Comments on: Avoiding feast or famine by marketing consistently

By: MT

MT — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:48:14 +0000

One great way to even out workflow is to have a side project going, something big that you work on during lulls in business. I got a graduate degree this way and know a translator who got a certificate in translation that way. I’ve also translated many a novel in the spare time between choice, juicy, well-paid non-fiction jobs.

A book-length translation is great filler work. There are all kinds of books (fiction and non-fiction, high art and trash entertainment). Book translating doesn’t usually pay as well as other translation work, but it’s great marketing to have your name on the cover of a book. And if you ask for and get royalties, there’s the potential for lots of money if you pick a winning book.

A book deadline is often many months away, allowing you to say yes to the best non-book jobs that come in from your regular clients, but to safely turn down yucky jobs. Since you can just fill your day with working on your book instead.

Another great filler job like this is contractual work. A translation contract with the government or a company that doesn’t pay as well as your regular clients, but guarantees a specific amount of steady work for a year or however long. It makes for a very stable income. I did this working maybe 20 hours a week for a year. It didn’t pan out for me because the govt. rate was so low. I kept having to say no to jobs paying twice the govt. rate because I was too busy with my contractual work. But the contractual work guaranteed a safe base income. If you don’t like the fluctuations, this is definitely an option to consider.

I also find a great way to even out the fluctuations is to translate more than one language pair. When business is down in Language A, it may be up in Language B. Global diversification, don’t you know!

By: thierry

thierry — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:19:06 +0000

Hi,

I wonder what good tips could a freelance translator use for marketing. Maybe search for more direct clients? Increase income by teaching languages?

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:53:08 +0000

Another avenue to explore is “productizing” your services. In translation, depending on our specializations, we can often go beyond the per-word pricing model to come up with package offers that generate regular repeat business (monthly updates to a website, or pre-paid translation “credits” to be debited as customers send small bits of work your way are two kinds I currently use). Talk to your customers and see what their needs are. How can you “package” your services in a way that delivers value and convenience while encouraging regular, repeat business?

By: It’s important to diversify « Musings from an overworked translator

It’s important to diversify « Musings from an overworked translator — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:07:07 +0000

[...] Things can happen that are beyond your (and your client’s) control. Clients can go out of business due to death of the owner or go bankrupt when one or more of their customers go bankrupt. The client’s office could be destroyed due to flooding, fire or a hurricane, etc. It’s important to continually market yourself. I read a recent blog post on The Wealthy Freelancer that advocated spending 10% of your time on marketing, even when you are busy. Corinne also wrote about this in her most recent post, Avoiding feast or famine by marketing consistently. [...]

By: Olivia

Olivia — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:09:26 +0000

I agree that a consistent approach to marketing is the best method to ensure a consistent inflow of work – what you described in your post is a classic “ant and grasshopper” scenario, and I admit that I am currently more grasshopper-like than I would care to admit!
As a consequence, my workload is erratic and my income is irregular.

I am keen to adopt your approach of spending 30 minutes or so per day on marketing. Hopefully it will have the intended effect and bring in a regular supply of work.