| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | What is really happening in the business?? Thread poster: José J. Martínez
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| Yup yup and yup | Jul 4, 2015 |
Angela Rimmer wrote:
(and as an aside, it's to the point now where if someone even says the word "peanuts" in a complaint about rates, I have a very hard time taking them seriously -- those people do not seem interested in focusing on anything but negativity; my impression is that they just want to complain and do not want to hear about real solutions)
There is also the point it is hackneyed beyond any level of acceptability. There was some whining on a thread about literary translation, with constant references to peanuts. It was all I could do not to post "if you claim to translate literature and the only word you can think of to refer to low earnings is "peanuts", perhaps peanuts are all you deserve to earn".
So yeah, when I see the p-word, I tend to move on to the next post. Or thread. Or website.
Meanwhile, I sympathise with later remarks. I'm not good at refusing people on the phone. Hence my preference for email, as mentioned previously. I should probably grow a pair, or something .
[Edited at 2015-07-04 10:53 GMT]
| | | | Angela Malik 
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:04
German to English
+ ...
| A pair of peanuts? | Jul 7, 2015 |
Charlie Bavington wrote: Angela Rimmer wrote:
(and as an aside, it's to the point now where if someone even says the word "peanuts" in a complaint about rates, I have a very hard time taking them seriously -- those people do not seem interested in focusing on anything but negativity; my impression is that they just want to complain and do not want to hear about real solutions)
There is also the point it is hackneyed beyond any level of acceptability. There was some whining on a thread about literary translation, with constant references to peanuts. It was all I could do not to post "if you claim to translate literature and the only word you can think of to refer to low earnings is "peanuts", perhaps peanuts are all you deserve to earn". So yeah, when I see the p-word, I tend to move on to the next post. Or thread. Or website. Meanwhile, I sympathise with later remarks. I'm not good at refusing people on the phone. Hence my preference for email, as mentioned previously. I should probably grow a pair, or something . [Edited at 2015-07-04 10:53 GMT]
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 21:04
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
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A paltry pair of putrid peanuts proffered prospectively to a proverbial and perpetually-propagating proliferation of potential poltroons with a paucity of proclivity for perceiving the pecuniary perils perpetuated from such pitiful proposals and pathogenic paradigms.
Charlie Bavington wrote:
Angela Rimmer wrote:
[Edited at 2015-07-07 18:11 GMT]
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| Nuts are generally not that cheap - but very nutritious! | Jul 7, 2015 |
What about potatoes?
| | | | José J. Martínez
United States
Local time: 18:04
Member
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Recently offered jobs | Jul 7, 2015 |
Well, I am happy to say that WOW!!!! I was offered a great opportunity by a US firm. I would have to be on my computer constantly waiting for jobs that had to be delivered very quickly... I got so enthused that I even went for a run around the block. I sat in front of my computer and saw the first offer... it was a 500 word job about the Greek economic crisis and (drums rolling)--the price offered was three american cents per source word WOW!!! But, it is of course ok because after all, it was a... See more Well, I am happy to say that WOW!!!! I was offered a great opportunity by a US firm. I would have to be on my computer constantly waiting for jobs that had to be delivered very quickly... I got so enthused that I even went for a run around the block. I sat in front of my computer and saw the first offer... it was a 500 word job about the Greek economic crisis and (drums rolling)--the price offered was three american cents per source word WOW!!! But, it is of course ok because after all, it was a rush job. Talk about slavery. This company sincerely can keep their jobs at that price.
In my quest to find an answer to what the problem for us freelancers is, I can suppose that there are many willing to translate using mechanical means and companies that really do not care about quality. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 21:04
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| What is really happening in the business?? | Jul 7, 2015 |
Will the ATA or ProZ come to the rescue with a viral video for clients?
José J. Martínez wrote:
In my quest to find an answer to what the problem for us freelancers is, I can suppose that there are many willing to translate using mechanical means and companies that really do not care about quality.
[Edited at 2015-07-07 19:16 GMT]
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Gabriele Demuth wrote:
What about potatoes?
It can be associated in Spanish with “patata caliente” (literally, hot potato) and that is an expression to refer to “jobs that nobody wants to do and passes along”, which is what should be happening with 0.03 jobs, but unfortunatelly it isn't.
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 06:34
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | I wonder if you have heard of search engine optimization | Jul 8, 2015 |
José J. Martínez wrote:
In my quest to find an answer to what the problem for us freelancers is, I can suppose that there are many willing to translate using mechanical means and companies that really do not care about quality.
I wonder if you people have heard of search engine optimization techiniques which are regularly employed by websites to increase traffic to them. These sites often have blogs which discuss topics related to the items these sites sell. The blog posts are written in a particular stylized fashion, the key attribute of which is to use as many related keywords as possible that a potential visitor to the site is likely to use while searching for the products sold by the site.
The more such words are used in the posts, the more likely are the posts likely to come in web searches, and the more likely are increased footfalls to the pages of the site.
These websites routinely employ cheap writers to churn out such posts. The posts don't have to be literary pieces, nor even logically coherent. They just need to use the keywords liberally.
When these sites are localized into other languages, the same principles are applied. Sometimes MT is used, sometime low-end translators are used. Quality or grammatical correctness or even human communication are not required, these posts are in a way meant for the eyes of web crawlers and other dark and dreary beasts that prowl the depths of the internet.
This is another instance of jobs where heavy duty translation by "native", specialist, experienced, prohibitively expensive translators are just not required.
We should not even think of competing for these jobs; these are not even translation jobs as someone here said, these are a special kind of technical writing meant for the eyes of machines.
The internet and technology has progressed to such a level that we have these kinds of writing too. We are used to thinking that writing can only be meant for human eyes and it has to be communicative, elegant, grammatically correct and so on. But the reality is that a lot of writing that is done for the internet are of a different type altogether and are not meant for us (that is humans) at all.
[Edited at 2015-07-08 06:15 GMT]
| | | | Angela Malik
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:04
German to English
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| How to attract the wrong clientele and leave a bad impression | Jul 8, 2015 |
Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
I wonder if you people have heard of search engine optimization techiniques which are regularly employed by websites to increase traffic to them...
I don't know about anyone else, and perhaps this is a business mistake on my part, but I am not interested in being a top hit on the search engines. I prefer to gain my clients organically, through word of mouth, or by directly approaching them myself. I suspect that clients googling for translators are not necessarily clients who will understand just how much professional translation costs and will want to go bargain hunting on the internet, and I'm not interested in attracting these types of clients.
SEO is important for a website generally, but manipulating SEO ratings by hiring crappy bloggers or adding your own space fillers with keywords and nothing meaningful for your visitors is not great. The number one rule of SEO is to make your site relevant and worthwhile for your visitors (i.e. don't fill your site up with crap just to get higher SEO ratings). The sites that hire cheap crappy bloggers are not great and don't give a good impression, certainly not an impression I want to give of myself and my company.
But to each his own!
| | | | José J. Martínez
United States
Local time: 18:04
Member
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | And all of a sudden, a job is posted!!!! | Jul 8, 2015 |
So I read it, am in line with what they want and I must decide if I opt to go for it.... but >>>> Whoa!!!! There are 97 translators that have already quoted before me. I think.... what chances do I have//if any? And my mind gives me no reply whatsoever.
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member for the following reason: blank |
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 06:34
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Noble sentiments, but | Jul 9, 2015 |
Angela Rimmer wrote:
SEO is important for a website generally, but manipulating SEO ratings by hiring crappy bloggers or adding your own space fillers with keywords and nothing meaningful for your visitors is not great. The number one rule of SEO is to make your site relevant and worthwhile for your visitors (i.e. don't fill your site up with crap just to get higher SEO ratings). The sites that hire cheap crappy bloggers are not great and don't give a good impression, certainly not an impression I want to give of myself and my company.
The underbelly of the internet and internet businesses is so grotesque that recently I read a report about internet companies hiring housewives and students in cheaper countries to just click randomly at links provided to them in order to increase page visits. These random clickers make as much as 2 cents or there about per click (which is somewhat higher than the peanut rates available to some kind of translations) and many make a living out of this job.
This is just to say, that the world is not peopled by ethical, honest, civilized people alone, and other types also abound, and it would be naive to think otherwise.
I would say, all this SEO fixing is similar to what we see here in the kudoz pages with translators ganging up to garner kudoz points in order to get a higher position in translator ranking. If a company's name appears on the 100th page of a google search, the company (especially if it is and internet company) might as well not exist, and therefore, it will do anything to elbow its way into the first page of search engine results, even if it means paying a few cents per click to thousands of housewives and students spread around the world clicking away at links on its website.
[Edited at 2015-07-09 05:54 GMT]
| | | | | | Peter Zhuang
Germany
Local time: 03:04
German to English
+ ...
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