Writing is to produce quality information and content on any topic to provide readers valuable information and shed light on the subject and online translation profession is gaining popularity significantly. So, there is much increase in the number of academic institutions around the world that offer translation programs. Translating and Writing business online provide the opportunity to make a lot of money since you are not part of the organization or publication. Creativity and technicality are the keys to being successful here.
Things You can Do in Writing and Translation
- Resumes & Cover Letters
- Proofreading & Editing
- Translation
- Business Copywriting
- Research & Summaries
- Creative Writing
- Articles & Blog Posts
- Transcription
- Press Releases
- Legal Writing
Starting Your Own Translation and Writing Business to make money
Having your own writing and translation business can be extremely lucrative than a writer who works for a company or a translation agency. Owning your own business also allows you to choose projects and hire independent contractors when the workload is much.
- Gather your resources – To work as writer or translator online you must have your own PC, an excellent internet connection and some free time. With a reliable Internet connection, you will be able to interact with customers, deliver article and to do research prior to or during their writing assignments.
- Writing and publishing some samples – Almost all customers are looking to see samples of your writing prior to offering you deals. You will not get customers easily if you do not have samples to show. Therefore, try to have at least five written articles of any topics.
- Web presence. Having a website is useful because it helps you to keep all your documents (CV, samples, clients list) in one place.
- Marketing your skills – If people don’t know you have writing and translation skills how would they hire you? You have to spend reasonable time trying to attract customers and promote your services online. You can attract customers by registering to freelance outsourcing sites like freelancer.com and Upwork.com. These sites linked clients and buyers to writers with a variety of skills. The hardest part of working with these sites is that you must compete with others for writing projects.
The skills needed to succeed as a freelance Writer or Translator
If you want to become a writer or translator online, or improve your skills, these are the basic skills that you must try to master.
- Excellent writing skill – to succeed as a writer or translator online, you have to be a very good writer, with good grammar and know different styles of writing in your native language in case of a translator.
- The translator must have excellent reading and comprehension skills in your source language(s).
- The ability to specialize in one or few areas
- Good computer and typing skills
- Marketing skills are also valuable; You must be motivated to market your services continuously and must be organized and disciplined in meeting deadlines.
Tools needed
- Proofreading Tools Foxit Reader Pro, Jaws PDF Editor, and Bluebeam Revu.
- Billing Software – examples of billing software are BillQuick, Freeside.
- InBound Writer – This tool scores your content and shows you how your work will perform on the web. Improvements can be made until your rating is in line with the standards of publication.
- Plagium – If you are concerned about another plagiarism, this tool allows you to determine whether your words appear elsewhere on the Internet.
- Smartedit – This tool is an editor for grammar and structure of sentences.
- Electronic Dictionaries and online encyclopedias such as Merriam-Webster dictionary, thesaurus, Word Reference
- Image editors such as Photoshop, Picasso.
- CAT Tools
- Translation Memory Systems SDL Trados, Wordfast, or DéjàVu.
- Terminology Tools such as WordSmith Tools
- Web Localization Tools editors like Dreamweaver.
- Subtitling Tools VisualSubSync, Sabbu, Aegisub and SSATool
- Desktop Publishing Tools such as FrameMaker, InDesign, and Scribus, LaTeX.
Websites to earn Money as a writer or translator:
- Freelancer.com – One of the most popular and reliable writing and translation online service websites, They have writing category where you can check out and make money from the latest translation jobs online.
- Guru.com – There are various translation-related jobs on Guru from translating texts to the writing of all kinds of articles, ebooks, blogposts etc.
- PeoplePerHour.com – Interesting and trusted name for making money, contains various writing and translation jobs.
- Upwork.com – Formally known as Elance-oDesk is a great website with various types of translation and writing jobs, be it full time, part time or fixed price, it’s your choice.
Others include; Fiverr, Helium, Writersweekly.
As Google and other search engines continue to seriously check trashy content by regular updating, magazines, bloggers, website owners and other Internet service providers are increasingly aware of the importance of quality content. Since quality content now attracts more traffic and profit, there is the increase in demand for online content writers and translators. If you are very good with words, you can make a lot of money; even earn a living through writing quality articles, blogs, e-books newsletters, sales pages, reports, and so on for people who need it for various purposes of online marketing. There are billions of websites out there and virtually all of them need a writer to pass information across making the field a wide playing ground to make money. It’s not too late to start.
Also, When your writing business starts growing and you want to make it bigger, you might need investors or other business information that Fintech provides to make your business bigger. Stay connected with us, you will get the help you need.