Should my muse be English?

[martijne]

Hi all,

I've been reading the forums for a while now (after reading the book 2 times) and it's really inspiring to see what you're all doing! Really motivates me to keep on working on my muse.

I'm starting a new company with a friend to do an e-course for SMB owners. It's in a field we both run companies in and we already know that there's a market there.

Aside from running my own company, I also have a full time job as a web developer to pay the bills. This means I'm pretty tech savvy. ;)

We've been focussing on writing Dutch copy, making Dutch videos etc. since we both live in Holland (yes, that country where Amsterdam is and you can smoke stuff legally ;))

I'm just wondering if we should go international and write English copy. Some of the pro's for going international:

- Broader market
- Some (internet marketing) tips just don't work here. When I see some sales pages the first thing that pops into my mind is "Oh, very 'American'. That probably wouldn't work around here."

While cons are:

- Paying my bills in euros, receiving in dollars isn't the best choice at the moment ;)
- We know a lot of Dutch people that are interested and we know the Dutch market. It's easier to sell here.
- I'm not a bad writer in Dutch, but my English is…*Okay. But I'm not sure if it's good enough.

So, what do we do? Continue doing this in Dutch or should we switch to English? Or just start with the Dutch site and have someone translate it to English when we've got some euros coming in?
Anyone else that had to make this choice? What did you do, and especially, why?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

[Sirhcrepus]

Hi Martijne,

I'm also Dutch and even tho I haven't found a potential muse yet (read the 4HWW last month, so i'm still in the dreaming and brainstorming phase), I already decided to also focus on the German market, once I get something good running on the Dutch market.

Germany is pretty similar to Holland, same kind of economy, same kind of social-cultural values. And you get paid in euros.

I'd just start on the Dutch market if I were you and when things go fine expand to Germany. Find a good Dutch-German translator on for example odesk.com or maybe in your own network and try to improve your own German language.

Good luck!

[Nashira]

You will have much less competition as far as search engine optimization if you stick to a non-english market

[martijne]

Thanks for the replies! :)

Sirhcrepus,

Yes, I was thinking about something like that too. Germany is right around the corner (so to speak, hehe) and the culture is very much alike indeed.

Nice to see other Dutch people hanging around here too, are you anywhere in the Rotterdam area? Maybe we can meet up some time if you'd like. :)

Nashira,

True, I've thought of this too. I've got SEO experience from my internet job and I know the Dutch market pretty well. That should help I guess.

Well, I'll keep on writing some stuff for the Dutch site. I'll keep you guys posted! :)

Thanks again,

- Martijn

[liam75005]

Non english market will give you a lot more space to move in ! So the idea of starting in Dutch and moving to German is good.