Monthly Email Newsletter
December 2004
IN THIS ISSUE:
I. Message from the Editor
II. Articles:
*** Featured Industry: Residential Building, Building Products, and Home
Improvement
1. Expert Interview: How to Build Winning Web
Sites
*** Featured Language: Canadian French
2. Canada's Bilingual Culture
3. The Canadian e-Commerce Paradox
4. Canadian Internet Publishing
5. Canadian Internet Pharmacies
III.
*** Helpful Web Tools
6. Localization World 2005 Conference
IV. In Our Next Issue
V. Your Feedback
VI. How to Subscribe
I. MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
In our last newsletter we completed a two-part discussion on web site
globalization. This month our head writer Myriam Telles interviews one of the
building industry's foremost authorities on creating, managing, and marketing
web sites, Mr. Alan Wickstrom, Chief Executive Officer and President of
Building Online. Her article appears in our Featured Industry
section.
Our Featured Language section focuses on Canadian French and the current state
of the e-commerce business in Canada. And finally, our helpful web tools
section identifies a European conference that will feature many tools that you
will find helpful for translation and globalization of your web sites.
Since this newsletter is meant to create a virtual community where we share the
latest news and advice, we invite you to submit your suggestions, story ideas,
statistics and web site tips to
mailto:newsletter@globallanguages.com.
From the staff of Global Languages Solutions, we wish you the happiest of
holidays, and a healthy and prosperous 2005!
-- Inna Kassatkina, Editor
mailto:editor@globallanguages.com
II. ARTICLES
*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: Residential Building, Building Products, and Home
Improvement
1. EXPERT INTERVIEW: HOW TO BUILD A WINNING WEB SITE
In 1995 Alan Wickstrom and Dan Busarow founded Building Online, Inc., to create
and market a "Google-style" search engine for the residential home building and
remodeling industry. But as they launched their business they discovered new,
unexpected opportunities that helped their company grow during the last 9
years. This month Alan Wickstrom, President of Building Online, shares
his company's story and provides valuable tips for creating and managing a
winning web site.
QUESTION: What are some of the most valuable lessons you've learned that
have helped your company to be so successful?
ANSWER: I would say one valuable lesson is to be open to new business
opportunities and then take quick action to respond. When Dan and I
started Building Online, we thought our only goal was to create a directory and
search engine for the building industry, but we soon found that there wasn't
much to search since many companies in the industry simply weren't online
yet. So in parallel to creating the directory, we began offering to build
and market our clients' web sites, and within a year of making this decision we
had forty clients. We were very fortunate that we acted quickly because
in the years that followed the popularity of home improvement television shows
such as those on HGTV (Home and Gardening Television) grew, and indirectly
helped our business grow as more people became interested in building and
remodeling their homes.
Another valuable lesson is to hire people with the right talents and to
recognize their accomplishments. For example, Cindy Wild has done an
outstanding job designing our customers' web sites since we first opened our
doors. Our press releases about our new web site projects have featured
her contributions as well as those of our other web designers and programmers
such as Rosa Go and Sean Berry. No matter how big your company gets, you always
need to remember that without the dedication of employees, the business can't
survive or continue to grow.
And finally, you have to do all you can to establish and protect your good
reputation among your customers. During the years our business has been
operating, we've developed a reputation for providing great customer service,
reasonable pricing, high quality work, and quick turnaround.
QUESTION: What advice do you have for business owners who are looking for
a web developer to create or upgrade their web site?
ANSWER: Hiring someone who simply creates your web site and then walks
away is sort of like getting all dressed up and going out on the town, but then
not seeing any one. What I mean by this statement is that our customers
quickly discover that in addition to creating attractive web sites, they also
have to promote them in order to get customers to visit and buy their products
or services, so it's in their best interest to establish a relationship with
one agency who can meet these varied needs.
In the late 1990's we responded by morphing into a full-service agency that
offers an entire suite of services including development of web sites for
branding or e-commerce purposes, web programming, web marketing and monitoring,
and web site hosting. Our experiences have shown us that business owners
should consider working with agencies that offer a variety of web site services
and who are also flexible and willing to work within their budget and schedule
requirements.
QUESTION: How has your company responded to the changing multicultural
makeup of your clients' domestic and international target markets?
ANSWER: Within the United States we have seen a large growth in the
number of clients who want to reach and sell to the growing Hispanic
market. For example, when a major home improvement retailer began to
target Spanish-speaking customers (both in the consumer and business sectors)
by creating Spanish language web sites, we were hired to create Spanish web
sites for manufacturers and wholesalers who sold their products to that
retailer.
The ethnic makeup of our country has changed so much that it is now affecting
how web-based business is conducted. And the viability of companies may
be affected by their ability to reach multicultural consumers and business
owners.
With respect to global markets, it's also important for companies to create web
sites that are "user-friendly", have language that is familiar to native
speakers, and respect local customs and needs. In an effort to meet our
clients' needs in this area, our company teamed up with Global Language
Solutions (GLS), a Newport Beach, California firm with expertise in web site
translation and localization. Our joint efforts have lead to the creation
of web sites in a variety of languages including Spanish, Chinese, German,
Japanese, French, and Arabic.
QUESTION: What was it that helped you to choose Global Language Solutions
as your web site translation and localization partner?
ANSWER: In addition to their friendly and highly professional demeanor,
we also felt that their thorough 5-step process results in web sites written in
a style that native speakers readily understand and relate to, and at a quality
level high enough to get the sites "found" by both domestic and international
search engines.
Their 5-step process involves creation of company-specific and
industry-specific translation glossaries to assure consistency throughout the
web site and during translation cycles, followed by initial translation by a
translator who is a native speaker of the local language, a second check of the
finished translated web site by another highly-qualified native speaker, then
working with us to create and input keywords and phrases into the translated
web site to get the best search engine placement results, and, finally,
submission of the new web site to the most popular domestic and international
foreign-language search engines. Overall, this 5-step team approach has worked
very well for us, for GLS, and most importantly for our customers.
QUESTION: Can you give us some suggestions about how companies can market
their web sites?
ANSWER: Based on our experiences, we have found that various online and
offline methods are very effective. Some methods we use that our
customers have found to be effective include:
-- Design your web site and market it so that it gets top search engine
placement and visibility. At Building Online we work with customers to
create web pages with the "right" keywords, phrases and content that gets the
attention of search engines, and we promote these web sites to optimize their
placement.
-- Exchange links with other sites that may be of interest to your
customers, but are not your competitors. We exchange links with various
home building and residential associations and manufacturers.
-- Provide a link that allows web site visitors to opt-in to get your
company's latest news, or to learn about specials or new products. We
provide a link to our Internet mail news service that covers the business
industry, BuildingOnline's e-Update.
-- Write a company newsletter and provide a link to it on your web site.
Our customers have found that this is a very effective way to get valuable
information out to the right people as well as to establish their company's
areas of expertise.
-- Add your company to online industry-specific directories or search
engines. Our customers can register their company information in our premier
online Home Improvement Directory and Building Online's Building Industry
Search Engine.
-- Advertise via online banners. We provide banners that link
customers' web sites with our BuildingOnline portal site.
Some "offline" methods we have also found to be effective are:
-- Appear as a speaker at industry-specific association meetings and
conferences. I have been a guest speaker at many conferences such as the
National Association of Homebuilders' Show, America Hardware Manufacturers'
Association forums, and the Building Industry Show.
-- Write and distribute press releases via your web site and to the
general media as well as industry-specific media. We post our news
releases on our BuildingOnline web site and also offer links to news stories of
our customers and other industry leaders.
-- Be interviewed by the media who cover your industry. Examples of
media that cover the home building and remodeling industry are:
BUILDERnews, Old House Journal, Architecture Week, Interiors and Sources,
and Homes magazine.
-- Exhibit at local and national industry conferences and meetings.
-- Appear as a guest on industry-related TV shows, such as home
improvement shows on HGTV and the Learning Channel.
ABOUT THE EXPERT: Alan Wickstrom is the Chief Executive Officer
and President of Del Mar, California-based Building Online, Inc., a leading web
site design and Internet marketing agency with approximately 85 percent of its
business focused on the home building, building products, and home improvement
industries, and 15 percent of its work focused on developing and marketing web
sites for companies doing business in a wide variety of unrelated industries.
Wickstrom is also an advanced HTML programmer, designer, consultant and
troubleshooter. For more information about the agency, visit
http://www.BuildingOnline.net or send an email to
mailto:alan@BuildingOnline.com.
*** FEATURED LANGUAGE: CANADIAN FRENCH
2. CANADA'S BILINGUAL CULTURE
Canada, with a population of about one-tenth that of the U.S. and spread over
ten provinces, has a bilingual (English and French) citizenry in several
provinces. French is the mother tongue of over six million Canadians or 23% of
the population. Over 90% of French speakers live in Quebec, the only
province where French is the sole official language. In addition,
concentrations of French speakers are found in the Canadian Maritimes,
Prairies, Northern Territories, and Ontario. Half-a-million Canadians
from northern Ontario speak French, although one third no longer speaks the
language at home.
Canadian French is the general terminology used to describe the many dialects
of French spoken in Canada. These include: Acadian French, African French,
Belgian French, Cajun French, France French, Quebec French, and Swiss French.
By contrast, Canadian English is spoken by some 19-million people.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_French
http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/French-Canadian
English dialects spoken by the British, Canadians, and Americans, have all
adopted French words and phrases that are now ingrained into these cultures and
dialects. Nevertheless, these words and phrases all seem to retain a certain
exotic foreign sound, a "je ne sais quoi", which many Americans fail to connect
to French. Words and phrases such as genre, art deco, brunette, critique,
cuisine, finale, encore, petite, toilette, random, rendezvous, and lieutenant,
all were borrowed from French. To see more examples, visit
http://french.about.com/library/bl-frenchenglish-list.htm
If you can't already tell, a successful e-commerce campaign in Canada must
include reaching both English and French speakers. This is a common approach on
both government and commercial web sites.
If you visit the official web site of the Canadian Government, you will reach a
welcoming portal page. On one side you see an entrance reading "Welcome to the
Parliament of Canada", while the other side is an entrance reading "Bienvenue
au Parlement du Canada". This dual language design appears on many commercial
web sites too. For example, Canadopedia - The Web of -- or La Tolle du - Canada
provides full search capabilities and content in both English and Français.
http://www.parl.gc.ca
http://canadopedia.com/
But besides simply translating your content into both languages, you should
also know about what we will now refer to as the
Canadian e-Commerce Paradox.
3. THE CANADIAN E-COMMERCE PARADOX
If you are interested in expanding your e-commerce business activities to our
neighbors to the north, be aware of the somewhat paradoxical nature of Canadian
e-commerce. Since about 2000, Canada began a race to surpass all countries in
its widespread adoption of broadband technology. By the end of 2004, eMarketer
estimates that 5.2 million households will have broadband, 66% of those online.
This is among the highest broadband penetrations reported. And in the last four
years, Canada has emerged as one of the top ranking countries in Internet
usage. In fact, compared to Americans, a higher percentage of Canadians bank
online. Paradoxically, Canadian enthusiasm for broadband and the Internet have
not led to an e-commerce boom, but simply a disappointing fizzle.
In 2003, Canadians spent only $3 billion Canadian dollars shopping online. This
is a dismal amount, less than one percent of the $688 billion of total spending
last year. By contrast, Americans online spent in three weeks what Canadians
spent online in all of 2003. So what has caused this paradox? Let's take a
look.
In what Vox News terms "mysteriously anemic Canadian e-commerce,"no single
factor seems to be responsible for such a low spending behavior. Vox has
raised several possible contributory factors that include: Canadian taxes,
shipping costs, conservative social habits, focus of Canadian e-commerce firms
on U.S. markets, poor e-commerce tracking data, Canadian resentment of U.S.
firms, and the tendency to have more than one person responsible for purchase
decisions.
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2004/12/06/mysteriously_anemic_canadian_ecommerce_explored/
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003163
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003171
First reported as early as 2000, was a prevailing attitude by Canadian business
owners that the Internet would not affect their businesses. 56 percent of
businesses did not sell or buy online, and 36 percent did not want to change
their business models. Furthermore, some business owners had not even submitted
their sites to search engines while Forrester was reporting that 81 percent of
these consumers located web sites via search engines. Some believe that these
attitudes may be lingering on today.
http://www.the-surfs-up.com/news/news6p2html
In yet another study, the source of the problem is believed to be politically
and socially rooted, but not with a single segment of Canadian government or
society. Rather, there seems to be multiple socio-political sources for this
problem that must be overcome: Canadian consumers have been overly cautious
buying online, retailers have been slow to invest in Internet technology, and
the Canadian government has been complacent about pushing strategic initiatives
to stimulate e-commerce.
http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?b2c_canada_dec04
In one very encouraging move signaling a renewed drive to stimulate e-commerce,
in September 2004, Canada's Minister of Industry challenged executives in the
information and communications technology (ITC) sector, leading national and
international economic experts, and academic researchers to partner with
government to develop a strategy to stimulate e-commerce. According to Minister
Emerison, the government's "aim is to make Canada a fully ITC-enabled economy-a
world leading e-economy that will foster growth and wealth creation for all
Canadians."
http://www.ic.gc.ca/cmb/welcomeic.nsf/
4. CANADIAN INTERNET PUBLISHING
Publishing online is a growing industry in Canada. Canadians are beginning to
rely upon daily news sources just as Americans do today. There are many to
choose from in both English and French. To check out a few, visit:
http://www.canoe.ca/
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/news
http://french.about.com/od/dialcanada/
5. CANADIAN INTERNET PHARMACIES
In an announcement made December 16, 2004, partially fuelled by the recent U.S.
Presidential debates and election, the Canadian federal government announced a
major crackdown on Internet pharmacies that send cheap medicines to the U.S.
There are at least two reasons for the crackdown as cited by the Canadian
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh: (1) there is great concern that such sales
will create shortages in Canada, especially since the U.S. population is so
much larger, and (2) such sales, especially since Canadian doctors may never
have seen the patient, are deemed unethical and unprofessional.
Canada is considering two options to remedy the problem: (1) making it illegal
for doctors to countersign prescriptions from other countries or allowing
doctors to write prescriptions only for Canadian residents and visitors to
Canada, and (2) creating a list of drugs that cannot be exported if shortages
or threats of shortages develop.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7118612
III. *
** HELPFUL WEB TOOLS
6. LOCALIZATION WORLD 2005 CONFERENCE
Although we usually use this article to alert you about specific web tools,
this month we're gong to alert you about a conference located in a beautiful
European location that you can attend to learn about a wide variety of web site
localization tools and services.
As the number of languages being spoken in Europe increases, government
agencies, the public sector, and the business world see its translation and web
site localization challenges growing in scope. This means that
opportunities are growing in the localization industry, but as the demand for
cost-effective solutions increase, translation agencies are faced with meeting
the challenge by using the latest automation tools. The Localization World Bonn
2005 conference; which will be held at the Beethovenhalle in the picturesque
city of Bonn, Germany from May 31 to June 2, 2005, will give you a great
opportunity to learn about these state-of-the-art tools. For more
information about the conference, visit:
http://wwww.localizationworld.com/LWBonn2005/cfp.htm.
IV. IN OUR NEXT ISSUE
*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: Healthcare
*** FEATURED LANGUAGE: Spanish
V. YOUR FEEDBACK
Have questions? Or a story idea or topic you would like us to address
in a future issue? Let us know by sending a message to
newsletter@globallanguages.com.
VI. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
