With more people traveling around the world for both business and pleasure, it makes sense to think about how you can maintain your professional or personal website regardless of your location. While reading The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich it occurred to me that people want to experience more and, quite possibly, share those experiences with colleagues and friends. Establishing a website with a global perspective (and an internationalized name) is a good way to do that.

When you find new contacts in an overseas location, you have an opportunity to build a friendship and, if you are involved with business there, expand your visibility locally. People increasingly look to the internet to find reviews and news about products or services. Your website can offer a local “flavor” that makes it easier for new contacts to see your work as both trustworthy and legitimate. There are many programs that make it easier for you to localize your content (examples include WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal) but if your domain name is still in English, your potential clients or visitors, who don’t happen to speak or read English as a first language, might not find your website. Because of this, you might want to establish multiple “internationalized” web domains.