Personal Website for Translation Services Thread poster: Robert Long
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Robert Long 
Portugal
Local time: 16:28
Member (2012)
Spanish to English
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Hi fellow translators!
I've been a happy member of this platform since 2012, but in order to expand my business even further, I am currently in the process of making my own personal website to offer my language services to direct clients as well.
To cut to the point, my question is predominantly for those who have gone a similar route: how do you ensure payment from direct clients or individuals who contact you through a direct/personal website?
One of t... See more Hi fellow translators!
I've been a happy member of this platform since 2012, but in order to expand my business even further, I am currently in the process of making my own personal website to offer my language services to direct clients as well.
To cut to the point, my question is predominantly for those who have gone a similar route: how do you ensure payment from direct clients or individuals who contact you through a direct/personal website?
One of the great things about Proz.com, in fact, is the ability to check the ratings of the translation agencies posting jobs here. However, this is obviously not really possible for private individuals or companies contacting you directly through a personal website.
So what's the best way to proceed in terms of securing payment? Is it standard to request all or part of the payment upfront, or are we just to trust that people will do the right thing? The latter seems a bit risky to me.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Rob ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Don't expect much from your own site | Jan 21 |
Whereas a site of your own will somewhat boost your credibility among potential clients, it is unlikely to bring you extra clients unless you have some truly unique selling proposition that places you high in search engine rankings. Of course, you can resort to paid SEO and advertising, but I'm afraid your costs to implement it will be higher than income gains from it. I do occasionally get client enquiries via ProZ even though I am not and have never been a paid member; on the other hand, not a... See more Whereas a site of your own will somewhat boost your credibility among potential clients, it is unlikely to bring you extra clients unless you have some truly unique selling proposition that places you high in search engine rankings. Of course, you can resort to paid SEO and advertising, but I'm afraid your costs to implement it will be higher than income gains from it. I do occasionally get client enquiries via ProZ even though I am not and have never been a paid member; on the other hand, not a single client came to me via my website. I'll be happy to be proven wrong - any takers? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Robert Long
Portugal
Local time: 16:28
Member (2012)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Kind of what I was thinking | Jan 21 |
Thanks for the response Anton! I was actually thinking the same. I've gotten plenty of work through Proz and have been a paying member for the last decade. The main idea was just to get a few extra direct clients, but I was also wondering if the actual amount of clients that would find my website would even be significant enough to cover the costs of hosting said site haha.
I'm curious if anyone else has had much luck with a private site to get a few new clients. I think your point... See more Thanks for the response Anton! I was actually thinking the same. I've gotten plenty of work through Proz and have been a paying member for the last decade. The main idea was just to get a few extra direct clients, but I was also wondering if the actual amount of clients that would find my website would even be significant enough to cover the costs of hosting said site haha.
I'm curious if anyone else has had much luck with a private site to get a few new clients. I think your point about how it could boost your credibility when reaching out to new clients is very true. There are also cases where people have inquired about my services, and I think in such cases having a website (and perhaps even business cards) might potentially prove useful here and there. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Hosting can be free, though | Jan 21 |
I was also wondering if the actual amount of clients that would find my website would even be significant enough to cover the costs of hosting said site haha.
Your site will probably be very small in size (mine is only 130 kB), so it should fit into free mini-hosting offered by many providers.
Alternatively, if you want a bit more control over the server, you can use my variant: I loaded an HTTP server application into the Wi-Fi router at my home, so now it doubles as a web server to the outside world.
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I see my own website as a digital business card. It has been worthwhile: it's another way of being visible, another marketing tool, a place where interested direct clients and agencies can go to get more detailed information about my portfolio with examples of my translations and testimonials from previous clients.
| | | | Roman Karabaev
Russian Federation
Local time: 19:28
English to Russian
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I had a personal website about 5 years ago.
I used Google AdWords service to promote it.
I didn't get any satisfactory outcome. The sums I earned barely covered marketing costs, i.e. I mostly worked for free, hoping to win a good and well-paying corporate client. It never happened though. 100% of jobs I got were from individuals. Small, one-time jobs: letters, CV's, certificates and such.
I don't think you can check an individual, so upfront payment seems to be the onl... See more I had a personal website about 5 years ago.
I used Google AdWords service to promote it.
I didn't get any satisfactory outcome. The sums I earned barely covered marketing costs, i.e. I mostly worked for free, hoping to win a good and well-paying corporate client. It never happened though. 100% of jobs I got were from individuals. Small, one-time jobs: letters, CV's, certificates and such.
I don't think you can check an individual, so upfront payment seems to be the only solution. On the other hand, I personally wouldn't pay a freelancer upfront. Had my share of bad experience.
Conclusion: not worth it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 17:28
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Robert Long wrote:
How do you ensure payment from direct clients or individuals who contact you through a direct/personal website?
The process is the same as with other clients: if the job is large, ask for payment in advance; make sure the client is contactable; make sure the client is respectable; be aware that some kinds of jobs carry higher risks of non-payment, and evaluate the risk accordingly.
One of the great things about Proz.com, in fact, is the ability to check the ratings of the translation agencies posting jobs here. However, this is obviously not really possible for private individuals or companies contacting you directly through a personal website.
Yes, working with direct clients is entirely different from working with agencies. It's also more work, because much of what you can take for granted with an agency, you'll have to educate the direct client about, and you have to be prepared to deal with the fact that direct clients don't always know how to work with translators properly.
Robert Long wrote:
...I was also wondering if the actual amount of clients that would find my website would even be significant enough to cover the costs of hosting said site haha.
Probably not. Most direct clients that contact me via my website are the types of clients that I would rather avoid, e.g. people wanting sworn translations (which I do not offer), students wanting a translation of study materials or theses (and expecting to be charged 0.1c per words), suspicious lovers wanting to have their partners' letters or chats translated, business owners who want their website translated but having no idea how it all works or what the costs would be, personal assistants whose boss asked them to translate something quickly, etc.
[Edited at 2024-01-21 17:57 GMT]
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