Freelance platforms are one of the favorite means of many freelancers to find work and get their first clients.
73% of freelancers claim to have found work on job platforms and without a doubt that is a sign of how effective they can be.
There are many job platforms, some general and others aimed at translators, so it is essential to know all of them to choose the one that best suits you and start building a good reputation within that website.
1. Upwork
- Translation is the second niche with the most job offers
- It has excellent job proposals aimed at different types of translators
- It is free
- There are many users and therefore a lot of competition
- In the beginning, you must pay a fee of 20% for each payment you receive
Upwork is one of the favorite options of freelancers and the job platform that currently generates the most profits, exceeding one billion dollars a year.
Despite the competition that exists within the platform, it is still a place where a freelancer can get work with no experience, due to the wide number of offers that exist.
On this platform, you can put yourself at the service of clients. You just have to worry about doing a good job, setting your hourly rate, and communicating your skills.
You should focus on creating a good profile that makes it clear what your skills and experience are.
Here, you must create a portfolio to show your work and generate interest in customers.
If customers are satisfied with your work, they will give you a good rating and you will gain a reputation in the community.
In Upwork, clients can also contact you on their own, so if you make sure you create a good portfolio, it is quite likely that they will write to you to make a proposal.
Fill out your profile completely and include your work and academic experience. Be specific enough so that clients understand what you do and what areas you master.
Source: freelancingwithchris.com
2. Gengo
- You can choose your own work schedule
- It is free
- There are a large number of languages you can work with
- You must take an exam to access premium jobs
- The payment period varies between 10 and 25 days after each month begins
Gengo is a platform specifically created to offer jobs for translators. It is one of the best known, has been in operation for years, and is considered very reliable among the community of translators.
Gengo offers great flexibility to work and earn money with translations from anywhere in the world and account creation is completely free.
After a short guide with practical advice on how to use it, you can start translating and getting paid.
In your Gengo account most of the time you will have work to do, but you decide how many texts to translate. It is not mandatory to do all of them.
The translations you will need to do are mostly made up of short texts, in addition to being simple topics that don’t require as much research.
This website offers you many employment options, it has vacancies not only in one place but also in several different countries.
3. Tomedes
- The platform respects your price range
- You can not only work with written translations but also as an interpreter
- It has over 950 language pairings
- You must wait until the platform has a job for you
- You must receive the approval of the platform to be part of it
This platform is made up of thousands of translators from around the world, as well as a team of project managers, editors, and a quality control department.
It offers its services to companies located around the world, academic institutes, government entities, some franchises, and small companies.
On this page, the freelancer must choose the price range to charge for translations when registering.
Based on this, they send several projects from which the translator chooses the ones that they are going to carry out.
To help you price your services, Tomedes offers a comparative table of the fees most translators charge.
Here you will also find special offers for different types of translators, for example for document translators, transcriptionists, and even proofreaders.
4. Fiverr
- You can offer any service that you can deliver digitally.
- The platform can be used for free, without having to pay for registration.
- Translators can offer their services easily.
- Only top-level sellers can withdraw their earnings within 14 days of being paid. It is a security measure, but it can be a problem for some.
- Commissions can be perceived as very high if a cheap service is offered.
On this platform, it is up to you to publish your services and promote them. You must tell customers what you offer them and what you can do for them. Clients will review your service advertisements and decide to contact you.
Here, you can offer your translation services at the initial price of $5 and charge for additional extras such as each correction or change that you must make if you specify it in the information of the package you sell.
To get your customers’ attention and stand out from the competition, you need to be creative, offer useful products, and set prices that allow you to compete with other translators.
The more levels you go up, the more trust you build with your potential clients and hence more sales that will flow in.
5. One Hour Translation
- You will find offers from very recognized and important companies
- There are translation offers for more than 120 languages
- You can choose from more than 12 topic niches to translate
- The freelancer must receive approval to work on the platform
- You can translate only into your mother tongue
This platform requires a test to see the level of the translator, if it is approved they send a certificate and you can start accessing the different projects.
Your work will be evaluated for its quality and will grow your reputation on the platform, which will help you get more offers and better rates.
It has among its catalog of clients well-known companies such as CNN, Coca-Cola, Shell, IBM, Fox News, Fortune, The Washington Post, BBC, Tech Crunch, Wall Street Journal, among others.
This platform is an excellent way to boost your freelance translation career. You can earn around $30 per hour while translating general texts and if you can translate rarer languages or expert texts (law, medicine, etc.) your income can be even higher.
The availability of the texts depends on the languages you translate and your qualification.
Source: lokalise.com
6. Unbabel
- Don’t need to have professional experience to work here
- Payments are fast
- Can work from the app on your phone
- Must pass a test to work on the platform
- Must wait for the availability of some positions to apply
Unbabel is a great place to become a translator online. It is a professional community of translators and so far, they have managed to get more than 40,000 translators worldwide.
Furthermore, it supports 28 languages. For a beginner, they pay around $8 per hour. As you grow as an expert translator, you can earn up to $18 per hour.
You can also belong to the Community Pro area and work as an evaluator, terminologist, or annotator.
Getting involved in this area of work will advance your career as a translator and of course, you can start to earn more than the average freelancers on the platform.
One of the best things about Unbabel is that it gives you the source and an AI-generated translation to help you.
Plus, you don’t have to wait until the end of the month to get paid because they follow a weekly payment pattern through PayPal or Skrill.
7. Guru
- The platform allows you to create your own invoices
- There are many offers for translators
- You can contact clients on your own
- The free plan charges you a 9% fee for each payment you receive
- There are more than 90,000 registered translators on the platform so the competition can be tough
Entering Guru is not complicated, it works like many other job platforms and you can start using it as soon as you register.
Start by filling out your profile, complete all the sections and you will start receiving attention from employers.
Guru has a very broad catalog of translation niches that you can specialize in, so you can be very specific about your skills.
You can use this platform for free but you can also pay for a subscription and access many special options.
There are four types of memberships but if you are a beginner, you should choose the basic plan that costs $11.95, which allows you to see and apply to job offers and gives you 10 bids per month.
Here you will find hundreds of special offers for translators and you can activate notifications to receive alerts about vacancies that interest you and that match your profile and skills.
8. BabelCube
- Together with the writer, you will be the right holder of the book
- You can choose the content you want to translate
- You can work together with another freelance translator
- There are only 15 languages available to translate
- You don’t receive a profit until the book begins to generate sales
Through BabelCube, book writers and translators who want to write books in their languages can be contacted and thus share the royalties generated by their sales.
This means a great opportunity because the income you will receive from royalties on a book is much higher than what you will receive translating small texts.
The negative side is that this can take a long time and that you also run the risk of translating the entire book and not making sales.
9. Textmaster
- There is a range of very valuable and high-paying opportunities
- Ideal for both beginners and experts
- The platform has a list of several specialized translation categories
- You must submit an application to be part of the platform
- The minimum amount of money you can withdraw is $50
Textmaster hosts opportunities for bilingual or polyglot translators and writers who speak any of the 50 languages available on the platform.
It offers translation services, content writing in different languages, and text corrections aimed at companies of all kinds.
The platform has a list of several specialized translation categories in which you can provide your services, specifically classified by format or areas of knowledge.
Among them, you will find technical translation, specialized translation in marketing, specialized translation in the legal and financial area, and many more.
To work at Textmaster, you must submit an application and it depends on your academic preparation and professional experience, you can choose one of the two available modalities: semi-professional or professional translator.
10. ProZ.com
- It has a free mode
- It is not only used to find work but to get involved with a community of writers
- You can activate the notifications to receive alerts of new vacancies
- To access more advanced options you must pay a subscription
- The free mode does not allow you the priority position in the directories
Proz is an online workspace for translators and one of the largest communities of translators in the world.
Not only will customers be able to find you within ProZ, but you will also appear higher in search results on the most used search engines (such as Google) when someone searches for translators that match your profile.
In Proz, there is a terminology query section where you can not only search for terms but can also ask questions and collaborate by answering the terminology doubts of colleagues.
These answers will generate points that position you better and better in the community and serve to demonstrate your experience in your specializations.
11. TranslatorsBase
- There are many vacancies available in different languages
- English is the language with the most demand
- On the platform you will find useful articles to increase your knowledge
- The prices per word change depending on the language
- You must pay a subscription to access the offers
With the help of this service, you can take your translation career to the next level as they have a large number of clients and projects.
However, in order to access the job offers, you must necessarily subscribe to one of their plans. They have special plans for freelancers and agencies.
Clients can post their offers free of charge, ensuring a large number of available vacancies. The cost per word depends on the languages you translate, but in general English is one of the best paid.
Source: atanet.org
12. Freelancer
- They have free membership
- Users can have two profiles, one as a worker and one as an employer
- You can participate in contests
- There is a big competition within the platform
- It is common to come across dubious or false offers
You can enter Freelancer.com with your Facebook or Gmail account and you will immediately obtain a free membership that will allow you to access and apply for job offers.
If you want to stand out from the large number of freelancers who apply for a vacancy, you must offer competitive prices and write a proposal that makes them interested in you.
The good thing about this platform is that there is a high demand for translators, so it is one of the areas where it is easier to find work.
Take This Into Account When Choosing A Platform
Reliability
Every freelance translator without experience must know that even on recognized job platforms, you may run into unwanted clients.
Some platforms don’t filter who can post job postings, which makes it more likely that some people will want to use it to scam freelancers or not take the postings they post seriously.
Fees
Each platform has different forms of payment and fees. Unless you pay for a subscription, the platforms most likely charge a certain percentage of the payments you receive.
Find out what percentage is left from the final payment and if there is any way to reduce it. If the fees are very high, this can discourage you since you may end up receiving much less than you estimated.
Customer Support
Find out how the platform protects you as a freelancer. If they guarantee you will receive payments or how they protect you from scams.
If you don’t investigate before and agree to work on a platform, you will not be able to protest if a problem occurs and they are not responsible.
The Ideal Job Platform Can Be Your Best Ally
The growth of your career as a freelance translator will depend a lot on the job platform you choose.
For that reason, you should evaluate which platform you will use to start growing your reputation.
Don’t forget to consider important aspects such as reliability, fees, and protection that they provide to their users, as well as the amount of demand that there is within the platform.
Finally, remember that you must be persistent and constant if you want to find good vacancies and be selected. If you work hard, you will soon see the results.