Tipps about blogging for business

I was just out of the office for over a week (longer than originally scheduled and planned), and now faced with the task of writing this week's blog post, I dug up this post from Marqui CMS. Unfortunately, it's a bit older (October 2010) and no longer online, but still applicable in my opinion.

I feel it's perfect for the occasion, since I set myself the goal to post at least once a week, no matter what, and that has been quite a challenge more often than not...

6 Things I’d Tell Someone Who Wants to Start a Business Blog (that I wish someone would have told me)

Oct. 01, 2010

Here’s a quick list of things I wish I had known when setting out to create a business blog:

1. You should write everyday, but writing everyday doesn’t mean publishing everyday. You should constantly be thinking about what you’ll write about, and you should be writing down whatever comes to mind.  Every now and again that might come together into something you can use, often it won’t.  The point isn’t to blog on demand, but to occasionally knock out a post that demands to be read.
2. Just because you posted something to be read doesn’t mean it will be. Post quality isn’t what gets readers, its what retains readers.  I know, I know, it sucks.  If it makes you feel any better, you’re going to look back on the stuff you’re writing now in a few months and want to delete it all.  If you write daily, you will get much, much better.  You have no idea.
3. You need a crank for generating readers. If you can’t turn the crank on demand but rely on events like a once in a lifetime ad buy or something, you don’t have a process, you have pixie dust.  Find a number of effective methods for driving incremental traffic and work the process.  There are some very basic and ways to promote your new blog without spending money, without including topless pictures in your posts, and without trying to out-hack Google’s Search Ranking hackers.
4. Temper your expectations about readership. Your daily blogs about the solar cell you invented that will result in free, renewable energy for all of mankind will get .000001 of the traffic that a post debuting a picture of Britney spears not wearing makeup for the first time will get.  I’m sorry, its not personal, it’s just the internet.  If you’re blogging about a niche topic, be the best blogger in that niche. 
5. Blogging is great because there’s very little barrier to entry.  Blogging is horrible because there’s very little barrier to entry. If your blog only took you 20 minutes to set up, it probably looks like it only took 20 minutes to set up.  Think about how much time you’ll put into writing for and promoting your blog.  You are not just a writer, but also a publisher.  Make it your own.  Be proud of it.  Get comfortable there.  It’s your new office.
6. Other bloggers aren’t your competitors; they’re your partners, your readers, and your sales and marketing channel. The average blog is about 300 words long and takes about 90 seconds to read.  Anybody who went to all of the trouble to find your blog buried in the corner of the WWW isn’t going to read just one little lonely blog post.  People don’t read from just one blog and they wouldn’t need an RSS feed if they did.  You’re not competing for eyeballs against other bloggers, even within the same space.  The blogging audience is hungrier than you can possibly imagine.

These are, by no means, the only things to know about blogging.  There are lists and lists of lists.  But these are some key things that, having known them, I could have saved myself a lot of time and energy.
(c) http://www.marqui.com/

Sollte ich kostenlos arbeiten / Should I work for free?

Als freiberuflicher Übersetzer passiert es einem immer wieder: die Anfrage nach einer kostenlosen Übersetzung. Wie man am besten darauf reagiert? Hier ist eine tolle und wirklich hilfreiche Graphik:
Sollte ich kostenlos arbeiten?

As a freelance translator it happens again and again: the request for a free translation. How to best react to it? Here's a really helpful chart:
Should I work for free?

Competitiveness

After my confession a few weeks ago – and receiving some quite encouraging responses from you, thanks again so much! –, I have received one larger and a few small jobs, but still nothing steady, the way it used to be before “the slump”. 

I also had the opportunity to speak with one of my agency clients about the slow start of my business year. It was quite enlightening – apparently, I am one of their more expensive translators, which is why they don’t offer me that many jobs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely understand that they have to make money, too, and they are certainly doing their job as an agency, so I’m not complaining about that. 

However, it seems there are translators on their list who charge almost half of my word price?! They do take a lot longer to finish a job, but still… I always wonder how they can survive. You can only work that many hours a day and produce good quality, after all. The answer is probably that they don’t have to, since they most likely have a bread-earning spouse or partner at home who pays (at least most of) the bills. 

It did make me wonder, too, though, whether it would be worth it to maybe lower my rates just a little to be more competitive, at least until things pick up again. But of course, my sensible business-self immediately jumped up and shouted: “Don’t do it!” And she is right, of course. How do I decide that things are picking up again? And how am I going to raise my rates back up once they do? How can I justify it to existing clients (who would probably be absolutely thrilled about a discount)? I would probably only hurt my future business more, even if it did mean more work now. 

What do you think? Do you agree with me? Or do you have another idea on how to be more competitive during an economic downturn?

JMV des BDÜ LV Bayern

Letztes Wochenende war in Erlangen die Jahresmitgliederversammlung des BDÜ Landesverbands Bayern. Sie findet immer abwechselnd in München und Erlangen statt, so dass nicht immer nur die südlicher angesiedelten Mitglieder bevorzugt werden...

Dieses Jahr war ja meine erste JMV als Mitglied im Vorstand und Schatzmeisterin. Die vorangehende Kassenprüfung Ende März hatte ich gut überstanden, und der Bericht über die finanzielle Lage des Landesverbands samt Ausblick war auch rechtzeitig fertig geworden. Meine einzige Aufgabe auf der JMV selbst bestand also nur noch darin das Budget kurz zu besprechen und Fragen zu beantworten. Eigentlich nichts Welt bewegendes, aber ich war trotzdem etwas nervös. Völlig zu Unrecht natürlich, wie sich herausstellte, zumal da ich direkt nach der Mittagspause (Suppenkoma!) dran und das letzte Vorstandsmitglied war, das noch was sagen sollte, so dass es kaum Fragen und nur allgemeine Zustimmung gab, sowie die nötige Entlastung des Vorstands durch die Mitglieder.

Aber auch wenn meine Anwesenheit natürlich Pflicht war, der "wahre" Grund zur JMV zu gehen war Kollegen zu treffen, sich auszutauschen, v.a. was die unterschiedlichen Meinungen, Ansichten und Ideen zu diversen Themen betrifft, neue Denkanstöße zu bekommen und vieles mehr. Selbst wenn ich nicht hätte dabei sein müssen, wäre ich auf jeden Fall gekommen. Zusammen mit dem Neujahrsempfang ist die JMV eine tolle Gelegenheit mal aus dem meist Einsiedlerhaften Leben als Freiberufler auszubrechen und Gleichgesinnte zu treffen. Ich sage nur: Networking, zu welchen Zwecken auch immer!
Ein besonders schönes Resultat für mich war, dass sich eine Nachfolgerin für meinen Posten als Co-Leiterin der Regionalgruppe Erlangen/Nürnberg gefunden hat, die auch gleich die Gelegenheit beim Schopfe ergriff, mich auszufragen was das denn so alles beinhaltet. Abgeschreckt habe ich sie offensichtlich nicht, denn sie wird ihr neues Amt nächsten Monat voller Tatendrang ganz offiziell antreten...  ;)

50 ideas on using Twitter for business

After looking at 5 ways not to use Twitter for freelancers, I came across another very interesting and helpful post on Chris Brogan's blog: 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.

Here are my favorite points:

4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you. 

7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out. 

13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link. 

14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions. 

18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things. 

21. You don’t have to read every tweet. (This may be the most important one... did somebody say time?!) 

47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).

So, how do you use Twitter? And if you don't (yet?), why not?

Agenturen - die Zweite

Ich war gestern und heute auf einem Dolmetscheinsatz in Nürnberg für eine internationale Konferenz. Wir waren zu acht, jeweils zwei Dolmetscherinnen pro Team, um die drei mal vier parallel stattfindenden Workshops zu verdolmetschen. Organisiert hatte das Ganze eine für mich neue Agentur, die mich bereits im Dezember angefragt hatte. Diese Agentur fällt erfreulicherweise nicht in die Kategorie "Umtüter" (wie hier berichtet), denn der Vorlauf war wunderbar, die Kommunikation sehr gut, und es gab jede Menge Vorbereitungsmaterial (alle Präsentationen) und Unterstützung im Voraus. Wir durften uns sogar die Themen aussuchen, die wir bevorzugt dolmetschen wollten! Vor Ort war auch alles prima organisiert und wir waren gut versorgt, sowohl was das Technische betraf (der Chef der Technik-Firma war selbst mit dabei und wusste genau, wie man Dolmetscher glücklich macht), als auch die "kleinen" Dinge (wie Wasser ohne Kohlensäure).

Leider war die Dame von der Agentur, die alles organisiert hatte, krank und konnte so nicht vor Ort dabei sein. Und das stellte sich leider als Problem heraus, denn bei der Planung wurde übersehen, dass nach den Workshops auch noch eine Schlussveranstaltung (fast drei zusätzliche Stunden) stattfand, bei der ebenfalls gedolmetscht werden sollte, aber das hatte niemand eingeplant. Als es darum ging festzulegen, welche zwei von den acht Dolmetscherinnen dies übernehmen sollten, gab es leider einige Verwirrung, so dass am Ende jeweils zwei Teams dachten, sie würden länger bleiben. Der Kunde entschied schließlich (aus etwas eigenartigen Gründen), welche zwei Kolleginnen bleiben sollten, und zwar erst fünf Minuten vor Beginn der Schlussveranstaltung. Dass eine Kollegin extra noch einen Termin verschoben hatte und dann nach hause geschickt wurde, war natürlich besonders unschön.

Das ganze Schlamassel hätte eigentlich ganz einfach vermieden werden können, ohne dass irgendjemand sich übergangen, falsch behandelt oder sonstwie auf den Schlips getreten gefühlt hätte. Es hätte nur eine der Dolmetscherinnen als Ansprechperson ausgewählt werden müssen, und zwar unabhängig davon, ob die Agenturrepräsentantin krank war oder nicht. Diese Person hätte dann als Kontakt zwischen allen Parteien (Dolmetschern, Agentur, Kunde) fungiert und im Notfall auch entsprechende Entscheidungen treffen können.
Beim nächsten Einsatz mit mehreren Teams (egal mit welcher Agentur) werde ich auf jeden Fall vorher nachfragen, wie das geregelt ist und bei Bedarf diese Lösung vorschlagen. Aber eigentlich sollte das doch selbstverständlich sein, oder?

Confession

I debated with myself whether to write this post or not. To 'fess up or not to 'fess up...
Is it professional or not to talk about this? Will this hurt the way (potential) clients see me? Might it maybe even help? And finally: Don't most freelancers have these times at some point in their careers?
In the end I decided to do it: I confess.

I confess that my business year so far has been slow. Ok, more than slow. Lately, I have had barely any jobs come in at all, and if it wasn't for one regular translation about every two months and some interpreting jobs, I would really be in trouble. Yes, I do have reserves saved up for times such as these, and no, I would not starve or end up homeless tomorrow, but still. The much too quite first quarter of this year has got me just a little worried.

I had heard colleagues talk about this slump for quite a while - some even as far back as 2010 -, but until now I had always had enough work, both to satisfy the bank and my I-need-something-to-do self, and sometimes almost too much.

First I thought it might have something to do with my move last fall, but now I'm not so sure. After all, most jobs are handled online form start to finish. Location is therefore only secondary, especially for translations, and that is still the majority of my workload. And even when it comes to interpreting assignments, I am still close enough to my previous "haunts" to work for my clients there, plus I have had several inquiries from new clients since I moved, both locally and across Germany, so that can't be it.

So why this drop in work these past months? Is it an overall trend across the translation industry? Not likely, especially since I have colleagues who are almost drowning in work (at least according to their social media output). Am I doing something wrong? I wouldn't know what. All my clients have been happy with my work in the past, plus I make it a point to be courteous and professional in all my business dealings, so irate or disappointed clients can't be the reason, either.

Maybe it is just one of those times, part of life as an independent business woman, and one that will pass soon. I sincerely hope so, because I love working as a translator and interpreter and to do so as a freelancer, and would hate having to look for alternative work.

I'm not sure how to deal with this since I have not had to do so before. However, I am not sitting idle. I did decide on investing into my website, and I am using the time to catch up on my reading (professional magazines et al. that have been stacking up on my desk), clean up my TMs and termbases and do some more training (both online and in real life, as well as some good old-fashioned vocabulary studies).
But I'm also very happy about any tips on how to get over this slow time - and of course new work!! ;)
So please, dear colleagues, let me know in the comments below if you've been in this situation before, and how you got out of it! I'm sure I'm not the only one...