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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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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Writing Sales Copies That Translate Well

July 23rd, 2008 Amir

Can I write a sales copy in my language and get an effective translation that will lead to sales?

I recently joined a discussion about how to write a sales copy in a language you don’t speak. The concern was that translated sales copies can never be effective. They have to be written, from scratch, by a native speaker.

It could be true, but it doesn’t have to be so. Of course, if you’re a talented writer and are writing in your native languages, you’ve got a good head start. But, what happens if you want to write marketing material in a foreign language?

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Why I Translated to Dutch and How It Worked Out

July 22nd, 2008 Amir

Holland, with it’s 16.5 million people population is by far not the largest country in Europe. Still, translating to Dutch has been one of my best investments recently.

My program, Passport Photo is used to print pictures for passports. Instead of paying a ridiculously high fee for printing them in special passport booths, people can print them at home, or at a shop – like ordinary photos.

Before the Dutch translation, Passport Photo was already translated to German, Spanish, French, Portuguese. These languages cover most of the people living in the Western Hemisphere, including:

So, how comes I decided to pick Dutch, as the next European language to translate to?

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How To Place A Free Support Ticket System On Your Blog

July 15th, 2008 Amir

Thanks, but I’ve got enough Viagra to last a life-time.
No more offers please!

Any blogger who has tried to facilitate communications with their readership by including an email address on their pages has quickly discovered that their inbox is filled with endless fake Rolex pitches, Viagra solicitations, X-rated site links, Get Rich Quick Schemes, and other junk spam email. Even if the link is not shown on the page itself, it is present in the HTML page as a mailto: and thus is vulnerable to the bots that crawl the web seeking out email addresses for spam lists.

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Your English Keywords Are Useless To Most Net Users!

July 14th, 2008 Amir

How do I know if people from other countries are interested in what I’m writing about?

One of the most significant challenges facing any website or blog publisher in this age of globalization and international trade is that the keywords which are selected for optimal search engine placement will only work if the visitor seeks your site in the English language.

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Why automated translation produces gobbledigook

July 4th, 2008 Amir

Automated translation looks nice, as long as you don’t speak the language. To publish contents in other languages, a human needs to do the writing.

Anyone who has done business over the internet with people in another country has likely encountered the various free online machine translations or their paid software variants. When faced with the daunting prospect of communicating in another language, either to read a missive or article in a foreign tongue, or to reply to a person who does not speak your language, resorting to the free online translation services can be irresistible.

The main problem occurs when you realize that much of the translation is not only imprecise but can result in outright gobbledigook!

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New Service: Blog Translation

July 2nd, 2008 Amir

We just started doing translation for blog posts. If you’re thinking about maintaining your blog in multiple languages – it’s for you!

What’s it good for anyway?

That really depends on what your blog is used for. If you’ve got an international audience and are using your blog to send out news, you’re going to get much higher response if your readers can read it in their own language.

If you’re making money from advertising, or product affiliation it can help you multiply your income. It’s not another get-rich-quick scheme. Something like, “pay us 20 bucks and get 1,000,000 unique visitors per month”.

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