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Recently, the translation industry has grown a lot bigger than it used to be. With more opportunities available for qualified translators, a lot of people have given attention to translation as a potential profession. Here are some of the reasons why being a professional translator is a good move:
• It provides a steady source of income. As long as you have loyal clients who ask for your services, you are assured that your work will continue pouring down. When you have established your name in the industry, many other potential clients might try out what you have to offer and pay for your services as well.
• Even if being a professional translator is somewhat demanding, it is not as stressful as other corporate jobs. Besides, if you are working as a freelance translator, then you are your own boss. You can easily manage your time.
• As you start creating a name in the industry, your professional rates may increase and clients won’t mind. Of course, they want high quality translation services in the end. They won’t mind paying you more as long as you can deliver the kind of work that they wanted to see.
• Translating companies may even notice you and hire you, or you would eventually have the necessary experience to become part of a large translating company.
Though it seems easy to rise on top of the industry, you have to understand that there are many other budding translators out there. Some of them could even speak more languages than you do. Thus, they have a wider target group compared with you. Therefore, in order to be on top of your game, here are some tips that you might want to follow:
• Maximize the use of the Internet. Take note that there are a lot of online translating jobs that you could make the most out of. This could be for blogs, web content, comments, forums and many more. Some others also look for translators for journals and scientific researches. If you can find a way to contact the right clients online, then you will definitely have a surplus of work.
• Be more familiar of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. This is a process in which certain words are optimized so that a particular site will rise on top of search engines. This also includes other online marketing campaigns. When hired to translate for a website that is competing with many other websites to be on top of search engines, then it would be an added advantage if you have skills in SEO.
• Host your own blog or website to advertise your services. For the blog, you don’t have to sound like a salesperson. You just have to create translation-related blogs for people to enjoy reading. If they find your grammar impeccable and your sentence construction as perfect, then it won’t take time before they will ask you for translation services.
• Join sponsored free events or expos where translators and potential clients may attend. Of course, you should not forget to bring your business card. You could even have a digital business card handy which can be created by using a free QR code.
Once you are in this event, you need to make sure that you stand out from the others and that you show interest in working with potential clients.
• If you want to level up or go a notch higher, consider acquiring accreditation. There are a lot of organizations that issue accreditation for those who want to practice the profession in a formal setting.
Despite the fact that there is an increase in the demand for translators, the supply has also drastically increased. Therefore, you need to stand out to be hired over other competitors.