The language of the Web.The Web is the only publicity medium in which you can grow from the local to the global scale instantaneously in·stan·ta·ne·ous adj. 1. Occurring or completed without perceptible delay: Relief was instantaneous. 2. . However, to convert that worldwide exposure into effective relationship building, you must translate your English-language Web site into the mother tongue mother tongue n. 1. One's native language. 2. A parent language. mother tongue Noun the language first learned by a child Noun 1. of every audience that matters to you. Doing so can help you establish a presence, build your brand, and sell and support your products in international markets. How many non-English-speaking customers? Surveys show that the overall Web audience is growing most rapidly on a percentage basis outside of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Many of the newcomers are not likely to be multilingual mul·ti·lin·gual adj. 1. Of, including, or expressed in several languages: a multilingual dictionary. 2. . Generally worth the cost. The going rate for a basic translation with no technical complications is 10-12 cents per word. When you factor in the difficulties of working with HTML HTML in full HyperText Markup Language Markup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for documents on the World Wide Web. documents, graphics, links, and so on, plus the extra project management required and the difficulty of the specialized spe·cial·ize v. spe·cial·ized, spe·cial·iz·ing, spe·cial·iz·es v.intr. 1. To pursue a special activity, occupation, or field of study. 2. content itself, a typical Web site translation costs 30-35 cents per word. However, it's important to keep in mind that you already are investing in the creative and technical resources to create and maintain your Web site in English. Those costs, honestly measured, are usually many times the cost of translation. Which languages? If your present and future customers speak any of the following languages, then they live in markets with strong and rapidly growing Web audiences: German, Italian, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. Alternatively, if you run a popular Web site in English and want to reach the greatest number of new visitors for the lowest cost, without targeting any market in particular, good languages to start with are Spanish, German, French, and Italian. This edited excerpt ex·cerpt n. A passage or segment taken from a longer work, such as a literary or musical composition, a document, or a film. tr.v. ex·cerpt·ed, ex·cerpt·ing, ex·cerpts 1. of an article by Robert Hopkins, Jr., is reprinted from the March/April 1999 issue of ASAE's TechnoScope newsletter. Hopkins is president of Weblations, Barcelona, Spain. E-mail: rhopkins@weblations.com. |
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