If you’re looking to take your business global by expanding into e-commerce for foreign language markets, then it never hurts to stay abreast of news from the world of international online business. We’ve picked out eight news and research sources that we recommend adding to your bookmarks to stay in the loop with everything from online business trends to news about translation, search engine optimisation, design for international audiences and content marketing (and they won’t bore you to death when you’re reading).
Online giant Mashable is your number one stop for news about everything related to the internet, from developments with social media platforms to online technology and business news, and even what’s going viral on social that day. Be wary though – Mashable understand the theory of clickability, so it’s easy to find yourself falling into a content black hole of endless interesting articles, from which there’s no escaping.
These guys are great when it comes to e-commerce and online marketing. If you’re after high-level insights and data about everything to do with running a business online, then you need to get a subscription to Econsultancy for their regular research reports and expert articles about everything from UX to SEO and social. You’ll have to pay for the privilege – from a minimum of around £500 a year – but if you can afford it, Econsultancy is a top notch source of e-commerce industry insights.
Common Sense Advisory is your one-stop-shop for industry white papers and market research on how to work across languages – specifically, how to best use translation and localisation to your advantage in business. If you’re looking for detailed market research reports about foreign language markets, translation technology, global website design and content, and anything else related to selling online in multiple languages, then this US-based research firm should be your first stop.
For tips and updates about what’s going on in the world of search engines and SEO, Search Engine Watch is your top resource. They cover everything from SEO tweaks at the major search engines to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, mobile, social, analytics, localising your search optimisation, and more. They’ve also got a significant team of industry-leading thinkers contributing regular opinion pieces and tip articles, so you’ll be able to find an answer to nearly any search engine-related question that’s bothering you (and it’s all free).
From producing content for your own website, email marketing and social media, to contributing expert advice articles to news and resource sites, and making your own videos or social adverts, there’s a huge amount of content you’ll need to make to keep your online business ticking over and to get your message out into the world (especially when you’re working across several languages). For all kinds of news and tips on what kind of content you need, and how to best use it, the Content Marketing Institute is your best resource – especially since they have plenty of industry research reports, white papers and useful articles about strategy and international e-commerce to dive into.
This online market place for professional translators has a translation news forum, which is a great place to keep an eye on for aggregated stories from around the world about the vagaries of language and translation. Recent stories cover everything from machine translation (and its impact upon human translators) to interesting shifts in languages and slang terms.
Visual Swirl is one of the best online sources for news about design and web-design-related resources. It’s especially handy for people in the field of international online business for its resources about how to tweak your website design for different cultures, web design inspiration tips and articles about tech and coding.
Even if you’re not in the online retail business, this news site is still a valuable source of useful info about the whole world of international online business, with daily updated news and lots of resources and handy guides (many of them for free) on how to do everything from digital marketing to SEO for mobile and A/B testing. They even have dedicated sections for articles and resources about marketing to international consumers, search engine marketing and website technology.
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