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Audience Nationality

by inxie
4 replies
Hey guys, just something that's been bothering me a little and that's when it comes to writing an article for different nationalities. What I mean by this is, my blog is aimed at saving money, and often I like to talk about different stores and different deals going on in my country.

I live in Australia, I'm from England but I know most of my visitors will be from the USA. If I want to talk about an Australian or English related topic then I feel like I will be alienating a large percentage of my visitors.

Is it important to try and accommodate everyone or should I be defining my audience?
#audience #nationality
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by inxie View Post

    If I want to talk about an Australian or English related topic then I feel like I will be alienating a large percentage of my visitors.
    I wouldn't go so far as to say "alienating".

    People know the internet is international.

    I see the problem and the point you're making, of course, but I think it's easy to worry too much about this.

    I use American spellings/style, where I can, in articles and so on, because I think (a) America's my biggest single country market (though the rest of the English-speaking countries all added together are bigger) and especially (b) I think Americans are perhaps a little more easily put off by non-Americanisms than the rest of the world is by Americanisms, anyway. I know that a lot of UK people "expect the internet to be American" in some senses (e.g. US$ being the standard currency, and so on).

    Originally Posted by Indecision

    Is it important to try and accommodate everyone or should I be defining my audience?
    I suspect it depends what you're doing. But assuming it isn't location-specific (in which case you need appropriate domains and hosting and so on, as I do for my one UK-only niche), I wouldn't worry too much?
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      I wouldn't go so far as to say "alienating".

      People know the internet is international.

      I see the problem and the point you're making, of course, but I think it's easy to worry too much about this.

      I use American spellings/style, where I can, in articles and so on, because I think (a) America's my biggest single country market (though the rest of the English-speaking countries all added together are bigger) and especially (b) I think Americans are perhaps a little more easily put off by non-Americanisms than the rest of the world is by Americanisms, anyway. I know that a lot of UK people "expect the internet to be American" in some senses (e.g. US$ being the standard currency, and so on).



      I suspect it depends what you're doing. But assuming it isn't location-specific (in which case you need appropriate domains and hosting and so on, as I do for my one UK-only niche), I wouldn't worry too much?
      For what it is worth, sometimes I will say things like behaviour! The only thing I don't like is when a site that looks American starts taking about some terminology, etc... that sounds great and you research it only to find that america is like the only place that doesn't have it.

      And places that state prices should use the proper symbol. If the symbol is ambiguous, like it is in the US, Canada, Australia, etc.... it should give the ISO3 string as well. A lot of American sites DO violate that, but it is all the more reason that others shouldn't. I always tried to state prices like $10.00USD. It makes it CLEAR that it isn't $10.00CAD or $10.00AUD. This may ALSO cut back on disputes and refund requests.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

        For what it is worth, sometimes I will say things like behaviour!
        That's ok, Steve. I sometimes write "behavior": between us, we have it covered.
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  • Profile picture of the author inxie
    Thanks Alexa, I couldn't agree more about Americans being more put off by non-americanism.

    Great advice as always
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