Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

   Have any of you tried software of machine generated translations?  If you`ve been disappointed by them like most people don`t loose hope. Getting your website translated by a human translator is the solution. 

    Translating your website can help you increase traffic, sales, and repeat customers to your website by translating it into dozens of languages. 

    Human Translators can help you navigate the many pitfalls of foreign languages and help you market your product to millions of more people.  Because the translator lives in the country of the target language they know the ins and outs of the language and also the culture.  Because although countries speak the same language their culture and expressions vary widely.

    Here is an example of the potential market share you could gain by translating your website.

Chinese speaking users are growing at a rate of 309%, and with only 9.9 % of 1 billion people using the internet there is huge growth potential.  Chinese consumers and business are also one of the fastest growing economic markets in the world.  With their buying power increasing and the Chinese being a naturally tech savvy country we can expect for them to be spending huge amounts of money online. Don`t miss out.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

- Chinese      132,000,000 users   9.9% penetration
- Japanese     86,000,000 users    67.2%
- Spanish       80,000,000 users    18.8%
There are many more expanding markets just check out the link above.

Don`t get left behind the world economy is only going to become a smaller place and we all need to maximize our potential.

At my job, I`ve had the same problem dealing with overseas scam artists.  While I can`t tell you the entire fraud detection schema being used, there are many red flags you can use to catch most of them.  You`d be interested to know that most are masquerading as Americans using stolen US credit cards to get an order sent to "their sick nephew" in Europe, Asia, or Africa.  Requiring a phone call confirmation for orders over $200 USD, waiting for overseas credit card orders to fully clear, using an escrow service that specializes in trade in a certain country may all be ways to keep fraud flat, depending on how simple you want the order process to be for your customers.

The "The whole world wants to rip off us Americans" attitude is also not entirely true.  European businesses are targeted often as much.  We just embraced e-commerce more fully.  One way to differentiate yourself in overseas trade, besides letutor`s helpful recommendation of a translation service such as his, is to target a certain region instead of just putting yourself out there. 

Foreigners don`t all "look the same" or "act the same way".  1 out of every 5 Chinese, for example, is learning English to the point where there may be more Chinese speaking English than Americans who speak it in ten years.  Your Vietnamese niche may be a terrific way to build trust.   The rule of thumb is to put on a local face with understanding of local culture and laws while emphasizing an American effectiveness in customer service and order fulfillment.  (Customers of the post office can stop snickering.)

   I completely agree and support your suggestions.  I actually wrote about several of those things in a previous post that was deleted and have not yet reposted it. 

   David`s suggestions to have a grace period to allow all bank transactions to clear before any product is delivered is essential when you are dealing with a overseas client.  Also, requiring a phone confirmation on purchases of $200 + is a great idea.

    Secondly and most importantly, language translations it do put all of your content out there to the whole of all the people who speak the language but you can market directly to certain regions and or countries. 

     Here are some ways that this can be done. 

1. When translating your documents focus on using a translator from the target country or region who will use the venacular specific to the area.  Also ask their advice or a business professional from the country advice on marketing to the kinds of people that you want to attract.

2. If you are doing any PPC or other advertising specify what areas you want results for. 

3. research the areas that you want to target.  Look at there GDP (gross domestic product), avg. family income, and their overall government infastructure.  Although you cannot compare them to the American government or financial institutions many of them are very well organized and have sound financial systems in place that are hard to defraud.  Then focus on these countries. This also allows you to see who has the buying power, future potential, and want for your types of products.

3.a   If you are weary about reaching out to new markets.  Get your feet wet by starting with foreign economic powers such as Japan, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and the Scandanavian countries.  (Although many of the Scandanavian countries are very fluent in English they would appreciate websites in their language and become loyal customers.  Although they are often overlooked they have Very well organized governments and economy, love american products, and have the spending power.)  This will allow you to minimize your risk to almost 0% and to familarize yourself with working in foreign markets. 

4.  Use common sense.

Last as a personal testimonial.  I have lived abroad for many years and though I was dissapointed with the standard of living of even some First World countries it is no less safe to do business in the majority of them as it is to do business in America.  Even Second and Third world countries such as Brazil and Mexico are perfectly safe you just have to use precaution like you would anywhere else.

Yes, its really a great idea to get your website translated so that you can try and hold visitors of other countries to your website. Many visitors don't like to visit such sites which doesn't offer translation of their website, as they don't know what they are reading.

Translating a website's content is the easy part. I would not skip doing research to identify my target audience regardless of country or language. It  will  minimize scams and give you more bang for the buck. 

• If overall targeted revenue is changing, determine what your average placement-targeted revenue has been for the past few months. Your goal is to determine if the changes in your recent earnings are part of a trend or a short-term earnings fluctuation.
• Publishers can experience spikes in placement-targeted revenue when advertisers run limited-time campaigns. For example, an advertiser may run a large placement-targeted campaign only during the opening week of a summer blockbuster movie.
• If you want to increase placement targeting over the long term, set up ad . This will make it easier for advertisers to find and target your site.

Using an automatic translator to rewrite your website will result in masses of unintelligible text that destroys your credibility. So if you want to target foreign markets, you need to use professional, multilingual translators.

FirstFound’s trained and experienced translators will preserve the style, focus and tone of your website, ensuring that your sales message and branding isn’t lost. You’ll also maintain a professional image with your overseas clients, making them more likely to purchase your products and sales.

Totally agree with the fact that if you want to create a brand in international market, you should provide your website translation facilities to attract more foreign customers.

Today you will find more and more businesses are targeting audiences across multiple countries. In that case, it will be wise if you have a translation option in your website to translate into different languages, which will give visitors a choice to know more about your business. It definitely attract visitors from other countries.