The hottest searches by far in December for my website have to do with Spanish Christmas songs and Christmas carols. There are many people searching for English songs that have been translated into Spanish, whether they be teachers looking to teach carols to their students, or people in general looking to learn another way to sing their favorite songs.

If you're looking for any Spanish Christmas songs or English Christmas carols that have been translated into Spanish, feel free to check out these Spanish Christmas songs.

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I am not a member of the American Translator's Association (ATA), never have been, and most likely will never be.

However, there are a lot of translators out there that are members of ATA. It makes me wonder, does being a member of ATA and paying all the dues and doing everything to maintain membership really help a translator build his/her client list and increase business?

It seems to me that while ATA does provide some good information for translators through conferences, publications, and their website, the cost for the that information is not worth it. I've known plenty of translators that have been unhappy with ATA and the way it portrays itself as the end all be all of translation certification in the U.S. What gave ATA the right to say whether a translator is good enough to translate?

It would be interesting to know what percentage of professional freelance translators are actually certified by ATA, as well as how many are members.

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This question had me baffled more than once when I was just starting out as a freelance translator. The web was becoming more and more popular and people were using it for more and more things, but could it work for translators?

Well, at first it seemed like a lot of freelancers didn't have websites; rather, the only people who had websites were the big translation agencies. However, as time has passed, I have realized that there is no reason why a translator should not have a website and every reason to have one.

One of the reasons why a translator should have a website is that a ton of people search online for translators and by having a website, you can receive some of that traffic and direct people to your services directly, essentially cutting out having to go through a translation agency for work.

Another way a website can help is by giving a translator more credibility not only to clients but to also translators. A (professional) website is just another tool that a translator can use to increase business and become better as a professional.

I was nervous when I thought about putting a website together because it just seemed so daunting a task. However, I was fortunate that I found a hosting company (and so much more) that helped me know how to get my site together and present it in a way that could be beneficial to me and my clients. SiteBuildIt helped me take my freelance translation business to a whole new level, and if it can help me, it can surely help anyone out there wanting to increase their client base.

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This question had me baffled more than once when I was just starting out as a freelance translator. The web was becoming more and more popular and people were using it for more and more things, but could it work for translators?

Well, at first it seemed like a lot of freelancers didn't have websites; rather, the only people who had websites were the big translation agencies. However, as time has passed, I have realized that there is no reason why a translator should not have a website and every reason to have one.

One of the reasons why a translator should have a website is that a ton of people search online for translators and by having a website, you can receive some of that traffic and direct people to your services directly, essentially cutting out having to go through a translation agency for work.

Another way a website can help is by giving a translator more credibility not only to clients but to also translators. A (professional) website is just another tool that a translator can use to increase business and become better as a professional.

I was nervous when I thought about putting a website together because it just seemed so daunting a task. However, I was fortunate that I found a hosting company (and so much more) that helped me know how to get my site together and present it in a way that could be beneficial to me and my clients. SiteBuildIt helped me take my freelance translation business to a whole new level, and if it can help me, it can surely help anyone out there wanting to increase their client base.

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First of all, it goes without saying that every translator needs to have a website. (OK, if you've already got enough steady clients to keep you busy until you retire, I guess you don't need one) but for those who are always looking for new clients, a website is a must.

Owning a website, however, doesn't necessarily get you anywhere closer to having people find you. One of the ways you can get others to your site is through linking with other websites related to translation. Are there any resources you find particularly helpful in your translation work? Why not link to them and let others benefit from the resource.

Another way you can build links in and out of your site is to link to the webpages of other translators. Now whenever I mention this, translators usually start to get a little nervous and think (erroneously I might add) that they are going to lose business when linking to other translators.

Nothing could be a bigger myth. First of all, if you are a Spanish-English translator, for instance, what harm is there in linking to a fellow translator whose language combination is Swahili-Russian? Are they going to steal business from you? I don't think so.

Even linking to another translator with the same language combination is many times OK when the translators have different areas of specialty.

So what good can come from this? Well, first of all, your (potential) clients will trust that you are confident enough in your work to pass it along to someone else when it doesn't fit your particular skill set. Secondly, you are passing work to someone you (hopefully) trust and thus making the client that way. When they need work done in your language combination, they are more likely to come back to you. Finally, by collaborating with other translators, you might get some work sent your way from another translator linking to you from his/her site. It really is a win-win for everyone.

It just takes some willingness to overcome this selfish desire that we have as translators to keep everything for ourselves.

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It seems like one of the hardest things for any entrepreneur is to get paid for the work that they've done. Translators are no different. I don't think I've ever met a translator who's had at least some trouble getting an invoice taken care.

Most people will tell you that this is the reason contracts are so important. However, contracts don't always ensure that you'll get paid without a hassle. All it means is that it will take you forever and a day to get the contract enforced, and that's after spending all sorts of time, money and energy to get there. It can be a pain for sure.

So how do you know that a client will be one that you can count on to pay you? I don't think there's a surefire way you can ever know. I mean, sure, there's signs you can look for but none of them are definite indicators. I think the best thing you can do is make sure you don't do a significant amount of work before you get paid for it. If a client has a lot of work to give you, it's best to divide it up and get paid per section that you do.

I've done this ever since I started translating and I've never got burned for any huge amount. Sure you might get stiffed $100 bucks at most, but if you divide up the work and the payment, you should never lose more than that amount.

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Something that I've wanted to do for a long time is now available on spanish-translation-help.com

Web 2.0 has now made its way to the site, and why is that so cool you ask? Well, first of all, it's a way for translators and others interested in translation to actually add their own thoughts and comments to the website, making it more interactive and bringing translators closer together as a community (which we know isn't always the easiest thing to do).

I'm only in the beginning stages so there's still a lot of work to do to make it a permanent fixture on the site, but if you're interested, you can see how it works at the page on Bad Translation Pictures.

If you've got any pictures you'd like to add, go for it!

I'm back from the dead

So it's been a while (yeah, I guess you could consider more than a year a while) but now I'm back and will be posting more information about translation in general and language issues.

So what have I been up to this last year? Well, my website www.spanish-translation-help.com has been doing pretty good lately and for the first time, I finally reached a thousand unique visitors in a single day!

I'm pretty proud about that. Obviously.