Top 7 Ways to Make Money From International Markets

There's a lot of advice to be found on the web about how you can make money online, and many of you may already be enjoying some success doing so. But I'm fairly certain you want to take it further - and with the Internet allowing you to enter international markets pretty much over night, the world is your oyster! Here are some tips as to how you can take advantage

1. Research the opportunity
   Your time is money. You need to work out which international market might be most interested in your product or service. Many countries' government agencies will provide advice on this subject, and you can do your own Internet research to establish whether there is likely to be demand for what you're offering.
   
   
2. Research the country
   Once you've got a shortlist of countries where you think there's an opportunity, you need to look closer at them. How much does the average person earn there? How many people live in that country? Are the religious views of people in the country likely to fit with your product or service? You need to know your customers before you can sell to them.
   
   
3. Research the keywords
   You may need a translation agency specialised in internet marketing to do this bit. A good place to start is with translation of the key phrases you've found work well in English. But don't assume this will be enough - foreign surfers will search in different ways. You could look at what your new competitors are focusing their efforts on, or survey any customers you already have in your chosen country to see which terms they would use to describe your business.
   
   
4. Have your website localised - but be careful!
   Once you've gone through the keyword research process, you'll have a good idea about which terms you need your translating service to incorporate when they adapt your site for the foreign market.
   Make sure that they are genuinely offering website localisation, and not just literal translation. It's important not only that they adapt the language for your chosen market, but also provide suggestions on changes to the design which might make your prospective customers feel more at home using your site.
   
   
5. Try a toe-in-the-water campaign
   You won't know for sure whether the project will work until you've been running a campaign - perhaps on Google Adwords - for a few weeks. Using a pay-per-click tool like Adwords enables you to control your budget and measure the success of different key phrases at the same time. Heaven for marketers!
   
   
6. Analyse, analyse, analyse
   Your first step will be to analyse the success of your toe-in-the-water campaign, using web analytics software like Clicktracks or perhaps Google's own Analytics. This will enable you to easily identify those terms which give you a return on investment. Over time, through ongoing, regular analysis, you'll be able to refine your campaigns and get an ever better return on your spend.
   
   
7. Do it all again in the next best language
   There are many large markets to be addressed, and most large multi-nationals derive significantly more profit from foreign language-speaking markets than from their own domestic one - no matter how big that may be. If you've made it work in two languages (English and your first foreign language), there's a very good chance you'll have learnt enough to make it work in many others.

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