The Top 4 Blogs In The Translation Industry
Top 4 Blogs In The Translation Industry – Blogs That Are Making The Translation Industry a Better Place
There are way too many websites out there. There is information overload in every field, and it is sometimes hard to tell good content from bad content, to find the high quality websites among the not-very high quality ones. Luckily, translation is a field where there are no low quality blog (in other sectors people started to create a lot of spammy websites that really made the internet a bad place). In translation, we generally care. We care about language and quality, and we aim to create nice, high quality websites and blogs.
The problem is that blogging is tough, and around 9 out of 10 new blogs don’t survive the first 6 months or the first year. People get bored, busy, they change business tactic and a blog is no longer a priority. In many blogs the last article is one year old. I understand it, keeping a blog is really hard. But there are some blogs out there that resist over time and became a reference for all translators and interpreters who want to read some good material about their job. I want to give credit to them.
I listed the top 4 blogs in the translation industry. They are not in order of importance, I think they are all very good resources for someone starting out as a translator.
Adventure in Freelance Translation
The first of my top 4 blogs in the translation industry list is “Adventure in Freelance Translation”.
Catherine is a very experienced translator. I interviewed her for Translator Thoughts, you can listen to the interview here: “Interview with Catherine Christaki“.
I immediately liked her approach because she is the perfect example of “entrepreneurial linguist”. I think her idea of being a good language service provider can be summarized in:
– be specialized. Select some fields you are expert in and focus your business on them, don’t try to cover all.
– be on social media, share your knowledge and create connections with other translators
– be professional, but also have fun with what you do.
The best part of the blog is the “Weekly favourite” section:
This is part of the “sharing is caring” philosophy behind her business, and I love that. Definitely a must-read blog if you are getting started as a translator.
Translation Times
translationtimes.blogspot.co.uk
Another very nice blog is Translation Time, run by the twin sisters Judy and Dagmar Jennar. These two great translators and entrepreneurs focus on the entrepreneurial mindset necessary to run a business, even a one person business. No CVs, no job application. They will teach you to consider yourself a business owner and act as such, getting you in motion to pitch your services as any other business owners does.
They wrote the fantastic book The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation 
But CV is for employees, and to be honest I don’t believe in all this CV thing. A CV doesn’t show who you really are, nor your attitude toward work. Moreover, sending a CV sounds like begging for a job, letting other people judge you, and it is a really depressing idea. But when I started reading their book I saw another way of thinking about the freelancing career, more entrepreneurial, more proactive, more in control. I immediately felt excited and inspired, which is the necessary feeling to start a new adventure. This is why I became “ambassador” of this book and I wrote this review about it hoping to inspire other people.
Anyway, going back to their blog, you’ll find a lot of articles about their work and if you are starting out your career it will be really inspiring. One of my favourite articles is “A day in the life of a busy translator” where you’ll see what it means to be a freelancer and “5 downsides of working for yourself“. Maybe some of you might go back to look for a 9-5 job after seeing how tiring and challenging it can be. But maybe some of you will feel ready to jump into it.
Spend some time on the blog, it is full of tips and professional lessons that will answer a lot of the questions you might have before starting.
The Business School For Translators
The third blog in my “top 4 blogs in the translation industry” list is WantWords. This blog is a real gem. Marta Stelmaszak is a Polish translator specializing in law, marketing and business. Besides translation, she has a great passion for entrepreneurship. In her website she included several sections, which is a good example of how to build a great website to promote your business:
– a description of herself, her degrees and fields of expertise
– her services, included an in depth description of each of them and the pricing
– a blog with articles about various topics
– The Business School For Translator, a separate section where she writes short lessons to help translators understand the business aspects of this profession. In her business school there are almost 100 lessons available to you for free, plus videos and tips. This will help you understand how to structure your business before starting, and avoid the frustration of feeling stuck in your freelance career. Definitely a reading I recommend.
Thoughts on Translation
Thoughts on Translation is the blog by Corinne McKey, a French to English translator. Her blog is simple, clean and friendly, but most importantly rich of tips and resources for translators.
Well, this is my top 4 list of blogs in the translation industry. If you are thinking of building your own or if you are starting a new language business and want to build your website, this free guide on how to make a website will be handy:
Happy translation!
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Dear Chiara,
Many thanks for ranking my blog among such great and renown publications! I’m glad that you find my lessons useful.
Dear Marta,
you’re welcome! Your blog makes the internet a better place, it is a valuable resource that will last over time. I really enjoy reading it and on top of that you write for free and with passion so thank you 🙂
Oh, thank you so much for including us, Chiara! We love that we are in such great company, too. 🙂
Dear Judy,
My pleasure! Your blog is really insightful and it reflects the experience you have in the field. This is why I always recommend it. And yep, I agree: you are in good company in this list 🙂
[…] The Top 4 Blogs In The Translation Industry – The blogs That Are Making The Translation Industry a Better Place […]
Thank you so much for including our blog Chiara and what great company, we are very honored 🙂
Hey Catherine! You’re welcome, it is my pleasure to include you since I really consider these 4 blogs the very best in the translation industry. Keep up with the good work!
Do you have mailing list i can subscribe to?
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Am just getting into the industry and love your list Ciara.
Hope to come back here for more insights in the future.
Hi Chiara,
Thanks for the list. Resources in our niche industry is less. These are good blogs to follow.
Regards
Dmitri
Awesome post! Want to see an updated version with at least 10 blogs 🙂 Thanks.
Me too!! There are spanish translation blogs that are perfect for this post. Do you fancy have a look at?
Thanks for the list of blogs in the translation industry
Very interesting blog. Keep sharing good stuff. You have our attention.
This is a very interesting and valuable blog. i really liked this blog and hope to share it with other people.
interesting post i am im doing currently a few jobs as a freelancer but my go to source is usually just USE a software like http://www.babylon-software.com
The most interesting thing in this post is that, it covers both business aspects and freelance industry. Selecting any field as career in translation industry can become easier with this post. Translation industry is all about quality and this blog can help in becoming an effective translator.
This Blog is very useful especially to practicing and aspiring translators in Africa now that we have Centres of excellence training the same and lifting it to a profession. thumbs up
Thanks for sharing good information!
Thanx for these important and useful blogs list, because the resources in this industry are very less.
Thank you so much…
🙂
Hey Yuri, I appreciate your excitement in volunteering to translate the Planet Coaster in your native language. Like you said, it would receive a great response but I am afraid that these community-based translations might hamper the spirit of the storyline since each one of them is translating on their own accord. There is a possibility that majority of these translations are done using online tools, which usually throw up a lot of errors. Be it Portuguese, Spanish to English translation or any other language I prefer human translation over mere machine translation. Intelligent agencies actually combine both human and machine translation. Read this here to know why it is so, https://www.mayflowerlanguages.com/machine-translation-vs-human-translation-why-the-vs/
Hello everyone. It’s not top, but we’re trying to do it helpful for everyone. Our Language industry Blog for translators https://www.smartcat.ai/blog/. We’re always welcome!
Thank you for this post! I started a year ago and posts like yours help to learn a lot. 🙂 All the best to you!
Nice post…Thanks for sharing your information