He's in Malaysia. The widgets are in a warehouse in Racine. To ship him the widget, you will not only have to pay the larger fee, you'll have to pay import fees and any other duties and fill out extra paperwork, something that can take the cost of a shipment from tens of dollars to hundreds, not including the time spent shipping and tracking it.

Part of working in internet-based PR and marketing means realizing that physical geography does not necessarily correspond to internet geography. The internet makes an international community local, developing networks based more on shared interest and shared language than proximity.

Most of the work I have done has been in the English language, and I am often surprised at who is contributing to the dialogue on any given subject in the blogosphere. Citizens of many countries are fluent in English and often they choose to blog about a given subject in English. They may be in Sweden, Malaysia, Portugal, or other countries, but they choose to blog in English and connect with English speakers who share their interests all over the world.

This is something to keep in mind as you develop and execute your PR tactics. Clients should understand that the best English-language widget blogger may in fact live in Malaysia, and that it's worth it to ship the widget there, import duties and all. The resulting placement will create impressions all over the English-speaking world and remain online to rematerialize as search results for English-speaking consumers.