Firstly, we want to introduce you to our new director, Margaret Sradomska. While Meg Dziatkiewicz has stepped down from her role, Margaret, our dedicated project manager, continues to assist our clients with her trademark enthusiasm and expertise. With her background in patterns and design, Margaret always brings a fresh perspective and invaluable insights to our team.

In September 2022, we were honoured to be sponsors at the esteemed KTLC2022 in Warsaw, The Translation and Localization Conference. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with industry leaders, showcase our services, and engage with fellow professionals. Additionally, we were proud sponsors at the CIOL conferences in both 2022 and 2023, reaffirming our commitment to supporting and contributing to the translation and interpreting community.

One of the highlights of this year has been the launch of our new package – a comprehensive one-page website design coupled with logo creation. This streamlined offering is designed to provide our clients with a cost-effective solution for establishing a professional online presence that captures their unique brand identity.

We’re also excited to announce that Websites for Translators will soon be featured on Design Rush, a prestigious agency listing platform. This recognition underscores our dedication to delivering top-notch design solutions and further solidifies our position as a leading provider in the industry.

As we step into 2024, we’re filled with excitement and optimism for the opportunities on the horizon. Keep an eye out for further updates, blog posts, and announcements in the days to come!

Wishing you all a prosperous and fulfilling year ahead.

Warm regards,

Margaret and The WFT Team

P.S. Remember to follow us on Instagram [@wwwforxl8] for updates!

The post What’s New at Websites for Translators in 2024? appeared first on Websites for Translators.

Let’s meet up for a chat! 

We’re proud to announce that we’re taking part in ATA 60 Conference in Palm Springs, California as exhibitors!

We loved our time at BP Conference in Bologna earlier this year, meeting all of the amazing translators & interpreters, catching up with our clients and getting to know the industry even better!

This time we’re taking our stand across the pond to meet the ATA 60 attendees and catch up with clients in the US.

It’s super exciting and we’ve already prepared a selection of offers and giveaways for the ATA60 attendees only.

Would you like to boost your translation business?

Were you thinking of getting a new website but not sure how to go about it?

Do you want to promote your business effectively but don’t know where to start?

Let’s talk!

Let’s connect at our stand 66 and remember to bring your business cards with you for a chance to win in one of our competitions!

See you there

The post Meet Websites for Translators & LSM Academy at the ATA 60 Conference in Palm Springs, California! appeared first on Websites for Translators.

We’re super excited to announce that our sister project that took a little over a year to complete from ideas to fruition HAS LAUNCHED!

*happy dance*

It is now beginning to have a life of its own and we’re looking forward to seeing it grow and delivering a superb experience for its members.

To those of you who already joined – a massive thank you for being our Founder Members! 

Let’s take a look inside of the membership to give you a better idea of what to expect

What is Language Services Marketing Academy?

A safe and secure space for freelance translators, interpreters and small LSP owners to learn and implement marketing strategies at your pace, with accountability partners and support group by your side.

Our streamlined monthly lessons on marketing, branding, online presence and more, will help you optimise your business to reach more targeted clients. Strengthen your translation and interpreting business and lay the foundation for sustainable business growth.

What can you achieve with our Marketing Academy?

• Build a professional translation or interpreting brand and confidently present it to your clients.
• Learn marketing concepts and implementation techniques to take your business where you want it to go.
• Build a powerful online presence that inspires trust and helps you win assignments.
• Create a comprehensive marketing plan that is adjusted to your needs and situation and is targeted at long-term growth.
• Get to know the tools and technicalities that help streamline day to day business and marketing tasks and save you time.
• Get the most out of your learning by receiving personalised help from marketing professionals and industry insiders.

What’s inside Language Services Marketing Academy?

• Video tutorials with corresponding worksheets & checklists
• Recommended roadmap of learning & implementation
• Toolbox for learning the tech side of marketing
• Community forum for peer and LSM Team live feedback
• “Request feedback” personalised and private email feedback for selected bundles
• Member perks: 10% discount on web design @ Websites for Translators

Check it out yourself! Join until 24th of July and keep the launch-only price for life.

Find out more: https://lsmarketingacademy.com/

Here’s what others said about the Academy:

Take a look inside!

Find out more at: https://lsmarketingacademy.com/ & join us!

Meg & The Team

The post We’ve launched our Language Services Marketing Academy! appeared first on Websites for Translators.

Last week we flew over to Italy to participate in BP 2019 translation conference in Bologna, Italy. As a Silver Sponsor, we were given a really lovely stand situated in a strategic place at the conference hotel. I said it before and I’ll say it again – the atmosphere at the conference is really positive, energetic and super friendly. This keeps me going back! We must have spoken to at least over a 100 translators over the 2 days. Meeting linguists from all around the world who speak different languages and exchanging stories with each other was great!

We’re now supercharged with positive energy and equipped with even more ideas to implement over the next months. But see for yourself!

Our stand at the conference

Amazing presentations

Including presentations from Tess Whitty about finding direct clients, Paige Dygert about legal clients and Jaquelina Guardamagna about soft skills in the digital era. But there was much more!

Beautiful streets of Bologna

We wandered the city on our day off and admired the historical heritage that Bologna has to offer. These are just the highlights but if you’re around, be sure to check it out!

Food, drink and more food… 

Pasta, gelato, coffee, Aperol spritz, bruschetta, more coffee. When in Italy… <3

Now we’re back to work with these memories and trying hard to focus on the new projects that lie ahead.

Did we meet at BP19? Get in touch to say hi and don’t forget to claim your special offer by the end of June! 

Here are some final BP logo shots including one with the lovely Virginia Katsimpiri who helped organise the conference!

Thank you!

The post Grazie Bologna! – #BP19CONF in Italy appeared first on Websites for Translators.

Since January is usually a month of planning for us and an opportunity to appreciate the previous year, we’ve been busy reviewing last year’s day to day business and prepping for 2019.

Today I wanted to share with you one take-away from our 2018 website customer satisfaction survey:

100% of surveyed customers are satisfied with the final results of our work – we’re super proud and super happy to reach this % in 2018! <3

Here are some comments on the final results and the experience:

“Both my logo and my website far exceeded my expectations and I have received numerous compliments on both.”

“I love the end product and the process was so much simpler than I expected.”

“The final result was amazing and many clients and above all colleagues complimented on it. Last but not least my work flow incredibly has increased since the first year was published.”

Yay!

This is exactly what we aim for. This is why we do websites. To create an online marketing hub that helps you grow your business and get more clients. An effective tool that you can be proud of and that your clients will appreciate.

From my side: If I was to fill in a client satisfaction survey the other way around to give our clients a review, I would say: wow! You’re such an inspiring group of talented professionals. I’m honoured to e-meet so many people from so many cultural backgrounds and speaking so many languages!

I get to know more cultural insights every day and it’s better than I ever imagined it would be.

So what about Social Media Covers?

While conducting the survey, we had a one £99 design voucher draw and one of our lovely clients Sergio Paris has been the lucky one!

You can check out Sergio’s website here:

https://www.sergioparis.it/

Sergio has used his voucher wisely – to create a matching presence on his social media:

Check out the covers we created for him:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergioparis/

https://www.facebook.com/sergio.paris.interpreter.translator/

And here’s what he says:

“Last year I took part in a small survey on the level of satisfaction with the services offered by Websites For Translators. I could only express with great pleasure my high level of appreciation towards them. As Fate had it, I was drawn from those who participated in the survey and I won a voucher with which I was given the opportunity to create a new advertising medium of my choice. I opted for my cover of my social channels.

What can I say? An extraordinary job that confirms once again the professionalism and competence of Websites For Translators. I cannot but confirm what I asserted after my professional website was created: do not hesitate to entrust your virtual presence to communication experts like them. The best that the marketing sector for interpreters and translators can offer in Europe and beyond.” – Sergio Paris

Thank you Sergio for yet another great collaboration

The survey was a great opportunity for us to get to know what works and what areas of our work need improvement. We already took some of the suggestions on board and our clients of 2019 will definitely benefit! Big thank you to everyone for taking part. <3

What do you think of social media covers in general? Do you think they’re useful if you’re expanding your presence to different online profiles?

If you have any questions or suggestions, drop us an email and we’ll be happy to help!

Have an awesome day!

Meg xx

The post Social media covers for Sergio Paris – our client satisfaction survey voucher recipient! appeared first on Websites for Translators.

*cringe*

Not a lot of people like writing about themselves. In fact, when writing copy and branding for clients, I find it 5 times easier than writing about myself. When working for someone, I can assess all the information they give me and produce the best outcome possible to try and attract their audience, paint the best picture, and so on. I really want them to win. But when it comes to writing about myself it kinda feels like “Hi, I’m Meg and, um, yeah I do webdesign and copy, would you like some?”. I’m sure you know the feeling.

But before you go into just producing new texts, it is good to take a step back and think about your brand as a whole.

Imagine a potential client, let’s call her Lisa, who is a marketing manager for a group of restaurants. Lisa is looking for a freelance translator who can translate their whole website, menus, assets, social posts into Italian [for example]. Lisa doesn’t speak Italian, so it is even harder for her to assess who will be good for a job to keep up the excellent reputation of the restaurant chain in central London and communicate with her Italian clientele. Lisa doesn’t care about cost, she’s ready to invest. She could approach an agency, but they are looking for someone who will have an ongoing relationship with them and possibly also to help deal with Italian translations on a daily basis.

What is it that she might be looking for?

She’ll be looking for someone she can trust. Someone who will take all her texts into capable hands and will provide the results she wants. Someone who knows how to translate those kinds of assets and who will advise her on the best way to communicate with the Italians living in and visiting London. Someone who will solve her problem.

–      She might just Google for a search term “Italian translator in London”. Scope a few websites. Naturally, she’ll gravitate towards user-friendly, finished products and not something outdated, with incomplete information and a security warning on page one (you do that too when googling!).

Tip: When putting your website out there, ensure it is a finished, full product. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. If it looks wonky and unfinished, the trust factor is not carried over. If the copy is excellent but lacks design it won’t be as effective as it could. If the design is great but the copy is full of typos, it won’t project a professional image either. The design and copy don’t have to be overwhelming, but it’s just not good if it’s underwhelming. Make it complete and balanced.

–      She would then check out your services, look at what you specialise in, quick look at the portfolio, check, you’ve done some website translations, brilliant!

Tip: Use an approachable writing style, the style that works for you and how you want to be perceived. Feel comfortable with it but think about other people having to read it. Use shorter texts for branding elements that go directly to the client and are not blog posts. And then use a unified style across all your communications.

–      She just saw your smiley picture on the contact page, so that’s a good sign! This person looks friendly. She looks like she’s got it! I’m confident she will be able to help me.She’s sent you a message asking for availability.

Tip: Professional photos really go a long way. Think about how you look for services online, or when you get a reply from someone who has a smiley photo in their email signature. It has a more of a subconscious impact, people really don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them, but the whole nature of communications automatically changes to a more friendly and positive approach. Get a set of professional shots done, ideally matching your audience (it can be something outdoorsy and creative if you’re translating travel and marketing, or office photoshoot if you’re translating a lot of legal) and pick a few photos on your roster so that you can project a unified image across all platforms, email included.

–      She then also clicked at your LinkedIn profile link – similar picture, great, verifiable. Same logo as on your website. Good experience, some really nice testimonials – she seems trustworthy. Let’s wait for a reply!

Tip: It is important that if you have a few bits of your online presence, such as the website, online CV, LinkedIn profile, Xing profile, Proz profile – that they all correspond with each other by having similar tone of voice, info that checks out across all profiles, similar photos, logo and/or brand colours that are unified. By doing this you will build a strong brand and foundation for clients to trust you. And that really is what you want. They will be more likely to buy from you, if they can trust you.

–      You replied but were in a rush and although you didn’t mean to, suddenly your reply comes off as curt and quite short. Is this the same person I was reading about online?

Tip: When choosing the tone of voice for your brand communications, or if you have them written for you, make sure that it corresponds with your natural tone and if necessary, adjust your day to day comms to match the projected image, especially if you think it will work better in getting new assignments. If you’re not used to writing ‘How are you?’ or ‘Have a lovely day’ but are suddenly working with a large British client, who does that constantly, try to adjust your ways. Email comms are a part of your branding! Insider info: when working with translators at an ad agency, we always chose the ones with whom the communication was easy, fluent, positive, and – not rude (you’d be surprised, and I don’t just mean an occasional curt response).

–      Lisa gives you a call to discuss and due to your professionalism on the phone, her initial worries disappear. It’s the same person from the photo alright! You set up a meeting in one of her restaurants and take it from there.

Tip: Dress to impress if you have an opportunity – make sure your professional outfit matches the general look and feel you want to project. Bring a CV / portfolio / leaflets / business cards with you that match the rest of the online assets that Lisa has already seen. Make sure you know which projects you can show her from your portfolio that match her expectations. How does she know you’re good? Show her the testimonials, or if you have a good client who’s willing to help, connect her with them to ask for reference herself. What else you can do for her? Maybe you have enough cultural insight to recommend a banner campaign in some Italian online publications.

–      You then proceed to send her an official quote for the first assignment and begin. When the work is done, you send her an invoice and leave it at that.

Tip: Have a package of proposals, estimates, invoices looking professional, with the same branding, colours, details. It can be quite confusing when the estimate and invoice have different details or addresses, different logos, colours – it just doesn’t look thought through and raises doubts. Spend a few hours on perfecting those elements of your customer service and you’ll have them all ready to use later. And remember about follow-up emails! Ask Lisa what else she may need, are there any projects in the pipeline that you may be suitable for. Send her a thank you note.

Make it easy for her. Seamless. Trustworthy. Make it whole.

Do you take time to work on your marketing and branding?

Check out my marketing survey for translators and interpreters and win a £20 Amazon voucher: https://goo.gl/forms/LKEb40Q6vkXYvwO43

The post Personal branding as a whole – tips for a holistic approach appeared first on Websites for Translators.

It’s often a new chapter for your business and your professional self.

Your website allows you to reach more potential customers, convince them to do business with you and convert them to loyal buyers of your translation and interpreting services. Despite it being an exciting new opportunity to showcase your work and a great marketing tool, some people find the “getting a new website” process stressful.

If you’re one of them, you may be thinking along the lines of – “what if I don’t get it right?” “what if my clients don’t like it?” “how do I get website visitors?” “how can I be sure that it is worth the investment?” or “I don’t even know where to start”.

The good news is that with websites, just as with translation process, the prep and research are key to producing the best result. Even if you won’t be taking care of the design part yourself and feel like leaving it to the professionals – there are steps you can action right now to ensure a smooth design process and fruitful investment.

The person who knows your business best is you, so while you may not have all the techy skills to make a website (and if you do, that’s awesome!), you have a unique insight and knowledge of your business that when shared and organised, can let you reap the rewards in the long run.

Okay so let’s get down to details!

Here are 8 things that will help you go through the process of getting a new website unscathed and get the most out of your new online shopping window

1.   Prepare a brief

2.   Look into your business and adjust the goals

3.   Invest in website content

4.   Know your audience

5.   Put customer in the centre

6.   Project trustworthiness

7.   Get a good domain and hosting

8.   ?

We have prepared a free handout for you, describing all of the points above in more detail. We hope you will find it useful when working on your new online presence! You can subscribe to our Websites for Translators newsletter and download it in a sidebar to your right and on the homepage here:

https://websitesfortranslators.co.uk/webdesign/

And if you have any questions just let us know!

Warm wishes from London,

Meg

The post 8 things to remember when getting a new website – make your redesign count appeared first on Websites for Translators.

If you haven’t purchased or enabled an SSL certificate for your website, you may be missing out on better rankings in Google search and have your site labelled as “Not Secure”. Also, under the new GDPR law and generally to ensure data privacy, it is simply good practice and increasingly more of a new requirement than a choice.

What are SSL & HTTPS?

SSL – Secure Socket Layer

HTTPS – Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

In short: HTTPS connection uses SSL certificate to ensure that all data exchanged between the visitor’s browser and your website server is secure and encrypted, protected from third party attacks that may otherwise happen without SSL connection. Thanks to SSL the data stays encrypted, and even if intercepted, the person who does so, will not have the key to decrypt it. It helps with keeping your website secure and therefore protects your website visitors, especially if you have any form of payment gateways on your website.

How do I enable SSL certificate?

This is something that is possibly already enabled on your server (hosting) or you can purchase it quite inexpensively (in most cases) to be installed on your server and enabled on the website itself.

Once enabled, you will need to make sure, that all the links on your website (all internal links, menu items, buttons, media and photo links, everything) change from http:// to https://. If you’re managing a WordPress website, there are plugins that will help you do that, or you can manually check the code and amend it. Some hosting companies will help you with that or you can also ask your designers for help. There is a high chance that when the certificate is activated, not all website links will switch on their own, so you will likely need to amend some of them.

Why now?

SSL has been around for a while and you’ve probably seen it in most of the online shops that you’ve ever purchased from in the form of a green padlock and green https:// address bar. The reason why I write this today is that starting July 2018, Google Chrome now labels all websites without https:// encryption as “Not secure” in the address bar. This, apart from all other technical reasons, may influence on how and whether people will contact you or make purchases, payments or send any documents through your website. SSL is also a good practice under GDPR law, to make sure all data exchanged between your website and your client is safe, private and encrypted.

At Websites for Translators we recommend setting up SSL certificate on your server on day 1 of having your new website, and turning it on soon if your website is already established. If you’re reading this and your website has a large number of pages and specialised plugins, member areas etc., you may require special assistance or your SSL may be more expensive – in that case the switch should be made even more carefully.

To sum it up…

SSL has many benefits, enhances your professional image, makes your data secure, helps with Google rankings (even if only a little as there is more to rankings than that) and is fairly low cost – if you haven’t yet, think about all the advantages and enable it for the health of your website today

All websites like to be up to date, happy and healthy!

If you have any questions or problems updating your SSL certificate, feel free to drop us a line: https://websitesfortranslators.co.uk/webdesign/

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After a rather large break in blogging duties, we’re back! Another eventful year has passed and we’re so happy to be a part of the translation and interpreting community

2017 was an important year for us and here’s a short post to give you a quick update on what has been going on and what’s to come in 2018!

1. Websites for Translators at Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL UK) in London, April 2017

In April, I was part of the “Digital Marketing for Interpreters” event organised by the Interpreting Division of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. Together with Martina Eco from 3P Translation and Jonathan Downie we have delivered presentations on digtal marketing, websites & copywriting for interpreters. It was a great honour and a lot of fun to be able to participate in this event! You can read the Twitter story from this event here.

2. We created a website for April’s IAPTI 2017 conference in Buenos Aires and we were included in a list of sponsors

While we couldn’t make it to Buenos Aires at the time, we’re always enjoying collaborating with IAPTI and we’re very excited for the upcoming IAPTI 2018 conference in Valencia, Spain!

If you’ve never experienced an IAPTI conference it’s definitely time to try it out! The website is in the making: https://www.iapti.org/SPconference/

But the schedule already looks exciting and we think this is the one you don’t want to miss!

More info here on the event’s FB page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1311772778969180/

3. In May, it was time to go to Budapest for the talk at the BP17 Translation Conference

This was an amazing experience! Budapest is a beautiful city and everyone at the conference was in a great mood. We really enjoyed the city, delivering the presentation and the conference dinner. It was a great opportunity to meet some amazing translators and share a glass of wine and a meal. There was even some singing and dancing involved!

This conference has a very positive vibe and the next one is in Vienna on 19 – 20th of April! You can register and read more about it here: http://bpconf.com/ – some great speakers are being announced every week!

4. Our website got a makeover, we have released so many new projects and we’re so excited for 2018!

You may have already noticed that we have updated our website (yay!). We were aiming for a clearer, more transparent design with simplified navigation and more positive look – feel free to browse through the pages to check it out! If you’re looking for inspiration, check out our updated Portfolio to see what great translation brands have been launched last year (and beyond!).

We have also introduced a cool new feature for displaying testimonials with pictures (it’s a small thing but I’m really happy about it so I thought I’ll share! ). You can read the testimonials and check out the feature here.

We’re extremely proud and happy to be able to help translation and interpreting businesses bloom!

There is more speaking engagements coming in 2018, more conference involvement and some special new services and offers are in the making this month.

I will be announcing them one by one when they are ready to be published, so make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date! You can be the first to know about new competitions, exclusive offers and perhaps speaking engagements near you.

Have a great and productive (or relaxing!) January & stay tuned for more news & blog posts coming soon!

– Meg & The WFT Team

P.S. We have also launched our first ever Instagram account last year! Follow us at @wwwforxl8 !

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