Posts Tagged ‘Translation’

How to Acquire a Database or List of Email Addresses of Translators


2012
09.01

If you are a new or expanding translation agency in need of acquiring more translators for your increasing workload, there are several options available to you. One is to post your projects on such portals as proz.com and translatorscafe.com. For every translator who responds to your posts you can respond with an auto email in which you request that they fill in your translator application form if they are interested in receiving more translation work in the future. Keep doing this for every one of your projects and start engaging your new applicants.

There are also mailing lists where you can contact many translators directly, such as Radek Pletka’s Weekly Translation Jobs list, or Yahoo Groups such as tr_jobs or jobs-translators. In this way you can write an invitation to thousands of translators, one which will land directly in their email box, asking them to fill in your translator application form.

And lastly, you can freely signup to receive applications from translators directly through such services as the Translation Directory and our own. Or get serious and simply purchase a large translator database, complete with all their details, as many translators, especially the more busy and better quality ones, simply do not have the time or interest to fill in application forms anymore. Such databases can be imported directly into your own (although some modification may be required), giving you immediate access to the industry’s best.

You never know when you will land a major project and, if you are already bursting at the seems, better to prepare yourself ahead of time.

Why Acquire a Database or List of Email Addresses of Translators

To prepare oneself for potential expansion it is important in any industry to prepare oneself because the “opportunity cost” (the cost of lost earnings can be equated to present costs incurred) of future lost work can be much greater than the preparation costs. After 20 years of running a translation company I know that mega projects occasionally come around. To win a tender price and scheduled delivery time play major factors. To win the contract one has a temptation to overextend themselves in order to win the large, profitable contracts, and in the hustle to find the necessary resources quality can be compromised. If you do not achieve the goals you promised, not only may you lose a long term and valuable client, for good, but you scar your company’s name in their eyes and it is possible they will choose to dock you of the agreed sum paid or not even pay you at all. The translation business is a very competitive industry, as 85% of the world’s population speaks at least two languages, and many of these people would love to earn a living by these means because they can reap the benefits from such a profession: the convenience of working from the comfort of their home, not to mention the lucrative benefits. These days it is not a problem to create a website for one’s services, and at the time of writing this article a search for “translation” yielded towards a billion results (very high compared to many other searches). All these webpages, whether they were prepared by a large, established corporation or by a single freelancer, all represent competition. Sure, there are other ways to find customers than through the search engines, but competition is competition and if you want to stay ahead of that, it is better to be prepared.

Sign up free for applications from translators or purchase a database of email addresses of translators.

Approach more than 16,000 online translation companies.

Enhanced by Zemanta

German Course For Youngsters


2012
06.25

The internet has made the world a smaller place and led to an explosive growth in business and business related services. As communication needs for business grow, translators find themselves in demand. Knowing languages and working as a translator can be a lucrative career option. One can then start a translation business right from home without investing in an office or having a tedious9 to 5job. There are plenty of clients and yet, one is free from the hassles of working in an office. Work at your pace, work at leisure and deliver the highest standards of translation with matching returns. As reputation grows, quantum of work and income increases. Learning a language becomes a lifetime investment that yields rich rewards. It also opens up doors to other opportunities besides simple translation assignments.

Girls learning the American Sign Language.

Girls learning the American Sign Language. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In order to become a skilled translator a person needs to start young and have mastery over more than one language. A polyglot can set his terms and lie and work the way he wants to. The road to mastering languages is not easy. Unlike mathematics or physics, language is closely linked to traditions and culture of its native place as also usages peculiar to the country of its adoption. It is advantageous to start the language learning process at a young age and parents can imbue their children with a love for a language by placing them in appropriate language courses. For instance if you want your child to join a German course Europe has some of the best, world class language schools located in Germany and Switzerland. Besides the schools offering a German courseEurope has many other attractions, all easily reachable with a few hours of travel. The continent is replete with history and culture closely tied to languages.

Coastal-rock-formations-near-Paphos-Cyprus_0070

Pictures of my travels: Coastal-rock-formations-near-Paphos-Cyprus_0070

ESLLanguageSchoolis one of the very few global language schools that actively promote tourism and language learning. It is one of the few to actively organize summer camps for youngsters aged 10 to 17 in its associated prime partner schools in Switzerlandand Germany. The focus is just as much on learning a language as it is on leisure time activities to provide for a thrilling vacation. ESL believes that youngsters imbibe so much more when the learning process is mixed with other absorbing activities. When it comes to German course Europe based summer camps in ESL partner schools incorporate these principles in a practical, enjoyable, affordable and rewarding way.

ESL offers summer camps for youngsters in Zug, the German speaking part ofSwitzerland. It also has arrangements in Westerwald andBerlinfor youngsters wishing to take up German language studies. In each location students live together with others in the same group in a safe, supervised and well managed facility. They learn to interact, share and enhance their German language experience in the classroom as also through excursions and plenty of sports and entertainment activities. Courseware is structured and leads from one level to the next. Hopefully some might just go on to the highest stage and become acclaimed translators in future, courtesyESL.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Pages that Link to Translation Work Pay Well on Google


2012
06.16

Discussions Concerning Search Engine Optimization

Dear Sir or Madam , I work on a website that offers translation services; for example, legal contracts, official documentation and website translations and after perusing your website I am keen to host an advertisement on your site http://www.kenax.cz/ . I would be interested in placing a one-page advertisement on your website. I will provide a unique text for this advert that will be created by our professional writer for your site, in accordance with your editorial guidelines. It would be fantastic to hear back from you about this. I look forward to your reply.

pictures-of-Thailand_036_1

pictures-of-Thailand_036_1 (Photo credit: tree planting)

I’d like to point out that the two pages you have chosen are linked to from pretty well all of my 700 plus pages. These two are some of my most important pages and I’d like you to reconsider your discount.

This is my first time doing this and I’ve spent the last several days studying link exchanges. Did you say you wanted a link out from within my existing text or something (it is no problem for me to add more text, since I write fast and a lot), or is this a banner ad on the side? Do you pay one year in advance? Or can we break it down by month so I can try it out and see if it will negatively affect my rankings? Although I assume not because the two pages I would be linking to are translation related and have a fairly high PR.

pictures-of-Thailand_036_36

pictures-of-Thailand_036_36 (Photo credit: tree planting)

Would you consider more outlinks on other pages? All my pages are original content text, and I have recently started focusing on monetising them, where for a few years I was focusing more on the writing aspect and interlinking them. Do you have any suggestions how I can proceed? During my readings the last few days I learned that a lot of link exchange packages, especially those which use scripts and link out to spammers or something, can severely negatively affect my overall PR. Especially after some recent google upgrade. So I want to be careful. Obviously if some of these packages negatively affect my PR the outlinks I will have sold to you will become less attractive, for which reason your help would be appreciated.

Let’ have another link in this page: http://001yourtranslationservice.com/translating/translation-tips/translation-tips.html Place me links in the upper part of the website. About the price I want some discount in the price, as links are now going to be placed in the inner pages not in the homepage. I will pay you US $ 250 for 3 links, this is little bit compromise and I think you will accept this. For now let’s know me your thoughts.

pictures-of-Thailand_035_3_16

pictures-of-Thailand_035_3_16 (Photo credit: tree planting)

Okay, how about these: http://001yourtranslationservice.com/ translating/translation-tips/translation- tips.html Number one on google for Translation Tips, PR2 You mentioned http://www.kenax.cz/ – Translation Agency, PR3, I could also suggest: http://001yourtranslationservice.com/ translations/translation-resources.html 19 on google for Translation Resources, PR2, http://001yourtranslationservice.com/ translations/translation-jobs.html PR2 http://001yourtranslationservice.com/ translating/languages/languages-of-the-world.html PR2 http://christ.kenax.cz/ PR2 – but I guess that isn’t educational related enough Other PR2 pages you might consider: http://001yourtranslationservice.com/kenax/Translators/Resources/TimeZones.htm http://kenax.net/submit-add-url-suggest-website.html >

pictures-of-Thailand_034_33A

pictures-of-Thailand_034_33A (Photo credit: tree planting)

Show me site that will have content specific and will Have minimum pr 2 . Yes the price was US $ 100 per year .

Subject: RE: Interested in placing one Full page advertisement I work as a third party for my clients. All are Education clients.

Hi Harry, so six outlinks in total was it? Three from kenax.cz and three from the Translation Tips? I’d rather not link out from the main 001 page because I am trying to get high in Translation related keywords with that particular page. Did you say a hundred dollars per year per link? I can also link out from http://kenax.net/companies-and-services/education/ a directory I’ve started which I am using for link exchanges. No charge but just a link exchange? I am also developing individual pages for each language, which seems education related.

I will want the links to be placed on this : http://001yourtranslationservice.com/ and if you will not be interested in linking me from this page you can link me from this inner page also http://001yourtranslationservice.com/translat ing/translation-tips/translation-tips.html . For now let me know how much is your expectation per link per year. Waiting for your reply on this .

pictures-of-Thailand_034_4_01

pictures-of-Thailand_034_4_01 (Photo credit: tree planting)

What would the ads promote? I am a bit pensive of adding it to my main entry page, as it may affect my keyword rankings, but it is possible. I also own the sister site at the bottom of this page (http://001yourtranslationservice.com/) and that has beneath it roughly 700 pages of original text. Are you only interested in the main entry pages? I spend almost full time on SEO and hope to give the various pages an html facelift. Eventually have others doing this work for me.

This will be a text link and not a Banner. The text link having 2 to 3 words maximum. And for this I will pay you per link/year US $ 100 and if you agree to this price then I will place 2 or more links . For now let me know your thoughts ..

————————————————-

I am starting to get regular requests Oh Karel I’m so glad. I would hate to see you lose all the work you’ve done over the decades in building the translating company. I wasn’t really sure where you were going with all the SEO and alternate websites and stuff. I always considered the translating your bread and butter, and was worried you may be letting go of it to focus on other things. So this is really great, and I hope it grows into a steady flow of income! It’s Friday, so I’ll drink a beer for you tonight.

Right on and thanks. Yah, the SEO stuff was precisely a way how to find my own customers, especially international ones, so that I don’t have to rely on those dork Czechs, who always tear apart my translations and nickpick over bullshit and small points. They simply do not like letting me translate loosely and try to get me to translate Czechglish and closer to their sacred original, which is professionally insulting to me and which I refuse to do. Dealing with them can be a pain, I’m sick of their smugness, and many times they just don’t pay. So this SEO stuff was aimed at freeing myself from them. Especially stupid Czech translation agencies, which are the worst of all. I’m done with their stupid mentality. But while doing and learning all this stuff, it occurred to me that I could make money from it too. It has definitely been an interesting learning experience, and I feel that once I click in high enough on google, orders will be coming in all directions at once: translations for me, translations for my other translators, DTP, SEO, webpage design, programming… you name it.

pictures-of-Thailand_037_1_04

pictures-of-Thailand_037_1_04 (Photo credit: tree planting)

I’ve been masterminding it this way for several years, but you can imagine there was a lot to learn and experiment with. I imagine that many people must have thought I’m just wasting my time, but they just don’t see what I see, or the vision and overall strategy in my head. When I try to explain something like this to Jana and mom, they just roll their eyes, see that I have tattered clothes, and cant see anything beyond that. “He’s not making money, so he must be simply wrong.” Naïve and simple way of looking at things, but then again, for two people who I must have spent 3 days teaching how to copy/paste, or in the case of Jana, repeat over and over and over and over again how to check her email, I can only forgive them their ignorance. It’s not their fault. So I just quietly work away, as any perservering entrepeneur does, and wait for the day when my vision becomes reality, and then all the little folks around say, “congratulations. How did you do it? Connections through your daddy or something?”

 

+0200 Subject: success! cau dudes, had to share this with someone. So it seems that my Czech to English translations translator CV page is now near the top of google, ranking for example something like 6th for “Czech to English translator“. I am starting to get regular requests so I will focus more on this page, because I stopped about a month ago. Hopefully it will get higher. Now that I am getting requests from people in the west I can slowly start considering to raise my prices. People in the west are generally much happier with my service, because they know what English is supposed to sound like and are not dorks like Czechs who may know some English and complain that I have translated “so loosely”; and most importantly, they’re not assholes and most of the time actually pay me. So my plan now is to focus on this page more to get it higher. Once and if I start to get a lot of work, I will keep focusing on this, and eventually take some of my earnings to pay people to do the same for the billion other language combinations my agency offers, now that I know how to do it. A long term and expensive project but well worth it. This is a strategy I developed while treeplanting. Simple and practical. I guess for the past two years I’ve been focusing on my main translation page, which is in a much more competitive bracket. Even though I have gotten fairly high on google for “translation service”, it is better for me to focus on less competitive keywords like “Czech to Polish” or “German to English translations“, and work from the bottom up. Once the individual pages get high up in their individual keywords, by each of them pointing to my main page everything will slowly climb upwards in all the important keywords. A lot of work but I see the other big companies are doing the same thing. The important point is that I get translations for me, so I can build on something from the bottom. I don’t like the work but I can make good money at it, and then pay some expats etc. in Prague orShanghai to work on the other pages, because it really is a lot of work. Anyway, just wanted to share this latest success. latero

 

pictures-of-Thailand_037_E

pictures-of-Thailand_037_E (Photo credit: tree planting)

oh my goodness, I just did a random check and was shocked to find my 001yourtranslationservice thing number one on google for the keyword “translation service”. Can you check how it looks on your end? Seems like my strategies are working. Anyway, started downloading a bunch of software and think it will only get better. Also some ebooks on the subject. If I make money one day will buy the software that I found useful. Anyway, really curious all that I will learn and accomplish over the next month.

mmmm, sorry man, on google.ca you’re on the middle of page 5 (which is still pretty good, I mean you’re competing against Google Translate and stuff), but for google.com you’re right at the top of page 3 which is pretty fantastic. [Turns out that I must not be logged into google to yield the same results for others, so use a different browser, like Opera for example, to research this alone. Never follow/click on any of the results, otherwise that browser too will start to remember what you like and distort the results accordingly.] I’m off to Cancun for just a few days very early tomorrow morning, back at midnight Wednesday. Won’t be checking email or doing anything remotely work-related while I’m gone.yeahyeahyeahyeahYEAH fun and sun for me!-Keta From:

Strange about the difference. Surprisingly a lot. Anyway, think things will only be going uphill from here so maybe I’ll ask you again in a few months.

Have a good one in the sun!

Ask for a free quote from my Search Engine Optimization service!
Online translation services.
Web Design
Or for something completely different, check out Travel Goof (that’s me!)

Enhanced by Zemanta

A German Would Never Work for the Price of Czech Translators


2012
06.14

Email correspondence on the subject of translations among translators.

Could you handle Czech <- German pharma text translations for 300 CZK/NP?

Hi Petr I’d have to approach my translators, as I haven’t had translation from or into German for a long time. But over the years I get an increasing number of applicants. Looked in the database and found the following: German to Czech 23, last applicant end of 2008 Czechto German 5, possibly only one of them native German So certainly zadna velka slava. Doesn’t look very hopeful that I’d be confident about producing quality at this price, but one never knows. I also know places where I could advertise for more translators. If you have a lot of work I can go through the procedures of approaching everyone and testing them etc. cau dude, not exactly sure what you are asking but I’m always up for some cooperation.

beautiful-Czech-girls_HTX3

beautiful-Czech-girls_HTX3 (Photo credit: tree planting)

Concerning translations from Czech to English of pharmaceutical stuff, I can do this myself for 250 Kc/page but doubt I’d be able to find other translators for this price and still make it interesting for myself. Especially if you want quality. What language combinations were you interested in? If there is a lot of repetitions (of sentences and/or phrases), using my software I can bring the price down. For my travel truck I believe I could accommodate all of you, or help you get cheap accommodation. Best would be to talk about it a bit and work out the details. Karel

Hi Karl! What’s up? No, I apparently wrote the references in the Czech section and I seem to be there the only one… Vacation on Cyprus – sounds great, I have a family though – can you accommodate 2 people and 1 two-years-old? Karl, what are your nowadays activities? I would be glad if we could again get together and perhaps find some cooperation. FYI, I still want to focus on analytic chemistry; guess what, I will have a co-funding for a European project called Oligosynt (you may find info on www.eureba.be– just type in “Oligosynt”). This project is related to DNA-microarrays. The finances are relatively small but it is a start – wanna go into more European projects, so if you have an idea, I’d be glad you considering me as a partner. Karl, I am still occasionally doing translations for the chemical university in Prague. Its my minor activity but recently I had been asked to translate approx. 100-150 pgs. I think I would manage it if I could do it full time but I’m afraid of my capacity, since I will parallelly have work on the Oligosynt project + other.

beautiful-Czech-girls_62774

beautiful-Czech-girls_62774 (Photo credit: tree planting)

In the same time, I may get translation work from a pharmaceutical company and I wonder if you’d be willing to cooperate. I.e. you still have a database of translators throughout the world that could translate for a reasonable price, correct? In particular, translators specialized to pharma/medical/chemistry fields? In the same time, you mention some translating technology, which I did not fully understand (you have many links on the web that I really get confused) – you wanted to “license??” to prospective agents, correct? Frankly, translations have never been my major focus, but as the time evolves, I do it and I do want to keep on to some extent. Nevertheless, I do not want to get involved in the development of all the IT and organization (one has to really dedicate to it to be successful) and since I know you have been good in it why not joining forces? Now, I believe it is not a question of capability but will, capacity and price. Can you comment on whether you’d be interested and what capacity you’d have? As for price, I believe I could offer you 250 CZK per NM (I know you used to be more expensive but trust me obtaining work now from the pharma company requires to be competitive (meaning to have a lower price than the competition)). Can you respond whether this is interesting to you. And another question – what languages could we reliably manage? Karl, I am sincerely looking forward to your quick response (I should be submitting my offer to the pharma company asap – the best tdy – I have already procrastinated 1 week as I was doing other things) How are you? Back in Prague?

English: Knowledge of German language in EU wi...

English: Knowledge of German language in EU with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland and Turkey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

nope, still on Cyprus. Just setting up bogus local branches for google through my friends’ addresses around the world. If yer ever up for a cheap vacation, we could have beer at my place. Right now though may possibly make a move to Greece for the winter, working on a friend’s house. Did you write a review on the English or Czech google ad? I don’t think I saw a review from you on the English one. Since I seem to be the first bird on your google ad, you better check whether this is the sort you expected. If you’re based near Riegerovy sady, perhaps, we could sometimes have a beer there. What do you say?

I see, I like your goals. What are the tax rates on Beliz?

well, I once got this job which earned me about a hundred thousand bucks in a month, when the dollar was worth 36 Crowns or something. My accountant said I can go ahead and give about 60% of that to the Czech government, to which I responded, “Yah, right.”

I think the annual taxes in Beliz are about a hundred bucks, no matter how much you make. Rather amiable. The problem is you have to go through a middle person to set it up, and I went through another middle person before that middle person, so I was paying about a thousand a year. But I’ve had so little work the last two years I couldn’t pay anything, and eventually they told me the company no longer exists. But I keep using the number. It all seems like a joke. Especially since I travel around in a truck, use either my Canadian or Czech passport when it’s convenient (now even when crossing borders), have bank accounts in various countries… in short, I’m quite the criminal. k

OK, thanks, let us see. I will meet with my friend, who’s active with pharma companies and let you know. Your company KENAX/you are no longer registered in CZ, correct? Where is your tax registration nowadays?

I’m now registered in both Czech and Beliz. Czech taxes were killing me. But once I pay off what I owe them, I’d like to start bidding on EU translation tenders. Requires that all my taxes are paid up. I usually use my Beliz registration and my Czech one is sleeping peacefully at the moment. k

For a great translation service, web design, programming and the works, check out KENAX!

Enhanced by Zemanta