Next month, I’ll be celebrating 9 years since I first became a freelance translator. It hasn’t always been easy. Like everything, my career has had its fair share of ups and downs. At first, there were a lot of things I was prepared to do to get to where I am now. I tried my hand at many freelance jobs (and in a following article, I’ll even tell you what I did) before I started getting regular translation work.?However, aside from being a translator, I found one other thing to be working very well for my freelance career, from a financial point of view.
Content writing.
And the reason I decided to write this article is to let you know that you can do it too, as a translator. A lot of people think content writing requires a whole different set of skills which translators don’t have but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
For starters, translation is in itself a type of content. If you can translate it, it’s because someone wrote it first. If you are a specialist in a niche, then you can both write and translate that content.
Here’s why else I think more translators should become content writers.?
1)???Freelance writers and freelance translators have one major thing in common. They are business owners and as a freelance business owner yourself you already know how to handle deadlines and invoices and follow project instructions. Content writing is the same “lonely” profession as translation and projects are handled pretty much the same way. Writing needs online research just as translations need online research, whereas communication and project delivery are done via e-mail and Skype. There is nothing grounbreakingly different between the two professions!??
2)???As a content writer you need to have a niche. Ok, you can start as a generalist but it’s better if you specialise in a certain niche just as you would do as a translator. Most of us chose our niche(s) because of one of three things: a) our academic background, b) our previous working experience or c) our interests and hobbies.
If you are for example a medical translator and can call yourself an expert in this niche through your academic background or previous working experience, you can not only translate for medical clients, you can also write for them. If you’ve got a knack for finances, know how to budget well and understand financial terms, you don’t have to limit yourself to financial translations only, you can write content for bank blogs too. 8 out of 10 companies have blogs today and they are very content hungry. Just google “company name” + blog to see what I am talking about.?
3)???Finding work as a freelance writer works pretty much the same way as finding work as a freelance translator and here’s the thing. The agencies you already work for as a translator may already be recruiting content writers because a lot of their end clients want both their content written and translated in various languages. A lot of translation agencies are in fact digital content agencies. And a lot of very well-known digital content agencies have translation departments too. And why not? Like I’ve already said, translation is a type of content. Have you tried contacting digital content agencies for work?
Over the course of the past few years, I’ve worked for a number of clients both as a writer and a transcreator/translator and these contracts came from both translation and digital content agencies. So, here’s my first tip to you: i) contact your existing clients and ask them if they handle writing projects too.
4)???Now about that “doubling your income” claim I made earlier on, you need to know that writing pays better than translation. If you know where to look, of course. And no, Upwork and the content mills is not where you should look. There are various budgets for writing projects of course but it is not uncommon to get 0.20 EUR per word for a 1,000-word piece for example and this is just an average fee. There are niches that can pay up to 0.50USD/word and I’ve heard of higher fees than that, as well, which we will never see in translation.
By now, you may be having a few questions yourself. Questions like:
a)?What language should I write in if I am not a native English speaker??A lot of clients have hired me to write into Greek, so it doesn’t have to be English necessarily. As more and more companies wise up to the needs of content writing, there will be more and more work available in every language.
On the other hand, you don’t need to be a native English speaker to write in English either. I am not and I am doing it quite successfully. And here’s what’s strange. While most of us (including me) only translate into our mother-tongue, as a content writer, you can write in any language you feel comfortable writing in. I write mostly in English but I am a native Greek speaker who only translates into Greek. If you feel comfortable writing in both English and your mother-tongue or any other language, then you can look for clients in those markets too.
The important thing to remember is that blog writing is not the same as writing an academic paper. You do not need to be a native speaker or a novelist to write blog posts. Convoluted, flowery prose that adds no value to the reader works against good SEO practises and is penalised by Google. Remember, what I said above about writing for medical clients? You’d still need to write in a simple (not simplistic) everyday language. Having said that, you DO need to have good grammar and syntax if you want to write in any language.
b)?Should I write in the same niche as I translate??You do not have to write in the same niche as you translate. But if you can, then all the better for you. As a seasoned translator, you will have no doubt acquired some valuable knowledge into your existing niche which can help you come up with some interesting article ideas. What you’ll do depends entirely on how confident you feel to write informative posts in your chosen niche.
I, for example, write mostly about travel and languages with some marketing pieces thrown in. I do travel and marketing translations as well but I also do medical and pharmaceutical translations and would never dream of writing content for that niche. I just don't feel confident enough.
c) Can I write for existing translation clients? Yes, it is possible to do that. Your translation clients will be either agencies or direct clients. A lot of translation agencies are digital content management agencies as well. If your agency client offers content writing services as well, then it is a good idea to let them know that you offer writing services as well.
If your client is a direct client with whom you have built a good rapport, find ways you can help them with your writing. The first thing would be to check if they have a blog. But that’s not all the writing a company needs of course. You can: re-write their website, write content for their newsletter, take over their social media, write a press release, etc.
d) Can I write about a topic I’ve translated? Erm…no, is the short answer. You signed an NDA about that, remember? Having said that, inspiration comes from many sources and you can use your niche as an inspiration to brainstorm some fresh article ideas.
e) Is there any conflict between writing and translating for the same client??Generally speaking, there can only be a real conflict if you are both a journalist and a content writer writing for the same niche. If you are for example a financial journalist, you will not be seen as an impartial source if you are hired by a bank to write content for them. Translators don’t face the same problem but it’s always a good idea to read your contract, if you have one.
f) What's the difference between content writing and copywriting? I’ve included this question here as well because I get asked about it all the time. Content writing is not the same as copywriting. Content writing is writing informative content like blog posts; copywriting is writing advertising texts and it is my humble opinion that you need to be a native speaker to write good advertising texts that catch all the nuances of the language.?
In closing, I’d like to say that content writing has helped me with two major things.
i)??I feel it has made me a better translator because thinking like a writer (choosing the right words to express an idea from scratch) has made me pay more attention to my syntax and the types of words I choose to convey my message when I translate.
ii)??I find it has helped me beat the feast-or-famine vicious circle because when I am short of translation jobs, I don’t just sit in front of my computer refreshing my e-mails. I fire up an e-mail with an article idea to a client and get a new project to work on. I feel nice to know that I’ve created a project for myself out of nothing!???
Thank you for reading! ??
Expert Trados Trainer/Consultant since 2014 | Strong Expertise in Translation software: CAT TOOL, TMX/TBX editors & Aligners
4 年Thank you for this informative article! It guides and helps me a lot! Good luck!
Translation and Localisation
4 年Thank you for sharing this insight, Natali!
Técnico de comunicación y divulgación en Delegación del CSIC en Catalu?a
4 年Thanks for this article, Natali! As always it's really inspiring and insightful ????
Chef de projets de traduction (gestion des réclamations)
4 年During my Master’s, one of my translation teachers told us that she wrote some content in German for a client at some point (her native language is French). She talked about the advantages for the client (and also for her) and it pretty much is what you wrote in your article. Thanks for shedding light on it! It’s always a good reminder. I’m sending your article to translator friends ??