Every so often a job comes in that stands out from the crowd as being particularly captivating or interesting. Naturally, different jobs appeal to different people but our latest British Library project is right up my straße as a one-time English Graduate.

Our brief is to conceptualise and design a site to support the Library's upcoming exhibition, Evolving English: a showcase of how and why our language has developed and changed over the ages. The magic of the exhibition is that it will be supported by dozens of astoundingly important documents and iconic texts such as Beowulf, Shakespeare folios and the King James Bible and we want to convey this magic in the online experience we are creating.

On the 8th September we are running focus groups at the Library to try and better understand how we can engage with website users through online tools that support the exhibition.

In total we are looking for 20 people who are;

• ‘Creatively cultured’ and open to ideas-based exhibitions
• Ideally, but not necessarily students of English, languages, history
• Between 16 – 40
• Internet Users
• Use a form of social network or other online tool
• Articulate
• Comfortable communicating in English
• Haven’t been to focus group in past 3 months
• Happy working in groups

We will be running 2 sessions with 10 people in each and you will be handsomely rewarded for your time.

Session 1: 9am - 12pm
Session 2: 2pm - 5pm

If you fancy getting involved and can make either of the 2 sessions on the 8th please contact either Michael or myself as soon as possible.

Not only will you be involved in the creation of something compelling, you will also be given more tea and biscuits that you can shake a sizeable stick at.

Boom! It's the Third Thursday of the month. In August we have not learned to line the camera up any better but Mark is wearing a white shirt which is a massive departure from his normal attire. In September we may introduce some colour... baby steps.

Bruna Magor - Our new Finance Director

Other links referenced...

• British Library Evolving English - (holding page)
• Hamleys Toy Shop
• Sarah Beeny's Rise Hall
• Hoxton Hotel £1 Sale

When @gillianmckeith picked a fight last month it was interesting for two reasons: firstly, there was a massive flurry of activity on Twitter and secondly, it prompted a respected journalist to suggest that he might sue the Twitter account holder for libel (although probably not).

Incidentally – I am saying @gillianmckeith when referencing what was said on Twitter instead of Gillian McKeith because at the time of writing, it’s not 100% clear that the two are the same.

Here’s what happened in a nutshell: someone started taking the piss out of Gillian McKeith because they felt that her PhD is not a 'real' one (whatever that means). They made reference to a chapter in a book by the medical doctor, broadcaster and writer, Ben Goldacre in which he discusses Ms McKeith.

There then appeared the following Tweet from @gillianmckeith: “How sad a life to enjoy reading lies about another by an ass who makes money from pharmaceutical giants.” 

The result? Well Ben Goldacre asked her to contact him and, according to the BBC, asked for her to retract the statement by saying: “Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is not lies”

What then followed, again in a nutshell, is a series of bizarre distancing by @gillianmckeith and the Gillian McKeith website . They removed any mention of being able to follow her on Twitter from her website. Apart from they didn’t really. The last time I looked, the code for following her is still in the source – it’s just been commented out. (For those of you who don’t code, that basically means that the bit of code has some parenthesis around so it is not shown on the page, but at the same time hasn’t been removed completely – the idea being it can easily and quickly be reinstated at a later stage if needs be). @gillianmckeith also started posting statements such as “Do you believe this is real twitter site for the GM?” (sic). And since 14th July…. nothing at all and all her followers and all those she is following have disappeared. It's as though none of this ever happened. Apart from it did.

The point here, is not whether Gillian McKeith has a ‘real’ PhD. (If I were her and felt that my professional integrity was being rubbished publicly, I'd be pretty cross too). But the way in which it was handled. For me it always comes down to transparency.

Ideally, she (or whoever had access to the Twitter account) should have thought a bit harder before writing a potentially libellous statement. It seems there is still a sense that Twitter, because of its immediate and informal nature is not something that is taken seriously. But a person is libelled if someone discredits them in their trade, business or profession. It makes no difference whether that’s done in a newspaper, book or online.

Once the damage was done, she (or those advising her) should have explained her position - if for no other reason than just wanting to clear things up - (did she say it, or did someone else posing as her, was it a simple mistake), apologised if necessary, retracted the statement and above all, been seen to be transparent and open. Instead, according to several commentators, the whole event has been denied, deleted and ignored.

Maybe denial works in the real world, but in the online world, it’s very hard to totally delete anything you have done or said. It’s potentially there forever. And how much less of a story would this have become if the response had been forthcoming? Perhaps people would have had some sympathy. After all, we’re all human and we’ve all said things in haste we later regretted.

It goes without saying that our PMs, coders and designers are world-class website-making geniuses but without their tools they are useless. Like Zeus without his lightning bolt or Wonder Woman without her lasso of truth. So which tools are used by these apocalyptic menaces to create such wonderfully functional pieces of digital perfection?

Here are the top 5 free or cost-effective web-apps used by Codegent on a daily basis to keep this engine running.

#5 Tickspot

Tickspot is a great tool for everybody here to log how much time they’ve spent on projects and to compare the total time with the target. It’s really simple to use and at $39 a month, pretty good value.

We could have also mentioned Yutiti. Like a pre-project tickspot. A time managing application for our project managers. Yutiti allows the user to manage the use of resources and projects, so everybody knows what to do and when. With its simple graphics and Gantt chart, it’s very easy to use. Other features include a drag & drop system and world-wide access.

#4 Twilert

We feel that it’s of great importance to see who’s saying what about us and our clients. That’s why we invented this handy little gismo. Twilert is a free service which lets you know when you, your company or... well anyone really is being tweeted about. It sends you email notification in certain time intervals that you choose which means you’re not bombarded with emails about how your Aunty Sheila likes your dog or how your best friend when you were six has just bought a mars bar.

We could have also mentioned Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck lets us browse all of our social networking sites in one place. Available for computers, iPhones and iPads; a great way to keep on top of everything at once.

#3 Codebase

This tool is quite new to us but getting popular fast. It has a few features including tickets & milestones for each step of building a website. Codebase basically helps us to see what’s been done so far and what’s left to do – like an interactive checklist. It also acts as a database for our progress. The developers will upload their work to the project so it can be seen by everybody else involved.

We could have also mentioned Google Docs. Google docs is an incredibly useful web app for sharing documents in real time. A really simple and effective way of updating and sharing documents between computers and countries.

#2 Skype

Where would we be without Skype? Like a massive string and cup system between London and Bangkok. We create rooms for projects so everybody involved can discuss progress as they work on it. We also have room for project managers, designers etc so they can talk between themselves. It means that there is a paper trail for everything that’s been said if you join the conversation late and the team in Thailand are just as accessible as the people in the next room.

We could have also mentioned Campfire. Campfire is like instant messaging but designed exclusively for groups”. With this in mind, it’s designed to deal well with group conversations and conferences.

#1 Dropbox

Dropbox is a brilliantly simple and invaluably useful tool for us here at Codegent. We are often faced with large amounts of videos, photos and other large files which need to be shared between people here in London and in Bangkok. Dropbox is the perfect tool for this. The files are as accessible as if they are on your local network and they are also available from the Dropbox website, so you’re never left without them. Plus there is an iPhone app that lets you manage files on the move.

We could have also mentioned Backblaze. Backblaze is a back-up system which is constantly adapting to keep your work safe. Every file on your computer is constantly being backed-up without you even having to lift a finger. A small icon on your taskbar allows you to check the progress and your items are instantaneously saved. It’s never funny to lose your work. This makes sure that never happens.

It was only a couple of years ago, when we would get a brief a week to design & build a flash game. These simple games were designed to appeal to the casual gamer, a simple game the can dip into and out of, and share with their friends. Over the past year the market has changed, the “viral game” has remained the territory of the tech savvy, leaving the mainstream to be catered for in a whole new wave of viral social games.  What I am talking about here is the rise & rise of Farmville and how it fits into the life the consumer.

When I told my friends I was writing an article about Farmville, I was met with 2 responses. The first “If you take your iPhone out to water your crops, while we are in the pub, Consider yourself no longer my friend” and the second “Have you got the limited edition silver rainbow baby sheep, which gets your double XP points?... I can send one to you”.  This ‘Marmite’ reaction to Social Gaming is brought on by what is at its core; playing a game, and getting your friends involved. This is seen as negative by the social media “creators” as it’s easy to have your Facebook news feed polluted by the constant “calls to action”  to receive gifts from your friends playing a game that you aren’t.  But it is this emphasis on getting your friends involved has lead to Farmville makers Zynga notching up 235 million users of their games per month, with 65 million coming back every day.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past couple of years and aren’t part of that 235 million.  Farmville is a game which is built on the Facebook platform, which has become a social network unto itself.  In this game you can build & tend a virtual farm, doing everything from sowing virtual crops, to rearing virtual animals, to building virtual barns. Users spend their Farmville coins on crops which they can sow,  wait a couple of hours then come back to harvest & sell the crop for which you are paid in Farmville Cash, to repeat the process all over again

But what happens if you want to buy something you don’t have enough Farmville coins for?” I hear you ask... Well this is where Farmville will convert your hard earned and very real Great British Pounds into virtual Farmville coins.  This transaction is currently earning Zynga $1million a day.  Zynga is forecasting to turn over $450m in 2010, this puts Zynga in second position of PayPal’s largest merchant list only behind eBay. The Farmville economy has grown so much that now, more virtual tractors are bought every day than there are real tractors in the U.S.

Facebook are making sure they get their share of the pie, not just by scraping 30% of the top of transactions for these virtual goods, but by accepting almost $100m in facebook ads from Zynga to Advertise its game.

But who are the people spending so much time and money playing these virtual games? The demographic from the game developers shows an even spread of ages, with a slight skew towards female. It is these figures that game developers would like us to believe as they suggest that social games are played by everyone. The anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that this audience’s can be grouped together as passive users of social networks. To these users, social networks aren’t about the usual sharing content with their friends. They aren’t updating their status or engaging conversations. To this audience, Farmville IS social networking. They only really communicate their friends via the game, to send them free gifts… and get their friends to help them to the next level. Farmville has saved this audience for Facebook. Now that their initial interesting in snooping what their friends from high school are doing now has worn off Facebook offers them nothing without social games like Farmville

With so many Farmville users, brands are chopping at the bit (all puns intended) to get involved. The most interesting has come in the shape of Organic food maker “Cascadian Farm” who sell fresh blueberries throughout Canada. They have placed branded blueberry seeds into the Farmville Market so users to buy & grow their own “Cascadian Farm” Blueberries. I haven’t been able to find any stats to prove that these in game sales have effected real sales of blueberries, and I would be keen to know how effective this brand communication is (If anyone has any more information on this campaign please drop us a line in the comments below.)( http://mashable.com/2010/07/22/farmville-organic-blueberries/

A whole host of other brands from Lovefilm to O2, who want to target this market but don’t have products which can be placed into a virtual farm, are now offering Farmville money as a bolt on for the services they are selling. For example when you buy a monthly Lovefilm subscription you can receive 89 Farmville Coins.  Will this style of Bolt on get me to change my mind and switch my mobile contract from T-mobile to O2, or is this just a nice little extra to sweeten the deal? Once again I would like to see the stats and figures on the effectiveness of this style of promotion.

One thing is for sure; with $1.6 billion estimated to be spent on virtual goods this year, the Virtual Economy is expanding at a radical rate. The answers to these questions are going to become more important to both brands and government...can you tax virtual goods?

When full service digital is mentioned do you also think… branding?

I think it might come as a surprise to many of our clients that we frequently get involved in branding identity as well. We have worked with a number of start-up web companies over the years so it often makes sense to evolve the brand identity alongside the digital offering as they are so intertwined. However we are also often asked to also refresh existing identities when we are looking at the strategic direction and positioning of clients, particularly if they see their own future being lead through the web. Here are a few examples.

Pownum

Pownum is a start-up company. They came to us with a name, but little else. The idea they wanted to get across is that there is power in numbers and if enough people share a similar view and air it one place, then they can affect change.

The idea, therefore, was to create something that felt inclusive, a bit fun, but also had that sense that pulling together we can all make a change.

We presented an idea that had a nod to the imagery of revolution and looked a little bit ‘home made’ making it feel like it was something ‘made by the people, for the people’.

Global Poetry System

The Global Poetry System (or GPS) was a project launched by the Southbank Centre and was the brainchild of their artist in residence, Lemn Sissay.

We needed to create an identity for the project that was sympathetic to the Southbank Centre’s brand, but also was positioned as being separate to that. The project relied heavily on user-generated content and so we wanted to create a logo that looked like it could have been made by one of the contributors (ie it looked hand-drawn), with a strong strapline underneath that explained what the system actually did.

Users are invited to upload examples of poetry that they have seen or heard. Much of the content is photos of poetry that has been painted on walls (some might say graffiti), and so we wanted to suggest a hint of graffiti in the application of the identity, too.

Tepilo

Tepilo is a joint venture with Channel 4’s Sarah Beeny. It was important to create an identity that could be used alongside Sarah’s image, but that wasn’t irrevocably linked to her, in case the business was sold to someone else in the future.

The identity needed to look authoritative (we are, after all, talking about most people’s largest asset), but friendly and approachable. We felt that these brand attributes also reflected those of Sarah Beeny.

The main visual element of the site is the multitude of user-generated images. We had to ensure that anything we created wasn’t battling for attention with the users’ own images, about which we had no control. We therefore created a logotype using blacks and greys and used muted blues as a background.

We created a strapline “Sarah Beeny’s smarter way to buy, sell and let your home”, but we kept this apart from the actual logotype.

Poetry Book Society & Poetry Bookshop Online

The Poetry Bookshop is owned by the Poetry Book Society. We were commissioned to redevelop their site bit also to evolve their identity.

For both identities, the audience group were loyal and many had been with them for years. We needed to make sure that we didn’t totally reinvent the identity and alienate the organisation’s loyal user-base.

Instead, we evolved the typefaces and colours, to give it a more up-to-date feel, but one that was instantly recognizable to anyone who had seen the earlier incarnations of their logos.

If you are interested in talking to us about branding please drop us an email on hello@codegent.com or call us on 020 7720 4040.

Can you believe it's already time for another instalment of codegent news for our monthly newsletter Third Thursday? In August we will try and get the camera to line up a bit better! Either that or it will just be Mark on screen (wearing the same jumper) with smart ass quips from David stage left. Thoughts?

A Ferrari Team photo from Jon Nicholson - part of our new photography iPad App

Other links referenced...

• Procurement GPS launches to test bed of users
• Sarah Beeny on Tepilo's Social Media strategy at The British Library Business & IP Centre
  codegent name checked at 1:57!
• BIMA's School's Digital Challenge in conjunction with Channel 4
• Webcam Snapper - A sneak preview of the new site :)
• Sign up for the private beta of Dash

Some of you may have read about the row in the US about XY.com, a gay teenagers magazine’s website that has filed for bankruptcy. Other than a couple of dollars in the bank, the only asset of note belonging to the failed company is a database of tens of thousands of young men. The argument is from one side: that the personal details were given with the assumption of privacy and should not be transferred to anyone else. And from the other side: "Any property listed... is property of the bankruptcy estate and (we) intend to administer those assets for the benefit of creditors."

Codegent creates sites that hold private data every day. And because we have a specialism in working with children and young people, much of that data includes children’s information, which brings with it many additional responsibilities. We often have the discussion with clients about the best way to protect children’s data, as well as protecting them online. The concerns from clients are generally around security of our systems and the best way to prevent children from being exposed to inappropriate content or malicious users. It’s something we take very seriously and something we’ve spent a lot of time on. It is beholden on us to ensure that we collect as little data as possible and we look to get parental approval for any user-generated content that we publish.

But never have any of our clients asked what would happen to the data if they went bust. Maybe because most of us don’t start a business thinking about what happens if that business goes down the plug-hole. But it’s something we should be worried about. 

Privacy law is very clear in the UK and people have a variety of rights under the Data Protection Act, from accessing information that others hold about them, to preventing unsolicited marketing, even through to claiming compensation for distress caused by breaching the act. But according to Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, talking to the BBC, in the event of bankruptcy or winding-up, “all bets are off”.

But if I give my details to a website (or worse, agree to the details of my children being stored by that website), I don’t then expect those details to end up being used for something else by the website’s creditors about whom I know nothing. 

Ordinarily, a business can’t just pass on your details to another company for a different purpose without your permission. But if ownership changes, for example if someone bought Facebook, all my details would become the new owner’s property, but so long as the details were only used for the purposes of me continuing to use Facebook. We recently took over Twilert  from a former client, and although the service was broadly the same, we took the decision to contact everyone on that database and invite them to sign-up again. We did this because we wanted to be 100% transparent to our users, but given that we were going to use their data in the same way, we didn’t actually need to do this. (And in fact some people actually moaned that we didn’t just port all their data over to the new system).

But despite this, and although I’m no lawyer, to me the key question to ask is around the reason the data has been collected in the first place. Yes, there is value in that data that should be “administered for the benefit of creditors”, but so long as that data is only used for any future incarnation of XY.com. There should only be any value if the data is used for the same purpose that it was given. If they want to use the data beyond that they should get the permission of everyone on that list to do so. In other words, people should be able to opt-in, but there should be no automatic assumption that data is data regardless of where it sits. 

My sporting year looks like the profile of the 20th stage of last year's Tour de France. Flat for the main part with a single majestic peak rising out of the relative flatness.

The Tour itself is the Mont Ventoux of my annual sporting calendar, a monolith event of such epic proportions that its shadow looms large over everything that precedes it.

Like most cyclists I am a details freak. I revel in cadence rates, riders' gear ratios and other banalities that would be bed-wettingly dull to most of you reading this. 15 years ago I would clear my daily calendar between 6pm and 7pm and drink up every scrap of information that the Channel 4 daily Tour highlights could give me but it was never enough to sate my thirst for these details from the Peloton.

Similarly, it would never convey the rider dynamics, the feuds and alliances, the sheer and brutal pain that each rider would endure as the Tour wound its inexorable way towards Paris.

Then came the Social Web.

What social media gives cycling is the means of giving detail-obsessed fans like me an instant hit of the tedious, granular information that I crave. It lets me see Cav's cadence as he rips up the Champs Elysees or Brad Wiggins' heart rate as he goes backwards down the Col de Madeleine.

I can go to my 'Pro Cycling' group on Tweetdeck and see petty squabbles between riders unable to resist the lure of Twitter whilst holed up in a Novotel with nothing but a sponsor's smartphone and a travel kettle for company. Or the Peloton's praise for someone's superhuman feats, such as riding 200km with a broken arm. I can go to Flickr for Hi Resolution images of the day's suffering or stream the race live on my iPhone through the ITV Tour App. In short, there is so much for me to see and do that I am almost certain to do no work for most of July.

A few Tour-based treats for the other bike geeks out there;

1. Keen to show off its capabilities, Microsoft have built an App for Bing Maps that visualises each stage of the tour and provides stage results and weather information. http://mashable.com/2010/07/03/2010-tour-de-france/
   
   
2. Mapmyride have created an App that allows you to 'virtually race' the Tour by uploading data about your own day's ride. The app uses your stats to create a virtual time that you would have achieved if you had actually ridden that day's stage. I havent used it but i imagine it might be quite depressing. http://beta.mapmyride.com/tdf/
   
   
3. This is one for real data lovers. HTC (the smartphone guys) and Team Columbia have joined forces to bring the ultimate cycling Google maps mashup. The App gives realtime information on the Team's riders including speed, power, cadence and heart rate, as well as their real time position on the road. http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour/
    
4. The ITV iPhone App lets you watch live streams of the Tour on the go as well as providing news and stats around each stage, team and rider. http://www.itv.com/sport/tourdefrance/iphoneapp/
    
5. Stalk your favourite riders on Twitter. http://twittercycling.tumblr.com/

Having a ‘global website’ provides businesses with a tool to take their products / services to a global market with the opportunity for business growth and increased sales. But is it just a case of translating some of the copy or buying as many country specific domain names as possible? We have worked on several global and multi language sites over the past couple of years with briefs ranging from increasing brand and product awareness, selling to an international audience and making a campaign accessible to an international market. Going ‘global’ can provide big opportunities but there are also lots of things to consider. So here are a few of the important things to think about when going worldwide.

1. One size doesn’t fit all
Firstly you need to consider whether you want one website with a global reach or one site with multiple country and language versions. It is important to remember that each market will be different, from the obvious things such as language and currency through to the less tangible differences of culture, lifestyle and ethics and as a result each markets requirements from you as a company and your products / services will be different. But without a doubt the biggest consideration is language. According to Feedgrids ‘people who don't speak English as their first language, or at all, are six times less likely to purchase from an English-only site.’

That said to create a website and roll it out across a number of countries and languages doesn’t automatically mean success. Localisation is the key word when it comes to globalisation and HSBC certainly got it right with their strapline ‘The worlds local bank’. They realised that for a global corporation to be successful they needed to understand and work at a local level. Relate this back to your product or service and how this translates online. Should all your products / services  be available in every country? Will certain products be more popular in certain regions and if so how will this affect the hierarchy of information on each site? What information should you provide on your site? Can product / service USPs and information, terms and conditions and delivery information be standardised or will each country or region have their own requirements? I assume it is the latter and therefore key research, a flexible site and hierarchy of information will help you to achieve this.

Design is also a key consideration and depending on the markets you are looking to enter and the product or services you offer, you may need to look at your brand and site design. Colours that mean one thing in one culture do not always mean the same thing worldwide. The tone of voice you use aswell as the products / service names will also need to be researched, the last thing you want is to enter a new market where the name of your product is an offensive word  - unless that is your USP?! The best example of this was the Jif to Cif rebrand in 2001 which was due to the fact that any non English speaking person struggled to say the word Jif and having a brand that no one can pronounce isn’t a great sales strategy.

2. Single or multiple domains
There are two main options: Country specific domains e.g. .co.uk .fr are good for natural search and also valuable if you want to align yourself with that country or position yourself as being based in a certain place. This is a an approach that Amazon have taken. However it can be costly and difficult to obtain domain names in some countries. It may also be hard to obtain the same domain name for each country and may dilute the consistency of your brand. It can also be costly as well as time consuming to manage multiple domains.

The alternative is using a global .com domain name with country specific extensions e.g. com/fr. Many sites take this approach including Mini and Apple. This way you only have one domain to manage and ensures consistency across all of your countries / languages. This is the approach that we have taken in the past on sites such as Skechers and Ultra Motor.

3. Getting from A to B
Once you have agreed on your domain set up and if you have opted for a global .com address, the next thing to think about is how to get users to the relevant country or language site. This can be done through IP matching where country IP addresses are matched against a specific version of your site. This service is available through various providers such as GeoLite country. It isn’t guaranteed to be 100% accurate and there will also be issues if users have IP addresses registered to other countries. So to support this a language / country selector should be displayed prominently enabling users to  change their country / language options if required. Although Apple do not appear to have IP matching in place, the country selector on the footer of every page is very prominent aswell as a very clear country selection page. Dyson appear to be using IP matching and also have a clear, prominent country selector located in the footer of every page.

4. Should you show the flag?
Should you localise your site by country and or language? This really depends on budgets and which markets you are looking to cover. If you want to cover all ‘English’ speaking countries then having an English language version of your site would be more cost effective than have a site for each country that speaks English. However bear in mind those subtle differences in language, spelling, currency and whether an ‘English speaking’ country would class themselves as ‘English’ or speaking ‘English’. Localising your site by country is the other option but also bear in mind that some countries such as Canada have multiple languages. However this is easily overcome (although not the most cost effective solution) by having  two language sites under one country. There is no right answer to this one and really does depend on the markets you are or looking to operate in, budgets etc. Some, like British Airways, cover all options. We have used both routes in the past, but either way ensure that it is set up in a way that will allow you to make changes as your requirements change.

5. Translation - Traduction
Next on the list is how to localise the copy on you site. It’s not enough just to translate the copy, you need to make sure that:
A. The translated copy makes sense in that language
B. That it reflects the brand, positioning and tone of voice of your company
C. Sells the relevant features to that market.

Ideally you should look at using a translation company or contacts / colleagues that can provide a translation service for you and have a good understanding of your company and the culture of the language they are translating into. A cheaper alternative and for situations where brand values, tone of voice are less important such as user generated content, Google Translator and Babelfish are good, cost effective options. We are currently integrating Google Translator into two client sites which will enable all of their user generated content to be translated across all languages.  

6. Search Engine Marketing
A quick mention on SEO and PPC. Keywords in one country are not necessarily the keywords that customers will search with in another. Achieving good natural search is dependent on you understanding what customers are searching for and what the competition are doing in that country. If you do run PPC campaigns then you will need to consider your PPC strategy for each country. Search engine popularity varies from country to country as does the meaning of words.

7. One database and CMS
On top of all the benefits that come with the ability to manage the content on your site you should also look to have one CMS that controls the pages of all of your country / language sites, keeping everything in one place and making it more cost effective and easier to manage. The same goes for your database, it will be easier to manage if it is all in one place and you can set filters for country specific reports.

8. Get your customers to the finish line
If you are offering a product or service that customers can pay for through your website then make sure all payment options are covered. Arguably too many options may confuse people, but definitely make sure you use a 3rd party payment handler such as SagePay which offers payment in multiple currencies and an ecommerce platform such as PayPal. Or one day and depending on what you are selling you may even be able to use the Facebook micro payment service. Whatever you use it is essential that the payment options are convenient and accessible, safe and secure. The last thing you want is to put your customer off at the final hurdle.

So a few final thoughts:

• One step at a time. Don’t try and recreate everything on your main site into multiple local versions all in one go.
• Research each market and make decisions about what is relevant to and expected by that market.
• Five sites instead of one is very different so keep it manageable. Functionality such as blogs that need to be updated on a regular basis and require moderation may be best left to a later date.