Most widely spoken languages

Most widely spoken languages

ICanLocalize is a self-managed translation service that helps small businesses reach new customers from all over the world.

Today, there isn’t one single language that dominates the web. Instead, people look for solutions in their own language and adapted for their own culture.

The web makes it possible for anyone to become a global player. You too can reach to people from all over the world. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars or hire costly experts. All you need to do is learn from the experience of others who’ve already done it!

If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions, use our contact form. We try to get back in touch as soon as possible. Normally, you should hear back from us within 24 hours.

You’re welcome to visit our blog in German and in French.

Doing Business Abroad: Japan

August 26th, 2008 Amir

Being successful in a different country than your own requires to quickly adapt to the customs, rules and culturally bound rituals of that particular country. Understanding those you negotiate with, showing them the proper deference can do wonders in boosting your market success.

Mount Fiji, japan

Mount Fiji, japan

Japan is one of the countries where doing business is a true art for any gaijin (foreigner). Everything follows a certain ritual, everything one thought is normal behavior isn’t, things generally considered impolite are subject to every day conversation. Learning enough about the Japanese culture to do business in this part of the world takes lots of time and dedication.

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Posted in Culture | 2 Comments »

Small Business Marketing and Advertising

August 15th, 2008 Amir

I’m all too interested in reading news about small business marketing. We’re both a small business ourselves and more of our clients are small business too, so we should be a bit interested!

I find myself adding more and more news feeds to my RSS reader and getting great information from all over the web. The problem is, with the good stuff, come stories that are really irrelevant for me.

The solution? Yahoo! Pipes!
I created a pipe that aggregates from sources that I appreciate, and filters articles. So now, I get just the small business marketing news I like, but without the added fluff.

Here it is:

If you’re stumbling onto great resources that should be added to this pipe, let me know.

Enjoy,

Amir

Posted in News | No Comments »

SEO comes before translation

August 12th, 2008 Amir

Search Engine Optimization is not witchcraft. It’s just letting search engines understand your website.

When you translate your website, you’re actually duplicating its contents in multiple languages. So, it’s a good idea to fix it up before doing that. The first major fixup you should do is to make your site clearer for search engines – the fancy name for this is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

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Posted in Guides, Website tips | No Comments »

Character Encoding 101

August 12th, 2008 Amir

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All English characters can be represented using a single byte. So, if all your text is in English, you probably never needed to pay much attention to what’s called “character encoding”.

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Posted in Guides, Website tips | 3 Comments »

Translation Assistant is Available for Freelance Translators

August 11th, 2008 Amir

We’ve made Translation Assistant, our website translation software, available for freelance translator and small translation agencies. This should help anyone who’s doing website translation get the job done faster and better.

Normally, we must screen and qualify every translator who signs up for our service. This new program lets any translator use our tools without any application process.


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Posted in News | No Comments »

Google Makes Human Translation a Commodity

August 8th, 2008 Amir

Google Sells Ads and Turns Contents Into Commodity – Now in Every Language

Google started out by indexing the web. Then, they began selling search ads and then content ads. That’s where the core of their business is and it’s a great one.

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Posted in Business, Machine Translation, News | No Comments »

Translate first, think later

August 5th, 2008 Amir

We like to analyze things before jumping into them, but how can we do that without any data?

When you start a new web project, your hands are full with burning issues and you certainly don’t want to complicate yourself with other ones. Getting ready to operate in multiple language should be right on top of that list.

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Posted in Business | No Comments »

Software Marketing Around The World - The Story of Sisulizer

August 5th, 2008 Amir

Markus Kreisel talks about marketing Sisulizer - their software localization tool.

Sisulizer is a great example for a successful software business. They’re experts at what they’re doing, know what their users need and deliver a great product.

Markus was kind enough to share his experience in marketing Sisulizer. Read on!

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Posted in Marketing, News | 4 Comments »

Why Is Translation So Expensive?

July 27th, 2008 Amir

I can get contents for 2 cents a word. Why pay 5 cents/word just for getting it translated?

Answer: does it really matter how much you’ve paid your content author to write the original post? You’re considering translation because you can earn more from it, so the questions you need to ask yourself are:

  • Am I going to earn from my translated blog more than it costs?
  • Can I get just as good translation for less than that?


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Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Are You Trying to Hide From Google?

July 24th, 2008 Amir

The way language selectors are implemented in multi-lingual websites determines their search engine visibility.

Search engines will serve what they can find and index. If your website exists in multiple languages, you’d probably want the translated pages to show up in search results, right? The easiest way for search engines to notice your translated pages is through the language selectors. Here are a few examples:

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Posted in Website tips | No Comments »

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