Why “International” Bloggers Have an Unfair Advantage

This guest post is by Lucas Kleinschmitt of German Efficiency.

If you’re in the blogging business, not being a native English speaker can be tough. The market in your home country will often be small, there may not be a culture of buying things online, and it can be difficult to find guest posting opportunities in your native language.

On the other hand, blogging in English seems like an equally bad idea at first glance: How are you supposed to compete with an army of bloggers whose command of the English language greatly exceeds your own? Even if your English is really good, you will probably need to pay a professional editor to avoid the occasional English-as-a-second-language errors.

I admit it: all that sounds rather intimidating. But don’t despair! Fortunately, we “internationals” enjoy one huge, unfair advantage for which every American, Australian, or British blogger should envy us. In fact, all the hurdles we must face shrink to nothing when compared to this major benefit that comes with being an international blogger:

We can leverage our home country’s brand

I’m a time management consultant from Germany. My surname is as German as it can get—Kleinschmitt—and my blog is called German Efficiency. I teach personal productivity, made in Germany, to people from all over the world.

Is my command of the English language as good as that of the American probloggers? Of course not. But can they teach German efficiency? Of course they can’t.

And that’s my point: As a German productivity coach, I have my unique selling proposition built right into my nationality.

Who would you rather have teaching you about vodka: an Australian or a Russian?

Who would you prefer to learn the Salsa from: a Canadian or a Cuban?

Whose romance blog would you prefer to read: the British banker’s or the Parisian artist’s?

Your country’s unique selling proposition

You might be the guy from Switzerland blogging about watches, or the lady from Holland writing about cheese. You could be the Brazilian martial artist teaching us Capoeira, or the Japanese comic book fan keeping us up-to-date on manga.

Every part of the world is renowned for something. The advantage we internationals have is that almost nobody from our home country is blogging about it in English.

Yet, the global community is the one that cares most. I’m far keener to learn about romance from a Parisian artist than another Parisian artist will ever be. To the latter, the former Parisian artist is just another guy teaching romance. To me, he’s a Parisian artist teaching romance! How could I not read his blog?

Indeed, opportunities for us internationals are endless. There’s a giant market gap, and our unique selling proposition is handed to us on a silver plate.

Time to step up, don’t you think?

Lucas Kleinschmitt teaches you personal productivity, made in Germany, at his blog German Efficiency.