Blue Board Thread poster: Alisha Rice
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Alisha Rice 
Америка Құрама Штаттары
Local time: 14:35
Member (2024)
Spanish to English
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I am looking for LSP's that offer the most competitive rates on the Blue Board. Any recommendations on the best way to go about that? I have some agencies reaching out to me that only want to pay me .04 cents per word and I can't sustain myself on that rate. I don't want to bother with agencies that are paying that low. I want to reach out to agencies that pay competitive rates. I translate from Spanish into English and Portuguese into English. Thanks!
| | | | Baran Keki
Түркия
Local time: 00:35
Member
English to Turkish
4 cents is the definition of 'competitive': it's the magic number that immediately comes to mind (along with 5) whenever that despicable word is uttered.
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There seems to be a mismatch between what you say you are looking for and what you are actually looking for. The rate you quoted is competitive and apparently you’re looking to be paid fairly (a rate potentially higher than 5 cents per word). AFAIK it is rare for an agency to disclose what it charges each client.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Босния мен Герцеговина
Local time: 23:35
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
You can’t filter agencies on the Blue Board based on what they pay translators, there is no such a feature.
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Edward Potter
Америка Құрама Штаттары
Local time: 17:35
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
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| Translation as a profession | May 24 |
Alisha Rice wrote:
I am looking for LSP's that offer the most competitive rates on the Blue Board. Any recommendations on the best way to go about that? I have some agencies reaching out to me that only want to pay me .04 cents per word and I can't sustain myself on that rate. I don't want to bother with agencies that are paying that low. I want to reach out to agencies that pay competitive rates. I translate from Spanish into English and Portuguese into English. Thanks!
The translation business is changing fast. Companies that don't adapt are going belly up. We translators are morphing into MT editors.
I don't have any easy answers for you but jumping into a declining market with little experience will be extra difficult. Let us know how it goes.
| | | | Mario Chávez
Америка Құрама Штаттары
Local time: 17:35
Member (2024)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Marketing research | May 24 |
This I learned while in university, two years before getting my diploma in translation:
I was working for an important South American company, makers of milk products that wanted to export to the United States. They embarked on a series of exploratory trips to gather information. In the third and last trip, I was part of the team with the sales manager. The company had decided to conduct a marketing research on the ground. In the two months our team was there, the company spent $75,... See more This I learned while in university, two years before getting my diploma in translation:
I was working for an important South American company, makers of milk products that wanted to export to the United States. They embarked on a series of exploratory trips to gather information. In the third and last trip, I was part of the team with the sales manager. The company had decided to conduct a marketing research on the ground. In the two months our team was there, the company spent $75,000 vs. the $25,000 they could have invested in a onsite marketing company to conduct the same research.
Moral of the story: do the marketing research before embarking on a new profession, see if the average starting pay will be sufficient to cover your living expenses.
When I started in this profession, the average starting pay was $0.08 per source word. With a few more years of practice, I was making $0.10-$0.15 per word.
If $0.04 per word is unpalatable to you to work as a translator full-time, maybe it's time to reassess your situation, maybe get a full-time job in a related industry while you're getting your feet wet and gaining experience as a part-time translator. Also, don't be afraid to get started as a junior project manager, because that's one of the best ways to learn about our profession and our industry.
Finally, get out of Proz.
Alisha Rice wrote:
I am looking for LSP's that offer the most competitive rates on the Blue Board. Any recommendations on the best way to go about that? I have some agencies reaching out to me that only want to pay me .04 cents per word and I can't sustain myself on that rate. I don't want to bother with agencies that are paying that low. I want to reach out to agencies that pay competitive rates. I translate from Spanish into English and Portuguese into English. Thanks! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
Біріккен Корольдік
Local time: 22:35
Serbian to English
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Edward Potter wrote:
The translation business is changing fast. Companies that don't adapt are going belly up.
Companies could adapt by not offering translators 0.04 USD/word when their client gives them 0.20 USD/word. Translators do not do 1/5 of the work and do not offer 1/5 of the value.
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Lingua 5B
Босния мен Герцеговина
Local time: 23:35
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Epameinondas Soufleros wrote:
Edward Potter wrote:
The translation business is changing fast. Companies that don't adapt are going belly up.
Companies could adapt by not offering translators 0.04 USD/word when their client gives them 0.20 USD/word. Translators do not do 1/5 of the work and do not offer 1/5 of the value.
I think this is a matter of the past. Today’s scenario is more like: AI system owners carry out agressive campaigns and give presentations to business owners about how the latter ones will save huge bucks on translation by running their material through AI with a little post in-house polishing. And they almost always buy into it. If you offer them savings, they are interested, usually without much (deeper) research.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Нидерланды
Local time: 23:35
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Alisha Rice wrote:
I am looking for LSP's that offer the most competitive rates on the Blue Board. Any recommendations on the best way to go about that?
You can filter out some countries. Middle-Eastern and Asian agencies tend to pay lower rates than US agencies. Surprisingly, you may find that EU agencies do not pay as much as US agencies, but that would depend on your language combination, I suppose.
However, there is no surefire way to know whether an agency pays good rates, except to ask them. But even if you ask, some agencies will tell you they accept a higher rate initially, but when the work rolls in, they come up with all kinds of reasons to pay lower rates.
Contacting agencies is a numbers game, unfortunately. Expect 2-5% of them to ever contact you with a job.
I hope you realize that Baran and Maria are just joking (they take the word "competitive" and turn it upside down to mean "competitive for the agency").
[Edited at 2025-05-25 10:24 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Түркия
Local time: 00:35
Member
English to Turkish
One way of getting an idea about the rates an agency pays is to check out the translators' profiles who left reviews about that agency. Some people display their rates on their profiles. But this could prove somewhat tricky as you might find some Italian translators (supposedly living in a first-rate EU country, albeit with their parents) waxing lyrical about the 'best rate' Indian agencies ('best rate': a cent or two lower than 'competitive rate') on Blue Board, which makes you wonder about the... See more One way of getting an idea about the rates an agency pays is to check out the translators' profiles who left reviews about that agency. Some people display their rates on their profiles. But this could prove somewhat tricky as you might find some Italian translators (supposedly living in a first-rate EU country, albeit with their parents) waxing lyrical about the 'best rate' Indian agencies ('best rate': a cent or two lower than 'competitive rate') on Blue Board, which makes you wonder about their judgment in general on Western European or US agencies.
I've long suspected that project managers are encouraged to choose the cheapest translator on their database despite their shabby work, so a translator who appears to be working for 10 cents per word acc. to their Proz profile, may not necessarily be getting a steady flow of work from the agency for which they made an entry on the Blue Board on the strength of an occasional job.
The majority of the '10 or 12-centers' seem to be working for the fabled 'boutique agencies', which according to the legend are situated somewhere in rural France or Denmark and are fiercely loyal to their go-to translators, so much so that they'd wait days on end to hear from them and only when they decide that they are dead, they put up job ads on Proz, which pay handsomely. But, alas, those boutique agencies are getting increasingly extinct nowadays, and what little of them that remains cater for very particular language pairs and niches.
Filtering out, as suggested by Sam Murray, is good practice. You should pay particular attention to the agencies that seem to have a central London address, but run by people with Eastern European or Middle Eastern sounding names (the so called 'London agencies'). London agencies are also found in the Netherlands, Canada or USA, so you'd be wise to check out the PMs' and VMs' names on the BB, and be wary of the glowing reviews there. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alisha Rice
Америка Құрама Штаттары
Local time: 14:35
Member (2024)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I appreciate all the helpful information. I am learning the rates have gone down over the years when I spoke to some translators in the business in my study group for the ATA certification and I spoke to those in my language pairs and they did say that .04 cents per word was the competitive rate, which I was shocked to hear. I appreciate Baran's extensive information he gave and everyone else's feedback. It seems this business is one where entering it is not the best time and I don't know if i... See more I appreciate all the helpful information. I am learning the rates have gone down over the years when I spoke to some translators in the business in my study group for the ATA certification and I spoke to those in my language pairs and they did say that .04 cents per word was the competitive rate, which I was shocked to hear. I appreciate Baran's extensive information he gave and everyone else's feedback. It seems this business is one where entering it is not the best time and I don't know if it's going to get any better. ▲ Collapse
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Alisha Rice wrote:
It seems this business is one where entering it is not the best time and I don't know if it's going to get any better.
Yesterday, my pastor gave a sermon about AI replacing priests in their duties. I know a handful of programmers who are anxious about the future of their profession. Not too long ago, I went to a financial services company where AI has completely replaced their professional analysts. Office clerks, cashiers, tech support, and sysadmins are already on the death row since long ago, way before the FartGPT boom.
Just saying.
[Edited at 2025-05-26 05:45 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Түркия
Local time: 00:35
Member
English to Turkish
Novian Cahyadi wrote:
Yesterday, my pastor gave a sermon about AI replacing priests in their duties.
So ChatGPT is now hearing confessions, is it? No wonder people are freaking out about AI and confidentiality..
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Baran Keki wrote:
So ChatGPT is now hearing confessions, is it? No wonder people are freaking out about AI and confidentiality..
Are they, really? Many people now use FartGPT as some sort of crystal ball. We're only one step away from creating an organized religion with FartGPT as its deity.
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