SHOULD YOU PAY FOR PROZ.COM? (Freelance Translator)

[@alessioarmenise387]

Thanks a lot Adrian! You definitely answered my question. I always find your videos very well made. I think I’ll get my membership soon. Can’t wait for the next video!

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks so much for the feedback and the question in the first place, Alessio. I'm impressed by how you approach your new career from what I see on LinkedIn. You're definitely taking the network building approach which is fantastic. Keep it up. - Adrian

[@elisarossoni6051]

Hi, Alessio! I've just watched this very interesting video; reading your comment, I was wondering if you ended up investing in the membership ?? I have to make that choice soon and I'd love to know what you think! cheers :)

[@v.hariachka]

Great video, Adrian! Before actually investing into proz membership, I was contemplating whether it would be worth it so for about a month I monitored all the jobs which were posted in my language pair but which were restricted to paying members only. I made some calculations of the amount of money I could make by getting those projects and concluded that it would probably be worth it. After one year I did some analyzing and found out that the investment into paid membership paid off much much much more. So I also always recommend it whenever anyone asks :)

[@Freelanceverse]

Wow, I love the analytical approach, Viktoriia! :) thanks for sharing! I never actually calculated in monetary value whether it's 'worth it' for me, but paying off for me is not only about getting the money back, but also about staying connected, getting a decent service and having the option to contact clients in a cheap way. Keep up your thorough approach, seems like it's working :)

[@Freelanceverse]

1000 views WOW! Thank you everyone

[@fa-ctual]

Hi. Since your post here on KZbin, i decided to start translating. The various platforms on the net, are mainly all asking for a membership.( at least the bigger ones ) And from what i have seen in these few weeks, on freelance sites- scams , and more scams. And the prices are so cheap, due to the lack of experience and everything is as if it were easy to do. This online world has to close some bounderies , and the select the true professionals.

[@Freelanceverse]

Yes, you're right, these online platforms are not for longterm success. They are great to get your foot in the door, maybe collect a couple of experiences, but longterm you've got to work with industry clients, boutique agencies and clients that value your work. It's a long way until there, you need a big network and a lot of patience and creativity. But after a couple years, you can make it there.

[@dausdaus2185]

i have good feeling. your channel become bigger soon

[@Freelanceverse]

thank you :) I'm just glad so many people get value from it.

[@Freelanceverse]

Feel free to connect on LinkedIn: Adrian Probst

[@janusinc.1544]

Good day, Adrian! I'm not a newbie in the industry with over ten years of in-house experience in a well-established LSP. Now thinking of making a partial transition to the other side... Many thanks for your videos! It's a valuable inside from the outside)) since I don't have much time to explore the market(( Also, the presentation is sssoo healing, the tone helps to calm down and concentrate! I've subscribed and would recommend your channel.

[@Freelanceverse]

Arabic Subtitles by Aml Ali :) thank you so much!

[@Freelanceverse]

Spanish Subtitles by Daniel Díaz :) thanks so much!

[@speczsz]

Thank you very much for this video, Adrian! You've answered a lot of my questions. I was hesitating on whether to get the paid membership or not, and this video just motivated me to do it. On another note, this is the first time I have come across your content, but I was looking at your channel and let me just say you've earned a new subscriber! It's great to see experienced professionals like you creating content for other professionals who are only just starting. As someone who is relatively a newbie in the industry, your help is greatly appreciated! 😄

[@Freelanceverse]

Such a nice comment, thank you so much! Exactly for feedback like this is why I'm doing it :)

[@Freelanceverse]

French Subtitles by Thibault Poujol :) thank you so much!

[@davidpassalacqua91]

Szia Adrian! Would you make a video about how to enter the subtitling industry, what skills and tools are needed there? Legyen szép napod! (:

[@Freelanceverse]

Next week's video is all about Subtitling :)

[@davidpassalacqua91]

@@Freelanceverse Wow, awesome! Can't wait! (:

[@Freelanceverse]

Chinese Subtitles by Mingzhu Wu :) thank you so much!

[@thelanguageworker1616]

I really enjoy your videos! Keep on rock and rolling...🙃

[@Freelanceverse]

Thank you very much, I will :)

[@mingzhuwu2546]

Hi Adrian, thanks for your valuable video. I am working in the IT industry but I have a strong willingness to be a freelance translator. I have also been more interested in and better at languages than my major -- Computer Science. I have never stopped learning English even when I was working as an engineer or a researcher. However, I have no translator degree nor any translation experience at all. Do you have any idea how to start the business in this case? how to convince people and get the first job if I have no translation experience at all? Thank you in advance!

[@mingzhuwu2546]

By the way, I would love to translate all your videos to Chinese if no one has done it yet.

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Mingzhu! Thanks so much for the comment. There is definitely a way for you to start, yes! Whenever someone has extensive expertise in a niche field like you with Computer Science, the missing expertise as a translator can be compensated for. Have you seen my video about Translation Degrees? Might be interesting for you to watch. I talk about how to transition into the translation field from another field. Maybe it would be good to just do an online class to learn the basics about translation, and then yes, you can translate my videos and use this as experience :) why don't you email me at [e-mail], so we can exchange a bit more and I can send you the files. Thanks for your initiative! -Adrian

[@vitortoninimachado86]

Kind interesting how your eyes matches Proz main color.

[@Freelanceverse]

haha nice, never thought of that

[@funsubber5424]

Thanks so much!

[@astridarroyave]

❤

[@Freelanceverse]

🤗 thanks for your support

[@Flandernify]

4'8" - Wow, you have no "Feedback from clients and colleagues" on up right corner?

[@Freelanceverse]

No I never used that feature befoee

[@Flandernify]

I'd guess that's crucial for deal flow, much like reviews on Amazon. No? Maybe this only means that Proz is not your main source of clients.@@Freelanceverse

[@Flandernify]

Proz costs 120 bucks for first 2 years, then it raises to how much?

[@Freelanceverse]

I think it's 100 per year

[@moiseseloyramirez-clavijo7920]

Great video! Thanks :) I'll be signing up to ProZ for sure as I'm starting to get in translation. Will it be difficult without a qualification? I have a history and Spanish bachelor's and no specific translation masters.

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Moises thanks a lot for the feedback :) it will certainly be harder than with a degree, but it's definitely possible. Put your focus on your other expertises that you have and specialise in them as quickly as possible. Also a degree in Spanish can be enough for some agencies, you can always mention that you did translations in this degree. -Adrian

[@moiseseloyramirez-clavijo7920]

Hi Adrian, good to know! Thanks for the answer :)

[@Freelanceverse]

I also have a video on my channel about degrees and whether they are necessary. Maybe it's worth it for you to check it out :)

[@moiseseloyramirez-clavijo7920]

@@Freelanceverse Hi Adrian, thank you yes I have seen it and it was also very useful :) your channel's content is great and I hope to see the audience grow!

[@antonellap.6167]

So basically you dont need to pay for it? You can have extra benefits if you do, but still registration is for free or?

[@Freelanceverse]

Correct :)

[@angelab.6192]

Great video Adrian and very intereseting discussions here in the comments! Can anyone provide feedback on paying for a Proz membership and finding jobs in the language combination English>Italian (Italy) and Polish>Italian (Italy)? These are my language pairs and it would be really interesting if you could share your experience on this!

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks Angela! :) hopefully someone can give you an insight.

[@seanpious1742]

please link me to swahili translations. I have been a while in the industry and I realy wish to grow and make more

[@Humanpol93]

Is it necessary to be registered as a freelancer to do work on this site? I would like to become an translator, i am a native spanish and german speaker and want also add english, for example German-Spanish / English-Spanish, but first at all i must improve my english. The thing is i dont know how to start and get some experience.

[@Freelanceverse]

I don't think you need to show proof of registration, no. I'd recommend to watch my video on the Permission Paradox. It addresses exactly that :)

[@djangofat4768]

Proz is a bad investment. To get a job, you have to be a member, answer the questions of the other members and get points to climb the ranking, otherwise, you will not get a job since you will always be at the end of the queue. Apart from this, you have to get WWA's and offer rates below the rates offered by others. Last but not least, translation agencies only look for native speakers who accept ridiculous fees (peanuts).

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks for your comment, Django. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with it. I never gained any point or Kudos on ProZ and still got my foot in the industry through it. I see what you're saying but I have yet to see another platform that's of more value for someone starting out. Sure, there is a lot of crap on there as I mentioned in the video, but it's not all bad. Especially in my first year I got most of my assignments through it, afterwards once youre established it all works through recommendations anyways. Hope you find a way that works for you :) thanks for watching! -Adrian

[@vnunezlaluz]

I’m a member since last year and I couldn’t get a single job. What am I doing wrong?

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Maria. Really hard to say, most likely you're not doing anything wrong. It can just take hundreds of jobs on proZ until something works. What you can try is approaching them a bit more creatively. They probably get hundreds of messages that look the same as the one that you mentioned. Maybe try a different strategy. Try to reach out to them via LinkedIn or directly via email. Or send them references. Or be witty and funny. Or tell them what they could benefit from working with you. Just a bit more of a business approach.

[@mandella585]

It will be better if you add the Arabic language to your videos, thank you and good continuation!

[@Freelanceverse]

Thank you! I'm always open to people willing to translate my videos. You can get in touch with me on [e-mail].

[@adrikapap]

So if you are a newbie, what would be the first thing you invest money in? ProZ paid or a paid CAT tool? And on a related note, how much do you think one should spend on the initial investments, starting out as a freelance translator?

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks so much for the comment! That's a great question. Luckily, translation is a career with very little overhead costs, so you can start with minimal investments and reinvest pretty much any net profit in the beginning. I wouldn't suggest to buy any CAT tool right away, you can easily start with a free cloud based one and only commit to a paid one once you found a few clients. A CAT tool without clients is not really worth anything :) I'd say invest in a good laptop, a healthy/ergonomic workstation, good internet, a website and a proz account to start with. That puts you in a good position. I would probably recommend to be prepared to invest around 1000 Euro to get started (assuming you don't already have some of the mentioned things). Hope this helps! -Adrian

[@adrikapap]

@@Freelanceverse Oh thanks for such a comprehensive and informative reply! Very helpful :)

[@soniatorretta5046]

I have invested in a CAT tool a month ago. Very steep learning curve! Been using google translate and post edit for 6 years and it has been ok, especially since it’s free, but you end up correcting the same words over and over since it does not really learn vey well. But it Saved me a lot of tyiping. And it is improving by the day almost. The CAT tool is excellent for repetitive, technical or plain texts in particular those that require consistency. I have not regretted my considerable investment but have yet to make it work properly. Almost useless for literary translations, or at least not worth the investment.

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Sonia, thanks for your input. It's definitely also very useful for literary translation, just imagine all the character names, location, object names etc. etc. They need to be in a TB for sure, otherwise you would always have to look them up. The auto-populate or even the MT functions are indeed more useful for repetitive and standardised content, yes. There are also tools specifically for copywriting and littranslation btw :) the only thing I'd be careful with using free MT engines like Google Translate and DeepL etc. is privacy. The moment you put content into these engines, they become publicly available and I know many client who would be strongly against that with confidential text types.

[@BubbleInThePond]

@@Freelanceverse Hi Adrian! First of all thank you so very much for your videos, I am new in the translation world and you help me so much 🙂 Personally I would like to specialize in literary translations, and I see that you mention in this comment that there are specific tools for this… Could you please name one or two that you find good? Thanks again, you are wonderful!

[@arielcarvalho3199]

Hey Adrian! Excellent video! I got a ProZ membership a couple weeks ago, but I've been kinda overwhelmed so far... Could you please talk about the ProZ certifications? Have you applied for any of them? If so, how difficult are they? Do they make you rank higher on search engines?

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Ariel, it can definitely be overwhelming. I don't have any proz certification, no. But they definitely bump your search engine results. Everything you do on Proz will make you rank higher, that is kinda their business model. The more time you spend on the site, the more you will be rewarded.

[@micklostralien]

hello can you tell us how do you find your clients? thanks

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Max, I made a video on that, youll find it on my channel called How to find clients in 2021 :)

[@Amsire1]

what are the chances of getting a job paying the proZ fee without any previous experience?

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Maria, what timeframe are we talking here?

[@Amsire1]

@@Freelanceverse I mean getting some translations to do without previous experience..european time.

[@Freelanceverse]

Yes, but I mean in what time, within a week, a month, a year? If you mean within a year and you stay consistent and creative, you can probably find up to 5 jobs I can imagine.

[@Amsire1]

@@Freelanceverse ok...thanks.

[@atlasmarcellus326]

Are there English Arabic pairs job offerings in Proz?

[@Freelanceverse]

Yes, definitely!

[@atlasmarcellus326]

@@Freelanceverse alright thanks

[@Freelanceverse]

Portugues Subtitles by Rebeca Ventura :) thanks so much!

[@Freelanceverse]

Are you using ProZ? What's your experience with it?

[@ericazevedo8351]

At first, I was skeptical about becoming a paid member because the job postings are not nearly as plentiful as they've been in the past. Also it is harder and harder to get Kudoz because so many people answer them really fast, so I got discouraged by thinking "What's the difference, I'll be a paying member but my profile will be among the last anyways since I won't have points like these people that have been doing this for years!" But then, I was quite lucky to be hired by a client on a small project, and I decided to ask how they had found me (I setup profiles on all platforms I could find!), they said they had seen my Proz profile. It ended up they were wrong, because it was my response to a job posting on TCafe that they forwarded me later with the project, but still. It means that wherever they find me, people will eventually check my Proz, especially if we're talking about agencies. So I decided to invest the membership, which paid itself with the few smaller projects I got a little later. My profile is quite empty yet. I see myself either being too busy, translating a project, or being free but somehow uninspired. But I've accepted this cycle, of translating then updating my stuff (profiles, website, social media). And about you forgetting the BlueBoard: maybe you can use that on a future video when you could talk about common translator scams!

[@Freelanceverse]

Sounds too familiar what you are describing :) thanks so much for the comment. I fully agree. It itsn't even so much about potential jobs, it's just a good place to start and things will come from that. My profile is also rather empty, but honestly, no client cares about that. Just need to have something in your profile that distinguishes you and people search for. Thanks again for being so active in the community, your comments are very insightful. I appreciate it.

[@zeynepbilge6376]

Hi Adrian. I follow all of your content as a newbie freelance translator. Can you make content about SmartCat and some free CAT tools, please? Should we pay for Trados SDL? I'd appreciate it if you help us with these questions.

[@Freelanceverse]

I will soon make a video on free cat tools yes :)

[@henrydotterer1078]

Great video! Thanks for your thoughtful and insightful overview.

[@Freelanceverse]

Thank you for your comment, Henry!

[@venypersix1191]

Please don’t lie about translation I am listening to you !

[@Freelanceverse]

Why would I lie?

[@a.g.4843]

Hi Adrian, you made a video about invoicing, but what about making a contract with a client on proz? That’s easier to do on upwork, on proz I cannot find anything like that. How do you do that on proz?!?

[@herobandar8257]

Good Job. Learned a lot from your videos.

[@Freelanceverse]

Thats great to hear thank you :)

[@rosselenaalbornoz1386]

Thank you Adrian! You are amazing!

[@Freelanceverse]

💙💙💙

[@antonioubirajaradasilva7153]

Excellent video!

[@Freelanceverse]

Thank you Antonio!

[@antonioubirajaradasilva7153]

@@Freelanceverse You're welcome.

[@10ambeer58]

Thank You!!!

[@Freelanceverse]

💙

[@winais6007]

That's brilliant vdo. Thanks a million. Cheers,

[@Freelanceverse]

Thanks a lot!! :)

[@winais6007]

@@Freelanceverse You're more than welcome.

[@genesisorta2244]

Hello, thanks for posting your video, It was a little bit helpful, but I have some questions, Is it necessary to be a professional translator? Do I need a special degree to work in that platform? any previous experince as a translator? I hope you can answer my questions.

[@Freelanceverse]

Hi Genesis, you don't need a degree or experience for it, no. But it certainly helps if you do. I'm filming another video about proz today actually. It will be more for beginners. Stay tuned :)

[@genesisorta2244]

@@Freelanceverse wow thanks so much because you were the only one who answered my questions. I hope your video soon.

[@Freelanceverse]

@@genesisorta2244 it will be out on the 14th of February :) turned out great.