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Planning Your Budget for Content Translation
By: Harish Kumaresh, Thu Mar 25th, 2010
I hear a lot of complaints from job providers as well as translators.
People requesting for a translation complain about the prices for
translation being too high while translators complain that the provider
isn't paying them well. There are many good translators that quote an
unreasonably high price, and there are those who aren't as good, and try to
win customers by charging dirt cheap rates. If you've been on the receiving
end of this problem, you have probably wondered what should the right budget
for your translations be and how you can decide whether the translator is
not ripping you off?
Language: You will have noticed that most of the
translators or translating service providers charge different prices for
different languages. Translation into languages such as French,
German, Spanish are available at a comparatively lower cost than
translation into uncommon languages such as Danish, Malaysian or
Slovakian. This is because you will not find many providers who are
proficient at these uncommon languages. Therefore, if you plan to
translate your content into, say Slovakian, you cannot set a budget
based on what you paid for translation to French or Spanish.
Furthermore, odd combinations such as Hindi to Greek or French to
Japanese can be even more expensive.
Type of content: If you are looking to translate
legal documents, medical journals, or something else that requires
the translator to possess in-depth knowledge of a particular subject
area, you will have to shell out more, even for a commonly available
language. For example, we have seen a translator charge $0.25 a word
for translating a legal document into Dutch. This translator has been in
the industry for a very long time and is always loaded with work
Translation software: if you are looking for
translators proficient in certain translation software such as Trados, they
might charge you slightly higher.
Qualification: The difficulty level of your
project might demand a qualified translator, probably someone who is
certified or sworn. These translators are very expensive and I suggest that
if your job requires a qualified translator, do not compromise on
quality to keep your cost low.
Experience: You will also find that a translator
new to the industry might agree to work at a lower rate as compared to
a translator who has several years of experience in the field. An
inexperienced translator focuses more on building their profile and
getting more credits. Therefore, if you're satisfied with the quality
of work seen in a translator's samples, then by all means, go ahead
and hire them. You will receive great value and loyalty for trusting a new
entrant
To sum it up, before you go looking for a translator, you need to
understand your requirements better such as the type of content you, the
kind of translator you are looking for, cheaper alternatives without
compromising on the quality, etc. If you do not want to go through the
hassle of sorting translator resumes, verifying them, interviewing them, and
then negotiating with them, you can always contact a good translation
service provider. They usually have a huge database of translators who have
expertise in various fields; they are more than capable of appointing the
most suitable translator to work on your project.
However, make sure you contact a good translation company -- here are some tips on how to identify one.
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