| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: What is the current trend for your rates? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Grey Drane (X) 
United States
Local time: 06:27
Italian to English
| Yes, essentially steady, so down in real terms | Feb 25, 2010 |
As others have said, I haven't raised rates with existing clients in a while. I am raising rates with new ones, but not by much in most cases, and I haven't taken on any new clients lately that give me a steady flow of work. So those increases don't effect my average rate that much.
Plus I've chosen to eliminate some clients that were getting too slow and unreliable in their payments, so I've had a net decline in income in 2009.
~G
| | | | | Up - but only by upgrading my customers | Feb 25, 2010 |
My rates are moving up, but only because I am upgrading my customers - leaving the low payers and trying to acquire higher payers.
I find that rates are under a lot of pressure, especially because customers are getting increasingly Internet-savvy and use the Internet to find the cheapest translator they can get
I hope that they soon learn to appreciate that quality does come at a price ... See more My rates are moving up, but only because I am upgrading my customers - leaving the low payers and trying to acquire higher payers.
I find that rates are under a lot of pressure, especially because customers are getting increasingly Internet-savvy and use the Internet to find the cheapest translator they can get
I hope that they soon learn to appreciate that quality does come at a price ▲ Collapse
| | | | WendellR
Local time: 12:27
Italian to English
| The "rates" question disguises the real issue. | Feb 25, 2010 |
I have not raised my rates for 2010 -- but I have not been able to raise them since 2008. In other words, I cannot raise my rates because the market trend is down. In real terms, that means my rates are DROPPING because I'm spending in 2010 but earning in 2008.
More to the point, there's a huge difference between what my ideal rates are and what I'm forced to accept if I want to work.
That means: I can very easily say that my minimum rate is 0.10/word -- but if no one w... See more I have not raised my rates for 2010 -- but I have not been able to raise them since 2008. In other words, I cannot raise my rates because the market trend is down. In real terms, that means my rates are DROPPING because I'm spending in 2010 but earning in 2008.
More to the point, there's a huge difference between what my ideal rates are and what I'm forced to accept if I want to work.
That means: I can very easily say that my minimum rate is 0.10/word -- but if no one will hire me at that rate, my effective rate for the year becomes zero.
It appears to me that ProZ is basing its understanding of rate trends solely by looking at what translators indicate as their rates -- that's misleading and a mistake.
You should be looking at what your job posters are DEMANDING as a maximum, which becomes the rate that translators are forced to accept if they want work. You should be looking at postings like the one last week in which an agency offered 0.03 eurocents per word BEFORE taxes in my language combination -- and got 10 bids.
In short, you should be looking at what people are actually being forced to accept - not what they'd like to be earning. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not forced to accept | Feb 25, 2010 |
I think they are not forced to accept those rates. They shouldn't quote on those jobs, and try to find other clients that are willing to pay decent rates. If they cannot find them, maybe they can try to improve their marketing and sales skills to reach those decent paying clients. Or maybe they should make a career change. I don't know in Italy, but in my city, maids with no skills make more than many translators here...
Wendell Ricketts wrote:
In short, you should be looking at what people are actually being forced to accept - not what they'd like to be earning.
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| ProZ can have a voice here... | Feb 25, 2010 |
My position is like that of many here, I haven't raised my prices in nearly four years and so, effectively, I have lowered them over that period. This wasn't for want of trying, but there appeared to be a ceiling beyond which Spanish agencies would not go.
As for Proz's role. For years I understood the "market is the ultimate moderator" message here, without sympathising with it. Now I have come around to the idea that ProZ has reached a point at which it is a MAJOR voice in the ... See more My position is like that of many here, I haven't raised my prices in nearly four years and so, effectively, I have lowered them over that period. This wasn't for want of trying, but there appeared to be a ceiling beyond which Spanish agencies would not go.
As for Proz's role. For years I understood the "market is the ultimate moderator" message here, without sympathising with it. Now I have come around to the idea that ProZ has reached a point at which it is a MAJOR voice in the industry and I now believe ProZ should lead the way in simply saying: "we will not accept postings for as little as 0.03c a word". If outsourcers or agencies want to undercut that they should head off to a more unscrupulous site. ProZ should fly the flag of the translator, not the exploiter! After all, it is transaltors who have built this site and who make up its backbone, the site should shore up our profession, not undermine it by giving sharks a pool full of little bleeding fishies
I beleive that one simple idea would go a long way to purging the commonly held misconception that ProZ has become a ruthless home from home for unscrupulous outsourcers.
Here on Proz, one thing I know,
Below three cents we should not go!
Abstain from posting, cheats and liars,
ProZ com flies the rates flag higher! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The whole industry is receiving a shock | Feb 25, 2010 |
Hello all,
It is hard to tell from the profiles of many members/users who in their profiles write Rate: 0.02-0.09 Euro / word!!! They cannot be serious about themselves and others business.
On the other hand some agencies are coming with the requests for editing and they pay amazingly well, without even trying to negotiate. This rings me the first bell. I ask to see the file and then decide and what do I see: the google or other machine translated file, f which they w... See more Hello all,
It is hard to tell from the profiles of many members/users who in their profiles write Rate: 0.02-0.09 Euro / word!!! They cannot be serious about themselves and others business.
On the other hand some agencies are coming with the requests for editing and they pay amazingly well, without even trying to negotiate. This rings me the first bell. I ask to see the file and then decide and what do I see: the google or other machine translated file, f which they want you to reanimate!
No wonder the rates of translations have dropped. These agencies are so surprised when you reject the job, despite of the fact that you try to explain that in Indo-European languages, where you have six cases, three genders, all sorts of tense, and if we also include context a word or phrase can change in 10 different ways.
Same question when I am asked not to charge at all for 70-100% match. I do not know if they really do not understand or do not want to understand when I try to explain that when translating from English, Italian, French into Albanian language, due to complex grammatical structures of our language, most of fuzzy matches included in my discount rates take just as long to check and correct as if we were to translate the segments from scratch, because things would have to be translated differently in every context, grammatical forms of words and the sentence structures change dramatically, etc.
And it, indeed, is the case - say, 100% match of the word " to place" in English is not possible match at all in our language, because only changing the ending of this word may require to change grammar forms of all other words and the whole sentence structure (“to place”- me vendos, me caktu, and if it is "to place the kid in the right school" would be "me e regjistru", “me e fut”, and so on, - to mention a few (these examples here are in all infinitive, I am not entering into cases, times, person, gender, in which this verb changes all the time). I can give you thousands of cases like that.
Any way, I have not changed my rate since three years and my experience, TM, abilities, costs, bills, are instead rising every day. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | UP, but stable (low) income, fewer clients, less work, more anxiety | Feb 25, 2010 |
2009 was a transition year for me: I lost most of the low-payers, either by dropping them or because they decided they could no longer afford me.
I've gradually replaced these with new clients who are prepared to fork out a little extra for quality, but I'm not getting as much work as I did. One agency asked all its translators to reduce their rates. I refused. Now they're giving me about half the volume I was getting last year. Two agencies accepted an increase in rate but have al... See more 2009 was a transition year for me: I lost most of the low-payers, either by dropping them or because they decided they could no longer afford me.
I've gradually replaced these with new clients who are prepared to fork out a little extra for quality, but I'm not getting as much work as I did. One agency asked all its translators to reduce their rates. I refused. Now they're giving me about half the volume I was getting last year. Two agencies accepted an increase in rate but have almost stopped working with me.
My income is stable, but on the low side, and it's getting increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
Payments are slower: agencies which formerly paid after 35-40 days are now paying after 70+ days.
I'm receiving more and more requests to proof-read utter cr*p, which I then turn down as 30 euro an hour is considered an exorbitant rate.
Need I say more?
/end of rant/
[Edited at 2010-02-25 19:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Steady and up, but less work | Feb 25, 2010 |
Like many others before me, I have suffered a net decline in income since 2008 (which happened to be a great year, the best since 1999) so it is hard for me to say what 2010 or the future holds.
I have noticed that where I used to refuse as many jobs as I accepted, that is not the case this year, where I am just filling my workdays and some times take an unplanned day off for lack of work. The lull never lasts long, but it is worrisome.
I didn't raise my rates in 209 ( ... See more Like many others before me, I have suffered a net decline in income since 2008 (which happened to be a great year, the best since 1999) so it is hard for me to say what 2010 or the future holds.
I have noticed that where I used to refuse as many jobs as I accepted, that is not the case this year, where I am just filling my workdays and some times take an unplanned day off for lack of work. The lull never lasts long, but it is worrisome.
I didn't raise my rates in 209 ( I had raised them in 2008) and haven't yet for 2010 either, taking a wait and see approach, it is worth raising them mid year. I have managed to inch up for the (few) new clients I've taken on.
Perhaps what has saved me so far is that many customers are beginning to demand rush work, where I can then tack on a rush rate. I have always had some agencies that were always asking for the job to be done yesterday, but this seems to be a growing trend.
More and more agencies are asking for fuzzy discounts, sending log files from Trados even though they know I don't use it or not sending along a TM to match these fuzzies and repetitions (I know, crazy, right? but they'll try anything)
Don't know where it's all going, but I'm taking it day by day. ▲ Collapse
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