60 ORIGINAL SECRET MARKETING TIPS

FOR FREELANCE TRANSLATORS

For good novice, mid-career and veteran freelance transla-

tors and interpreters.

Théodore Dassé, Ph.D.

Certified professional translator (EN-FR) (GTI, Oregon, USA)

Translation Lecturer and Researcher

© All rights reserved

Any unauthorized copying, reproduction, sharing, lending, hiring is strictly forbidden.

1
 CONTENTS

1. E-mail addresses and profile names composition………………………...4

2. E-mail subject line composition…………………………………………………… 6

3. E-mail body composition…………………………………………………………….. 13

4. Professional e-mail signature composition…………………………………. 17

5. Bidding from job posting platforms……………………………………………. 19

6. Spontaneous applications composition……..……………………………….. 39

7. Recommended readings………………………………………………………………. 42

2
EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS IS ABOUT HOW TO GET NOTICED … AND HIRED

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 1

E-MAIL ADDRESSES AND PROFILE NAMES COMPOSITION

DOS
TIP 1. The format of your professional email and Skype addresses should be FIRST NAME + NAME. TIP 3. Be sure you can read all your emails in one place (2)

This helps in two ways: a) Project managers tend to remember first names and often type them to If you have several email accounts with one or several providers (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.), it is

easily retrieve email addresses from the list of contacts using the auto-complete function; b) re- advisable to use just one as your professional email address. Otherwise, be sure you can read all your

vealing your full identity tells the Recipient who you are at first glance - that creates some valuable emails in one place which should be your main inbox. If you do that, you will be able to process all

confidence at first contact and signals your reliability and seriousness. job requests live. Always keep in mind that promptness in replies quite often makes the difference
between getting or losing a job. Consolidating all your email accounts is quite easy. Learn how on
TIP 2. Your name (Sender name (From) in email header) as seen by the Recipient should be in
Google.
CAPITAL LETTERS (1)
TIP 4. Be sure your profile names on all job-bidding platforms are your true names
Capital letters make you stand out! The Sender component of an email header plays a key role in HR
This helps instantly create confidence because head hunters are able to know your full identity at
Directors and project managers’ decisions to delete or to read unsollicited spam-like emails. If your
first glance.
email with the Sender’s first and last names in CAPITAL letters (1) lands in the midst 100 spams, it
calls attention to itself and stands a far better chance to be opened, even out of curiosity.

Screenshot 1
2
1

4
 DON’TS
TIP 5. Avoid email addresses that sabotage and kill your reputation at first sight. Example: AHGenier@email.com , NINJA_skillz435@email.com . Keep your email address
simple (first name + name) and have it all in lower case. Avoid CAPITAL letters and numbers/figures! They make your email address hard to remember and repellent.

TIP 6. Avoid discret Sender names (3). Your Sender name should be clearly visible, be made up of your first name and name written separately, and abide by the

writing conventions governing the spelling of proper names in your language. As far as English and French are concerned, write Flo Messan, not flo.messan (3).

TIP 7. Avoid petnames on your profiles on job-bidding platforms. Use your true names to show you are a professional, not a criminal/an amateur. I have often

found it difficult to contact some talented translators from their profiles on Proz.com and TC simply because I didn’t know how to address them: Dear Nandy240?

Dear RCorel? Dear MCHD?

Screenshot 2

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 2

SUBJECT LINE COMPOSITION

(EMAIL AND QUOTES SUBMISSION FORMS ON PROZ.COM, TRANSLATORSCAFE.COM, AND SIMILAR JOB-BIDDING PLATFORMS)

HOW CAN A HR/PROJECT MANAGER SEE YOUR UNSOLLICITED APPLICATION EMAIL OR YOUR QUOTE

OUT OF THE HUNDREDS THEY RECEIVE ON A DAILY BASIS AND WHY SHOULD THEY OPEN IT?

Did you know that your subject line is the MOST IMPORTANT part of your email? The subject of any email is what a
recipient sees FIRST. According to email marketing experts, 95% of decisions to open or delete unsollicited application
emails and quotes are made based on what is typed in the subject line. Thus, if there is any one place where you
should call attention to yourself, it is the subject line.

Below are some 10 tips to make the subject lines of your application emails and your quotes FLASHY and CATCHY in

form and content.

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 TO BEGIN WITH…
TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING SCREENSHOTS AND SEE WHAT BECOMES OF MOST OF YOUR APPLICATION EMAILS: THEY GET LOST AMONG SPAMS IN SPAM-FULL INBOXES

(PLEASE MAGNIFY TO 200% FOR A GREATER PICTURE RESOLUTION AND TEXT LEGIBILITY)

Screenshot 3 Screenshot 4

Screenshot 5 Screenshot 6

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 DON’TS

FORM CONTENT

TIP 8. Don’t write long sentences. If you do, part of it won’t be visible to the reci- TIP 11. Don’t use figures/statistics (100%, for example): This typically

pient (see Sreenshot 7, page 9). 99% of the times, people quickly scan subject lines prompts HR Managers to ignore, delete or report your email as spam.

to decide if the email they receive is worth opening or not. You do not expect a

busy HR manager or PM to dig through your subject line to fathom who you are
TIP 12. Don’t use standard, high sounding words and expressions. Refer
and what you want. Remember: Unsolicited emails often irritate; lengthy and obs-
to Screeshots 7, 8 and 9 for some 28 perfect examples of such vague,
cure subject lines are not interesting; they irritate.
cheap, and commonplace subject line wordings you should avoid. I strongly

recommend that you read EACH of the subject lines. Please magnify the

TIP 9. Don’t write in lower case if yours is not sent through the appropriate email relevant page to 200% for a greater text legibility.

address.

TIP 13. Don’t mention any personal name in the subject line. Example:

TIP 10. Don’t mix lower and upper case. Ideally, your Sender name and subject ‘Special offer to Théodore.’ It brands your email as spam.

line should be uniform, that is, all written in upper case.

TIP 14. Don’t indicate your rate in the subject line if yours is a sponta-

TIP 11. Don’t mix special characters (square brackets and slashes; parenthesis and neous application.

square brackets, for example). See TIP 16, page 10 for more on special characters.

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 Screenshot 8
Screenshot 7

Screenshot 9

9
 DOS

FORM FORM
TIP 15. Keep you subject line short but descriptive enough to entice the reci- Bottom line:

pient to open and read your email. The maximum should be 75 characters with
Your perfect email as seen by the Recipient in his inbox should look like this:
spaces.

TIP 16. Use capital letters to increase the visibility of your subject line and Subject line Sender

special characters to segment key information and improve its overall presenta- [EN-RU] [30 YEARS] [TECH.] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO] THEODORE DASSE, Ph.D.

tion. Special characters can be square brackets, curly braces, vertical bars, ma-

crons, parenthesis, slashes, etc. OR

Examples:
Sender Subject line
[EN-RU] [30 YEARS] [TECH.] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO]
[EN-RU] [30 YEARS] [TECH.] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO] THEODORE DASSE, Ph.D.
(EN-RU) (30 YEARS) (TECH.) (FRANCE) (CERTIFIED) (I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO)

EN-RU | 30 YEARS | TECH. | FRANCE | CERTIFIED | I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO Also see screenshot 10 below :

{EN-RU} {30 YEARS} {TECH.} {FRANCE} {CERTIFIED} {I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO}

EN-RU - 30 YEARS – TECH. – FRANCE – CERTIFIED – I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO

<EN-RU><30 YEARS><TECH.><FRANCE><CERTIFIED><EXCELLENCE VALUED>

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 Screenshot 10

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 CONTENT CONTENT
TIP 17. Provide the 05 key factual pieces of information any RH Manager is
[EN-RU] [30 YEARS] [TECH.] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [NO WORD GOES UNCHECKED]
interested in: Language pair, years of experience, fields of expertise, country of
[EN-RU] [30 YEARS] [TECH.] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [22-POINT QUALITY CONTROL]
residence, and certification, if any.
[EN-RU] [30 YEARS] [TECH.] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [I VALUE EXCELLENCE TOO]

TIP 18. PERSONALIZE

Visit lc-translations.com and you will realise that the foregoing green-highlighted
Personalization has three key advantages. In the subject line, it ensures that your
items are recurrent key features of the language of we speak at Low Cost Transla-
email a) does not land in a spam box and b) that it stands out from crowd, is
tions™ Ltd. We can’t afford to ignore you if you speak our language. This is valid
noticed and opened. If further used in the email body, personalization c) tells
for any company you will contact.
the recipient you did your homework and are interested in him in particular. This

portrays you as an angler, not an industrial fisherman and wipes off the irritation

associated with unsolicited emails. You can place the personalizing feature before or after your 05 key factual infor-

mation. Use it mindful of the number of character restriction. If you lack space to

fit in everything, you can omit the country of residence and certification informa-
Personalise with any of the following things you learnt about the prospective
tion, NOT the personalization. Always remember that if properly used, personali-
client on his website: key word culled from their motto, slogan/tag lines, catch
zation in the subject line can trigger a 100% open rate.
phrases, etc. You may also quote a whole motto, slogan/tag line, or catch

phrase, as the restriction on the number of characters permits.

Always add your rate if yours is a reply to a call for quotes. The rate information

should replace the personalization info, in this case.

For instance, he who personalises the subject line of an email to Low Cost Tran-

slations™ Ltd as follows (green highlighted text) is sure his email will be noticed,

opened and read, even out of curiosity.

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 3

EMAIL BODY COMPOSITION

DON’TS
FORM CONTENT

TIP 19. Don’t write a lengthy resume/letter of application unless otherwise explicitly re- TIP 23. Don’t use too large font sizes and coloured fonts. Your email make look un-

quested by the prospective client (See screenshot 11 below). Take it from me: HR Managers professional because of that.

and Project Managers do not have the time to read literature. Do not try to be exhaustive.

Rather, leave room for the recipient to reply asking for more information if they need more. TIP 24. Avoid general forms of greetings: Dear Sir, Dear Sir/Madam, Dear Project

Manager, To whom it may concern, etc. This tells the recipient yours is a mass email.

TIP 20. Don’t centre your text; don’t align it left.

TIP 25. Don’t pretend yours is in response to a call for quotes previously published

TIP 21. Don’t use capital letters; don’t use bold font - except as advised below. by the prospective client, when no such call for quotes has never existed (See Screen-

shots 12 and 13 below). This tells the recipient you are unprofessional and unreliable.

TIP 22. Don’t use any HTML-created layout. This is not necessary for the kind of services

you offer. TIP 26. Don’t copy and paste your CV in the text email body field. Always send your

CV as an email attachment. Remember to make your CV professional in form and con-

tent. Do not take this lightly ; don’t be careless! Get samples of perfect CVs online and

try to draft yours according to any of them.

13
 Screenshot 12
Screenshot 11

Screenshot 13

14
 DOS

FORM

TIP 27. Keep your resume/letter of application short, ideally 2 paragraphs of 3-5 lines each. It should be no less than 100 words and no more than

150 words. A short solicited or unsolicited email is more engaging than a long one. Because the busy recipient does not see it as potentially time

consuming, they are more likely to read and reply immediately.

TIP 28. Justify your text to give it a simple, yet clean professional look.

TIP 29. Write the name of the addressee in capital letters and in bold. Example: Attention: Whom it may concern at LOW COST TRANSLATIONS™

LTD

TIP 30. Use the same font size throughout and keep your text in black.

15
 CONTENT

TIP 31. Personalise the greetings: If you know the name of the person sponta- TIP 33. Quickly introduce yourself in the first paragraph of your resume/
neous applications should be addressed to, use it to personalise your application: application. Keep this paragraph short, 2 lines at most. In the second para-

graph, quickly advise how you learnt about the prospective client, what you

know of them (Example: I noticed you value excellence; you use a 22-point
Example:
quality checklist, etc.). Then, elaborate on why you believe they need you, not
Dear THÉODORE; Attention: STÉPHANE CÉLESTE SOKENG, HR Manager at Low other applicants: easy to work with, reliable (how?), available (how?). Express
Cost Translations Ltd. interest in knowing their recruitment practices and conditions and close the par-

If you have checked and are sure no such name exists, you can write the follo- agraph by advising you enclose your CV for the appraisal of the quality of the

wing: ‘’Attention: Whom it may concern at LOW COST TRANSLATIONS™ LTD’’; ‘’To experience you claim you have.

whom it may concern at LOW COST TRANSLATIONS™ LTD’’, etc. Make sure you

accurately spell the name of the recipient/company. Spelling mistakes at this level TIP 34. Project managers can post several jobs at the same time. If you are

– and elsewhere - can hurt the feelings of a good potential client and shy him responding to a call for quotes, strictly abide by the quoting guidelines provid-

away. ed and mention the call for quotes’ ID and other details to help the recipient

easily process your quote.

TIP 32. Apart from the greetings, you can also personalise by quoting the
TIP 35. ALWAYS close your email by indicating that you look forward to
prospective client’s name, motto, slogan/tag lines or catch phrases in any of
hearing from the recipient.
the two paragraphs of your resume/application. Again, this tells the recipient that

yours is not a mass email, that you took the time to research him, that you are

interested in him in particular, and that you deserve a reply, even out of poli-

teness.

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 4

PROFESSIONAL EMAIL SIGNATURE COMPOSITION

An email signature is a soft equivalent of a business card! It is a great way you improve your presentation and a powerful marketing tool
if it is properly crafted in form and content. Typically, a stylish email signature greatly improves sender’s credibility. Why? Because we nat-

urally tend to let ourselves impressed by beauty and to develop positive attitudes toward whatever impresses us. Moreover, having a
beautiful email signature is far better than claiming you pay attention to details. In fact, any recipient impressed by the beauty of an email

signature would tend to infer – unconsciously so – that the sender pays attention to details and is not negligent. A picture is worth a
thousand words!

DON’T
FORM CONTENT
TIP 36. Don’t overstuff your email signature. Too many details TIP 39. Don’t add your email address, social media IDs, street address,
and links may make your email signature lengthy and painful to etc. He who opens an email from you knows where to pick your email

read. address.

TIP 37. Don’t add copied and pasted links. Links are just too ugly
to be displayed in an email signature.
TIP 38. Don’t leave more than one centimeter between your
email signature and the body of your email.
TIP 40. If you are serious about your business and truly realize you are
a one-person company that, like any other company, should care about
its brand image, you should avoid adding a picture of yours in the bath,
lying on a beach, eating, etc. Avoid any picture that can suggest you are
more of a humorist or joker than a pro!

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 DOS
FORM
TIP 39. When it comes to design, forget about the saying “beauty lies in eyes of
the beholder”. Make sure you design an email signature that is polished and sim-
ple and yet can be accurately described with each or all of the following adjec-
tives: nice, stylish, beautiful, attractive, attention-getting and memorable, above
all. If yours is not memorable, know you are still in the starting blocks, not ready
to go.
It may be quite challenging to design an email signature with the foregoing char-
acteristics. A good starting point is to select one template from thousands of free
templates available online. If you don’t trust your own judgement (honestly), seek
advice from your partner, a good friend, a family member or a colleague whose
eye for beauty you trust.
Once you have made up your mind about the template you want, hire a compe-
tent web designer to help design and customize your email signature for a few
dollars. Why a web designer? Because stylish email signatures are designed with
HTML, and web designers master HTML best. Do not worry if you have to grant
him access to your email account. You will change your password when he deliv-
ers the project. Alternatively, you can do the design yourself if you trust your
skills in HTML management or try some of the free email signature generators
available online at the risk of kissing goodbye to originality.
18
CONTENT
TIP 40. Add the following data:
a) Name and surname
b) Language pair
c) Certification details if applicable. Add the link to your certificate in
such a way that only the picture/icon of the certificate is visible, NOT
the link per se.
d) Telephone number
e) Skype ID. This is very important as 2/4 of translation job outsourcers
are fond of Skype.
f) Your PICTURE or logo. Because people tend to judge a book by its
cover, use a nice picture of yours that shows you professionally dres-
sed up and confidence-inspiring. Unlike a logo, a picture makes YOU
more credible and trustworthy and makes your email signature even
more memorable. Avoid a logo as much as possible.
g) Add a scanned handwritten signature of yours if you like. It adds cre-
dibility to YOU and your offer.
h) Make sure your email signature always follows your email bodys, even
in your replies to incoming emails.
 5

BIDDING FROM JOB POSTING PLATFORMS

Whenever you are preparing a quote, a) never forget that you are competing with tens or hundreds of probably equally qualified colleagues and b) never forget the

job poster will heavily rely on the subject line to decide which of the tens or hundreds of quotes he will receive to process. As screenshot 14 below shows, job pos-

ters can receive, for a single project, as much as 250 bids to process, usually within a short time.

If strategically leveraged, job posting platforms like translatorscafe.com and Proz.com can be gold mines for any freelance translator, at least in terms of volume of

translation contracts. How many times do you shoot without missing on such platforms? You do not need my tips below if your success rate is 60%. If otherwise, con-

sider the following before we proceed:

Herewith two key reasons why you receive NO responses to most of your quotes on those platforms:

 Your quote is not even seen or is not opened

This is the main cause of your poor response rate. My experience as freelancer, HR Manager and Project Manager teaches me that this happens when the follo-

wing unfavourable conditions are met:

 A quote is not among the first 5 submissions. As you must know, first sent applications are seen 100% of the times and opened and read at

least 95% of the times.

A quote does not call attention to itself because its sender field and subject line are discrete or repulsive.

 Your quote is seen, opened and read but does not meet job poster’s requirements in terms of content (inadequate profile, unaffordable rate, etc.)

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN FIX IT!

Some job posting platforms like translatorscafe.com and Proz.com have online forms for bidding. Those forms have two key fields: the subject line field and body

field as shown on screenshots 15 and 16 on page 21 below. The focus here will be on online form subject line form and content and winning bidding discipline.

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 Screenshot 14

20
EXAMPLES OF SUBJECT LINES OF ONLINE BID SUBMISSION FORMS

Screenshot 16
Screenshot 15

3
3

21
 DON’TS DOS

FORM FORM

TIP 41. Don’t use machine generated subject line content as most TIP 43. Delete machine generated subject line content and type

people do on translatorscafe.com. With a machine generated subject your original content using upper cases and special characters

line like the one in 3 on screenshot 16 above, be sure it is very likely (See tips 18, page 12). That ensures your quote calls attention to

that your bid will not be noticed, talk less of opened and read, itself, is opened and read even if it is not among the first 10 rival

unless it is among the first 10 submitted bids. quotes.

TIP 42. Don’t leave the subject line empty and don’t use lower

case in the subject line.

CONTENT

Draft an original content personalised with call for quote informa-

tion or wording. It CAN contain the following 5 key pieces of in-

formation: language pair (in the event of a multilingual project),

years of experience, rate, geographic location, certification, key

word culled from prospective client’s motto, slogan/tag lines,

22
Example: If you hit “Send A Message To Job Poster” (4) on Screenshot 17 below...

Screenshot 17

…the system will automatically fill the subject line with the partially visible content in 3, screenshot 16, page 21 above, the full version of

which is http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/job214432.htm French Translator Required (Art, History and Modern Art). This content

will also be partially visible to the job poster in his inbox.

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However, if you replace the foregoing automatically generated content with the original and carefully drafted content [EN-FR] [30 YEARS]

[$0.09/WORD] [FRANCE] [CERTIFIED] [EXCELLENCE VALUED] as shown in 5 on screenshot 18 below, your subject line becomes strong in

that it a) is visible in full to the job poster in his inbox, b) is complete in that it gives the recipient – straightaway - an overview of every-

thing he needs to know about you, c) is personalised which tells the recipient you researched him and “speak his language”, d) has the

highest possible physical visibility and so e) stands the highest chance to be opened and read.

Screenshot 18

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TIP 44. NOTE:

In the event of a one-language-pair project, it is NOT necessary to specify your language pair in the subject line of the online form.

However, if you are to submit your bid by email, ALWAYS quote the call for bid by indicating where it was posted and the language pair

you are bidding for.

Example:

[YOUR EN-FR ON PROZ] [30 YEARS] [$0.09] [CERTIFIED] [EXCELLENCE VALUED]

OR

[YOUR EN-FR ON TC] [30 YEARS] [$0.09] [AVAILABLE NOW] [22-POINT QUAL. CTRL]

To ensure all the content of your subject line will be visible to the job poster in his inbox, you can abbreviate or omit certain words and

information. In any events, always strive to keep your subject line content shorter than 75 characters with spaces.

The three items you should NEVER omit in your subject line whether you are bidding from an online form or by email are as follows: rate,

years of experience, personalization.

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TIP 45. If you lack the time to research the job poster before bidding (and you should because most successful bidders are those who

apply first), personalise with a word or phrase from the call for bids or by providing a piece of information that strikes you as very im-

portant to the job poster and very likely to catch his attention if mentioned.

Consider 6 in screenshot 19 below:

Screenshot 19

26
As you can see, the poster seems really interested in someone who knows bikes through and through, and you are

sure to pick his attention if you personalize your subject line with that essential piece of information he is on the loo-

kout for.

Examples of effective personalization would include the following green-highlighted items:

[30 YEARS] [$0.09] [300,000 WORDS IN BIKES] [22-POINT QUAL. CTRL]

[30 YEARS] [$0.09] [CYCLING CLUB MEMBER] [22-POINT QUAL. CTRL]

[30 YEARS] [$0.09] [RACING BIKES COLLECTOR] [22-POINT QUAL. CTRL]

[30 YEARS] [$0.09] [OWNER OF 5 BIKES] [22-POINT QUAL. CTRL]

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 BIDDING DISCIPLINE

Take bid preparation and submission seriously and make; take it lightly and mar! Did you know bid preparation is a

science, and that successful companies hire bid specialists to stand the highest chances to win contracts? Now, how

seriously have you been approaching bidding so far? How disciplined have you been?

Bidding discipline relates to what you do with job poster’s instructions. Bidding instructions and requirements are

there for a specific purpose. If you do not follow and meet them, know you are

 wasting your time as your bid will not be considered ;

 wasting the time of the recipient ;

 killing your reputation as that equals marketing yourself as careless, confused or unreliable. If you

can’t respect basic instructions, how will you manage detailed ones? You are not a good risk ;

 marketing yourself as a difficult-to-work-with linguist.

For effective bidding, proceed as follows:

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 DOS

TIP 46. CAREFULLY read a) the job description, b) ALL the instructions and c) ALL the requirements before you decide to bid or not to

bid.

a. Job description: job type (translation, revision, review, proofreading, final verification, DTP, voiceover, copywriting, etc.), vo-

lume with or without repetitions, source file format, subject matter (IT, contract, finance, warship manual, etc.), etc.

b. Instructions: bid submission channel (through online bid submission forms like those on Proz.com and TranslatorsCafe.com,

by email, etc.) bid language, CV file format (Word, Pdf, etc.), CV language, CV age (most recent or not), etc.

c. Requirements: qualified bidder’s profile (years of experience, experience and expertise in field), target language native,

country/city of residence (target language country resident, translation end users’ country resident, etc.), specific CAT tool

owner/user, rate per word, per hour, per line, per character, per 1000 words, etc., availability, ability to meet the deadline,

available payment collection means, etc.

TIP 47. Keep the body of your bid short. In any event, do not make it longer than 150 words with characters.

TIP 48. Personalise the body of your bid. Every single call for bids is different. Even if you have a standard sample bid (I discourage

that), make sure you customise it whenever you are bidding for a new project. This is best done by paying attention to the job description

provided by the poster, by respecting their instructions and by meeting stated requirements.

29
 DON’TS
TIP 49. Don’t disregard job descriptions, instructions, and requirements if you do not want to irritate and shy away

the job poster. My observations and experience indicate that the violation of jobs posters’ instructions and disregard

for jobs descriptions and requirements are common practice among freelane linguists. The same is true for sponta-

neous applications that land in our email boxes on a daily basis.

I have an excellent example of what you should not do when bidding for a project. It is one out of the numerous non-

compliant bids bidders submit to Low Cost Translations™ Ltd without reading job descriptions, instructions, and requi-

rements.

On April 26, 2016, one of our project managers posted the revision job on screenshot 20 below on Transla-

torsCafe.com.

30
 Screenshot 20

Cursory translation

“Hello,

We need a linguist for an easy and urgent user manual revision project. There are about 750 words to revise directly on a MS Word file using track changes. Our budget is $20; payment will be made through
PayPal, immediately after receipt of the revised file.

Please apply if you are a technical translator, are French national, reside in France, have a minimum of 15 years of experience and good writing skills.

Delivery deadline is today the 26th of April 2016 at 12:00 Paris Time.

Kindly send your bids to support@lc-translations.com

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Stéphane”

31
Basically, the project manager advised the following:

a) Job type: Revision

b) Language pair: EN-FR

c) Field: user manual

d) Level of difficulty: quite easy

e) CAT tool: None

f) Volume: About 750 words

g) File format: MS Word

h) Rate: 20 USD

i) Payment term: Immediately after deliver

j) Payment method: PayPal

k) Linguist profile: Technical translator, 15 years of experience at least, French nationality, France resident, good writing skills

l) Bid submission channel: email at the provided address

Many noncompliant bids were received including the one on screenshot 21 below submitted by one Antoine F.

32
 Screenshot 21

Herewith a cursory translation of Antoine’s bid. Problem areas are highlighted in red and bold, and commented in parenthesis below each

sentence, where appropriate.

33
“Hello,

I am interested in your translation project posted on TranslatorsCafe.com.

(Did you read at all? This is a revision job! If you take a fresh look at the call for bids, you will notice that the job poster told you 4 times (see the 4 red circles on screenshot
20 above) that job type is revision. Your bid is submitted from TranslatorsCafe.com where the call for bids is posted. Why specify that the job was posted on Transla-
torsCafe.com? This is surely a standard message that you copy and paste whenever you are replying to a call for bids.)

I read your previous email and wish to advise that I can translate from English into French.

(What previous email? Of course, you can translate from EN-FR, since you applied. But for how long have you been doing this? What are your areas of specialty? Where do you
reside? Do you remember this is an urgent revision job and that the poster wants to place it as soon as possible, and has no time to reply asking for details she clearly re-
quested in her call for bids?)

I am immediately available for your projects and can start your translation project as soon as I receive the file.

(What projects? Are you bidding for the current revision project or for future projects? “Translation project”? You definitely are talking about some other project, not the cur-
rent revision project.)

I guarantee the accuracy and quality of this project.

My preferential rate would be €0.08/word for translation and €0.04/word for review.

(You definitely are not bidding for the current project in particular. This is a revision, not a translation project and the job poster advised his budget was $20.)

Please let me know your payment terms.

(You definitely did not read the call for bids. The job poster clearly advised that payment would be made immediately after receipt of the revised file and that the payment
method was PayPal. Now, there is no doubt you just copied and pasted a one size fits all quote, without bothering to read the job description, instructions and requirements.)

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

Antoine F.”

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TIP 50. Don’t submit multiple bids and don’t submit the same bid more than once.

Expect any or all the following outcomes whenever you submit multiple bids or the same bid twice for the same project:

a. Waste of job poster’s time. That is likely to irritate him, especially when he has no time to waste.

b. Branding yourself as either careless/confused (that is, probably unreliable) or badly in need of a job, which may mean

other companies do not trust you enough to keep you busy or may tell the job poster you are likely to accept lower

rates.

Example:

Apart from the above pointed out issues, Antoine submitted his noncompliant bid five (05) times in four (04) minutes! He sent it four (04)

times through TranslatorsCafe.com (see screenshot 22 below), and one time by e-mail (the channel recommended by the job poster) as

shown in screenshot 23 below.

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Screenshot 22 Screenshot 23

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TIP 51. Don’t use an online bids submission form when you ought to use an e-mail address and vice versa.

As I pointed out earlier, the violation of jobs posters’ instructions and disregard for jobs descriptions and requirements are common prac-

tice among linguists. As you can see in 7 on screenshot 24, below, fifteen (15) bidders managed to submit their bids via the job posting

platform whereas the job poster has expressly provided an e-mail for bids submissions. There are two critical risks associated with this

noncompliance: a) You can irritate and shy away the job poster; b) your bid may go to someone other than the project manager in charge

of this job.

Screenshot 24

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 Bottom line

Speed is critical in bidding indeed. Yet, you should take bid prepara-
tion and submission very seriously! There is NO one size fits all
standard quote. A single carefully prepared and customized quote
is worth 1000 messy noncompliant ones.

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 6

SPONTANEOUS APPLICATIONS WRITING

Probably less than 10% of translation jobs are posted online for bidding. Actually, most translation agencies only post jobs on translation

jobs posting platforms (Proz.com, TranslatorsCafe.com, etc.) when they can’t find available and/or adequate resources in their databases of

providers. Therefore, featuring in the database of as many translation agencies/companies as possible is the best strategy any translator

should have for a sustainable development of his freelance business. There is no better way of implementing that strategy than sending

spontaneous applications for admissions into databases. That has to be done strategically, which means there are things to do and things

to avoid.

DOS
TIP 52. Carefully research each prospective translation company with focus on its

a. key words (from motto, slogan/tag lines and catch phrases): you will use them to customize your application email

(see tip 18, page 12). Remember to pick only those words and expressions the company tends to highlight

(especially through its frequency of use, capitalization, font colour, etc.), and that are most likely to call the atten-

tion of any of its employees who comes across your email.

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 b. quality standards and payment reputation: Find out its quality standards to ascertain that you can meet them and

to further customise your application email. Before you apply, it helps to know the company’s usual rates (so you

can charge accordingly in due course) and whether it is a good payer, bad payer, late payer, or non-payer. More

internet research is necessary to get that information. You can also privately seek advice from colleagues who have

worked with that company.

c. accepted profiles and application channels: Find out what qualifications are demanded for admission into the data-

base of freelance providers of that company. Also, verify how it wishes to be approached by freelancers. If it is by

email, there must be an email address dedicated for applications. If it is by online form, there must be a dedicated

online form to be filled out and submitted.

TIP 53. If there is no application form and no dedicated email address, use any available email address or contact form NOT to submit

your application, but to enquire how they accept applications and the conditions that should be met.

TIP 54. Have all your documents (samples, scanned copies of diplomas and certificates, links to certificates, CV, list of references, etc.)

ready and at hand so you can produce them immediately upon request either as part of the online form filling process, or when a HR

Manager wishes you to complete your registration process after an initial email contact.

TIP 55. Keep a list of agencies you send an application to. Your list should include each agency’s email address and location as well as

the date of your application. Such a list helps avoid harassing any company by sending multiple applications to them.

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TIP 56. Strike while the iron is hot: Live response to a HR Manager’s reply to your spontaneous application is the best way to secure an

entry in his database of providers and your first job with his company.

TIP 57. Timing matters…a lot! Always send your spontaneous applications on Sundays or before 6 AM on Mondays. Needless to tell you

that the applicable time zone is client’s time zone.

TIP 58. Test your email before you send it for real. This can be done by sending a test email to yourself or your close friend/partner in

order to verify everything is okay with the form and content of the subject line, email body and email signature.

DON’TS
TIP 59. Don’t use an e-mail address when you ought to use an application form. If you do that, the recipient of your email will either

ignore your application, or direct you to the application form you ought to use in the first place. That means waste of time and energy for

you and your contact person at the prospected company and can hurt your reputation at this early stage.

TIP 60. Be patient and don’t apply twice in one year: Generally, no response does not mean that your application has not been recei-

ved. Some companies only reply when they have a job for you. This may happen even years after you sent your application.

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 7

RECOMMENDED READINGS

1. http://www.ideastap.com/IdeasMag/the-knowledge/the-risk-of-going-freelance

2. https://clairecoxtranslations.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/eggs-in-baskets/

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GOOD LUCK
I believe in smart and hard work, not in luck!

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