| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Lots of jobs (what kinds of jobs) being awarded through the translator directory Thread poster: Bernhard Sulzer
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| Lots of noise, 99% chaff | May 20, 2014 |
It doesn't matter if the ratio is 1 serious client to 1 three centmonger, or 1:9, or even 1:99. Just so long as I get that 1 serious client, I'm happy.
It depends on how you look at it. Maybe my expectations are too high, but I am certainly not happy with the ratio of 1:99 (1:9 would be acceptable, but that's not the case anymore).
That’s the main reason why I haven't renewed my membership. Not because of the cost (I don't think it is expensive), but because –at least for me- finding GOOD clients on proz.com has become much more difficult (more and more 'translators' willing to work for pennies, or even for free, and there are more and more cheapo agencies) and I have suddenly realized that I have been wasting so much time! I admit that over the years I have found a few good clients here; however, it used to be much easier and less time-consuming. If I have to respond to 100 inquiries to get one tiny job, it clearly isn’t worth it.
But maybe I am just getting old and grumpy. Truth be told I am not interested in low-rate offers, MT post-editing, constant haggling, kudoz points or chasing small rush jobs in general. I guess I value my time much more these days. I used to reply to most inquiries and now I just don’t feel like it, unless it is a solid prospect. So, for now, I choose to stay away from all this unproductive noise and distractions.
Here is the thing. Simply keeping my existing clients happy and conducting a systematic, targeted marketing campaign -contacting a couple of agencies every so often- requires significantly less time and effort and yields much better results.
Don't get me wrong. You can still find good clients on proz.com. But it seems to require lots and lots of patience, perseverance and, IMHO, much more effort and time than a few years ago. These days it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
[Edited at 2014-05-20 13:52 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-05-20 13:56 GMT]
| | | | Bernhard Sulzer 
United States
Local time: 18:40
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | About visibility etc. | May 21, 2014 |
TranslateThis wrote:
It doesn't matter if the ratio is 1 serious client to 1 three centmonger, or 1:9, or even 1:99. Just so long as I get that 1 serious client, I'm happy.
It depends on how you look at it. Maybe my expectations are too high, but I am certainly not happy with the ratio of 1:99 (1:9 would be acceptable, but that's not the case anymore). That’s the main reason why I haven't renewed my membership. Not because of the cost (I don't think it is expensive), but because –at least for me- finding GOOD clients on proz.com has become much more difficult (more and more 'translators' willing to work for pennies, or even for free, and there are more and more cheapo agencies) and I have suddenly realized that I have been wasting so much time! I admit that over the years I have found a few good clients here; however, it used to be much easier and less time-consuming. If I have to respond to 100 inquiries to get one tiny job, it clearly isn’t worth it. ...
The thing is when you become "invisible" on Proz.com, and that's pretty much what you are if you give up membership and with it the red P, you are allowing that trend ("more and more cheapo agencies" - but remember that's because there are cheapo translators to work with/enable them) to continue. As long as I can say that I got back my membership fee (and usually I do manifold), I believe it's worth paying it and remain "visible" in the directory.
There are good clients out there and hopefully there will be more in the future. Anything I can do to work against the current trend should help a little. It can't hurt.
TranslateThis wrote:
But maybe I am just getting old and grumpy. Truth be told I am not interested in low-rate offers, MT post-editing, constant haggling, kudoz points or chasing small rush jobs in general. I guess I value my time much more these days. I used to reply to most inquiries and now I just don’t feel like it, unless it is a solid prospect. So, for now, I choose to stay away from all this unproductive noise and distractions.
I agree. But I do respond to many emails I receive and if they turn out to be unprofessional contacts, I let them know. Add a few reasons why it's important to pay adequate fees.
TranslateThis wrote:
Here is the thing. Simply keeping my existing clients happy and conducting a systematic, targeted marketing campaign -contacting a couple of agencies every so often- requires significantly less time and effort and yields much better results.
Good approach. But I am not giving up my spot at Proz.com. I worked for it, I didn't just pay for it. I deal with unprofessional offers "quickly," a template usually suffices.
TranslateThis wrote:
Don't get me wrong. You can still find good clients on proz.com. But it seems to require lots and lots of patience, perseverance and, IMHO, much more effort and time than a few years ago. These days it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The ones you want as a client will find you. They might be few and far between, but they will only find you if you're visible. But I agree all the patience required to get these contacts might be very off-putting and you can certainly not live off that patience.
Should that good-contact trickle come to a stop, it might be time to move on, even for me.
B
[Edited at 2014-05-21 15:45 GMT]
| | | | | My experience | May 21, 2014 |
I have been a paying member now since 10 years (registered in 2001) and got in these years one very big and one rather big job after having been found through the directory (both will cover my membership fee for the rest of my life and several more lives:-), plus a handful of small jobs mostly when I wasn't a paying member yet. Like Philippe says, times were different then... I did not even get one job each year through ProZ, although if, on balance, I wouldn't complain. I applied for jobs only ... See more I have been a paying member now since 10 years (registered in 2001) and got in these years one very big and one rather big job after having been found through the directory (both will cover my membership fee for the rest of my life and several more lives:-), plus a handful of small jobs mostly when I wasn't a paying member yet. Like Philippe says, times were different then... I did not even get one job each year through ProZ, although if, on balance, I wouldn't complain. I applied for jobs only very occasionally; furthermore, when I registered, I was already established and didn't aim primarily at finding new customers in this way - even though they would always have been welcome -, and still less do I today, with the rates I see around. (By the way, ProZ was a nice community then...)
I happen to quote for posted jobs perhaps a couple of times a year, if I am idle and there is a job that interests me, and only after a thorough check of every information I can find about the outsourcer and if I get the sound impression they could agree to my rates. (But once, a Swiss!!! agency was ready to pay approximately only half of my rate, so you can never tell!:-) Hardly ever I got a reply at all and anyway normally it didn't turn out into a job. I am often scared of extremely tight or even impossible deadlines or of translations to be done over the weekend; nowadays outsourcers/customers don't seem to be prepared to pay any surcharge anymore and so I leave happily these jobs to those who apparently don't bother to work outside normal working hours or on weekends at their usual rate, whom we have to thank for such a result, amongst others. In these cases, I don't even try to apply - maybe I am wrong. Anyway, I prefer not to work rather than feel underpaid.
I get some enquiries (maybe in average 3 or 4 a week, sometimes more). For the reasons explained above, most of them are immediately deleted. My rates are not published in my profile.
In my first years here, I used to participate very actively in KudoZ, then, for different reasons, mainly hostile and unpleasant behaviours in general of some other participants and - in my opinion - increasingly simple and silly questions refrained me very much from answering. But I must still be in a good position in the directory because I continue to get enquiries through my profile.
I don't certainly owe a big part of my income in the last ten years to my Proz membership, but as I said, on balance, and corresponding to my little expectations from the beginning and over the years, it's not so bad, incomewise. Knowing how ProZ works, it is obvious that you need a good ranking in order to show up in a directory search, although this has never been my purpose in answering. However, if I had relied completely on ProZ, I would not have been able to survive:-).
So I agree with TranslateThis, Bernhard and others:
If you expect to find within a short time lots of GOOD customers, ProZ is not the right place for you! However I wonder whether there are such places elsewhere: it is a fact that rates have dropped dramatically and finding customers who are ready to pay more than peanuts has got more and more difficult. We cannot do much about this but try to "educate" young and unexperienced translators and convince them they should possibly work for decent rates. Which is what I do from time to time (less and less, I must say), sometimes getting back offences and attacks.
Like Gitte, I don't wonder where are going the jobs: most probably to someone who charges much less than me, or maybe someone much better. This is ok for me. Again, there is not much I can do about this.
[Bearbeitet am 2014-05-21 19:12 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | jotranslator
Israel
Local time: 01:40
Russian to English
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| "Low-Rate" and "Decent-Rate" are 2 different markets | May 22, 2014 |
Christel Zipfel wrote:
We cannot do much about this but try to "educate" young and unexperienced translators and convince them they should possibly work for decent rates. Which is what I do from time to time (less and less, I must say), sometimes getting back offences and attacks.
[Bearbeitet am 2014-05-21 19:12 GMT]
There is an idea that those starting out should offer rock-bottom rates to get jobs and experience. There is a certain truth to this -- you will get jobs (and experience) if you offer extremely low rates. The thing is, the "low rate" market is different, I think, from the "decent rate" market in how translators are treated, considered, and worked with.
It will also be hard to raise your rates with a particular agency because that agency (a) is working in the low-rate market so doesn't pay decent rates anyway and (b) knows you as a "low-rate person" so they think you will accept a lower rate if they push you a bit.
The only option you will probably have is to ditch those agencies and look for new clients.
Some of the rates are ridiculously low - I was recently offered a job of 7,000 words rush job of a specialist nature at $0.04 per word. Who is going to do that? But people do.
Most of the job offers I have seen on ProZ have been of the low-end variety though I have got a couple of better-paying smaller jobs.
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XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:40
Portuguese to English
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| Everything that Christel Zipfel said | May 22, 2014 |
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Vladimir Pochinov wrote:
I hate losing valuable time in price negotiations, therefore I state in my initial response to any request for quote (RFQ) that "The rates indicated above are non-negotiable."
Yeah, that's a good one, but there is a cultural problem: some people will take it literally and give up even if they are just a little short of budget. But solutions shouldn't be geared towards exceptions, I guess.
I had quite a few experiences with ProZ auction-type system when a job poster opted for a low bid (say, 30 to 50 percent below my quote), only to come running a week later after having been lambasted by the angry client.
It's not even just Proz.com, everybody either has a whole translator line-up waiting for the job or acts like it. Few people go to the translator as a professional service provider and ask for the price and deadline, most seem to be in love with the competitive procurement model in which they get to 'award' jobs.
Charge extra (and do it yourself or outsource it to an appropriate expert). Period. If the outsourcer would not accept that auxiliary services call for extra fees, you just don't need this client. Start looking for new clients immediately, to replace the "difficult" one.
There I disagree. Auxiliary services are neither my calling nor my problem, especially if there is no necessity of bundling them with translation. And there's no serious need to bundle DTP and other technical stuff with translation (only editing, to some extent).
1. No buyer or middleman controls me. My motto is "The client is always right, unless (s)he is a absolutely wrong" (in which case I just drop him or her).
Can't you just provide services without throwing in the unpaid extra service of nodding your head in agreement, though?
2. At one point I had about 25-30 more or less regular clients. When I took up a salaried position with an international law firm in 2008 (in order to secure a mortgage loan on better terms and conditions as compared to applying for the same as a self-employed freelance translator) I had to drop most of my then-existing clients, because I was not in a position to be available when they needed me. I quit the law firm in mid-2013, as soon as I had repaid the mortgage. Now I have five regular clients. Three of them supply UN-related material which currently accounts for 75-90 percent of my average monthly workload. From my experience, I don't think it would be too difficult for me to pick up one or two new clients (with projects involving my specialist subject domains) within a relatively short period if I lose any of the existing clients for some reason.
Well, it doesn't look like you have less work than you did before engaging with the law firm, so I take it you simply have more concentration in your workload right now?
I usually have several more or less active clients and a dozen or two of semi-dormant relationships from which work comes from time to time. The break of 2013/2014 was peculiar in that two new clients contributed most of the workload and pay, supplemented by a previously secondary/occasional client as a third perhaps on par with a former no. 1 client. So there was a balance shift. Also, the new no. 1 and no. 2 paid better rates than most older clients.
All local, though. I have yet to establish a significant relationship with a Western agency.
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Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote: Vladimir Pochinov wrote: Charge extra (and do it yourself or outsource it to an appropriate expert). Period. If the outsourcer would not accept that auxiliary services call for extra fees, you just don't need this client. Start looking for new clients immediately, to replace the "difficult" one. There I disagree. Auxiliary services are neither my calling nor my problem, especially if there is no necessity of bundling them with translation. And there's no serious need to bundle DTP and other technical stuff with translation (only editing, to some extent).
It's not that I offer DTP (although I have some experience in this area), but I might consider looking for a good DTP expert in case a "perfect" client offers a long-term translation project I particularly like.
I usually have several more or less active clients and a dozen or two of semi-dormant relationships from which work comes from time to time. The break of 2013/2014 was peculiar in that two new clients contributed most of the workload and pay, supplemented by a previously secondary/occasional client as a third perhaps on par with a former no. 1 client. So there was a balance shift. Also, the new no. 1 and no. 2 paid better rates than most older clients.
All local, though. I have yet to establish a significant relationship with a Western agency.
After I became more or less established in mid- to late 2000s, I have generally quoted higher rates to new clients. Many of such prospects disappeared after initial contact; however, some of them have stayed with me for years.
Lack of well-paying local clients (in a provincial city of Ulyanovsk) was the primary reason why I started looking for Moscow-based and, subsequently, overseas clients back in 2000 in the first place. I stopped working for Russian-based agencies in 2006 or 2007, as the rates offered by the best of them were about 50% of what I could negotiate with foreign clients, primarily from the UK and USA, at that point.
[Edited at 2014-05-22 19:24 GMT]
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Vladimir Pochinov wrote:
It's not that I offer DTP (although I have some experience in this area), but I might consider looking for a good DTP expert in case a "perfect" client offers a long-term translation project I particularly like.
I guess I might as well. My opposition to the growingly popular idea of offering added services comes down two 2 things:
1. they aren't translation, they're often somewhat entry-level, the clients should get them somewhere else, and there's no need for the translator to do them, and sometimes they have a concierge flavour (they are comparable to the idea of an interpreter driving the client around or carrying bags etc.);
2. agencies shouldn't be requesting them from translators without clearly repositioning themselves as intermediaries rather than normal providers who sometimes outsource.
After I became more or less established in mid- to late 2000s, I have generally quoted higher rates to new clients. Many of such prospects disappeared after initial contact; however, some of them have stayed with me for years.
There was an increase when I got the sworn translator stamp because as a minimum your per-page rate stays the same when your page shrinks from 1800 to 1125 characters, and there's much less arguing. On the other hand, the editing, printing, stamping and dispatching can sometimes nullify the gain.
Curiously, I probably had my heyday when I was new, like 1-2 years of experience and lacked a couple of qualifications I have now. While that's in a large part due to a certain Polish translation community coming down crumbling, where I had a lot of visibility and very high directory ratings, good testimonials etc., I believe the progressive souring of the market has probably contributed a lot, making agency clients more and more reluctant to accept my rates. Not that they would argue, they simply inquire less often or not at all. Paltry rates dominate the highest echelons of the nation's agency rankings, too, leading sometimes to ridiculous offers.
But earlier today I saw a job ad from a Polish agency, indicating Poland as the translator's preferred location, and showing a budget more than twice higher than the usual peanuts from top agencies (which is still much higher than the real bottom feeders but already way too low).
Lack of well-paying local clients (in a provincial city of Ulyanovsk) was the primary reason why I started looking for Moscow-based and, subsequently, overseas clients back in 2000 in the first place. I stopped working for Russian-based agencies in 2006 or 2007, as the rates offered by the best of them were about 50% of what I could negotiate with foreign clients, primarily from the UK and USA, at that point.
At this point, the rates I get from Indian agencies are up to 50% higher than the ceiling of Polish agencies. I have half a mind to start accepting their offers, since I know they're probably not making that much markup, and they live in a poorer country, anyway, and still offer more than my own compadres!
On the other hand, while the proverbial six cents are actually usually more than you can earn with the Polish market even from direct clients (forget agencies), they are on the low end of what Western agencies pay, so I fear I'd be treated like a low-end translator and the agency might be one of those low-rate high-maintenance clients characteristic of the bottom segment of the market.
This in addition to Western agencies generally having some weird ideas about contracts and etiquette. I feel positively disrespected much of the time I talk to them or read their stuff.
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| Some rants on the topic | Sep 18, 2014 |
I got some unpleasant moments at Proz and the Kudoz recently and came across this topic while searching for the question about my membership (I just renew it a few weeks ago but now in doubt), which made me want to add what I experienced as a member here.
I dont get lots of jobs awarded throught the directory and also not from bidding. I long ago found out that only the lowest bidder or fastest bidder would win the job, even with the jobs fit perfectly with my specialization. I am f... See more I got some unpleasant moments at Proz and the Kudoz recently and came across this topic while searching for the question about my membership (I just renew it a few weeks ago but now in doubt), which made me want to add what I experienced as a member here.
I dont get lots of jobs awarded throught the directory and also not from bidding. I long ago found out that only the lowest bidder or fastest bidder would win the job, even with the jobs fit perfectly with my specialization. I am from a country that in most opinions is a developing country but our costs of living are not recorded precisely because we got many invisible expenses which come with a communist country. Living on the rate the Indian agency offer is impossible in the long run and having learned and seen how low rate can destroy an industry and make our lives uncomfortable in the long run, I dont choose that but go with the community rate and up. I talk lots and lots about it with my in country colleagues, both new and experienced but they dont really care, what they want is the immediate profits, which now make me very discouraged.
Back to the numbers of client. I dont have lots of clients and I dont usually participate in bidding (I only bid for jobs fitting my specializations and for company looking for translators in such specialization). However, I have a few regular clients whom I accidentally contacted and passed their tests or they contacted me through my profile. None of them are from Proz bidding.
And a week ago, a PM contacted me by phone and we had a little happy chat and when she asked me about my rates, I told her that I can't give her a specific rate because I haven't seen the text but it should be around this number (which is a number that double the rates of some of my colleagues and similar to that for my language pair in her country from what I know) I have been wondering since then when she said it was cheap because the rate I mentioned was over 0.1, a general rate for the pair in her country.
Would she be a good PM or Proz give me the wrong info about rate in her country which set her off? Or is it because my profile is not that attractive? What do you think about this incident? This is the first time I been contacted about a project through the phone even though we've been exchangine emails in advance. I also have been thinking on how to make my profile here more attractive without revealing too much and since I found that I can find my own clients, I can still use here as a place to display my profile but not advocate it in encouraging bottom feeders. The incidents with her and recent Kudoz make me think about terminating my membership even more but I am worried that I lost my visibility.
In my opinion, just like companies selling fashion, high quality products, etc at the same price everywhere in the world, quality translation is valued at the same rate everywhere in the world and I dont add extra services like DTP, I may learn how to do it but only for widening my knowledge or helping with my displaying the translation better. What I should be best and focused on is my main services which are what clients expect from me.
[Edited at 2014-09-18 20:40 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-09-18 21:09 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Bernhard Sulzer
United States
Local time: 18:40
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | The Proz.com rate page is a start and then you need to go up | Sep 19, 2014 |
Little Woods wrote:
... Living on the rate the Indian agency offer is impossible in the long run and having learned and seen how low rate can destroy an industry and make our lives uncomfortable in the long run, I don't choose that but go with the community rate and up.
That's a start. Only go up from there, depending on the quality of the service you provide.
Little Woods wrote:
And a week ago, a PM contacted me by phone and we had a little happy chat and when she asked me about my rates, I told her that I can't give her a specific rate because I haven't seen the text but it should be around this number (which is a number that double the rates of some of my colleagues and similar to that for my language pair in her country from what I know) I have been wondering since then when she said it was cheap because the rate I mentioned was over 0.1, a general rate for the pair in her country.
You mean $0.10/source word (US-Dollars), right?
Yes, I would consider it low as well. Good if that assessment came from a PM of a translation agency.
Little Woods wrote:
Would she be a good PM or Proz give me the wrong info about rate in her country which set her off?
Certainly a better PM than many others in this business. But you need to be careful. Often conversations are one thing, projects, actual purchase orders and payment and payment terms quite another. Is there a blueboard record for that outsourcer? If you never worked with that agency, be careful. You might want to ask for payment in advance or down payments. Definitely need a PO or have them sign a form you put together yourself with YOUR terms.
Little Woods wrote:
Or is it because my profile is not that attractive? What do you think about this incident? This is the first time I been contacted about a project through the phone even though we've been exchanging emails in advance. I also have been thinking on how to make my profile here more attractive without revealing too much and since I found that I can find my own clients, I can still use here as a place to display my profile but not advocate it in encouraging bottom feeders. The incidents with her and recent Kudoz make me think about terminating my membership even more but I am worried that I lost my visibility.
Profiles can always be improved. I sent you a suggestion. Without being a paying Proz.com member (full membership), your visibility will suffer greatly, maybe not as much as in my pair because there are fewer translators in your pair, but it will suffer nevertheless. Only if you are certain you don't need that visibility anymore because you don't seem to get any contacts or you have enough clients, you might be able to give it up.
Little Woods wrote:
In my opinion, just like companies selling fashion, high quality products, etc at the same price everywhere in the world, quality translation is valued at the same rate everywhere in the world and I don't add extra services like DTP, I may learn how to do it but only for widening my knowledge or helping with my displaying the translation better. What I should be best and focused on is my main services which are what clients expect from me.
Yes and yes.
Although you will find people (mostly from agencies) who think that your location should determine the price, that is no way to run a business and make it a career. The better you are the more you should make. I always say to people starting out that they might have to work an additional job at first, but when you provide quality translations, you need to charge a quality rate, no matter how much actual translation work you get. It's the only way to go. You might have a payment range and might be able to get more for your work from direct clients than from agencies, but one should never "sink" to the bottom of the barrel.
[Edited at 2014-09-19 20:10 GMT]
| | | | | Thank you Bernhard | Sep 20, 2014 |
Yes maybe she is a good PM and their BB is all 5 stars but I dont have the chance to work with her anymore to check its truth. It has been weeks since then without following up. Anyway, I would work on my education, quality more and try to grow my client base.
Again, thank you very much for your reply.
| | | | | Some clients during the last weeks via proz... | Sep 20, 2014 |
Recently an Indian agency with a rather bad BB offered me 0,03 € for a translation from French to German for a customer in Europe. I got my glasses in order to see whether I was reading right. (!) I told them that my best price for big volumes and easy texts was 0,09 € per word for agencies. They did contact me during a few days to negociate and finished by offering 0,06 € what I refused.
Clients who contact me via the directory offer generally speaking VERY low prices, but th... See more Recently an Indian agency with a rather bad BB offered me 0,03 € for a translation from French to German for a customer in Europe. I got my glasses in order to see whether I was reading right. (!) I told them that my best price for big volumes and easy texts was 0,09 € per word for agencies. They did contact me during a few days to negociate and finished by offering 0,06 € what I refused.
Clients who contact me via the directory offer generally speaking VERY low prices, but the last weeks I actually got a few direct clients via bidding in fields where not many translators are working or for urgent projects for which I guess not much translators were available. One client turns up regularly now as since I did some rewriting for him he is selling much more.
Other clients visit my profil via the directory but never contact me. I guess it's probably because I offer no CAT tool (in journalism, marketing and literature I do not really find it helpfull). Sometimes they also check the way to contact me, but I never get any mail. ▲ Collapse
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Hello,
In my case the directory has proven itself to be very useful due to the nature of the service that I offer.
As we are very few translators in that market, I receive quite a lot of job requests through the directory (although I am not a paying member), and some of them become steady business relationships (about 2 per year since 2010).
Obviously, being the only one of your kind to offer a certain service helps a great deal..
Floriane
Bernhard Sulzer wrote: It has been said before by staff that "most of the client contact that happens on the site does not happen via posted jobs, but rather through directory searches and direct profile contact.." http://www.proz.com/forum/prozcom_job_systems/236888-how_to_land_that_first_job_on_proz.html My question is to whom are these many jobs going and what kinds of jobs are they? Not to me. And I am not sure I want them these days. Not all of them. Don't get me wrong. I am thankful for every contact through the directory or my profile that then translates into a fair job, but I can't say that in all of these years of my membership I had many good contacts. I believe that these days, it is very important to keep the contacts you have and hopefully get a few new ones, but you can't rely on a steady stream of acceptably paid work hoping to get contacted through here. I am sorry to say this and maybe that's not everyone's experience. Now, I am not looking for help marketing myself - thanks, I'm fine. What this posting is about is the question to whom - if there are so many contacts through the directory and the profiles - are these communications going and why am I not contacted? I venture to say that increasingly the contacts must be going to members who advertise their prices and fall into the lower price category. This probably happens because it's mostly agencies who are looking for translators and they are looking for "inexpensive" solutions. That leaves me with two solutions: advertise cheap rates or not depend on the directory. But this trend leaves its mark, for translators and on the industry in general. If more and more jobs are accepted for less and less money, you can draw your own conclusion about what that means for those translators who work for higher rates. So the opinion that there's lots of jobs being awarded through the translator directory and through direct contacts might be a bit problematic in the sense that it implies everything is alright in the translation business. What's your recent experience with being contacted through the directory or directly through your profile? And what do you do about the trend I implied above with regard to the jobs that you need to receive not to just make a living but to remain a successful translator with an acceptable income? B [Edited at 2014-05-15 13:52 GMT]
| | | | | The same as Andrea, I also got outsourcer visitors but very few contact me | Sep 20, 2014 |
I notice that there are many outsourcers visiting my profile and some checking it 3 times or look at how to contact me but I have never got any emails from them. There are Indian agencies but I dont expect them since nothing good would come from them. If clients really want to reach me, it is very easy by contacting me through the website instant message or via email. I also notice many competitors in my pair looking at my profile, some revisit it 7 times, which is not welcomed by me.
... See more I notice that there are many outsourcers visiting my profile and some checking it 3 times or look at how to contact me but I have never got any emails from them. There are Indian agencies but I dont expect them since nothing good would come from them. If clients really want to reach me, it is very easy by contacting me through the website instant message or via email. I also notice many competitors in my pair looking at my profile, some revisit it 7 times, which is not welcomed by me.
I agree that Cat can't be applied on those fields like marketing, journalism and many more fields. I find it petty if they insist on Cat and discounts for everything. I guess I am quite strict and picky for a translator in my pair but now I gradually lost interests in translation, agencies and the community. Hope it is only a fleeting thought. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:40
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| The thing that annoys me is... | Sep 20, 2014 |
... receiving e-mails that appear to be addressed to me personally describing a translation job and asking me for a quote but which turn out to be mass e-mails that have been sent to probably hundreds of translators at the same time.
I would like to suggest to the owners of the website that they make it impossible for outsourcers to send the same e-mail to hundreds of translators at the same time.
Is this possible?
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Lots of jobs (what kinds of jobs) being awarded through the translator directory | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
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