However this does not mean that all is bad. According to the recent Wall Street Journal Article, Aquarius has its sights set on higher things.

Ben Vickers, the guy who wrote the WSJ article made quite extensive use of our survey data (with permission of course), so I'll ask WSJ for permission to distribute their article. More on that (if I get permission) in the next edition.

So Why Did Aquarius Plunge? [44.5% last year 19.4% this year]

Is it because they brought in investment capital and commercialised their whole enterprise, changing which parts of the site are freely accessible and which parts are not?

Is it because they changed the nature of the parts you can access as a paid member?

Have your opinion heard. Since this is such a red hot topic, of great use to translators all over the world, we decided to probe a little deeper. So we're asking a couple more questions in a follow up survey at...

http://www.translatortips.net/job-survey.html

...we'd like to get to the bottom of this, so we can share the information with you.

Why Did Proz Rise Up So Quickly? [11% last year, 32.1% this year]

Is it because ProZ is an excellent site which offers everything you need?

Is it because of the Aquarius commercialisation?

Or is the truth somewhere in the middle of these points of view?

Does the model of "Free for a while then start charging" actually work? Only time will tell. But what do you think?

Please come and get involved in the discussion...

http://www.translatortips.net/job-survey.html

We aim to find out if premium memberships are worthwhile. This could either give you the confidence to spend the money or save you an annual subscription. Only you the users can decide which way this poll will go. So please click the above link and vote.

The New Contenders

The new contenders have not exactly excelled themselves. TranslationZone and Uniscape have not figured highly. I suspect that a few people have got large jobs from these sources, but not many smaller ones are about.

Uniscape wrote to me and mentioned that their business is moving more towards outsourcing to agencies than individuals, so they weren't entirely surprised by the result.

TranslationZone has only been around for a short while. Last year ProZ were in the same position...

...lots of members but not many jobs. ProZ has evidently managed to solve the problem, so perhaps TranslationZone will also. Time will tell.

The Mailing Lists

Jobs-translators scored very similarly to last year - improving half a percentage point [11.9% last year, 12.4% this year]. A commendably steady performance (I sound like a stock market analyst now)

TJO disappeared during 2000 and tr_jobs rose up in its place. Now it is only half as popular [7% last year, 3.4% this year]. This could be because the list shrank when it moved.

Radek Pletka's job list has suffered a large drop in popularity. [6.7% last year, 1.7% this year].
This must be due to the fact that the free 3 week delayed list is no longer available. Still, this makes it a lot more valuable to those who do subscribe. In my opinion, Radek offers super value for the annual 30 bucks, which is why we act as his agent at translation-agencies.com...

http://www.translation-agencies.com/radek.html

translatortips^® Workplace

I was pleasantly surprised how well translatortips^® workplace did because it's new, it's only got about 1,000 members and we still managed to scoop 4.7% of the vote.

As I mentioned when we launched it in September, translatortips^® workplace is run for us by ProZ, and is an offshoot of ProZ, so this total should be included in the ProZ.com total, bringing the overall ProZ total to 36.8%.

http://www.translatortips.net/translation-jobs.html

Your Own Web Site

This was not categorised last year, but several people wrote in last year, so we included it this year.

To those 4.7% of you who voted for your own web site. WELL DONE!

You guys are the ones who have really got it together!

I salute you!

Marketing on the web can be done. It can be extremely lucrative. As in the article I wrote in the last issue, even if you just refer leads to others you can build a stream of income for very little effort.

Probably the hardest part is figuring out how to attract traffic. Why is it that you guys are getting it right?

Because you can't count on "free"
services for your livelihood.

Free services can be withdrawn or go bust at any time, as we are finding out in the "new economy".

I recommend you register your site and your translator profile in as many directories as possible. I wonder if my recommendation will change when the new survey results come in...

http://www.translatortips.net/job-survey.html

The Associations Should Market Their Sites Better

If you are on the committee of a translator association, look away now if you don't want to see the result. This is going to hurt a bit.

Last year this was not specifically categorised, but people wrote to me saying "my best source is my association's site". So this year we included it.

Only 2.3% of people chose their translation association web site! So, this category will avoid relegation (<1% gets you ousted)...

...but I suggest this means that these sites are...

not being marketed well enough

...and the translation associations ought to do something about it.

If you're going to spend thousands putting your database online, you should be spending a similar amount making sure...

1. that you get some traffic
2. that your site effectively sells your translators' skills

...or your money is wasted on vanity.

No I'm not angling for consultancy work

Experts On The Web [2.4% this year, 1% last year]

This site has more than doubled its score since last year. All I can say is "well done, keep it up".

Have We Missed Out Any Good Internet Sources?

"Other" got 14.5% of the vote against 16.3% last year. But it's still a significant amount. We'd like to find out if we've missed anything important.

If you know other great sources of translation jobs out there on the net, we'd like to hear from you. I realise you may want to keep them to yourself, but the market really is big enough for all of us. Please be sharing.

We share a lot of information. There's enough work out there for everybody. It's a huge marketplace and it's growing by 10-20% every year, depending on whose reports you believe.

So if you have any other really good internet job sources, please send them to Phil...

phil@translatortips.net

Follow up Job Site Survey

After the overwhelming response to this survey for the second year in a row, we figured this is a real hot issue for translators. So we thought maybe there's a few other questions you'd like to know the answer to as well...

• Are the premium memberships at these job sites worth it?
• Are translation job sites worth bothering with at all?
• Do they create a bidding situation where the clients only go for the cheapest bidder - forcing down the prices in the market?
• Do they attract the poor quality clients or are they pretty good?
• Are they good for or harmful to the translation industry?

Unlike the popularity poll, we really have very little idea of the answers to these questions.

Why don't you tell us and others? Please give your honest opinions. Come and have your say at...

http://www.translatortips.net/job-survey.html

...then we can share this vital information with the online translation community.

Click here to read the next article

Click here to return to tranfree 26 main page