Online Translation of Texts – Where to Look for Job Opportunities?
In the previous article, I explained how easy it is to make money from the comfort of your home by writing articles or reviews. In today’s article, I describe another of the countless possibilities to get some extra money by online translating. Before you decide to translate, be honest when considering your skills. If you have excellent knowledge of any foreign language, definitely try your luck. Different language combinations are currently required. You can offer your services even if you feel at home in languages other than English or German.
Approach the Agencies!
You have no clue where to start? One of the options is to approach an agency dealing with translation. Do you think it is useless because you are not a professional translator? No worries, the world belongs to the brave ones and maybe after a few unsuccessful attempts you get a job as an external translator – freelancer. Submit your resume and cover letter. Agencies come back to you if they are interested.
Some of them first send the translation text to check your skills then assess your knowledge and either offer you cooperation or not.
1. A Few Agencies You Can Approach
Who wouldn’t like to be covered by the great translation agency with a strong name and brand that would provide new translations on a regular basis? Then I have good news for you. There are plenty of them! But not all of them are serious and working professionally. Always check their landing page – the first impression is essential.
US market is enormous, and there are currently active thousands of translation agencies offering cooperation. One of the strongest is www.tomedes.com, now a key player all over the world, set up in 2007, continually looking for new translators as growing further.
One of the top agencies is also www.dttranslations.com that currently swaps all the official communication from email to WhatsApp (follow the trends) and are getting bigger every day and provide excellent bonuses extra for exceptional performance. Definitely worth a try! If you would like to translate also for the government, the right partner for you could be www.daytranslations.com as they offer this option, too. For the fans of entertainment and leisure, there is an excellent option to translate for Hollywood film studios. One of the few agencies provided this option is www.gmdlinguistics.com.
If you would like to get 0.09$ for one word in legal, technical or even art translations, the winner is www.thewordpoint.com. If you are a certified translator, the rates could increase up to 0.14$ as the agency also pays as per your experience level. Very supportive is www.languages-translation.info as they state that they assist with certification and are also looking for transcriptionists, voice-over talents, editors, proofreaders of all world languages.
Are you fancied by brands like Electrolux, Max Mara or Huawei? These are the clients of www.gts-translation.com, and they hire continually! Top class translators with a masters degree – that is the focus of www.verbatimsolutions.com that provide its clients with top-notch service and share it proudly – hurry up, they are looking for new team members!
To become a paid translator and earn interesting money you can also with the agency www.translate.com. This operates internationally. It is possible to make translations into 90 languages, so anyone can register.
Many great agencies are also located in various countries of Europe, Asia or even in Australia. My recommendation is www.abacustranslators.com, the specialist on all the legal documents with a need of translators from all over the world. A crucial player in the European market is also www.tolingo.com from Germany, the company has increased its translation market share day by day. Luxury industry, advertising event planning, and tourism, hotels – these are clients of www.activaction.fr that serves the clients already since 1966, impressive – there should be something about them if also Hyatt Hotels chose this translation company. Established in 2003, even with ISO certification and branches in Poland and Romania is a company with excellent reputation www.mayflowerlanguages.com.
Time to dust off your CV and resume as the world of translation needs a new helping hands – yours!
2. Micro-tasks
When looking for translating jobs online, it is very easy. After typing the word „translation part-time job,“ you get millions of results. One has to be careful as not all the sites are exactly what do they look like, some are pure scams.
The biggest and verified are, e.g., www.fiverr.com, www.upwork.com – they provide a real chance to get some extra money, but you also have to ensure top quality – as you are rated by the buyers and they create and affect your future earnings – if you deliver a great job, you get a great review. Therefore focus on your customer and his translation to provide it as soon as possible and do not miss the deadlines. The most difficult will be to get the first five-ten excellent reviews, then you can consider yourself to be part of the professional translator group.
Are you great with other languages than English too? The excellent opportunity for you is www.unbabel.com – it works on bilingual translations – you just check the translation – whether it was done correctly. As the top servers are targeting top-quality vendors, be prepared for the registration process – you will be asked why do you want to be the part of that group and be ready also to provide more details about yourself and your background. The best is if you already can provide some experience with translations and language combinations.
More portals for micro jobs can be found in this article. It contains the 14 best-known sites in the US / UK.
3. Facebook Groups
Facebook offers tons of groups – open and closed one as well – that are getting together the online translators. Type into search field „Translations,“ and you get a lot of results. Do not get discouraged by checking questions – many of them look like this – how long is your experience with translations? If you put there 2-3 years, your answer will be deemed as right, and you become a member of the group. Sometimes the questions are even more simple – which languages you could consider yourself as professional in? Reply – and you are in!
With Facebook it is a bit trickier – as you cannot check whether this is the real company that will pay you out. Usually they don’t offer any landing websites to check.
On Facebook, you can also find a blacklist of unreliable agencies. If you’re just starting with translations, first read the experience of other people in this field, so you know with which agencies do not even give a try.
Check the Ads!
One of the ways to start translating or interpreting is to check advertisements on various advertising portals. There are a lot of e-shops, websites, internet magazines or other periodicals that need to translate different articles, reviews, recipes, and other texts into multiple languages and they are looking for a cheaper alternative rather than professional translations of the already mentioned agencies that account for more than a dozen up to hundreds of dollars.
Ask People Around You!
There are two groups of potential clients that you can approach. One group is companies, and the other is a group of regular people around you. Many times someone needs translation from English into German, Spanish, or another world language, or vice versa.
For example, you can translate abstracts and introductions into the various seminar, bachelor or diploma theses.
Students often need help with translation. Their language skills are weak, but they also need to work with texts from abroad for successful studies.
A Couple of Hints on How to Become a Good Translator
If you decide to try translating, check some exciting tips that will help you get started with the translation, especially in the beginning. So, what not to forget?
1. Read the Text Carefully
I am sure this sounds weird … everyone reads the text first, right? You would be surprised. Someone simply sits down, opens the text editor and starts translating. If you want your translation to look professional, first read the whole text carefully to understand it and only then begin translating. If you read the entire document at the beginning, you avoid the situation when some sentences do not make sense. It’s not your fault, but you can find different slangs or phrases that you do not know right away. When you read the text as a whole, you will understand its core and essence and some parts will be immediately clear to you, so you are able to translate sentences that do not make sense, much easier.
2. Translate Complete Sentences
Do you still remember the situations when you started to learn a foreign language, and you translated the phrase not as a whole, but just a word after a word? That’s precisely what everyone started with. The easiest way to translate is to first read the sentence and then begin with the translation. A perfect example of this is the German language. When using the past tense, verbs are placed to the end of the sentence. If you do not start to translate it as a whole sequence, but word by word, you will come to the end of the sentence and find that the phrase has an entirely different meaning than you originally intended. This saves you a lot of time.
3. Read Carefully Every Translated Article
The text is finally translated, and you are happy that your job is done. Do not forget to reread the whole document. Sometimes there may be a small mistake that you would not want to have found by somebody else. Since it could ruin your reputation of a good online translator.
4. Start with the Easier Translations
As a last tip for newbies external translators, I would recommend that you should begin with easier translations. You certainly do not want to be discouraged by the very challenging texts right from the beginning. You will also need plenty of time and commitment when translating. Over time, you can start with more challenging and difficult translations. Your success depends only on your abilities.
What Are the Common Mistakes of Beginning Translators?
I think it would be handy to mention a few facts about what issues the translators are facing most often and how to avoid them.
Issue # 1 – Do Not Underestimate, Do Not Overestimate
Whether you decide to translate as a freelancer or as an employee, you always have to know your price. The price is a reflection of quality, and people like to pay for quality. You create a certain impression based on the set price. If you set the price too low, you will not only underestimate yourself, but you also create the idea of providing lower quality translations. You can also attract scammers at a low price. On the other hand, if you set a price too high, your clients expect you to provide a higher quality that could be difficult to reach, especially when starting.
Have a look at other translators’ offers, various prices of agencies, and the average price, then combine it with your own idea, which should be based on your education and experience. For example, if you are a student of law and speak fluent some foreign language, then you can do legal translations. Then also charge higher sum for professional translations.
Highly probable is that you will not get much from the beginning. But with growing experience and references, you are able to increase the price gradually. Finally, you get to the amount you were dreaming of in the beginning.
Issue # 2 – Do Not Be Specialist in Everything
The common mistake of newbie translators is that they specialize in everything, or they do not specialize in anything. The truth, however, is that non-specialist translators have to work on a large number of texts to achieve the monthly income they are dreaming about. Specialized translators will gain much more experience in their field, translations will be more comfortable, and due to vast knowledge and practice, there is a chance to set higher prices. Therefore, select your focus.
University degree graduates (for example, law, medicine, art, etc.) have the best market position. They are skilled within their specialization and get more money for professional translations.
Issue # 3 – Insufficient Communication with Clients
It’s strange, but communication also fails between professionals. Therefore, if you want to be successful in translating, do not forget that communication with the client is the first step to success. Do not be afraid to ask if you are not clear, and do not be afraid to write your client if you cannot meet the deadline.
Issue # 4 – Lack of Marketing Skills
Translation is a particular discipline that requires one thing mostly – to know foreign language really well and into depth. However, the translator also needs other qualities, such as attention to details, a bit of creativity and some business skills. However, most freelance translators lack marketing skills. That is why translators should still educate themselves. Read, participate in conferences, join social networks and Facebook translators or Linkedin groups. Learn how to use social networks because they are essential and nowadays a standard marketing tool as well.
Issue # 5 – You Don’t Know How to Say “No.”
The last issue translators often face is that they can not say “No.” It is okay that translators, as well as other freelancers, are afraid of refusing to do so, but once you say no, it does not mean that the client you have denied, does not come back. The opposite is true. By one refusal and sincerity, you can gain respect and recognition. If you can not handle the job now, it is maybe possible for the client to wait. Especially if your work is worth to be waiting for. Rejecting or saying goodbye to the old client is nothing special. That is also the part of ordinary freelancer’s life.
Conclusion
If you are interested in the job opportunities of this kind, you can keep an eye on my page. In the category job offers and opportunities for translators and interpreters I publish current offers of remote work from home. It is mostly about the long-term external cooperation for full time, but from time to time also some short-term job positions, or temporary jobs appear.
Definitely read a discussion forum, it is likely that you find more interesting information on the topic there.
Do you work or worked as an external translator, interpreter? Have you been doing another job related to this topic? If so, share your experiences and contribute to the discussion. I appreciate every opinion, you never know when you are the inspiration or motivation for others.
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My name is George and I currently work from home as a freelancer for a PR agency selling advertising. I also freelance as an online marketer for an e-shop, and I am actively involved in creating this website. I am always looking for interesting opportunities on how to make money online. I share my findings with my readers on this website. I consider this to be my hobby. I hope, that you can find some legitimate work from home, or perhaps you might be able to earn a little extra money.