I’m required to state which race I belong to when making an order?

This is of course an isolated incident, and probably means nothing. But it got me thinking, “What if Malaysian authorities start implementing race segmentation in e-commerce or online shopping?”

The main reason I chose to do my business online is, unlike traditional businesses, there is no limitation based on race. It’s an even playing ground.

The day this changes, I will move my entire business elsewhere (Singapore or US sounds good) and never look back, because racial segmentation sucks. Why do I get this feeling though that it’s only a matter of time?

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Instead of having one big market (26+ million people), we now have many different (and fragmented markets):

• Those who predominantly read and speak in English
• Those who predominantly read and speak in Malay
• Those who predominantly read and speak in Chinese
• Those who predominantly read and speak in Tamil

It’s funny that I should list the markets according to the language that they use to communicate most often, but there’s a reason for that.

The people who only read and speak in Malay tend to watch TV programs and read books or publications in Malay only. Same goes with those who only read and speak in Chinese. Life imitates art, and therefore these groups have different set of values, different needs and wants, and a grossly divergent view of the world.

Now as an Internet marketer in Malaysia, you have to address three different markets instead of one cohesive market with similar needs and wants. Not that this scenario isn’t true for other markets like the US, where Hispanic, Black and Chinese communities each have slightly different set of values, needs and wants. It’s common in most multi-cultural societies, and variety is always great.

The only (and most important) difference is that in the US, everyone can still speak and write a common language; English. In Malaysia however, I find a lot of people who predominantly speak and write in Malay have terrible command of English, and this is a big problem. Because they hand around in communities that only speak the same language, there is no incentive form them to improve their language once they are out of high school or college.

“So what if they can’t speak in English?” you say. “What’s the big deal?”

A lot, actually. You need to understand that e-commerce and Internet marketing is a US-driven economy. Not Malaysia-driven. Not China-driven, at least not yet anyway

And most definitely not India-driven, regardless of the fact that India produces top-notch programmers who are really good at being employees.

They are always left behind in the online world, and rely too much on others to translate their service and products into a language they can understand. But try as they may, no one can translate the entire Internet. So if they cannot understand what “Click here to continue” means, it takes massive effort and patience for them to do even simple stuff an Internet marketer does on a daily basis.

When we launched Rahsia ClickBank for instance, I never expected the response to be so overwhelming. To be honest, Rahsia ClickBank is not a new idea – it’s based on the tried and tested affiliate marketing method of writing product reviews. Similar products have been around for ages, except with Rahsia ClickBank we raised the level, produced a much better product, created a killer salescopy, and targeted the Malay-speaking market.

Based on the support emails and feedback we got, it’s clear that this market were not exposed to the idea before. It took more than 4 years to reach them.

Although we translated the main guide to Bahasa Melayu, it’s impossible for us to translate the entire Internet. When someone goes to ClickBank to register and account and is dumbfounded because everything is in English, that’s most probably the end of the journey for them.

The Internet marketers in Malaysia who can speak and write in English however, have experimented with product review websites before and already understand the concept. They can learn and progress on their own without a lot of spoon-feeding.

Ok, this is starting to sound like a REALLY LONG rant

But my point is, language and culture is a big obstacle in targeting Malaysia as your market. That’s why we’ve decided to focus on one language only (English), and try to make our products or services appeal to an International market. It’s the only way we can even hope to make a lot of money and at the same time be in the forefront of marketing technology.

However, that doesn’t mean that there is no money in the fragmented markets.

In the Malay-speaking market for example, due to lack of choice and lack of noise, it’s much easier to sell low-quality products at a cheaper price. A quick look at the Wang Cyber forum and you’ll find many doing exactly that. Most of the stuff are translated to BM from Private Label Products. But hey if it works for you, then go ahead and do it.

I just wish sometimes that things could be different.

What do you think?

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True Wealth is holding it’s first Open Day on 8th November 2008, and by attending it you get to purchase all True Wealth publications at a discount, both books by Azizi Ali and all Truewealth Authors. Besides that you also get to listen to featured speakers giving valuable presentations on their favorite topics.

I will be there on to give a 30-minute talk titled “Turn Your Knowledge Into a Product”, where I share how anyone can turn their skills or knowledge into digital products that they can sell online for big profits. I will also be autographing books by participants.

True Wealth’s office is in Kelana Jaya (behind Giant, opposite Kelana Square). Please refer to their website for details on the event.

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And for the second time, it showed sings that it just may happen one day. The STAR reports.

[..] Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohd gave this assurance following a scare when three panels of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) fell from Pillar 28 of the highway yesterday morning.

Motorists were shocked when the panels fell from the pillar at 7.25am causing a 3km congestion that lasted for several hours. The ramp was temporarily closed.

[..] Mohd Zin said an investigation would be carried out on the incident which came two years after RM70mil was spent to repair cracks that appeared on 31 of the 33 pillars. The highway was re-opened in 2006.

[..] It is learnt that the German consultants responsible for the repairs on the 31 pillars had been told to fly in and fix the problem.

I highly doubt that the Germans were at fault. Perhaps they were actually Malaysians living in German?

More likely, they were told to listen to how the people in charge want it to be done, instead of listening to their expertise on how to fix it.

Classic case of hiring an expert and then telling him what to do, perhaps?

Perhaps repairing a mistake is more costly and ensuring it was done properly in the first place?

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This is generally speaking, bad news for most Malaysians as a high inflation rate can compound itself over the next few months and cause other side effects like increase in interest rates. If your salary does not increase by at least 8% this year, then you aren’t really getting an increase in income.

By taking a stroll in Mid Valley or One Utama in the weekends though, you may not see the effect as major shopping centers are still crowded. Perhaps less crowded than before, who keeps track anyways? I do believe that most Malaysians in Klang Valley have a high level of disposable income so this group may not be effected as mush as the lower income group in the early stages, however if the high inflation continues you’ll definitely feel the pinch.

The nasi lemak outside my office increase from RM4 to RM4.50.

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This e-book hit the market at the correct time, with the correct sales message and the correct information. It helped me achieve my first five figure income (RM11,000) in a single month which was a great achievement for a Malaysian newbie at that time, roughly 6 months after I decided to quit my job and start my own Internet business.

However, since Paypal introduced its debit card withdrawal and followed by Clickbank accepting Malaysians again, this book has become obsolete and earned it’s place in history. Personally I stopped selling this e-book in 2007 but I’m sure I can still sell a few copies now, except for the fact that it would be unethical to do so.

The reason for this post is to announce once and for all that while Chapter-M may have helped hundreds of Malaysians start their own Internet business, it has been ore than two years now since it was first written so the information contained within it is no longer relevant.

So if you see anyone selling this e-book, please note that they are not keeping up with the times. This is an official announcement from me as I realized some people are still getting Chapter-M only to realize its information is obsolete. If you have any questions regarding Paypal withdrawal please refer to this post or subscribe to my mailing list as we will visit this topic again from time to time as there are new developments.

So rest in peace, Chapter-M.

If you’re from Malaysia and want to learn how to use PayPal, here’s the best place to get video tutorials: PayPal Malaysia

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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Raja Petra Kamarudin or lovingly known as “RPK”. Raja Petra is one of the most well-know political bloggers in the Malaysian scene, along with small group of other people including Jeff Ooi whom I have met twice.

I was shocked to find out he gets 10 million +/- visitors daily to his Malaysia Today blog. This blog is tiny in comparison, although to earn a great income online you don’t really need much traffic. What you really need is a solid way to turn your traffic into income.

For beginners, doing paid posts can be a good way to get started, but ultimately you need to venture into affiliate marketing or even creating your own products.

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In other words, it’s a massive jam out there, anywhere there’s a petrol station. Thousands of people burning petrol to save petrol. They would probably empty the petrol station by today and save it into containers for later use. I have seen it happen before.

The petrol price in Malaysia is one of the most compelling factors in politics right now, as more and more political leaders promise to bring it down. So far, it seems the only way is up.

If there’s every a time to think about your future income, now is it. Do you think your pay increase this year will cover the inflation cost? Having a “fixed income” has never seem like such a bad idea as it does now.

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All of these fan logos are copyright free. So, copy it, share it with your fellow bloggers. To copy it, either save the image and upload to your blog or embed the flickr link.

See this post for more designs you may want to use.

A merdeka WordPress theme would be great too.

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My girlfriend asked me to take a look at this site on KPLI (Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah), which in English means Post Degree Teacher’s Training.

In Malaysia, hundreds of people sit for this examination every month, which is mandatory for all primary / secondary school teachers in public schools in Malaysia..

Apparently, it’s really difficult to pass this examination, and this particular website promises to give you the tips and secrets to passing KPLI easily. In my opinion, the site looks well done, with a good niche market, good testimonials, and reasonably good copy.

Take my word for it, even if you don’t understand the language. A good example of niche information marketing.

See: www.ekpli.com

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