Finding a market for your product abroad

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Finding a market for your product abroad
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Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:44 am Post subject: Finding a market for your product abroad
At the final marketing session yesterday one of the participants said she thought my stuff would go down reall well in Germany and Holland (she's German) How could I go about trying to sell in those places?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:10 am Post subject:
Gosh, no idea, but will be very interested to hear any suggestions. I send a fair bit of my stuff to the States, but thats the re-enactment circuit at work more than anything.

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:15 am Post subject:
I thought abou Ebay but strangely enough it's all in German

boisdevie1

Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3897
Location: Lancaster

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:21 am Post subject:

Stacey,
I'd have thought for the kind of stuff you sell anywhere in Europe could be a potential market because the postage costs would not be that high. I suppose the easy way would be to try to sell into other countries only via a website which lets clients view a section of a site in their native language. So you'd have no language problems to deal with. Obviously you'd have to retag your website so that you'd get hits from people using foreign words in their search engine.
Given that postage would not be high could you not also target English speaking countries - USA, Canada, Australasia.
Good luck.

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:25 am Post subject:
Thanks boisdevie When you say retag do you mean the meta tags?

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:31 am Post subject:

Stacey wrote:

Thanks boisdevie

When you say retag do you mean the meta tags?

I would think so - Adding in a translation widget might be useful as well - Babelfish do some that can be added to a basic website quite easily

https://www.altavista.com/help/free/free_searchbox_transl

Or if you are using something like Wordpress - there may be a plugin available that does a similar sort of thing

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:46 am Post subject:
I just tried to copy & paste the babelfish code but didn't understand it I really am a dunce

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:51 am Post subject:

Try this one first

Code:

It should produce the box with all the links in it for you (stick it in your footer to start with)

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:56 am Post subject:
I've pasted it in and refreshed but it just doesn't show up

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:59 am Post subject:
Oh what a twonk My computer has a thing that blocks active x and scripts. As soon as I switched that off there it was

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:00 am Post subject:
Which site have you put it in too? I've just had a look at the source for the main website (Not the blog) and I can't see the code - If its in the blog it may be blogger being difficult as sometimes it doesn't seem to like javascript links

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:03 am Post subject:
It's on now - just uploaded it Someone said I should be careful with babelfish as I might end up selling red cabbage and calling someone's mother a vietnamese whore but I'll take the risk Thanks Jo

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:10 am Post subject:

Stacey wrote:

It's on now - just uploaded it

Someone said I should be careful with babelfish as I might end up selling red cabbage and calling someone's mother a vietnamese whore but I'll take the risk

Thanks Jo

Rofl either that or you may be forced to listen to Vogon poetry

boisdevie1

Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3897
Location: Lancaster

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:27 am Post subject:

If you're going to do bits of your site in other languages I would steer well clear of automatic translation. Just one silly mistake and your credibility is down the swannee big time. And to get small bits of text translated into other languages would not cost a fortune. My OH might be able to help out with the French side of things in return for something woolly!

But I definitely think selling abroad is well worth considering.

sneeuwklokje

Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 277

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:32 pm Post subject:
Join an ex-pat forum and ask about craft fairs, boutiques and so on. Also check out the "survival" tips - I know you're not planning on moving over there, but you might pick up some handy info about work etc. Start to think about going over there on an R&D trip. Ex-pat portal type of thingy here: https://www.expatica.com Leave online automatic translators alone.

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