jmarbach.com

Have you ever traveled to a place where you don’t know the language? The feeling of being surrounded by people you can’t communicate with is overwhelming and isolating.

I recently learned about a technique that linguists use when they are translating a newly discovered language in a community where no bilingual speakers exist. One common technique is to establish the “Swadesh List” — A list of “100 words for things that were fairly concrete, could be pointed at or demonstrated, and were presumably universal (not culture-specific).”

Essentially these linguists are saying that all you need to know are these 100 words to survive your trip anywhere!

This list appears below:

So, it appears that there is some truth to the international language of pointing and making signs with your hands! If you can point and memorize just these 100 words, you’ll be able to communicate almost anything!

The theory is rooted in a well-known idea in linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. This hypothesis states that language highly influences a human’s thoughts and behavior. Put differently, the way your language works also determines how you think. Additional reading material on Sapir-Whorf and the Swadesh List can be found here.

My post about monetizing international traffic, published today on the MediaTrust blog-

For those of you who read my article on the MediaTrust blog named “Bite-Sized Affiliate Marketing Tips“, then you probably noticed my emphasis on the importance of driving at least some of your revenue from international traffic. Often in the flat digital world that internet marketers spend the majority of their day in, many forget that our potential reach on the web lies far beyond our own borders. Our daily lives are living examples of the global citizen’s we are becoming. After Jon Brougham, the Headmaster of The Hun School of Princeton made a recent address to my school, I was prompted to take a look around the room I am currently in. I can easily find three different items made in three different countries! He later said:

“In this flat, small world, we will rely upon mutual understanding and collaboration, not just for peaceful coexistence, but for economic well-being – for the exchange of products and ideas that will be our life-blood… If you are not ready to play in the global sandbox, you will be left out of the game.”

The main reason why affiliates choose to promote offers internationally is because the traffic costs are less expensive and are not saturated with as many competitors. For those that are just starting to get into the foreign markets, the most common transition is to target other English speaking countries, so that your creatives and landing pages do not need to be edited. A lot of the time people don’t realize it but yes, a lot of campaigns allow targeting to Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. All four are countries which speak English as their first language. If you combine the population of all four countries, that’s roughly 100,000,000+ more consumers that you are missing out on!

Then there are the countries that need to be targeted with translated creatives. MediaTrust hosts a variety of campaigns that offer expansive international targeting, and is the leading affiliate network for translated offers. In the past few months, many MediaTrust affiliates have been targeting France and French Canadian demographic, mostly located in Quebec. This has been an enormous success for many, and there is still room for more! Meanwhile, other MediaTrust affiliates have been seeing success by targeting Spanish speaking countries such as Argentina, Colombia, and Spain.

Now as you dream in the endless possibilities of less expensive traffic, the question remains: Where are a lot of these affiliates getting their traffic from? Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Bing remain popular for primarily English speaking countries. (Of course still have high volume traffic for any country/language throughout the world.)

For French Canadian traffic: The most popular traffic source is BV Media, they own a 90% reach on traffic in Quebec!

For Spanish traffic: This is a gem that has remained untouched by any affiliates and has placements on high quality Spanish sites: Impresiones Web

What about Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and others? Have you thought about being one of the first to monetize traffic in Asia with CPA offers?

There really is a lot of money to be made internationally, and the opportunities are often overlooked. Now time to brush up  your language skills as you get up and running in the foreign markets. Good luck!