American English or British English ??

For purely Internet Marketing purposes, go with American English.
Much bigger market

Jim

I'm from the UK, but always try to use American English for internet marketing. Just looking at my IM related website stats, the majority of visitors (often over 70%) tend to be from the USA.

Cheers,
Suzanne

Whichever one helps YOU TO LIGHT UP, DELIVER And lastly DRIVE YOUR THOUGHTS and IDEAS HOME would be BENEFICIAL.... =)

But definitely some very good points and Advice from above Warriors..

Wyatt,

Go for American English.

Also learn some British English to learn the differences between the two different kinds of English when you hear or read something.

American English is the way to go and what most people look for. If you notice people also looking for article writers, they are looking for those who write fluently in American English.

American english is mostly used and in article marketing it plays an important role

I think if your product is good, it does not really matter much.
But it might depend on what you sell.

For example, Market Samurai is Aussie, and on the video clips on the site they speak Ausisie English (which is close to British Englissh), but it does not seem affect the sales, does it?

But if you are selling info products, it might affect the sales not so much because of American/Britsh ENGLISH, but the slight cultural differences. (North American VS European).

e.g. A british guy would choose a product written by a British guy over an American guy if he was looking for an info product about "how to get a cute girlfriend in 10 days".

(And even if it was written by an American, if you do copywriting with British English and include some British humor, I'm sure it would be better.)

I found that if you know UK English, it's easier to adapt to the simplified American-English. I'm Australian and we learn UK English in schools, yet US English seems to be more accepted for internet marketing. If you know UK English, the other is easy to pick up. However, it seems to be much harder for those who only know American-English to revert to the other option of more formal, stricter UK English.

Just my two cents.

Depends on the market you're going for. If you're going to be concentrating on the US and Canadian market, the US English is the way to go, for the rest of the English speaking world then British English would make better sense.

There's not a lot of difference anyway : color/colour, center/centre defese/defence etc. and Americans write the date the wrong way round compared to the rest of the world. In the US, the date today is 4/23/2010 and in Britain it's 23/4/2010.

It definitely depends on your target audience. Us English is probably the best choice for general websites that get visitors from all over the world.

I say you should learn American English first. Here's the reason why:

In general, people from the UK are much more understanding of the differences between our common language. For example, if someone from the UK sees the word "color" on a blog, they probably won't send a nasty message to the site owner telling them it's spelled "colour".

HOWEVER, I have seen way too many examples of American English ignorance (in the best sense of the word); where someone sees the word "colour" and they post a reply to correct it.

Neither language is better, but I truly believe you will experience less hassle if you start with American English.

I don't know who it was, but someone once said, "The United States and England are two countries separated by a common language".

All the best,
Michael

Well, as a starting point there are 350M people in the United States and 61M in all of Great Britian, so for me it sounds like an easy choice.

That being said, if we're talking about video, many American's LOVE the British accent.

Mostly, I think it depends on who your market really is. Most educated American's and Brits understand the subtle differences in the language from across the pond.

Well, I have to say that it really does not make much difference.

I am a Scottsman living in California and I have used both my accent and my writing to my advantage in sales.

Now, that being said my wife and I are constantly having the "Aluminum" and "Herb" discussion (there is a bloody H in herb alright!). However, the language is very similar and the subtitles are minor. Most people will focus on your accent first and automatically switch to "Translation" mode and listen with more attention to understand what you are saying no matter what version you use.

Just 2c from a pond-hopper.

All the best

Sean

Hi all,

I think the main thing to concern yourself with, is passing on the information you need to transmit coherently. I write in proper English for some projects, but American English for others. For a few I use slang, and this works just as well.

Does it matter? not at all.

As to the percentage of the planet that speaks English the American way. You will in fact find that the vast majority write in original English. India for instance use the original English, as do virtually all EU countries.

With that said, Americans seem to get very upset if they see something written in pure English. Whereas English speakers just make the corrections in their heads, and don't complain.

If you are looking for the most successful method of communication, it is I am afraid slang. I advise you to look into personality marketing as it should open up your eyes a bit. If you sound like an English or American teacher people will just tune you out.

If you show real enthusiasm for what you do, you will break through the anonymity of the computer screen regardless of spelling; and spelling is no barrier to personality.

Cheers,
Colin Palfrey

Most English-speaking Internet users don't speak (or learn) American-English. It is only considered the de facto English-dialect in internet marketing (by people on this forum) because the majority of internet marketers (and buyers of internet marketing products) seem to be American. I say "seem" because, in truth, only the majority of marketers/buyers on this forum seem to be American; this forum is big, but it isn't the whole 'industry', nor even a tiny fraction of the whole Internet. (Nor is "internet marketing" but a tiny fraction of global commerce.)

Though it's inaccurate, British-English tends to be used to describe the dialects of ALL speakers of English who aren't American (although, even though they are distinct dialects, it is true that all other dialects are indeed far closer to actual British-English than American-English; which is only logical, since the language came from Britain, not America). However, all dialects (including American-English) are, for the most part, mutually intelligible anyway and, barring any sudden breakdown in international communications, will probably remain so for at least several more centuries (assuming 'international English' doesn't emerge as a common global language in the meantime).

All that notwithstanding, it does make sense to communicate with your customers in a way that is familiar to them. If I knew how to do it, I'd have site visitors redirected to different versions of my websites depending on which English-speaking country they come from, or are closest too. (It's probably technically easy, but I'm a techno-dunce ).

Tommy.

P.S. - Personally, I recommend learning Hiberno-English instead (which is the dialect spoken in Ireland). It's the only one that really makes sense.

A good friend was born in Ireland and raised in London and when he and I converse, I can understand him 100%, once I learned the colloquialisms. Whenever he talks with his buddies from London though, it sounds like they are talking a completely different language. I only pick up about 50% and I might as well not even be in the room. They all grew up on the poor side of town and same thing happens with my friends from the 'hood, so it must be a ghetto thing.

I do agree that a British accent is more appealing to most of us yanks. A British chap can say something totally ridiculous but it still has an air of authority. I'm not sure where we pick up that attitude, but it is prevalent here.

I work with a lot of people in India and they definitely have their own brand of English. It is not at all like British English. I wouldn't put them in with the count of the British English speaking population.

There are major differences in English: File:Sodavspopvscoke.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia in the US alone, much less in different countries.

If you are asking about written English, that is more or less the same across the globe. Funny that it is one of the hardest languages to learn though. How did that come about? But I don't really care if you use colour or color, or aluminium vs aluminum (I lost a $20 bet over that one). The written differences are subtle as long as you stay away from colloquialisms.

If you are talking about speech, I'd definitely vote for British. The authority is there for some reason, at least for us blokes here in the states, and that is half of the battle with IM.

Good points, Marc.

I'm from one of the smaller areas in the US that uses the word bubbler. I've received some odd looks when using that in different parts of the country.

All the best,
Michael

For IM purposes, go for American English since the large majority of online business comes from the US, and your customers will prefer their own local accent.

To add my two pence...not cents dammit....there are a thousand and one more important factors in IM to consider before the minor differences between American and British English.

That said, do think about what persona will best convince your audience, to which the answer may vary between markets.

Nigel

Ps really the Brits are right of course

English humor. American English.

unless...

you can rap AND be unnerstood... then you can transcend language.

Wow, really thanks for all the replies! Thank you so much! I do appreciate that a lot!

If I were to study abroad, where should I better go? US or UK? I really do need to brush up my listening and speaking skills.

Sometimes, I really find that it's very difficult to understand a native speaker if they "speak" too fast. I'm not a native speaker, I do not know some "idiom/phrasal verbs" like far-fetched, jump down someone's throat, etc.

The problem for me is I do not have a solid English background as I can't really "speak" English everyday. My 1st language is Chinese, so it's really very difficult to make myself a good English-speaking environment.. ( almost impossible )

My reading and writing skills are still considered ok, but not my speaking and listening skills for sure.

Where do you guys recommend if I were to study abroad? US or UK?

Hope some senior warriors here could shed me some light and put me on a right track.

Thanks once again, love you guys

Really thanks!

I think you should talk in cockney rhymng slang me.

I associate with a few British marketers and they seem to use the American English when they are promoting. So saying this I would go with American English.

I really do not think it matters. We can say, "Oh, learn American English because your target market will be mostly in the U.S." But does it really matter? There are plenty of British marketers who market to the American market and do absolutely fine. Who cares? May be good to be aware of different spellings of both languages and then choose American spellings for IM if you want, but it probably doesn't matter. Most people are probably just guessing, without any real proof that writing copy in British English would harm your sales much, if at all. It's all about testing for yourself, and learning English in the UK or US would make little difference for your IM career. Like I said, if there verifiable proof that using American English copy would increase sales, it's a simple matter to change spellings. The languages are largely the same.

I live in Australia, and we use British English, but I write all my content in US English, it seems to be that's what is expected online.

It becomes a habit though, I go to work and write up my case files in American English, and always cop flak from my workmates. :-)

Now my friend would which British English would you like to learn perhaps Mancunian Manchester dialect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia where they will almost always never use the "The". eg Im going to the office - in Mancunian Im going t' office. Strange I know.

Or perhaps some Liverpudlian otherwise known as scouse Scouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and then there is the most famous of all which is Cockney Rhyming slang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia very easy to learn just watch a famous British filim called Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Probably best not watch this in the presence of minors though.

Go for American English first and then learn some British English if you want to benefit both worlds.

I don't think which country matters as much as what you want to study and where in the world that subject is taught best - and of course, which university you can get into. There's going to be more choice in the US just because it's a far bigger country and therefore will have far more colleges. As an overseas student here, I don't know how easy it would be to get in to certain subjects. It's quite a complicated area and I think you would need to make some enquiries as to entry conditions etc. before you could even begin to decide which would be best.

Just my thoughts.

In my eyes, American Englishmay be a better choice.
American English is more popular because U.S is the biggest developed country all over the world, so, it is obvious that American English is the standard of all kinds of English languages.

WyattTenG, I'm going to recommend Canada, and not just because it's my country. You can learn either type of English easily, since we speak a blend of both, and once you know the basics, it's easy to look up the differences and change your writing style accordingly. I can write in either dialect with no problems.

Also, Canada's full of friendly people, and I live here.

There are far more American customers in this niche than anywhere else. Go with American English.

It really doesn't matter. I have bought hundreds of products from both American and British marketers and it really doesn't matter what kind of english you speak.

Hey if you have great offer, on something I want/need, a solid product, stand behind what you sell and can actually be reached at your contact info, I would buy.

I didn't catch where you are from, but the fact that you took the time, and care enough to learn English, Brit or US gets a thumbs up from me.

Another internet marketer I know told me that somewhere close to 85% of the internet is NOT in English!

Now I ask the people on this thread, who here that doesn't already know... say Chinese would put forth the effort and have the daily discipline to learn Chinese so they could start learning internet marketing?

Can't say I would.... hell it took me 4 times just to spell Chinese!

I go with Australian English, which is pretty much British English. I'm Australian, so I might as well speak the language.

I think the difference in language from different countries is what makes internet business interesting. Why conform to a standard? Why not keep out little nuances and keep things interesting?

Take British English, for example. I learn most of mine from the TV show Topgear. And now I've always wanted to use the term "dog's bollocks" in conversation, but never had the chance.

I'm thinking of using it as a DLGuard promo for the next version -

DLGuard: The Dog's Bollocks

Catchy, huh?

It's our differences that make things interesting!

cheers
Sam

Easy...

The written word, US English.

The spoken word, UK English.

If you are going for internet marketing, go with the American English

if you are targeting the US Market, go with American English.

If you are targeting the UK, go with "proper" British

Nick

It would be depend on your targeted region and targeted neche? About learning on broad spectrum you should start listening audiobooks! In your case it would be Internet Marketing Audiobooks. Good Luck!

Jamian.

You are going to be well understood no matter which one you master, assuming you master it. I do not think it sets you apart (as someone that speaks English poorly) when you use American cant vs. English cant. What really comes across as marking someone as a foreigner is the poor use of English -- i.e. bad grammar, bad spelling, strange sentence construction, poor use of tense, etc.

That being said, not all people who have English as their first language are able to write text without mistakes! However, there are certain mistakes that come across as ones that a native-speaker would make, and yet other mistakes that typically only non-native speakers make.

Anyway - if you wish to have me take a look at any text you have, I would be happy to do some editing, just to give you some pointers on what to correct. Just send me a private message if you like.