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tranfree issue 35 - 9 July 2001
"Email Marketing & Educating Prospects"
Welcome to issue 35 of tranfree
- the newsletter for translators.
This tranfree edition is a bit "bitty" since we have lots of
smaller "articlets". But we thought it would be a good
opportunity to deal with all these things in one go.
We're having a busy time here at translatortips.com, making changes...
- We've recently given the site a facelift
- We're switching over to a more flexible ecommerce provider/li>
- We're going to switch servers soon/li>
- We've also got some new products in the pipeline/li>
...so as usual it's exciting times. 
New Advertising Options
In tranfree 33 we mentioned our new advertising options. These
are now up and running. If your business...
- markets relevant products/services to translators
- recruits translators
...please send an email to  for details.
Upgrade Option Available for "How To Earn..." Edition 1 Buyers
Last week we emailed all buyers of the 1st Edition of...
How To Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator
http://www.translatortips.net/ht50.html
...with our offer to upgrade to edition 2. Quite a number of
people took us up on the offer. But there were a few returned
emails because of address change.
So, if you bought the first edition of...
How To Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator
http://www.translatortips.net/ht50.html
...and you did not yet receive the upgrade offer, please send us
an email containing your name and email address, so we can offer
you the discounted upgrade too...
upgrade@translatortips.com
...and remember it's a time limited upgrade offer.
Password Reminder - Forums
If you've lost or forgotten your password for the
translatortips® forums
, you can get a password reminder emailed to you at...
http://tranfree.com/t/t.pl?pw
...come and join in the fun
New Edition of tranmail Launched Today
The new edition of tranmail database of 1800+ translation
agencies is out today. All those of you who purchased tranmail
since the last release on 6 November 2000 are entitled to a free
update. This will be emailed out this week as soon as we can
catch our breath
We sincerely apologise for the delay in producing this release of
tranmail. The reason for the delay is the person we hired to
update tranmail got so busy with translation work as a result of
sending his CV to all the agencies in the list that he did not
have time to finish it off.
Now it's done and there are 1800+ agencies in the list - along
with our booklet about marketing yourself by email.
Further information is at...
http://www.translatortips.net/tranmail.html
Alex Eames
tranfree editor, Author -
How to Earn $80,000+ per Year as a Freelance Translator
This tranfree contains...
Star Letter
"From: "Jim Trainor" <jimtrainor@--------.com>
To: tranmail@translatortips.com
Subject: Tranmail
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 18:17:27 +100
Dear tranmail,
Just to let you know that I subscribed to
tranmail some seven hours ago, have sent
individual e-mails to a selection of ten, and
have had two replies already: one asking me
to send my full CV and the second to say
they'll be holding my details on their list
should the need arise.
Jim Trainor"
Thanks Jim
translatortips.com product URLs are as follows...
tranmail - system for applying for work by email at 1800+
translation agencies around the world (Newly Updated)
http://www.translatortips.net/tranmail.html
eBook How to Earn $80,000+ per Year as a Freelance Translator
http://www.translatortips.net/ht50.html
Alex Eames, tranfree editor
This tranfree's Feature Articles...
- Marketing by Email Works a Well as Ever - Alex Eames
translatortips.com Linkers FREE Prize Draw
I am keen to get as many of you as possible who have your own web sites to link to the
translatortips.com
web site. To encourage you all to put a link to translatortips.com
on your own site, I am holding a monthly prize draw for everyone who does this.
Each month all those people who have put a link on their own web site to the
translatortips.com
site (and let me know about it) will go into a ballot and the winner gets a FREE
translatortips.com
product of their choice from the following:
this winner is Marina Huyton Kustova - please contact me within the next 3 months to claim your prize from the
above selection.
If you wish to put a link to the translatortips.com site on your site you
can find instructions at the bottom of this edition.
Educate Your Prospective Clients
The ITI has published a short(ish) booklet by Chris Durban.
It's called...
"Translation - Getting it Right
A Guide to Buying Translations"
...and it's a freely distributable PDF file. You can send
it to your prospective clients to educate them about the common
problems. It could save both sides a lot of time and effort. It's
only 47 kilobytes. I recommend you use this free tool.
http://www.iti.org.uk/pdfs/Translation_-_getting_it_right.pdf
tranfree Feedback from our forums
http://www.translatortips.net/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000015.html
Question
I thought the article in tranfree 33 about doing business with
relatives was interesting. I have another angle on this issue I'd
like to discuss...
- What about giving work to/recommending fellow translators who
are friends and acquaintances from conferences, etc.?
- How can you actually tell what the quality of their
translations is before you recommend them or give them work?
- How do you broach this sensitive topic with someone you like
personally?
There are...
...pitfalls here too, because you could lose the trust of
a customer or damage your reputation if the person you
recommended does not work out.
I have not yet confronted this issue directly since I don't
subcontract work, but I have received work from/been recommended
to others by acquaintances and friends, not all of whom had
actually seen the quality of my work for themselves beforehand.
I always offer a short test translation to the person who
contacts me so that they have an "escape hatch" if I am not what
they are looking for despite the recommendation. (Luckily this
has not happened yet!
)
The reason I do this is that in my former capacity as a PM, I saw
people with impeccable and impressive resumes submit test
translations that were essentially garbage, so I like to give
people a chance to see my work before taking the plunge.
I would be interested to know how others handle this issue -
after all, at the last conference I attended, business cards were
flying (along with promises of recommendations...)
Daina
Answer
When I suggest people whose work I have not seen (because I know
that they do the language combination and the subject), I always
tell the potential client that I have never seen their work and
so the client will have to evaluate their credentials as usual.
I will add something like "But he/she seems reasonable in net
discussions" or "He/she writes English remarkably well, even
though it isn't his/her native language" or "His/her answers to
questions about terms are always right on the mark" or whatever
else it is about them that makes me feel comfortable at least
suggesting them to someone who obviously has a rolodex that isn't
full enough...
If I've actually seen their work (e.g., if I've proofread/edited
it), then I will mention that specifically (since of course if
their work were HORRIBLE and I knew it, I never would suggest
them....). Then I'm free to lavish praise on them etc. from
personal experience.
Peace, Cathy Flick
Translation Joke
A Bavarian's attitude to northern visitors.
Contributed by akowal
A visitor from Berlin was looking for the Munich central railway
station. He already was in a bit of a hurry and at the corner of
a street, when he met two Bavarians, he asked in his northern
German...
"Wo ist hier bitte der Hauptbahnhof?" - No answer.
He tried it anew...
"Where do I find the railway station please?" - Again silence.
So he tried it in French, Spanish and at last in Russian, but
still getting no answer, so at last he hurried on hoping to catch
his train.
As he disappeared one of the two Bavarians asked the other...
"Did you notice how many languages the Prussian could speak?" -
"Yes," replied the other, "but what good did it do him?"
***End of issue 35***
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