Do you need to consider setting up your own blog in order to operate in the Chinese mainland market?

This article author Wayne Fu, the most in-depth research topic is Blogger, and also delved into many application experiences related to the Internet and cloud. Thank you for authorizing “Content Hacker” to reprint, thank you hereby.

[Why we reprint this article] There are many friends who want to do business on the other side, but they are troubled by how to set up a website due to various restrictions and considerations. Wayne Fu compiled the suggestions he had previously given to clients who want to develop their own websites in China, and analyzed them by category as to whether they should set up their own website in China, which is worth your reference.

In the past, when the author was negotiating with the client to use Blogger to build a website, sometimes the discussion was almost complete, and the client would suddenly ask a question in his mind: “If the official website is hosted on the Blogger platform, will mainland readers be able to see it?”

This question is really not easy to answer. Answering Yes or No is not the correct answer, and the answer cannot be determined by a simple dichotomy. Before answering, it is recommended that you first understand what results the client wants to obtain? Is it just a casual question, or are you really considering being unable to read the content? Or maybe the client has successfully entered the Chinese market and just wants to earn more traffic and advertising revenue?

The answer to this question will be different depending on the needs of different situations. In fact, the author has previously written many articles on the topic of setting up websites in the Chinese market. But recently, some readers have mentioned this matter, so this article will reorganize it for everyone.

1. Which ethnic groups want Chinese visitors to visit their websites?

The following situations are common for websites that need to attract Chinese visitors:

*Company and commercial websites: already doing or preparing to do business in China

• Blog website: Already well-known in China

• Blog website: Not well-known in China yet, but wants to develop the Chinese market and gain traffic

• Adsense: Want to earn some advertising revenue from Chinese visitors

• Friends and family in China: I want them to see the website content

Although the author has previously written about “[Implementation of building a Blogger website that is not blocked by mainland China] (https://www.wfublog.com/2017/09/blogger-not-blocked-by-china-great-wall-skill.html)”, many users may not be able to accept the solution to the image bed and templates. Secondly, it is also very troublesome to deal with, and there are still many problems to be solved.

So even if there is a way for people to see Blogger in China, the author still cannot tell readers categorically: “You can definitely see Blogger’s content in China.”

After nagging for a long time, what is the answer? Below we first focus on the groups with clear answers:

1. Company and commercial websites. It is divided into two situations:

• Already doing business in China: It is recommended not to use the Blogger platform. It will be easier to set up your own website directly.

• If you plan to do business in China in the future: It is recommended to set up on Blogger first and use the free platform to control costs, as long as you buy your own website. When you decide to do business in China in the future, you can then move to your own website to save the cost of setting up your own website during this period. There is no need to spend money on your own website from the beginning for an idea that will be out of reach in a few years.

2. Want to earn China’s Adsense advertising revenue

This is only recommended unless the website traffic can increase to a considerable amount from the beginning, and after actuarial calculations, it is determined that the Adsense click income from Chinese readers can exceed the expenditure of the own website.

Please refer to “Adsense Advertising Revenue” in the article “Does my blog website need to expand into the mainland market?”. This article details how low Adsense CPC bids are in China.

3. Friends and family in China

If you just want a few people to see the Blogger website from China, then it is better to give up the idea. As mentioned before, there are too many problems that need to be solved in order for Blogger content to be exposed in China; in other words, the cost of doing this is very low. However, it is too expensive to build your own website, so you can just ask your friends to view your own website through the wall.

4. Blog website

This part cannot be answered in just a few sentences, and it is also the focus of this article. Please see the detailed analysis below.

2. Blogs that have entered the Chinese market

1. Requires actuarial flow

For blogs that are already well-known in China, you can indeed consider setting up your own website. If it is determined that there is considerable traffic from China, you can estimate whether the profit and influence will be greater than the cost of setting up your own website.

If the profits are considerable, then you definitely don’t need to stay on the Blogger platform. Congratulations on your graduation and welcome to move to your own website.

2. You can also continue to use Blogger

Why do Taiwanese blogs, which are very well-known in China, continue to use the Blogger platform?

You can refer to Taiwan’s “Computer Playthings” website, where many Chinese readers have left messages. The webmaster Esor is well-known on the other side, but why haven’t the computer toys been moved to his own website?

The following are the reasons for my personal speculation:

• Esor is too busy and has no time to work on the website

• Esor’s articles will be reposted everywhere, posted on Chinese websites, subscribed, etc., so you don’t have to set up your own website to let your ideas be passed on, you can still become an influential person

• Since it is well-known, readers who want to read Esor articles will naturally come over the wall.

After some analysis, it seems that there is no requirement that blogs planning to enter the Chinese market must have their own website?

3. Blogs that have not yet entered the Chinese market

If your blog does not currently have Chinese readers, but may cultivate Chinese readers in the future, and you want to earn traffic from China, you can refer to the practices mentioned above for “corporate and commercial websites”:

If you have plans to do business in the Chinese market in the future, you may first consider listing on Blogger. Blogger is a free platform, and you can use it to build your own website first. You only need to buy a dedicated URL first, and then transfer the URL to your own website when the Chinese market is confirmed in the future. This can save the cost of setting up your own website during this period.

No one can predict in advance whether the product can open up the Chinese market. Therefore, there is no need to spend money on your own website from the beginning for a goal that you don’t know whether you can achieve in a few years.

Of course, in theory such a process is the best solution, but in practice it may not be. The author thinks that most Taiwanese bloggers who think about “China market traffic” seem to be too optimistic.

4. Can you squeeze into the first page of Chinese searches?

In the article “Does my blog website need to expand into the mainland market?” from a few years ago, the author mentioned that the key to Taiwanese websites competing with Chinese websites is the need to accumulate strength as a basis.

If it is difficult to get on the first page of search results in Taiwan, then on the other side, where the competition exceeds ten times or a hundred times, it is even more impossible to get on the first page. It is recommended that when you first start running a blog, you should not consider the “Chinese market” first.

What’s even more serious is that after these few years, because there are no entry barriers to blogging, there are more and more novices. Just like all blogging fields in Taiwan, they are almost saturated, and it is becoming more and more difficult to do SEO. So after these years, have Chinese blogs become more saturated?

The argument discussed before is to cultivate the website’s own strength, but judging from today’s market saturation, even strong strength is useless. The longer time goes on, the harder it will be to save unless you are really a top expert. The author suggests that when running a blog, you should first conquer the Taiwan market and then covet the Chinese market.

If the main reason for hoping for Chinese traffic is to earn ad clicks, then please refer to “What type of website can you run and make a living from Adsense ad clicks?”. If you are truly one of ten thousand talents, you will still be talented when developing the English market, and the advertising revenue in the English market will be much higher than that in the Chinese market. You don’t need to set up your own website, just use the free Blogger. This is the option recommended by the author.

5. Summary

After the deduction in this article, maybe 90% of blogs, or even more than 95%, do not need to consider the “Chinese market”. The time for entry has long passed, leaving only relatively unpopular areas to try.

In fact, there aren’t many options, so you can worry less about things and concentrate on writing. The conclusion of this article is that most blogs do not need to consider whether to set up their own website for the Chinese market. There is actually nothing that cannot be done by using Blogger to run a blog.

Moreover, Blogger is already the safest option at present. Please refer to the article “Will Blogger be closed? An in-depth analysis from the perspective of Google’s business operations”. I believe that it is unlikely that the previous “Sky” blog will be closed.

So Blogger webmasters, please feel free to continue using it. When there is further demand in the future, it will not be a big problem to move to your own site.

★ Image source: Unsplash

★ To improve your content power, please don’t miss the online course “[Content Power: The Super Power of Building Brands] (https://hahow.in/cr/content-power)”

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Further reading

• Thanks for supporting “Content Hacker”, the millions of people’s trampling activity has started
• Blogger webmaster takes a look: SEO strategy, start with writing the “search description”
• Blogger webmaster takes a look: Blogs with custom domains can also support HTTPS

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