for colors.  Western countries consider red the color of passion or danger and orange the color for Halloween.  However, in Ireland orange is synonymous with Protestantism.

If you’re thinking about making money with International markets, do a little additional research and be careful not to use offensive colors, symbols or descriptions when building your website.

Website optimization and the subject of multilingual SEO merits an entire article to itself.   However for the sake of brevity, never translate your keywords directly into other languages; too much is often lost in translation.

Frequently, even professionally qualified native linguists will not know what keywords the local people use when they search for products or services on the Internet.

Synonyms, abbreviations, or other variations of the search terms can only be established by doing some thorough keyword research for each one of your target market areas.

If you are one of those Internet marketers who believe that making money with International markets is too much work; consider the 1 billion people in Europe and Asia that could be your potential customers.

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