MisterOriginal's World

[misteroriginal]

Everybody loves to talk about China, and India because it seems like a couple billion people ought to be able to buy a lot on the Internet.

I made a spreadsheet of Internet users (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/). To make the information useful, I cross-referenced it with the ethnologue (www.ethnologue.com) and per capita GDP. Sorting by =sum(Users * GDP avg * Speakers) revealed the top eleven markets to be:

1) English-USA 2) Japanese-Japan 3) German-Germany 4) English-UK 5) Korean-South Korea 6) Spanish-USA 7) French-France 8) Chinese, Mandarin-China 9) Italian-Italy 10) English-Canada 11) English-Australia

I know the data is not perfect, but Spanish in the USA (same country & currency, comparable culture & religion, different language) appears to be a much more legitimate first-attempt at globalization for small businesses. England, Canada, & Australia also make sense.

Germany, Italy, and France present extra levels of difficulty, so maybe that's step two.

I'd be surprised and amazed and shocked if anyone on tuliptools is earning a significant percentage of business from Japan and/or South Korea.

China and India are off the map, in my opinion, for anything other than big business, unless you happen to be Chinese or Indian. Let's talk about realistic strategies for improving our international web presence.

Edit to add: Stupid thing turned my eight into a smiley face!!!

[Nat]

[quote author=misteroriginal link=topic=2071.msg7219#msg7219 date=1136627920]
Everybody loves to talk about China, and India because it seems like a couple billion people ought to be able to buy a lot on the Internet. [/quote]

I do????  ???  I can't even remember the last time I ever talked about China or India. 

I'm just playing with you as I'm all hyped up on too much coffee.

[bargainbloodhound]

if anyone on tuliptools is earning a significant percentage of business from Japan

Our directories are getting 5%-8% of their traffic from Japan. 

Let's talk about realistic strategies for improving our international web presence.

Translating your web site into another language works wonders for getting your site indexed in international search engines and getting international traffic.  The US now accounts for less than 30% of the traffic our directories and metasearch engines receive.

[misteroriginal]

[quote author=Nat link=topic=2071.msg7233#msg7233 date=1136666752]
[quote author=misteroriginal link=topic=2071.msg7219#msg7219 date=1136627920]
Everybody loves to talk about China, and India because it seems like a couple billion people ought to be able to buy a lot on the Internet. [/quote]

I do????  ???  I can't even remember the last time I ever talked about China or India. 

I'm just playing with you as I'm all hyped up on too much coffee.
[/quote]

I was just browsing the International Trading threads, and the grand majority are about China. I thought it would be more helpful to discuss how to increase internetional sales within the English speaking world first. Any help, Mandy? How 'bout some articles on what American sellers do that irritate the Brits?

[mandy]

...first-attempt at globalization for small businesses. England,

Americans and others wanting to expand their online presence to the UK should learn these regulations before opening shop: http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...992.0.html