Translator Experience Day – Glenn Cain

As they say in Swahili “Ahadi ni deni”: “A promise is a debt” or if you prefer French “Chose promise, chose due”. Here is the interview I promised. Glenn Cain is a truly experienced translator. Before founding The Yndigo Translation Agency, he held various positions in the profession, including Head of the Legal Translation Services [...]

Marketing Your Translation Services – Do you Like Test Translations?

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast_1259, originally uploaded by Michael Dawes. Do you like test translations? Here is an article by a highly experienced translator Read the article and tell us what you think. Do you think test translations may be useful, i.e. really get you work? Do you think it’s a waste of time? Do you [...]

“Softsourcing”, a new word to add to your vocabulary!

Introducing: The latest addition to the “outsourcing, crowdsourcing…” family. It’s “softsourcing“, which according to Michael Martine’s definition means “people replaced by software” (See Michael’s article “If you can’t Blog it Don’t Do It” in his Remarkablogger) The word is so new you won’t find it in Wikipedia, so new it’s only got 821 entries in [...]

Being an Entrepreneur Isn’t For Everybody (Oh, Really?!)

Jim Kukral talks about how not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur these days. It’s a lot of hard work and risk, and not everyone is ready for that. Now, don’t let my friend Jim scare you off: “If you’re smart enough to be a translator, then you’re smart enough to be an [...]

How to Write a Press Release to Market Your Translation Services – Part I

How to Write a Press Release to Market Your Translation Service – Part I NYC, originally uploaded by cat•girl. This is a 3-part-tutorial. Parts II and III will be published in 2 and 4 days respectively. A. How to write a Press release (or News release) It is obviously not possible to go into details [...]

2 Awesome Marketing and Business Resources for You!

1. Freelance Folder is a multi-authored blog dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and freelancers. This blog is a real goldmine for anyone in the freelancing business, including freelance translators/interpreters. Among the “gems” you’ll find in this post, aptly enough titled “Give your freelancing career a boost“, by Ritu B. Pant “a blogger who writes about blogging, [...]

Marketing Education!

Based on Jason O’Connor’s article, a couple of Translator Power posts (Network or die and Use online business networking) and the links that follow, I invite you to spend the weekend getting a full-blown education on internet marketing (or maybe just brushing up . There are over 250 links (yes, that’s not a typo two [...]

Translator, Network or Die!

“When the most important part of an industry becomes a commodity, that industry does not usually disappear, but its value migrates to another part of the industry” (O’Reilly) As translation is fatally becoming a commodity, the value in the Translation/Localization industry is migrating to cross-cultural coaching, consulting, networking, relationship-building and managing. Now all you can [...]

Translator Power Goes Red!

Your favorite blog “Translator Power” has decided to go red. In fact wherever you go on the Translator Power Network you’ll see red, in all its nuances. For example on the Social Nework, which used to be a mix of blue and green. You’ll also see red on our companion website “Translator Power.com“. It’s not [...]

Translator Experience Day – Disappointment, then Relief and “WOW!”

(Translator Experience Day (TED) last week: Sheila Anderson (German/English/German translator/interpreter) and her friend Valerie Chen (Chinese/English/Chinese translator/interpreter) have decided to launched an all-out assault on the Iron and Steel industry. Their friend Ron Wilkinson, an industry insider ageed to introduce them to at least 80 people on the list …) Sheila and Val were slightly [...]

Translator Experience Day – Sheila-and-Val’s All-out Assault on the Steel Industry. Part IV – The Trojan Horse (Ctd)

(Translator Experience Day (TED) 2 weeks ago: Sheila Anderson (German/English/German translator/interpreter) and her friend Valerie Chen (Chinese/English/Chinese translator/interpreter) have decided to launched an all-out assault on the Iron and Steel industry. After shortlisting 100 US SMB, all active in the Iron and Steel sector they’ve decided to use an insider, their friend Ron Wilkinson, “as [...]

The June Translation Marketing Carnival Will be… in July!

I am sad to say that I’ve had to postpone the June Carnival. The reason for this is simply that there were no submissions, at least NOT ONE of the 15 submissions received was from a translator or an interpreter! In fact, the submissions I got were so widely (and wildly off-topic that it would’ve [...]

Translator Power is Expanding – Have You Tried These Two?

Have you been to Amsall’s Translator Power Network and Amsall’s Translator Power News Insider? Well, these are both companions to this blog. And you can start using them, even though they are not completely “ready”. For example, you can go to the Translator Power Network and sign up, build up your profile, join or create [...]

Translator Experience Day – Aurora Humaran Interview

You remember a few weeks ago, my post on Aurora Humaran’s N. de T. Forum. Today I bring you my interview of Aurora, as promised: OK, here goes: 1. Tell us a bit about yourself. Who is Aurora Humarán? Au is someone who loves words and communication. Translation is a good excuse to be among [...]

Next Sunday’s Translator Experience Day – We Interview A Famous Translator

Next Sunday, we’ll let our two friends Sheila Anderson and Valerie Chen quietly carry on with their “assault on the Iron and Steel industry“. When we meet them again the following Sunday, they will certainly have taken real giant’s strides toward their objectives. The famous (and brilliant) translator we are going to interview next Sunday [...]

Translator Experience Day – Sheila-and-Val’s All-out Assault on the Steel Industry. Part III – The Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse (Last Sunday’s Translator Experience Day (TED): Sheila Anderson (German/English/German translator/interpreter) and her friend Valerie Chen (Chinese/English/Chinese translator/interpreter) have decided to launched an all-out assault on the Iron and Steel industry. They’ve started to research their market using online social networking, more precisely LinkedIn. They have shortlisted 100 US SMBs”, all active in [...]

Translator Resource of The Week: Two Great Ladies

After last week’s ‘Giant’ (Portuguese Translator Joao Roque Dias), we have two ‘Lionesses’. Both highly experienced freelance translators, with the same language combination i.e. English/French/Dutch. I must say I love these two sites. Chantal Wilford’s Linguabase and Michelle de Raaij’s Internet Resources for Translators Chantal Wilford The page that will probably most interest you as [...]

Translator Experience Day – Sheila-and-Val’s All-out Assault on the Steel Industry. Part II

(Last Sunday’s Translator Experience Day (TED): Sheila Anderson (German/English/German translator/interpreter) and her friend Valerie Chen (Chinese/English/Chinese translator/interpreter) have decided to launched an all-out assault on the Iron and Steel industry. They’ve started to learn as much as they can about this industry… So, they worked, and worked, and worked. And very soon became experts, real [...]

Sunday is “Translator Experience Day”

From now on, Sunday will be “Translator Experience Day” here, on your Translator Power blog. We’ll tell you about the various experiences of Sheila Anderson, her friend and colleague Valerie Chen, and their other colleagues, especially how they market their services and also some episodes of their lives as translators/interpreters. Going back to last Sunday’s [...]

How Val Chen Got Dozens of Leads through a Simple Press Release

How to write a Press release (News release) The most important point here is to realize that a Press Release is neither an Ad nor even an Advertorial. The 5 parts of a PR: Headline: Grab attention and force people to read Subhead: Short intro to expand the Headline Lead Paragraph: Tell the major facts [...]