Posted by Sean in There was an excellent article recently published about the 18 rules the best web developers follow and it highlighted an important idea for people who live and work internationally. Two of the rules struck me as particularly relevant to the idea of expat internet sites.
3. Be a source of information. Virtually everyone on the web is looking for specific information. Whether it is for a product, service, or just educational, sharing your expertise and experiences sets your website apart from the others and adds value to the content.
Your website can be a means to share advice, demonstrate your expertise, a way to promote a cause or organizatio or the starting point in a sales process. Regardless of what your ultimate goal is, you need to think about why people will want to visit your site and stay there once they have found it. If you are thinking about offering information that applies to more than one country or region, you have the added “adventure” of thinking about the different cultures of your audiences.
14. Take advantage of the “worldwide” web. The world is a big place and more and more people are coming to the web. Don’t be afraid to expand your web presence beyond your local niche or country. As long as the information you are providing is useful, the visitors will come to learn more, regardless of where they are. Ideas transcend borders.
if you have experience living and working internationally you already have an advantage when putting your website together. You can draw upon your own “lessons learned” and add the benefit of your foreign-but-local perspective to the topics you address on your site. When connecting with more than one culture, you can also draw upon the variety of popular icons or prominent themes from the cultures to make your messages more relevant.