How can I use this site efficiently?

serrrhat wrote:

How can I find jobs quickly?

Tony M wrote:

I think your question is perhaps a little too broad, in as much as this is a very complex site, and there are many facets to it.

First of all, I would suggest you take the time to explore it a bit, to visit the links available under the various headings, so that you being to get a 'feel' for the shape and organization of the site. While you're doing this, it's especially worth taking a look at the forums, and the general sections into which they are organized, which will help you get an idea of where to go for more specific information.

Do take the time to thoroughly familairize yourself with the site rules, which will help you learn about site etiquette etc., very important for a newcomer!

Go into the jobs section, and use your personal 'dashboard' to make sure you get sent notifications of any job adverts posted likely to be of interest to you.

Make sure your profile is as complete as possible; this will help potential outsourcers to find out about you, and encourage them to contact you — I note that you offer translations into English, but do note that translating into anything other than one's native tongue is a claim often regarded with some suspicion by outsourcers, so you may need to be careful here; to pre-empt any potential criticisims, you could post some sample translations, and even seek comments from people who have read your translations into English.

Contributing in the KudoZ terminology help forum is a good way to increase your visibility on the site. Even if you don't start answering questions right away, it's well worth at least selecting notifications (again, in your Dashboard) so that you get to see the discussions taking place in your language pairs, and gradually you can stat contributing. This will get you known to other users, and this kind of networking, even with ptoential competitors, is actually a jolly good way of getting known (as I've found to my great advantage!)

Be careful though: outsourcers too monitor KudoZ (I've often had my KudoZ perfomance mentioned to me by people offering me work), so it pays to avoid sticking your neck out and making potentially embarrassing mistakes! It's all too easy to come crashing in with answers or peer comments, without feeling the water properly first, and end up looking rather silly (I speak from personal experience!)

And finally, take care how you set your rates; as a relatively inexperienced translator, you may not be able to command the highest rates (understandable); but be careful also of selling yourself too cheap — which can make some people suspicious; why is he so cheap? will he do a proper job? etc. etc. When starting out, and especially if you don't have much work coming in, it's all to easy to fall into the trap of thinking "earning anything, however little, is better than earning nothing at all." However, you can end up shooting yourself in the foot, and once up and running, it's much harder to push your rates up to where you'd like them to be. Also, bear in mind that it's best to keep your fellow-translators (= competitors) on your side, so you won't be very popular if you undercut them by charging rates way below the going rates in your language pairs (you can consult average rates stated by other users in your language pairs under Profile > Settings > Rates where you will find a link to Community rates.

I hope these few points will be of some help, don't hesitate to ask about any more specific points you may need help with.