Are UK Warriors Less Profitable?

18 years ago

Hello Scott

I'm in the UK and sell products in dollars to US customers via PayPal.

Because of the current exchange rate I'm making more UK Pounds than before. When I withdraw PayPal funds (in USD) to my business bank account (in UKP) I get more UKP now than any time since May 2006.

Cheers,

Neil

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clogmoney

18 years ago

It's a double edged sword really. Our pound is greater in value so we can buy things which are valued in dollars for relatively cheap. Traffic being a good example. (Note that you need a bank account which doesn't charge you for foreign transactions.) Unfortunately the other side of the sword is that if you are selling products which are valued in $$$ it feels like you are getting less. It's all relative my friend, just concentrate on making as many $$$/£££ as you can

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JayXtreme 18 years ago

I don't think UK warriors are less profitable...

It's all relative because the living expense value in $$/££ terms is directly proportionate.. I have found.. being on both sides of the pond.

Peace

Jay
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- KenJ 18 years ago
  
  I think there is no difference.
  
  Being in the UK might even help because everyone knows how honest and straightforward we are in business. No joke intended here.
  
  The vast majority of my customers come from outside the UK. In fact less than 10% of my visitors come form the UK
  
  I have no idea why but the stats tell me this and stats are never wrong are they?
  
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Carol J Smith

18 years ago

I live in the US an it seems that all of our economic news is bad news. I don't think we're any better off.

Carol

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Neil Morgan 18 years ago

Are you sure, Neil?

Absolutely.

Product price: $100

Today (26 Sep '08), PayPal will give you 53p per dollar (£1 = $1.88), so you'll get £53.00 when you withdraw the $100 to your UK account.

Earlier this year when £1 = $2.00 you would only have got £50.00 when you withdraw.

And it has actually been worse than that (eg £1 = $2.05) - you got less than £50.00 for your $100.

I've been monitoring this since 2004.

Of course, if you buy a lot of stuff from the US then you'll eat up that gain.

I find that with the recent weakness of the US Dollar relative to the pound

..which means that you get more pounds for a dollar. And, of course, the opposite is true - if you go on holiday to the US, you'll get less dollars when you convert your pounds to dollars.

Cheers,

Neil
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Cash Blasters Online

18 years ago

It's all how you look at things, I kind of think the people in the UK are taxed higher so, who's ahead and who's not, maybe we should study this?

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Don Alm Banned 18 years ago

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Warrior Markets

18 years ago

Alexa, hi

I think the confusion between you and Neil stems from the time frame you're looking at. Certainly, in terms of the last 5 years, etc, the pound is strong compared to the dollar. However - and I think this is what Neil was referring to - the pound was much stronger only 6 months ago.

So, for example, 6 months ago, if you took £200 with you on holiday to America, you would've got $205 for it; now, if you take £200, you will get about $185.

-WM

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Chris Lockwood

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

If a UK marketer sells a $47.00 ebook that is sold in the US he/she would end up with less buying power than if a US marketer sold that same $47 ebook. The same with graphics, services, etc.

$47 is still $47 regardless of the exchange rate. I don't get your logic.

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Neil Morgan

18 years ago

Hi Alexa

I think you made a little mistake here.

Do you? I'm open to being convinced, and to finding that my years at university studying for my degree in Mathematics were a waste of time!

Why not post an actual example (with numbers) using your logic...?

Cheers,

Neil

[Edit]: WM's right - maybe we're looking at different timeframes. That's why an example would help.

The recent weakness of the US dollar relative to the pound means that there are more dollars/cents to the pound than before.

Not compared with earlier this year. There were $2.00 per £1.00 earlier this year. Now there are only $1.88 per £1.00.

That's certainly what it means to all the Londoners who'll do their Christmas shopping in New York this year, anyway.

Last December they would have got $2.05 for each £1.00. At current rates they'll get $1.88 per £1.00. So they'll be getting 8.3% less goods for their £1.00 than they got last year.

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KarlWarren 18 years ago

I'm with Neil on this one...

this year, my dollar earnings are the same, but my £ earnings are more. For the sake of simplicity I approximate my earnings by dividing the dollar amount by 2 (which it was for the early part of this year) - now, due to the current exchange rate, I get a nice little bonus each time I get paid.

Gotta love market fluctuations.
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- Neil Morgan 18 years ago
  
  Thank you Karl.
  
  I used to be a Maths teacher - I'm glad I gave it up!
  
  Cheers,
  
  Neil
  
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Alexa Smith

Banned 18 years ago

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Neil Morgan 18 years ago

I give up.

Cheers,

Neil
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Kim Standerline

18 years ago

Originally Posted by alexa_s

Bluster, bluster, bluster!

Neil, what you actually said (I'm pasting) was "When I withdraw PayPal funds (in USD) to my business bank account (in UKP) I get more UKP now than any time since May 2006."

If you can't see that that's a little mistake, there's no point in continuing the conversation, however many universities you've been to, whatever degrees you have, and however condescending and patronising you choose to be about it.

No he´s right Alexa, the exchange rate is better now (for us) than it was then. (Was there myself)

Kim

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Kim Standerline

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

$47 is still $47 regardless of the exchange rate. I don't get your logic.

yeah it is if your own currency is $ but if you use another one usually such as sterling, it makes a lot of difference

Kim

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Chris Lockwood

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Kim Standerline

yeah it is if your own currency is $ but if you use another one usually such as sterling, it makes a lot of difference

Kim

Eh? OK, if it makes you happy, 30 pounds is the same regardless of what country you are in. Same point I made before.

A $20 bill does not morph into some other object when taken to another country.

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Lance K 18 years ago

Ah crap. I came in here with the intention of counting "wanker" and "rubbish" references. And not a single damn one. :confused:

I'm thoroughly disappointed.
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- Sami 18 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Lance K
  
  Ah crap. I came in here with the intention of counting "wanker" and "rubbish" references. And not a single damn one. :confused:
  
  I'm thoroughly disappointed.
  
  LOL, Lance
  
  I don't normally get involved in debates that go round and round ... but I just wanted to let you if you want to see that first word of yours, you need to get a few of our Ausie cousins into the conversation ...
  
  I guess the rest of us have been pretty rubbish at saying rubbish.
  
  Sami
  
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KarlWarren

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

Eh? OK, if it makes you happy, 30 pounds is the same regardless of what country you are in. Same point I made before.

A $20 bill does not morph into some other object when taken to another country.

You're right... but try spending it in its native form offline.

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Jeff Usher

18 years ago

Alexa,

Lets say I receive $45 in my paypal account and send that to my UK bank account. At the exchange rate today:-

$45.00 = £24.50 ( 1 GBP = 1.83690 USD )
( 45 / 1.83690 = 24.5 )

A while ago the exchange rate was 1 GBP to 2 USD so:-

$45.00 = £22.50
( 45 / 2 = 22.50 )

So, looks like I "lost" £2 on that sale due to the exchange rate.

The lower the exchange rate the more £ we get. So lets say tomorrow the exchange rate goes down to 1.5. We would be better off:-

$45.00 = £30.00 ( 1 GBP = 1.5 USD )
( 45 / 1.5 = 30.00 )

Hope this helps........

Regards

Jeff

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Martin Avis 18 years ago

Alexa,

Why do you persist in making yourself look silly?

Neil is correct. You are not.

Unless of course you are argueing a completely different point to the one that is being discussed here, which I suspect you might be.

To go back to the OP. UK marketers ARE at a disadvantage compared to US ones. Not because of the exchange rates per se, but because of the cost of living in each of our countries.

A US marketer making $5000 per month will find that their money buys a much bigger basketful of goods than a UK marketer making the same dollar income. Most products and services in the US are much cheaper than they are here in the UK. Gas (petrol) for example, is about twice the price in the UK than US motorist pay. They don't call us Rip-Off Britain for nothing!

Martin
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Diana Lane

18 years ago

It's no exaggeration to say that maths was my worst subject at school, but although I'm the only person I know who can add two figures together and come up with something less than either of them, even I know when I'm seeing more money. Not so long ago, a $99 transaction brought me fifty quid. Now it brings me around fifty-three, give or take the odd few bob.

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Frank Donovan

18 years ago

Martin is right.

I have to smile when I read about the sort of income considered "rich" by some non UK marketers, when that would scarcely pay the average rent/mortgage where I live.

The pound has been very strong against the dollar for the last couple of years, so the current slight movement the other way is a welcome bonus.

Where we do benefit is with online services, such as hosting, domain registration, software memberships etc which are usually US based and much more cost-effective for UK marketers.

Frank

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Richard Tunnah

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Frank Donovan

Martin is right.

I have to smile when I read about the sort of income considered "rich" by some non UK marketers, when that would scarcely pay the average rent/mortgage where I live.

The pound has been very strong against the dollar for the last couple of years, so the current slight movement the other way is a welcome bonus.

Where we do benefit is with online services, such as hosting, domain registration, software memberships etc which are usually US based and much more cost-effective for UK marketers.

Frank

Frank that is so true. As Martin said $5k a month (or about £2,800 in UK) will not give you a comfortable living in the UK due to house prices/rent, council tax, utility costs plus the general much higher cost of living including food.

Rich

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Platinum Matt 18 years ago

When I started, I got about 73 pence to the dollar, now it's closer to 50 odd pence... but it's going the right way.

If you INVEST in US products and services it's good value but if you earn in dollars (as I do-almost 100% it's not so hot).
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Alexa Smith

Banned 18 years ago

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EndGame

18 years ago

Originally Posted by alexa_s

Yes, the same is exactly true for me, of course.

Like most of the other people posting above, you're comparing now with a few months ago. And you're right.

Neil said expressly that he was comparing it with TWO YEARS AGO (in fact he said even more than that, he applied what he said to every time in-between as well), which is where he was wrong. It just turned into a silly argument because apparently he didn't have the decency or sense to say something like "Sorry, yes, I may have made a little mistake there" or something similar!

If you look at his original post in the thread, you'll see that what he originally said was so far wrong that I honestly thought at first that he might have done a typo or brainslip and said "more" instead of "less" or something, and was simply trying to correct the totally mistaken impression he gave, for the benefit of other readers. I won't bother, next time!

Does this tone or attitude to the other members of the forum sound familiar to anyone?

On the note of UK warriors being at a disadvantage, I would say there is a slight one in some ways. I personally would love to have the funds to visit the US and do some networking with my American marketing cousins. Alas, I cannot at this time.

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Neil Morgan 18 years ago

I never thought I'd let myself get caught up in one these threads.

Sheesh.

Cheers,

Neil
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Roger Mayne

18 years ago

I certainly think that UK Warriors are at a disadvantage over their US counterparts, when it comes to selling in US$, but as said earlier, we can leverage that by buying hosting from US providers, which effectively makes running costs cheaper for us.

At the moment, with 'credit crunch' and 'global recession' as hot topics, I'm just happy with ANY sale in ANY currency!!

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naonline

18 years ago

I think Jeff explained it perfectly.

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Adam Carn

18 years ago

I remember a few years ago (I'm gonna be a bit vague so don't pounce on me

) you would get something like £75 from $100. Then it sank to around £50 mark and even though with the recent fluctuations the rate still remains around £50. I think that's what Alexa is trying to say.

Adam

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clogmoney

18 years ago

Haha this thread made me laugh for several different reasons

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John Hillage

18 years ago

I sell in US $ and also have my Adwords account as US - so instead of 5p minimum bid (about 10c) I can use 5c minimum bids - so I guess it evens itself out.

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Jean Morgan

18 years ago

I am with Neil, Martin et al.

The US $ has been very weak against the pound for a couple of years. Since January this year it strengthened about 10% but has now weakened slightly again over the last 2 weeks.

For the last 2 years it has been great buying goods and services from the US but not so good on $ based earnings. Recently our dollar based earnings have been increasing in value over the last 6 months or so to have dipped again this last two weeks but not anywhere near the levels of January this year when the rate was roughly $2 = £1. I have recently received as low as $1.74 = £1

Jean

It is correct to say that things are relative to the cost of living of the various countries. I find there are few places I have ever travelled where I have found prices to be more expensive than the UK. When in the USA in June I was laughing about the cost of car rental and fuel for it. Also buying food in restaurants was incredibly good value particularly with the huge portion sizes. Clothing was also very cheap and of good quality.

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