Your professional translator

Hi everybody! How've you been? Has 2017 been good to you so far?  My 2017 has been very busy, although I have been working on getting back to the balanced lifestyle. The more busy I am, the more I realize how important it is to give myself enough rest, physical activity, and pleasant emotions. And the best thing that unites all three of the aforementioned aspects is of course travelling. A few days ago I took a short break and went to Saint Petersburg with my daughter and my nephew. Saint Petersburg is more than just a city. It's a historic legend, UNESCO World Heritage sight, and definitely one of the must-see places in the world. My break was short, but it was so good that I decided to share our itinerary with you just in case some of my readers find themselves in the situation when they have just 3 days to spend in Saint Petersburg and they can't decide where to go and what to see. Especially if you are travelling with teenagers (my co-travellers are 12 and 18 yea...

Anybody working online may at some point have to deal with negative feedback, both deserved and undeserved. It always brings negative feelings and emotions. Today I am going to share my own experience of dealing with negative feedback in social media. Everything posted there is picked up by Google and other search engines unless it's protected by privacy settings. That's why it's so important, first of all, to know how to deal with negative feedback correctly and, secondly, to stay calm and professional. Managing a translation school, I periodically come across various negative comments about it in social networks (luckily, it doesn't happen as often now as we are earning a quite decent reputation among Russian translators). At first, I got really upset about those comments, especially if they came from people who didn't even attend any of our e-courses or webinars, but they were sure nevertheless that we were just another info business in the worst meaning ...

Hi everybody! Long time, no see! :) There literally wasn't any single day when I didn't think about you. All my readers are very special to my heart. Thank you for your messages and for your cards! I am very grateful for your kind thoughts. As you probably guessed, this is going to be a recap post. I shared a couple recap posts back in 2014, so it probably won't be big news for you if I say that 2014 was an extremely challenging year. Sometimes to the point that I thought I was losing my mind. But at the same time there have been some changes in my life, and I would love to share them with you . 1. Remember last September  I talked about another surgery? It happened last December and it went very well. My body has healed well and my soul is healing, too. 2. I am not a freelancer any more. I already wrote once that I became a part of staff in two agencies. Since then the situation has changed even more, and I feel it is a very good change. Now I manage Translators...

Today when I opened my email the first thing I saw was a message from Google+. It said that from now on all Google+ users can get personalized URLs for their profiles. If you remember, until now your Google+ address was a strange and long combination of numbers. All you need to do is click on "Get custom URL" button in the message and you will be taken to a new page where you need to type in your cell phone number. Don't forget to choose the appropriate country. They will send you an SMS with the code that you need to type in a separate box and that's it! You have a custom URL! Mine is https://www.google.com/+OlgaArakelyan

I just had to post this picture here, initially shared on Translators Do It Better page on Facebook I still remember what happened that day in March and that overwhelming feeling of shame... Awful. Why did that happen? It was all my fault. I knew I couldn't give my 100% to work because I was sick, but I still agreed to do it because I really, really missed translating. Money wasn't the issue. I just wanted to work.

My friend and colleague Konstantina Drakou started a new series of guest posts in her blog called " So, graduation! Translator? And, then what? " and she kindly asked me to share my story. It always feels weird and a little awkward to speak or write about myself. Hopefully, I did a good enough job for you to see where I came from, how I became a freelance translator and in general, why I am who I am ;) You can find the post here, in Konstantina's blog . Happy reading!

This post is meant for those people and businesses that need translation services. Before you hire a translator, please first think about your priorities concerning the translation project. What's most important for you? Often people ask for these three things: high speed, low rate and premium quality. But is it possible to get all three of them at once? Let's have a look at all these points and then you decide what's more important for you, ok?

This post was inspired by the posts of my colleagues. I thought it would be good to look back and see what I did right and where I didn't do such a good job. That would probably give me some basis for defining my goals for the next year. Overall, I can say that 2012 was a good year for my business.

I obviously caught some very mean malware while doing a research for a project, so I had to completely restore the system. Luckily, I have a habit to always backup my files, so I didn't lose any of my business stuff. But I do feel very sad that I didn't backup my pictures and some other personal files. So I thought I'd make a list of useful software that can help me and you to keep your data safe. I thought I'd mention 5-6 most used programs, but as I began researching the subject I suddenly found out there are so many great options! So even though my list is not huge, some links contain a wealth of highly useful information.

You think speaking Italian is chic. Of course you do! I do too! But just for the record: For me vino and latte are NOT trendy words that I have incorporated into my vocabulary. They are plain items on my shopping list (I’ve always wanted to say this!!!).

If you have been following my blog for some time you might remember this post where I talked about my experience in social media. Well, there have been a few changes since then in my social media preferences. One of the huge changes happened when Jonathan Senior , the head of Sharp End Training, and I decided to create a special group for freelance translators. LinkedIn group . My first reaction to any changes is always panic. I have no clue why. But as a grown-up person and a business owner I understand the value of change and going beyond the limits of my comfort zone . So I did it. I became a manager of our group and you know what? I love it now. I absolutely love it. We now have over 400 members and have some interesting discussions going on. You can see the group profile and enter the group here if you want. This group also gave me the urge to start exploring the options that LinkedIn gives to its users. I started participating in the discussions not only in my group, b...

I know freelancers normally hate those times when they have little or no work. Especially if they are just beginning their career. But on the other hand, living constantly in a hectic rhythm isn't good for us . Moreover, those "famine" periods can even be useful for us and our businesses! Let me show you some things that I do when I am not overloaded with work. Maybe this list will give you an idea about things you can do! And if you have something to share, please do!

Financial matters is the hardest part of freelancing for many people. And for me, too. It can be a real nightmare, because your income can change month after month. Hopefully this will be a good change, but there will also be slow periods with almost no work and thus no payment coming in. I am still learning to manage my finances. The fact that I am a registered individual entrepreneur motivates me to keep the budget and not spend all the money at once (though at times I do feel like spending it all on shoes, makeup and other absolutely necessary things ;)) So here are my financial tips or rather lessons that I've been taught. Please feel free to add yours in comments!

I know I've blogged about it at least a couple times already, but I guess it's time to remind my dear readers and myself that no matter how much you love what you do, you need a balance in your life. Remember this post in Mox's blog called Metamorphosis of a too-busy translator ? Have you experienced those times of having so much work that you hardly have time for anything else? I sure have. In fact, I just came out of this translation feast time when I had to get up at about 4:30 a.m. every day and went to bed around midnight; otherwise my work wasn't going as fast as needed. When I initially agreed to take those projects I thought I negotiated the deadlines pretty well. But later I figured out it was a mistake. So why did I make this mistake?

Last weekend we celebrated  International Translation Day and I would like to send my best wishes to my colleagues throughout the world! Have you ever thought what would your life be like if you chose some other profession? I definitely can't imagine mine without languages. I would like to send my very best wishes to all my colleagues. There are some very specific things that I wish to you because I know you love to translate and you want translation to stay in demand for years and years. So here's the list of my wishes to you, dear translators: (actually, I wish the same things to myself, too!)

On Saturday Delia and I were invited to a very interesting exhibition. There were wax figures of different mythological characters of Russia and other countries. Plus the figures could move and some of them could speak (well, they didn't move the mouth, but we could hear their voice). Both Delia and I loved the exposition and were sorry that there were not so many figures. And then I thought that you might probably be interested in some of the Russian folklore characters we saw there. The hall of the exhibition was pretty dark and unfortunately my camera refused to take high quality images in this case. But I think you can still get an idea of what all the characters looked like. Of course there was Baba Yaga : Kids absolutely loved her. Then there was Koschei the Immortal . I loved that figure! It was absolutely in tune with my perception of Koschei.

Hi everybody! First of all, thank you for reading my blog. I love to see that the number of my subscribers is growing every week. That's so inspiring! I've got some news for you. I am amazed with the way my work and business are developing. Life is getting more and more interesting and, hopefully, these changes will be good for you, too! So, here are my news:

Today I was asked by a colleague to evaluate a translation that seemed absolutely horrible to the client. As I was reading the translation and the client's remarks, it dawned on me that the client actually needed transcreation , not translation. But since the term "transcreation" is fairly new, not all clients realize that that's what they actually need when they ask for "translation". So would you like to do a little research with me about it? Let's start then :)

It has been about 6 months since I started subcontracting work to other freelancers. So it's about time to make some conclusions and share my lessons. I'd also like to hear from you if you have experience working with subcontractors.

 When I first heard about Commun.it I didn't believe all the good things that I was told about it. But now, after I've been using it for a couple months, I can definitely say that it is a useful tool. First of all, let's look at  Commun.it website . It says that this service: 1) helps you have meaningful personal relationships that help you achieve your business goals; 2) helps you focus on your highest level relationships . It helps you define your influencers and see who supports you. 3) helps you to be productive without adding extra stress . It's not a secret that sometimes social web can feel overwhelming, so Commun.it helps to minimize stress and gain the necessary control over your network.