Matt Cutts wants your international bugs

No, he doesn’t mean your strange “foreign” insects and diseases, but this is a subject dear to my own heart and, one that adds frustrations for internet marketers in “other countries” (i.e. those outside of the United States.)

Some of the things listed here already, I can really identify with. For instance, as a British expat in Spain, I’m often shown advertising and offered sites in Spanish, including Blogger and YouTube. Fortunately, I do speak Spanish, but that is by no means a foregone conclusion, especially not for English speaking expats and there are plenty of us around the world. This problem shouldn’t happen, because my computer and browser should clearly show that my software and preferences are English.

You don’t even need to be an expat for this situation: take the example of the many Asians online who use English as a preference.

And with this whole internet thing being supposed to “work anywhere,” it’s just not always a logical assumption to match country and language. Contrary to the views of those who fear violations of their privacy, individual behavioral targeting makes a lot more sense.

The frustrations, of course, go way beyond Google related bugs.

One of my pet peeves is, despite it being demonstrated that most spam comes out of the US, large US based ISPs appear to discriminate against or block all email, for no apparent reason, that comes from “foreign” servers. At times I can’t even send a singular, personal email to a friend.

In affiliate marketing, there is the huge illogical frustration, when merchants don’t want international affiliates. Never mind that the affiliate has a DOT COM domain and 85%+ U.S. based traffic (which is probably “normal”), when she is “an alien”, she’s persona non-grata.

He’s going to think I’m picking on him now, but I’ve got to mention that, ironically, Shawn Collins, who commented on yesterday’s post, was the first to “kick me out” of his old ClubMom affiliate program, because I’m not US based. This was way back at the beginning of the century, of course, was with no “appeal” and, despite the fact that my site was drawing US visitors and was making affiliate sales / commissions.

But, if I find this frustrating in Spain (and, I’d maintain that knowing Spanish might be a great asset marketing to the US Hispanic market), think how someone on the same bit of the earth must feel, speaking English and merely living the other side of an imaginary line (i.e. in Canada.)

Someone living inside the U.S., whose native language is Swahili and whose site gets all African visitors could join some of these programs though, presumably? Anyone understand the logic here?

Then there’s often a problem getting paid in certain countries …

Often, us poor old expats feel like we don’t really belong anywhere. For instance, local blog circles, affiliate networks, etc., are in Spanish (no problem with that, but it’s not the market I am dealing with), but though I am British, because I don’t live in Blighty (and never will, if I can help it!), so I don’t quite qualify to join the ranks of the Brit Pack.

If you live somewhere in the “other countries”, no doubt, you’ll have your own list. Send your international Google bugs to Matt Cutts, of course, but what other “bugs” (pet peeves, problems, frustrations) do you have as “international” marketers? List ‘em in the comments. Let’s compile them and see if this is a big enough problem that something needs “fixing.”