Monday 1 March 2010

Leaving Berlin and a life-long desire to move to Cairns

Since starting CairnsBlog in mid-2007, which back then looked a bit too much like a 'Do we want Kevin Byrne as Mayor?' blog, the readership has consistently developed.

The local audience has grown to around 29,000 regular return readers (47,325 regular repeat visitors over the last calendar year). Around 87% of these are local North Queenslanders.

I also continue to receive all kinds of communication. There's still the covert ones from Councillor Blake's fan club, a few are rather perverted. There's also been some weird phone calls, professing to be journalists from a southern newspaper investigating CairnsBlog. They never honestly identify themselves, but I've accepted that to be par for the course. The latest took the form of a rather disgusting txt message. Well, at least I use my own mobile number. One day I must publish these, as they will make for delightful reading.

However, I've just received a more inspiring message, that is worthy of sharing with readers of CairnsBlog.

25-year-old Matt, who speaks his native German, also fluent in English, with a a good knowledge of Polish, French and Spanish, is on a search for a Cairns employer who wants to push their online sales.

He's at the end of the line now, and looking for a new start in a new country.

"Cairns is definitely the place I have chosen for my new life, as I am already in the process of immigration with registered agents from Sydney," says Matt.

He says he doesn't need a sponsorship, just an employer. "The employer is the key for my permanent residence in Australia," Matt says, who is currently with a Berlin-based online marketing agency, as a developer of search engine optimization and social media marketing for online PR and communication campaigns.

"I could imagine to become more involved with the creation of content," Mattie says. "Content is king as we all know and the more we have spread all over the web, the better for our search engine rankings. It would be so much joy for me to find a company that I can work with and create new and fresh ideas."

Mattie has lived in New Zealand for almost a year and has also been self-employed with his own company offering online PR/communication services, as well as online research for entrepreneurs.

"You folk in Cairns cannot imagine how cold this place is at the moment. The Northern Hemisphere is really playing a big winter game," Matt writes. "Snow for over a month. So, why is a German guy from the snow writing to the readers of CairnsBlog? This question is easy to answer!" Matt says.

"I´m on my way to immigrate to your beautiful country, well, at least I´m trying this. Because we never know if it´ll work out or not and if Australia will give me a chance. You might imagine how exciting these days are for me."

"I was pretty lucky to have seen a few countries so far. I´ve been to almost all English-speaking countries in the world and decided that OZ is my numero uno," writes Matt.

"There are lots of barriers for me at this stage, at the moment I´m trying to find an employer who wants to improve the online rankings. Nowadays it´s very important to rank very well in the search engines to be visible at all. If you cannot make it into the top 10 or top 20, your chances are very low to find new customers online. Also, communities such as Twitter or Facebook are very good opportunities for businesses to show their repertoire and present this well."

"Very important is of course, to give the people online the chance to understand what you do and to give out very valuable information," he says.

Just posting ads with the wish to make a quick sale, is not effective Matt says.

"The people out there, online, they are not stupid and feel fooled if you do so. Companies who introduce themselves, show who they are, create content, such as pictures, videos, interesting texts, how-to-do-posts, will be definitely more successful than those who don't."

"Online communication wise, it´s always a good thing to build up your 'spider´s net' with people who are opinion leaders online. Blogger or forums, specialized websites will give you the chance to cooperate with them and create win-win situations," Matt says. "With my fresh and sometimes crazy ideas, I want to help you to make more out of your products and services online."

7 comments:

Matt, Berlin said...

Thank you so much guys, this is incredibly appreciated! My dream contineous ;). Thanks to Aussie guys like you.

John Robinson said...

Matt is a young man who is trying to make his dream of living in Australia come true. Please take the time to read his story.

Al said...

Can't argue the PR/Communication credentials of this lad, even Michael Moore is on side.

Artie in Whitfield said...

Hey Matt, why not just marry one of the poorly-educated fat women that (over)inhabit Cairns. They're suckers for foreigners and you'll find the majority of foreigners here have used the same scheme to get permanent residency. And once married you can go on the dole, while she works her silly tourism job.

Unknown said...

Artie, if you did some research, you'd find that the majority of "foreigners" in Cairns came here on skilled visas and are highly educated, highly skilled and multi-lingual.
And that it is mainly poorly educated true blue Aussie males, who get their partners from overseas, because no Australian woman will look at them twice.
Another thing you should know is that 'foreigners" when they become permanent residents in Australia do not have access to social security for the first 2 years and cannot go on the dole.And if youir partner is working, even if it is in a "silly tourism job", you would not be entilted to the dole anyway.Instead of denigrating the many lovely, hardworking ladies in the Cairns tourism industry, why not use your efforts to help Matt? We desperately need people like him in Cairns.I hope you make it Matt and don't take any notice of simplistic idiots like Artie.

Matt said...

Hey @The Grateful Mac,
Thanks for your kind words.

It was a tough way so far and it cost me lots of energy and time and resources and of course it´s a bit sad to read a post like this.

But as we human beings are very diverse, there will be always people who have a "special" opinion about things.

I keep on fighting for my dream and I´ll make the best out of the situation. For Cairns and for me. I´m greatful for any feedback to my posted e-mail addy.

Take care, and I wish you another wonderful day in paradise.

All the best and cheers from the Northern Hemisphere,

Matt

Vlasta said...

Hi Mattie,

Well done to get yourself here after all it is what you do professionally.

Thanks Michael for making Cairns community aware of Mattie.

Hopefully we see you in Cairns soon.