And frankly, so am I.

Why would people blogging for business from the US and other Western countries ignore the potential for online business in China?

How can people in the West go on assembling for conferences and seminars about new media and online marketing and decline to look at China?

That’s the picture as seen by Lonnie B. Hodge, The American Professor (see Google screenshot below). A blogger and search engine optimization (SEO) specialist living and working in China, Lonnie can’t understand the lack of interest. Why, he asks, are people so uninterested in “the biggest Internet market in the world”?

In this conversation, Lonnie talks about blogging and online marketing in China and shares tips on

• how even people who do not speak or read Chinese can tap into the China blogosphere
• how bloggers whose blogs are in English or other non-Chinese languages can establish their presence on the dominant China search engine (yes, bigger than the Big G).

Lonnie also mentions his trip to the US for a lecture tour later this month and offers a face to face briefing on China for folks who might like to spring for a cup of coffee in one of the places he is planning to visit, including Colorado, California and Chicago, Illinois.

If you have the slightest interest in or curiosity about accessing marketing online in China, you will find in this recording invaluable clues to start you on your journey of discovery.

Disclaimer: Lonnie and I are business associates and we do provide a couple of plugs for our business in the course of the conversation – but you could think of them as “organic” plugs.

One such person is Jalali Hartman, Founder and CEO of the Yovia network, whom I met last year at the Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, where Yovia had a stand. From talking with Jalali I was inspired enough to join the Yovia network.

Now, several months later, I’ve at last had the pleasure of interviewing Jalali for this Social Media Show.

In the conversation we touched on a number of subjects, including:

• how even experienced tech hotshots can learn from high school kids about the possibilities of the Web
• how to deal with corporate resistance to the introduction of social media
• why the Yovia motto is “Spread the Word”
• why some 2,000 bloggers and even whole villages in Africa are part of the Yovia network
• how to keep a human balance in the midst of the pressures of a tech startup
• how to get paid to blog by hooking up with Yovia

and more.

Listen to the interview here or download the MP3 file for your iPod or other player.

MP3 File