Website Translation - Part 3 - Licensing

If you have professional photography on your website you will be familiar with the concept of licensing creative product.  Although on reflection it makes perfect sense, I was initially surprised to hear that it works the same way for a creative translation.

Here Nath Schon of  Office Magenta  takes us through the basic differences and what you should watch  out for:

What is the difference between buying a translation and licensing a translation?

Translations not involving creation (mostly technical translation) are sold to the client. After payment, he/she can use it freely as often as he/she wants.

In the case of creative translation (subtitling, literary, artistic, advertising translation...), the translation is not sold but the client gets a licence to use the translation.

So does this mean you can get royalties?

Laws are different from country to country. In France, a translator is paid for the actual translation plus he or she gets royalties as an author for each use of the translation: for example; if I subtitle a film and it is broadcast on TV on 2 occasions and published on DVD, I'll get royalties for the TV broadcasting and the DVD.

What if I want to change the translation - or make edits?

Subtitles can't be changed without the translator's authorization, which makes sense because their name is attached to it. Usually the client submits the changes to the original translator for approval.

How does it work in the US?

In the USA, the translator has less control and recognition. A lot more is left to individual negotiation. I ask my name to appear at the end of the subtitles and for final approval if the subtitles have been modified.  I had a few proofreaders ruin my translation by changing a joke so that it missed the target age group - the joke was intended for a 15 year old target group, the proofreader's change lowered the age to 10. Ouch!

Another proofreader changed a slang word, meant to reflect the language used by the Miami mob in the eighties, into a slang word used in France by local gangsters in the fifties or by today's steel factory workers to address the boss. These changes can in the worst case scenario ridicule a text/video (and a translator's reputation).

So, now you know - if you have any questions on how to go about getting your website translated into another language - give us a shout

Website Translation - Part 1

Website Translation - Part 2

Image Credit: Translator by Jeremy Brooks - Flickr

Website Translation - Part 2

As a follow up to last week's piece on website translation, we're delighted to publish a recent interview with Nathalie Schon, a professional translator from Metz, France.  Nath runs her own translation business Office Magenta and works primarily with French, German and English Tranlsations.

Having recently delivered  a website translation for a client it was fascinating to see quite how much emphasis is put on getting the cultural nuance correct for each language.  If you're serious about doing business in different languages, this is one area you can't afford to skimp on

We'll publish the final piece of the interview later on this week where we ask Nath about the differences between buying and licensing a translation and yes, there's a big difference!

How long have you been working as a professional translator?

I've been translating for about 15 years for national and international administrations, and as an in-house subtitler in Paris.

What languages do you work with?

French, German and English. I have a colleague who handles Spanish translations.

Can anyone become a translator if they are bilingual?

No, it's certainly a requirement but not enough. Translation is a very specific job. You have to write well too (advertisement, literary or artistic texts, subtitles...) and for subtitling, you need to know how to condense your translation into a set number of characters.

What schooling did you complete to become a translator?

I studied translation for my PhD in Comparative Literature.

Where is a good place to study to become a translator?

A translator school or a university offering language degrees involving the languages you are translating from and into.

What tools do you use to translate?

I use a CAT tool for technical texts. Otherwise the Office software, pdf editor, html editor, and the client's software for online translation. I can use any software the client wants me to. In that case I charge my hourly rate for the training period.

How long should a translation typically take?

Most translators can work on 1500 words per day, sometimes more, sometimes less. It really depends on the content and the file format.

What are typical pricing for translations?

Ballpark between someone just starting out and learning on the job, to someone who is professional and delivers excellent copy first time.  A normal rate would be between 0.10$ and 0.20$ a word, anything below is problematic because you can't get a good job for that rate, just like you can't get a good pair of shoes for 5$.

A good translator, whose work doesn't require proofreading, can easily ask for 0.14$ (or more, depending on the level of difficulty).  If you take a bad translator for 0.07$, a proofreader for 0.03$ and after the proofreader tells you the translation is really bad, an editor or new translator to fix the mess, you realize it would have been cheaper and more stress-free to chose the good translator right from the start.

What is your process like when working with a new client?

A client sends me an email, preferably with an excerpt of the text to translate, a word count, and a deadline. I answer within 24 hours on days I work outside of the office (I'm also an interpreter), but usually within one-two hours, with a rate and the confirmation of the deadline or propose another deadline. The client sends me a purchase order and I deliver the translation per email on the agreed deadline. My payment terms are within 30 days after delivery of the translation.

Deadlines are crucial. I hear many stories of translators working for dumping rates, who suddenly vanish when they realize they can't actually do the job; the first time the client knows about it is when the first deadline is missed.  A real translator will keep the client updated, particularly when it comes to large jobs, and will always deliver ON TIME. I only accept jobs I know I can do and I publish my fields of specialization on my website

What is the one thing you wish clients understood better about translating?

Some clients think that translation is easy and not an act of creation. I have heard very condescending things from people who don't understand the work and skills involved.

When you see how little some companies budget for translation, you see that they don't understand the devastating impact of a bad translation on their company's reputation and how an excellent translation can often increase their popularity and speak to another culture.  A good translator is also a writer and knows how to appeal to a new audience/readership, for instance, you don't speak to a German client like you would to a French one.

What is the strangest thing you have had to translate?

It was a video on schizophrenic patients and a film with very bad song rhymes!

What is the best thing about being an online translator?

The freedom to work from anywhere and the variety of the texts to translate.

What is the best way for people to get in touch with you?

Through my website: http://www.officemagenta.net or just drop me an email: natjaschon@gmail.com

Website Translation - Part 1

A   good content strategy is built around understanding who your customers are. This enables you to present your message in  the best way possible.  When it comes to website  text, you’d better be speaking in the primary language of your customer.

Going global?

If your customers and clients tend to be in the same region  as you are, the idea of translating your website into different languages might  seem over the top.  A quick check of your  weekly stats will show a few visits from Poland and Saudi Arabia, but they’re  unlikely to be writing checks.  However, when you consider that America has the world’s  second largest Spanish speaking population, & in places like New Mexico, Spanish  is spoken by over 40% of the people (with California not far behind,) you  start to wonder if you’re missing an opportunity.

No ghost in the machine

Technology has come a long way and there are now several  sites and plugins that will translate your site automatically for you –  fantastic – install the plugin, hit translate and voila! – Global business here  you come.

Stop!

The thing about machine translation, actually, all  translation come to think of it – is that you have no idea what your site now  reads like in the foreign language.  This  is a big problem.  The reality of machine  translation nowadays is that it tends to make you sound like a three year old  on acid. 

Fish tank handbag shandy – Buy Me!

Your website is not like you on vacation where your charm  and winning ways can get you past incorrect grammar and inappropriate noun  selection.  Your website has one  opportunity to present your case and you’d better be relying on something  better than a machine – an example from Scotland:

A fire brigade leaflet produced for Strathclyde Fire and  Rescue Service offering advice on how to escape from your home.

Written in English the text read,

“Never jump straight out of a window, lower yourself onto cushions”

This was translated into Urdu, the result was very  interesting. It read…

“Never jump out of a window straight. Put yourself on a  donkey and come down.”

(Courtesy of Le Blog)

You get what you pay for

It is better to have no translation than one that presents you  as an idiot.  If you’re thinking of  offering your site in a different language because it is cheap to do, stop.  Translation is a very human skill and as a result,  you get what you pay for.  Cultural  nuances aside, grammar and spelling are just as important regardless of what  language you present in;  are you sure  your assistant's second cousin who has been to Mexico is going to nail all that?

We recently launched a French version of a site we did for  an international US corporation who wanted to consolidate their UK, French and  Czech businesses.  Although the French site  used exactly the same architecture and code, it took several additional weeks to  deliver due to linguistically derived modifications to the page text.   Sometimes things that look good and read well  in one language just don’t, literally, translate.

Work with Professionals

We recently had the pleasure of spending some time with Nathalie  Schon, a professional translator with expertise in English, French, German and  Italian.  Originally from Metz, France,  Nath manages to move round the world, working remotely for companies like Sony  as she translates their movies from the beach in Hawaii.  Our next two posts on translation will cover  a recent interview we did with Nath on the challenges of website translation.

Make us laugh

Got any insane translation cock-ups you want to share –  leave them in the comments below.

Radiohead King of Limbs - Marketing and Design

This post is about marketing and web page design - the takeaways are:

• If you have something that people want, they will tell their network about you
• If you have something that people want, make it easy for them to find and purchase it
• Set expectations and then over deliver

Marketing (Part 1)

Radiohead are notorious for their lack of communication, they have the best signal to noise ratio of any band I know.  This means that when they do communicate, people comment on it.

The band announced the release of their new album with a simple blog post on their website on Monday.  I don't regularly visit Radiohead's website, but I found out about the record’s existence from a news aggregator on Tuesday.

Marketing (Part 2)

I read eleven music related aggregators and I receive three of them in email format, the rest are RSS feeds. I scan their headlines every morning and if something catches my eye I dig deeper.

Pretty much every one carried the story about Radiohead's new album and in every format I was able to click through to the band's website.  Once I had verified the information and pre-ordered the record, I then tweeted to my network about it.  Over the next two days I saw people in my own network going through the same experience and tweeting and blogging about the record to their network.

Design (Part 1)

When I arrived on the King of Limbs website I immediately knew that I was dealing with the band:

Band name (brand) is big and easily identified – the text is simple and straightforward and the graphic immediately funnels your attention to the purchase process.  Note how there is no menu navigation – there is only one way off this page and you choose it by identifying which market you are – brilliant!

Design (Part 2)

There are two products on offer – the higher margin one is presented first, but again – look how clean and simple the language is.  Look at the relative size between the title and the text and the information delivered.  There are only two visible buttons on this page – the pre order and order button – there is no doubt what the purpose of this page is.

Although menu navigation does make an appearance it is super simple – no drop down menus, no multiple options, simple and clean.  The rest of the purchase flow is just as easy – there are no “up sells”, no additional offers and no superfluous requests for information.

Marketing (Part 3)

When Radiohead announced the new album on the 14th, they said it would be available on Saturday 19th.

When I woke up this morning and looked at my network on Twitter I saw that people were already listening to the album.

http://twitter.com/thebluesage/status/38611832986025984

I immediately went to the site and saw that they had released a day early, I downloaded the album, started listening and immediately told my network the news.

By exceeding the expectations that they themselves had set, they delighted me and made me feel good about the whole experience.

Takeaways

If you have something that people want, they will tell their network about you

If you have something that people want, make it easy for them to find and purchase it

Set expectations and then over deliver

Simple huh!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Transform and Roll Out!

While writing this post I couldn’t get the image of Megan Fox...err – scratch that – Optimus Prime out of my head.  The key word here is Optimize – Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t about adding stuff that you don’t already have – it’s about making what you do have better.

In the same way that a gaudily colored truck can transform into a mobile battle station complete with Ion cannon – you too can transform your website into a highly ranking, customer catching cash funnel – all by following a few simple rules:

Take Care of the Tech

You’re not a website developer – you’re an attorney, a baker, a life coach, a marketer – whatever – it’s not your job to know how to set up your website correctly.  All you need to know is that there is a right way and a wrong way: HTML code should be structured correctly, page URLS should use real words and create hierarchies, H1 tags should be used, pages should have easily modified titles, descriptions, keywords and tags and content should be quickly distributed across different platforms and networks.

We recently ran across an agency that was going to charge a client $9,000 to ‘SEO” the very website that they themselves had built.  If I could have fallen off my chair I would – but I was already on the ground laughing over their definition of wireframes and site plans.  If you are having a new website built – all of this should be taken care of – if you’ve got questions – ask us – we’re always happy to give you an opinion.

Use the Right Words

You might refer to your business as an “Artisanal Horticultural Hideaway” – your customers however are typing the words “Flower Shop” into the search engines.  If you’re not already familiar with it – you must spend a little bit of time with Google’s Keyword Finder tool – it’s free, it’s easy and actually quite fascinating.

Write down all the words you think that describe your business – then go to the online tool and see how many people are searching for these terms.  Because the tool displays words that are used in similar searches you will often find that people use a different word for your business.  Find the most popular words that describe what it is you do and incorporate those words into your writing.

Use the Right Combination of Words

This is the whole “write like your customers speak” concept – often difficult for professions that use a lot of Jargon.  When you’re in the keyword finder you’ll see that Google shows not just single words but a series of phrases – these phrases are what people are typing into the search engine.

Studies have shown that people who arrive on your site from longer keyword phrases (3 to 5 with 4 being the optimum) convert better.  The thinking goes that the more detailed their search (i.e. the more words they use) the more serious they are about finding a solution – and if you can match their phrase then they will be more serious about you.

Get People to Link to Your Site

The more people that link to your site the better; get some heavyweight well established site to link to your content and your search rankings will increase dramatically.  But there’s only one way to ensure that people will link to you.

People don’t recommend crap to their friends – they recommend stuff that adds to their knowledge, that makes them laugh, that makes them feel good about passing it on.  There is absolutely no point in having some 3rd party firm writing generic content about your business – in the old days before everybody was a publisher this might have had merit - nowadays if you publish the same boring crap that everybody else is producing then people will learn to ignore you.

Transform and Roll Out

A new content strategy absolutely works if you are passionate about your business and can put that passion into words.  Read your content before you post – does it resonate, do you believe yourself, would you stand by the article in front of Megatron and fight for its authenticity?

As we’ve written before – times are changing and you need to change, adapt and transform to keep your business on top.  Fortunately this brave new world only wants to hear about why you love what it is you do and how you do it.  Forget the marketing speak, start writing, write from the heart, write with your customers words and phrasing, transform yourself and roll out!

Image Credit: Wikipedia

We Can Train You - Can You Train Yourself?

Sure – there’s no point in having a Ferrari if you can’t drive stick – but imagine owning one of these classic race cars and having the skills of Mario Andretti...

and then completely ignoring it!

This is the trap that the majority of business owners fall into when they start a content marketing strategy.

“Bike-Riding” Information

Content marketing isn’t terribly difficult to learn – it’s like riding a bike – once you know how to do it you can’t really forget.  Yes you should title your content properly and add the right tags but really, it is more about what you produce than what you do with it.  The trick with content marketing is to create something that your customers are going to love:  is it unique, is it relevant and interesting, does it solve a customer’s problem, is it funny or accessible – is it worth creating?

Technology Makes Learning Easy

Do you remember the first time you used a word processor?  Probably not – neither do we – but we’re sure it looked pretty complicated until we got used to it.  We find that most clients like to learn visually in that, they like to look at the screens and ask questions – Skype is the perfect tool for this.  You can be a continent away and we can share the same screen and talk about which bits do what and how they work.

We back up these Skype sessions by making quick 5 minute screen casts specifically for your business that you can refer to if you do forget something.

The Number 1 Lesson We Have Learned

Everybody understands the power of content marketing, everybody starts out with good intentions but the vast majority of people fail to keep up their content marketing strategy because….

Nobody has the time.

Life Coach?

We can give you the knowledge you need to implement an effective content marketing strategy, we can quickly train you on how to use the tools to publish and distribute your content, yet unless you commit to it and in doing so, change your behavior during the working week, then you will fail.

We’re not recommending that you go out and hire the nearest Life Coach, what we’re saying is that, as part of your training, you have to look beyond taking on new skills and at how you will train yourself to use them.  That is the key to content marketing success.

Image Credit: Ferrari F430 in Madrid, HDR by markp_dmoz on Flickr