Who this is for: You might be a mobile app developer, the sole proprietor of a niche webstore, or the CEO of a small internet startup with a shoestring budget. You believe the international market has a lot of potential, but know that people are only likely to buy your product/service if it is in their native language. You might not have near the budget for a translation agency, and with the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of words you would like to translate, you might be unable to pay even myGengo’s Standard rate of $.05/word for all of your translations. But there are still ways that you can get translation of your texts — by leveraging your community of users.
So what do you do? Here are a few helpful tips.
1. Create a String Project: String is a free tool for managing the translation of your website or app. You are able to upload language files in various formats, add collaborators, and view the progress for each language you are translating to from a simple dashboard.
2. Source Translators for Free: There are a number of ways you can go about getting free, human translators to work on your project. The most obvious choice might be to call upon bilingual family, friends, or employees. But how do you spread the word? Word of mouth can be extremely powerful, but why not also harness the power of Social Networking and reach that friend of a friend who happens to be trilingual.
To do this, choose to make your project public on String. This means that anyone can view the the basic details of your project, and request permission to become a collaborator. You can then tweet about the project or put a link on your Facebook status. Maybe add a message like this one: “Hey everybody, I’m trying to translate my site into Spanish and French. If you speak these languages, I could really use your help! All you have to do is click this link. Free beers to whoever helps out on this” You get the picture. You might also want to consider posting the link on your blog or a forum for language lovers like this one. (Check out our resource section for more.) In exchange for their help, you might even consider offering them a free download of your app or a free membership on your site. Be creative!
3. Quality Check: At this point you might be wondering: “how can I ensure the quality of these translations if I’m getting them for free?” With a zero budget, one way to go about this is to make sure you have at least two volunteer translators working on each language. The more eyes you have on it, the more likely your translations will be of decent quality.
Free translations aren’t normally perfect, but they are best when used for the text-rich dynamic content you have (product descriptions, daily blog posts, etc.) where the only other free translation option is a machine translation service such as Google Translate. An average human translation by an amateur will be better than the best machine translation ten times out of ten.
4. Pay for crucial content: There will always be content that you can not risk getting wrong. This usually falls under the category of static content—that is, content that never or rarely changes. This could be the user interface of your app or the menu bars on your website, and is usually extremely small snippets of text. For this type of content, we recommend ordering from myGengo’s global team of over 1500 pre-tested translators. With a recent upgrade, you can now order and receive translations directly from within String. And at rates starting at just $.05/word, we are sure you’ll find us a convenient alternative to traditional translation agencies. For specialist texts where, for instance, you need medical or legal translation, check out our resources section for a list of recommended translation agencies.
After creating a public String project, be sure to share links on your site and social networks as Codeigniter has done (above). Community translators can then visit myGengo and request access (below).
