HOW TO SET YOUR RATES (Freelance Translator)

We are starting a 2-part series about money on the channel. Join me today to figure out your own hourly rate and per word rate!
Video by Adrian Probst
Spanish subtitles by Alex Napoles Tafuri
Info about rates: search.proz.com/?sp=pfe/rates
To subtitle my video into your native language, drop me a message to:
[e-mail].
Feel free to connect on LinkedIn and send me a message:
/ adrianprobst-freelance...
- my website -
adrianprobst.com/
- Socials
Check out the Freelanceverse on Spotify/Instagram/Twitter as well and give it a follow :)
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Twitter: / freelanceverse
-Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:49 SlatorPod
1:09 Don't compare
2:33 How to charge translations
4:47 Calculating your rates
9:19 Minimum vs. optimum rate
11:25 Negotiating
15:30 Outro

[@kassandrac8985]

"Why would I give a better price just to work more?" LOL, totally agree! Very realistic calculations and advice love it! Thank you

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks for the feedback :) good to hear

[@sirinemkr8823]

Hi Adrian! You can't imagine how much you are helping me. I am following your tips step by step. Don't know how to thank you. May God rewards you for your kindness and generosity. Thank you so much..

[@Freelanceverse]

Thank you so much, that means a lot.

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks for watching part one of the Money Weeks here on the channel. I hope you enjoy this type of content. 🤩

[@Freelanceverse]

Sorry for the weird audio in this one, not sure what happened. Will be fixed next week.

[@MaayanSchneider]

So useful - thank you!

[@Freelanceverse]

@@MaayanSchneider Glad to hear :)

[@camilao.thomas7804]

"these are my 11 cents on the topic" 😂😂 on point. Great vid, amazing work as usual

[@Freelanceverse]

😅💙

[@judeforlem2400]

Wow, I'm impressed by your presentation. It's very helpful to me. Thank you sir.

[@LauraMartinez-ho2sd]

Very useful, thanks, Adrian. Also thumbs up for @Alex Napoles Tafuri's translation into Spanish !!

[@nopseudosleft56]

Thanks so much for all of your content, it's soooo helpful!

[@Freelanceverse]

Glad you like them!

[@jehovahsdaughter18]

Adrian, thank you so much for your authenticity and expertise. This is a wealth of information.

[@Freelanceverse]

So glad it is useful!

[@mhx55]

I received an offer for translation and I've been breaking my head trying to calculate my rates! First time I see you and I love your content, I can tell you are a very smart guy and I would love to have conversations with you! Anyways, thank you for the piece of advice and good luck on your channel :)

[@Freelanceverse]

So nice of you to say, thank you. And thank you for watching :) I hope this video helped you with quoting!

[@Hrouda]

Hello, Adrian, and thank you for the effort and time you put into creating such a valuable content. Could you, please, comment on the inconsistency of the freelance translation jobs/projects...how to deal with that, how to prevent it or eliminate it? It's the biggest difficulty I'm facing as a freelance translator and it's very stressful at times. Thank you!

[@Freelanceverse]

Very interesting question, Hrouda, I will think about it and create a video on that soon!

[@Hrouda]

@@Freelanceverse Thank you for the response, Adrian :)

[@MariionLaMayoo]

Thank you for your video! Now I know how I can calculate my rates and where to start 😊

[@Freelanceverse]

💙💙💙

[@mariatomescu1421]

Hello! Thank you so much for all your videos, I find them so so useful. Unfortunately, agencies sometimes don't even bother to reply so the negotiation doesn't happen. If you want a hamster ask for a horse, but it left me wondering if I haven't asked for an elephant by accident :)

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Maria, that's perfectly normal, I think 1 in 10 agencies answer on average. So just keep trying, if you apply to 50, one will most likely lead to something interesting

[@TR-qu9ty]

The rate also depends highly on your efficiency - I have clients who are totally fine with me using machine translation (paid and secure systems). It easily allows me to translate up to 1200 words per hour (!highly! depending on the text). This is also one big factor which actually can enhance your capacity but you have to master MT as well. Even without MT, I translate up to 800 words per hour. I never understood where those 300-400 words came from. But that's maybe some kind of total average (I can imagine that some language simply have a more complex writing system)

[@Freelanceverse]

Definitely depends a lot on your own skills, mindset, ability etc. I also generally translate more per hour than the average, but some jobs can easily take 2 hours for 100 words, so I think 400 is a nice average overall.

[@idowuolukayode6480]

Thank you Adrian for quality content, could pls, what advice would you give a beginner, who can't afford a cat tool. Thanks

[@papjozsef1607]

Hi Adi, I like what you do, simply: ügyes!

[@Freelanceverse]

Thank you so much for the comment, József! So nice that you watch the videos 😄 many more videos are in planning!

[@livial.camargorittersgarbo1011]

Hi Adrian, again! :) Thanks for sharing information with us! I have a question regarding DTP multilingual services, are you familiar with this kind of service on translation? Rates? Thanks!!

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Livia, I don't offer DTP, no. But I would assume that is charged by the hour. Can't imagine how else that would work.

[@AleKarolczak]

Hi Adrian! Thank you for amazing videos! I have a question about payment. One of the agencie pays by "weighted word settlement" ( free translation from polish) This means that: repeated words are not considered for payment. Is this OK? Have you ever seen criteria like this?

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi there, yes this is quite common. I don't agree that repetitions should be completely excluded. You should still be paid a few percentages, because you still have to check them. If you are not paid at all for repetitions, then you should also not look at them at all.

[@henrymurau]

Hi Adrian. I am a Tok Pisin translator, and I was interviewed for a translation and review gig and I charged the client 0.25 cents but they still said it's high, therefore I ended up lower it down to 0.10 cents. My question is, is that the right thing to do?

[@christopherrimplington3643]

I have a doubt about self-marketing. I translate Videogames, French to English, and wanna use gameplays of previous gigs to promote myself. Do I create #short vids for Ins with: 1. Gameplays in source language (the language my clients speak, but my work doesn't show). 2. or in Target language (It shows my work, but potential clients can't read it, is gibberish to them).

[@Freelanceverse]

Oh interesting approach, there is definitely some potential there. I would probably edit together short sequences that were tough to translate, then show the clip in English first and then your solution in French. That could be really interesting for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.

[@christopherrimplington3643]

Yes, I guess the challenge is to show your work and, at the same time, making it interesting for other people. A middle point between just "showing a gameplay" and "just showing your translation".

[@Freelanceverse]

Exactly!! :)

[@yomismo6969]

I have one question if they give you a video to subtitle and it does not have the transcript in the original language, do you charge differently as when you have the transcripts? Can you make a video about how you charge for subtitling? Thanks

[@Freelanceverse]

I charge all of it by the hour, so it doesn't really matter to me what I get from the clients, I just charge however long it took me :)

[@yomismo6969]

@@Freelanceverse Just to be clear you always charge the same even if the client gives you the transcript or any other input.

[@Freelanceverse]

It will just take me longer or shorter time depending on what they send. If it takes me 10 hours, I charge 10, if it takes 5, I charge 5.

[@MohammedIbrahim-dq3qq]

I am a beginner which website would you recommend?

[@Freelanceverse]

ProZ to start off, there is plenty of information on there that you need. Check out their Education tab as well.

[@MohammedIbrahim-dq3qq]

@@Freelanceverse thank you so much god bless you ❤️

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

Hey Adrian, youtube has recently added the option to add dubbed audio tracks for KZbin video. I can dub your video into hindi if you are interested. What do you say?

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Abhinav, very interesting proposal, thank you. So far, it has only been rolled out to certain creators in a beta version, but as soon as I am allowed to do it as well, I will get back to your offer :)

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

@@Freelanceverse thanks for reply 🙌🏻

[@marieb5251]

This video doesn't address how turnaround times affect rates, which I was looking for. I've read they can be double or triple your base rate.

[@Freelanceverse]

Thats true. Express rates and weekend rates are usually double.

[@goldl3147]

1. You can use timestamps, so your audience has the option of knowing when to fast-forward, when to stay. 2. One graphic or, few graphics, is worth a thousand words. 3. Some info you share is useful, but please make it succinct.

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks for the feedback, always takes a while until the chapters appear, now they should be up I think. I'd suggest to watch the videos on 1,5x speed, I always do ;) But will try to be more succinct, thanks.

[@phoenixbird2078]

I'm a beginner EN>ES For now, part time only. They told me that most agencies in ProZ pay $0.03/wrd for EN>ES but I'll give it a shot anyways Do you think that $1000/month is an achievable goal (working part-time)??

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Phoenix, yes, it's definitely achievable!

[@phoenixbird2078]

@@Freelanceverse well, let's do it! Any online courses/education you do recommend?