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Would you accept a job for 3 euros?
Thread poster: Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Jan 27, 2017

I just got offered this via ProZ from a UK-based agency:

Required service: Proofreading
Source-target language: Swedish - English Australia
Field: Mining &Minerals
Words: approx 50
Rate per word: 0.020 EUR
Total amount: 3 EUR flat fee

The mind boggles. Is this a record?

And this is what I paid my membership for?


 
Jan Willem van Dormolen (X)
Jan Willem van Dormolen (X)  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 17:25
English to Dutch
+ ...
No. Jan 27, 2017

Since there is always a minimum time needed for overhead (like invoicing!), everybody should always have a minimum charge.

 
Inga Petkelyte
Inga Petkelyte  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 16:25
Lithuanian to Portuguese
+ ...
A record?? You can't be serious! Jan 27, 2017

Just before opening the forum page, I checked, out of curiosity, a job posting:
a technical (sic!) translation (sic!) for 0,015 eur/word (sic!).

(ok, they have a range up to 0,02 eur/word - the higher end of the rate for a technical translation.... ooops)


 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:25
Member
English to French
jajajajaja Jan 27, 2017

no, and I even charge more than 5 euro/source word to translate or proofread 3 words...
Philippe


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 16:25
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
That takes the biscuit! Jan 27, 2017

I charge €30 minimum on every invoice, although just occasionally I'll do it for half - my decision though. Several clients send me lots of small jobs so once I'm happy they're honest, I'll invoice them monthly. Even then, there's a €7.50 minimum per job, even if it's just a couple of short sentences. I rarely give freebies as I'm sure they can afford €7.50.

Why would anyne work with a NEW, UNKNOWN client for three euros? It beggars belief. There's all the admin overhead of re
... See more
I charge €30 minimum on every invoice, although just occasionally I'll do it for half - my decision though. Several clients send me lots of small jobs so once I'm happy they're honest, I'll invoice them monthly. Even then, there's a €7.50 minimum per job, even if it's just a couple of short sentences. I rarely give freebies as I'm sure they can afford €7.50.

Why would anyne work with a NEW, UNKNOWN client for three euros? It beggars belief. There's all the admin overhead of record-keeping and performing due diligence. I'd love to impose a surcharge on new clients, but it wouldn't be commercially viable. Companies that do that never get my own custom.
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Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:25
English to German
Expectations Jan 27, 2017

I get the impression many agencies expect no minimum charge, they seem surprised and do go elsewhere when I ask for a minimum charge - probably best...

 
MikeTrans
MikeTrans
Germany
Local time: 17:25
Italian to German
+ ...
I charge a minimum amount, because... Jan 27, 2017

...the administration work for getting a project to run with my software, the corrispondence and communication involved and the invoicing takes time. For my abitual clients I will ask to just send me such a 'little' work, I can then decide wether I'll do it for free in some cases where I just have to respond a e-mail (and I know it's urgent for them), wether I make a special invoice in the medium future that includes the sum of such small projects, or I simply add it on the next invoice. But 'st... See more
...the administration work for getting a project to run with my software, the corrispondence and communication involved and the invoicing takes time. For my abitual clients I will ask to just send me such a 'little' work, I can then decide wether I'll do it for free in some cases where I just have to respond a e-mail (and I know it's urgent for them), wether I make a special invoice in the medium future that includes the sum of such small projects, or I simply add it on the next invoice. But 'starting' a work for 3 Euros/Dollars ? You are kidding, I guess...

Greetings,
Mike

[Edited at 2017-01-27 16:59 GMT]
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Fiona Grace Peterson
Fiona Grace Peterson  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 17:25
Italian to English
Not a record Jan 27, 2017

There was a job advertised a while back on here... an Italian writer wanting the synopsis of his book translated for a certain e-commerce website. Don't remember the word count, but it was a paltry few cents per word, for a princely total sum of €2.67. Or maybe it was US dollars. I actually got in touch with the guy on Twitter, asked him why he paid so little... his reply was that he (and I quote) "always gets good offers at that price." Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
Micro-Tasking Jan 27, 2017

Perhaps, the ProZ should add something like Amazon Mechanical Turk or Fiverr services?
Why, it could be even a monetized/extended KudoZ with microtasks instead of terms.

I thing it might be interesting at least for newbies. For example, as a favour I translated a short SMS and got my mobile phone topped up for $5--really welcome in roaming

On the other hand, there're other dedicated sites.


 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:25
Japanese to English
+ ...
3 euro job? Jan 27, 2017

Count yourself lucky. I was offered a one-euro job this week by an agency in Italy. My cup runneth over.
There will always be some one, most likely in Lower Yurtistan, who would be glad to take this.


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Lol Jan 27, 2017

Michael Newton wrote:

Count yourself lucky. I was offered a one-euro job this week by an agency in Italy. My cup runneth over.
There will always be some one, most likely in Lower Yurtistan, who would be glad to take this.


Fair dinkum, mate. It's so easy to forget how badly Lower Yurtistan is overrun with Swedish-speaking Ozzies ;- )


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 17:25
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Yes, but... Jan 27, 2017

Chris S wrote:
Would you accept a job for 3 euros?
Required service: Proofreading
Source-target language: Swedish - English Australia
Field: Mining &Minerals
Words: approx 50
Rate per word: 0.020 EUR
Total amount: 3 EUR flat fee


Yes, but one has to have standards. So, what's yours?

[Edited at 2017-01-28 15:16 GMT]


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 17:25
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Synopsis or sales pitch? Jan 27, 2017

Fiona Grace Peterson wrote:

There was a job advertised a while back on here... an Italian writer wanting the synopsis of his book translated for a certain e-commerce website. Don't remember the word count, but it was a paltry few cents per word, for a princely total sum of €2.67. Or maybe it was US dollars. I actually got in touch with the guy on Twitter, asked him why he paid so little... his reply was that he (and I quote) "always gets good offers at that price." Feel free to draw your own conclusions.


It looks like he's just translating a sales pitch for his book - synopsis is supposed to influence buyers' decisions. The cheapest sales pitch in the history, people normally pay thousands of $.


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 17:25
English to German
I would accept a job for 3 Euros, Jan 27, 2017

but not a translation job.

Maybe cleaning out the elderly neighbor's nesting box for spring? (No bee moths, those cost extra.)


 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 16:25
Japanese to English
I would accept a job for 3 euros Jan 27, 2017

By which I mean I would be happy to take their 3 euros in exchange for accepting the job. And then I would charge a minimum rate for actually doing the job. ^_^

 
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