To send or not to send China newsletter?

Sent out China Business Success Stories newsletter (summary) today. Meantime wanted to check stats. And posted a new China Expert Guest Blog item. That was overdoing it for our server (I think). It shut down. What to do? Ignore: I think it affected less then 20% of our readers, many of whom will read it later again. Or resend? Let's see. I think: do nothing, better luck next week, and after all, Tuesday is the China Business summary of last week, so no harm missing it if you subscribe to our China newsletter to be on top of things (which is every Friday). Agree?

M

China Business according to Live search

Microsoft live search, a gift to SEM? It might. Not because it even comes a tiny bit close to Google, but its suggested / related searches provide great insight into what other people are looking for. See, I want www.chinasuccessstories.com to perform on the - actually spot on - keyword combination “china business”. So I make sure the Web site contains those words as often as is relevant, and pray for the best. In comes Live Search. If I search for China Business, Live Search tells me what others are looking for (or so I think). It suggests:

· China Business Directory
· Doing Business In China
· China Business Wholesale
· China Business Inflatables
· Understand China Business Culture
· China Legal Business · Business Leaders To China
· Business Etiquette In China

So? Well if anything it gives me focus on what topics (see previous post also) to focus on if I want to be found on China + Business. Worth figuring out if Microsoft is right on this, isn’t it?
M

Favorite China Business Topics?

Just posted a new survey on www.chinasuccessstories.com

Favorite China Business Topic?

• Chinese Law

• Importing from China

• Guanxi intricacies

• Marketing in China

Click here to vote or see results!

User driven China content

User driven (China) content obviously is a blessing for any SEM/SEO pro. But sometimes it is more than that. Sometimes somebody posts nothing less than a pure gem. Like Colin Friedman of China Expert International Ltd. (a member of the British Chamber of Commerce in China) did on http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/2007/07/18/business-and-travel-etiquette-in-china. On topic, extended, of added value, thx C!

M

Bidding war for www.chinese.com

Now here's a domain name I would love to have had: http://www.chinese.com/. Apparently I'm not the only one. Somebody (a company in Hong Kong) just paid 1.1 million dollars for it. A considerable amount of money? That depends on your point of view. After all it's only a tenth of cent per Chinese…

Best read Blog in the world is Chinese!

A surprise to me in a way, because it seems China is outperforming already on Internet as well. Best read Blog in the world is Chinese! According to TheGuardian the blog of Chinese actrice and director Xu Jinglei is visited over 100 (!) million (!) times. If you read Chinese, check it out: http://blog.sina.com.cn/xujinglei (I have no clue what it is about, so feel free to let me know what it is she writes about!)

Meanwhile I'm hosting the worst visited blog in the world (it has only been a week, ok?). So I added some widgets today. Please use the del.icio.us one and of course the one provided by Feedburner, which will keep you updated on my Chine Business ventures (for free). Whoever said nothing good in life comes easy?

M

China Business?

Just starting this China Business supporting blog it seems quite silly to ask the visitors (10 a day ;-) what to do. With that being said, why not go out on a limb. Here's the question. Remember: I am the one who changed Twitter overnight (see previous post, with http://twitter.com/FishinChina/statuses/159544332), and the same guy that develops lighting speed according to Alexa with http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/. You know: that modest dude.

Question is: should I put my time, effort and money into making this world a better place, before or after making some (pocket change) money? Think Bill Gates on this one. If I want to help improve the lives of many, Chinese, African, Brazilian, should I sacrifice all I have right now – which is about 0,001% of what Bill has – or should I push forward doing what I love doing (fishing, doing business & thinking of China) to make sure I actually have something to spend by the time payback is due. You decide. If you happen to be Chinese your vote counts double. Let me know!

M

China friend finder?

Back in the day 'how to win friends and influence people' was a breakthrough bestseller. A great book. I read it: you should read it too. 'Winning friends' as an art. Or at least as a technique. BUT a sincere one. Not as a gimmick or trick.

Fast forward a few decades, and you discover the teachings of Dale Carnegie still make a lot of sense. One big difference though is that the term 'friend' is not what it used to be. And I'm to blame for that too. Why? Because I like to meet interesting China oriented business men and women, or other sorts of China entrepreneurs, I have this Twitter account (http://twitter.com/fishinchina). And I like to meet people. Or see what it is they are up to. But whenever I want to stay updated on somebody's thoughts on China or their whereabouts in China, and I click 'Add', they all of the sudden are 'friends'.

Don't get me wrong. I love having friends. As many as possible. Probably that is why I actually do have some friends. Five or six. Real friends that is. Mainly Dutch, not Chinese (yet?). On Twitter though it takes me 1 second to make friends with a joint China focus. I have 'won' 70 friends in one week. Forget Dale Carnegie! This is way easier.

My concern? I suspect my China Twitter friends aren't real friends. They are real people though. And some of them are Chinese. But friends? Actually I hope they aren't, because I would hate to let all of them down by not attending their birthday parties, weddings, funerals, baby showers, etc. And to reverse that: I'm pretty sure they are not waiting for me to show up on these events either. Neither here, or in China.

I can only hope we stay friends for as long as we mutually benefit from our Twitter friendship, and stick to what it was that made us friends in the first place. And if any of my China Twitter 'contacts', 'links', 'connections', really wants to become real friends, I really do look forward to that. And I promise, I will visit you – at least once a year – in China! Deal?

M

China Newsletter

On my site (http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/ in case you missed it), I feature a newsletter. Perfect for China entrepreneurs, consultants focusing on China, managers of multinationals, international traders, non-profit organizations and educational institutions: basically anybody who is serious about his China related business. But… what is the best time to receive our newsletter? Don't ask me. I recently asked our visitors though. The results so far? Check it out:

When would you like to receive our China weekly newsletter?

During the weekend: 25%
On weekdays: 22%
Does not matter when: 41%
Thursday h20:321: 7%
Monday mornings: 5%

So you be the judge: what should I do?

Feel free to let me know. Especially if you are a China crazy entrepreneur!

M

PS Want to know the outcome? Subscibe to our weekly newsletter on http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/free-newsletter-on-how-to-do-business-in-china/

Angelina Jolie and me (Brad Pitt)

Angelina Jolie and China? What is up with that? Always busy scrubbing the web, I (the Brad Pitt of China Success Stories ;-), visited http://www.chinalyst.net/ – which is a decent China Blog portal – when my eyes were drawn to their "All-time Popular Content" section. Best read post? -> Angelina Jolie Shows Off Her Tattoos (19377). Also in top five: China says Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are a good match for adoptive parents (5762).

Mind you Chinalyst is a community for English blogging related to China and Chinese Culture.

First post is about Angelina Jolie's tattoos, that are somewhat Chinese (Cambodian actually). Second post is related to Pitt and Jolie's wish to adopt a Vietnamese baby. The articles origin from…

http://www.panasianbiz.com/2006/12/angelina_jolie_shows_off_her_t.html

http://www.panasianbiz.com/2006/12/china_says_angelina_jolie_and.html

Note the first line? "Shows off her t…" Perhaps that explains the high volume of traffic on this Jolie post?

Anyway, I'm thinking does a Web site on "Doing business in Asia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Russia." (Panasianbiz) need this type of jolly content to get noticed? And is oúr China entrepreneurial target audience also in desperate need of a break?

Either way, Angelina – like say, Paris Hilton – is good for business if you live of ad revenues the way an average China Blog does. But does this mean we also have to feature more Angelina Jolie content, photo's or even youtube clips? Not to mention Paris Hilton and perhaps some female tennis players? Or is quality, on topic content, the way a Web site like chinalawblog.com features, all it takes to get noticed?

Let's find out.

<H3>We are going to spice up (upgrade / enhance?) our China Business Web site a little bit. We will not show Angelina Jolie naked, nor nude. A pic of her tattoo will be as far as we will go, ok? And this will be our first and last time we feature her semi naked. Here you go </H3>

*imagine a picture here*

Caption: Angelina Jolie without Brad Pitt semi naked, half nude with tattoo.

That should get us some traffic. Let's just hope it doesn't get us banned from serious business sites and blogs. Or lead advertisers on our site to belief we aren't serving their ads to their China Business target groups.

We can do better than this, right? We can. So let's leave it at this.

Bye Angelina,

Love Brad

PS According to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ I should have used more words to make this post well read, so please note I didn't use picture, sexy, movie gallery, golden globe, jennifer aniston (!), poster, scene, myspace etc. Sorry about that Angelina.

PPS To Panasianbiz: keep it up, like reading your site!

PPPS We WILL add a light hearted fun content section to our Web site soon. Plus I'll let you know, if this post will be our best read one (let's hope that won't be the case). Subscribe to our China Business newsletter and be the first to find out!

And on a final note: I am aware of the fact that in my first PS I did use some of the words I know people with an interest in Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are looking for (just to make sure we do this properly). To make up for people landing on this page who absolutely aren't interested in doing business in or with China, here's a link to http://www.pittwatch.com/ A 'fan' (?) site about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with pictures, current news and gossip.

Cheers, I'm off (to http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/)

China Fireworks

Allright, so I use two statistics analysers for our China business insiders site. One is a classic (also used by Dutch hosting compay Vuurwerk (Fireworks)) and the other is Google Analytics. Now the first says we have almost 1.5 times as many China interested visitors as Google Analytics does. What's up with that? I'll find out, and let you kow!
Chinese greetings,
M

China Blogfux Business

OK, so I'm figuring China web 2.0 out. Meaning, working with blog-type web site on http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/. And using the tools at hand to get noticed on sites like Blogflux (to name but one). So today on http://topsites.blogflux.com/sitedetails_106368.html I noticed what giving a reciprocal link does for your ranking, which is still not a lot – hey it has been 1 day – on long run, I am sure it will do something.

Testing China Business Blogging

Just a small test to see if Word 2007 supports my ramblings on doing business in China for my web site http://www.chinasuccessstories.com.

Business in or with China, the how-to China guide

China business, Chinese commerce, Western trading and Guanxi: all on how-to be successful investing or dealing, in or with, China. Complete with free weekly China Business Newsletter!
My site: please check it out on http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/