Virtual Networking 101 For Freelance Translators And Small T

By Author: Christian V. Hansel
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Virtual Networking 101 for freelance translators and small translation agencies

by Christian Hansel, SiteFounder of babelport.com
This Article gives a little insight into the mechanism of online networks and
their benefits for self-promotion and marketing of freelancers and small businesses
This is an edited reprint of an article written for babelport.com,
the Translation Industry Information and Project Portal, and nakedtranslation.com,
Céline Graciets excellent Translation web-log. The article offers a little
insight into techniques of virtual self-promotion and networking for freelancers
and small companies, especially in the translation industry. As a self-employed
programmer and project manager I've had my share of experience in this but still
I am far from being an expert. Nonetheless, here's my compacted knowledge of
what networking means and how networks are created, maintained, and extended.
...
... What is networking?
Technically, a network is a collection of interconnected unique entities allowing
for and generating multilateral transfers with redundant ways and strategies
of interaction. Translating this techie-jibberish: a network is made up of individuals
communicating with each other. To use an analogy: like a spider in his web you
can go from one spot to another using the paths that connect the individual
positions: The more connections are established in a web the more stable it
is. In fact, personal and business networks very much resemble the web of a
spider.
Through networks, new contacts are made: Imagine, your best friend's friend
introduces you to one of her acquaintances who will at a later point introduce
you to your future chess club fellow whose cousin will turn out to become your
wife/husband/friend - or may be a new client. There is a theory, called The
Six degrees of Separation (more information) which basically says that you only
have to know seven people who know seven others and so forth to know everybody
on this planet. By making use of personal contacts you create and maintain networks
daily.
In real life everybody has social networks: your family, your friends, your
business partners etc. Networks are the most valuable resources we have - not
only in business. When it comes down to business, however, it is vital to understand
that you cannot have enough of them. As a professional in your specific field
you are most likely already networking daily: Making sales contacts, calling
colleagues, showing up regularly at your local professional association meetings,
knowing your links to the Chamber of Commerce etc. Through this, you certainly
have gotten most of your jobs so far and will in the future. If you are experienced
in this kind of networking you may also be a member of a business group, which
usually only allow a small number of each profession to join. This is real life
networking you are most experienced with if you have not just started freelancing
yesterday.
This article will concentrate more specifically on on-line marketing or self-promotion
instead of repeating what everybody most likely knows. On-line self-promotion
works along the same principles as its real-world sibling: You need to create
networks, leave positive first impressions, and make sure your connections are
redundant. In order to go into detail, however, it is necessary to have an idea
about user behaviour and of how search engines work.
Search engines and your virtual self
Search engines gather addresses from header information sent by browsers when
user point their browsers to Google and Co, as well as from threads in Usenet
groups, news services, and, of course, web sites they have previously indexed.
These addresses are stored into databases and spiders or robots, little programmes
that browse these sites automatically, are sent to these websites regularly.
My own site, for instance, is indexed by robots daily for new content (1.000
views per day) and every 5 or 6 weeks completely (25.000-40.000 views per day).
When indexing websites robots usually call pages more than once depending on
the number of internal links. In that sense, a website is its own little network.
Search engines distinguish between internal, incoming, and outgoing links. Internal
links help to evaluate the 'weight' of the single page and its content, outgoing
links are relatively unimportant for the evaluation of the site itself but represent
incoming links for the sites linked to. Incoming links, however, represent the
most important factor, apart from content, of course. The more incoming links
a website gets the more valuable it becomes: it is represented in Google's internal
database and robots will index it more frequently. Like an introvert in real
life a website without incoming links is practically isolated and virtually
unable to network, hence it becomes vital for a business website to get as many
incoming links as possible.
Apart from links a major factor that helps to promote your website - your virtual
self - is well represented content. Search engines build their catalogues of
key words from textual information you offer and combine them with the number
of incoming links registered for your website. Of course, the information about
you, your experience, expertise, products, services, and prices represent the
core content. But surplus you offer on-line may be the key for virtual success.
A news section, a web-log, or a glossary of your expertise represents such additional
information. Larger companies offer forums, references, dictionaries etc. The
important fact is that the content needs to be original - continuously reprinting is rather harmful. Blogs are good examples: Many offer little original content
apart from copying texts found elsewhere; others, however, paraphrase and comment
on recent publications, news, and events - thus, they create a surplus of information
- an expertise. Remember, robots index your content regularly. It pays off to
regularly provide up-to-date surplus information since more content will get
your site being linked to more keywords in search engines.


Another way to easily produce a little bit of content is integrating news feeds.
Some websites offer xml-based or javascript-generated news specific to your
industry. Babelport.com, for instance, offers a News Feed for the translation
industry that can be configured according to your needs. Babelport.com
News Feed covers topics including translation markets, workshops & events,
news about CAT-Tools and PC-Security relevant information up to six times a
week. Using the Configurator
you can generate html/php/javascript code that allows to integrate new and up-to-date
content on your website easily and according to your layout-needs.


Content is best represented as text in plain html, with a well-done but simple
design. Company websites should not have the most fancy design - in fact this
may influence your ranking negatively. Flash driven websites are more difficult
to index and don't forget that many users disabled such features. Also robots
only index plain html-links no popup, javascript, or flash-based links (See
Google for more information how search engines index sites). Furthermore, as
in real life a positive initial impression is everything: Users not getting
the important information immediately will turn elsewhere - don't expect them
to spend minutes searching. Now that Google & Co have something to index
you need to make sure they will findA your virtual self. Here networking and
on-line self-promotion starts.
Creating networks online
If incoming links are so important to your site - how do ensure you get them?
First, by regularly providing content: if you provide valuable information visitors
will link to your site. Second, virtual business networks allow you to create
profiles and get promoted for free or little money. Third, find means to demonstrate
your special knowledge: engage in expert exchange forums, publish articles about
your area of expertise on portals like babelport.com, etc.. Whatever you do
make sure you provide your unique signature and your URL. Thus people will remember
you more easily and you also become more visible (and your search engine rankings
are improved).
Moreover, put a tagline to your signature in emails, forum posts, etc: A short
but catchy slogan that represents what you do and how you feel about the kind
of work you do. For some good examples you may have a look at the user profiles
visible at babelport.com. Make sure, however, you don't put superlatives in
there - calling your self the fastest, most reliable, or best begs a challenge
to this claim.
Joining business organisations and business portals is another major keys to
successful virtual networking, whether you wish to bid for jobs or not. There
are some out there addressing translators (including babelport.com) and some
excellent general ones (e.g. www.openbc.com). Apart from the direct benefits
of such platforms (creating personal networks, getting access to information,
and, possibly, a job) you can only profit from signing up with such business
portals. The reason is simple: Due to the amount of content, keywords, and incoming
links portals like these are more frequently indexed than the website of a small
business or freelancer. If you have a profile page on these portals, participate
in forum discussions, or publish articles thAere your name, profile, résumé,
tagline, and your URL will be indexed every time robots crawl the site completely.
Lastly, ensure a steady visibility on business platforms. Being advertised
as featured member for only a day creates additional incoming links valid for
some weeks if a robots indexes the page during that time (remember the daily
indexing by robots). This will have more effect than paying for keywords on
Google or banner ads in general web-directories. Also, the more articles and
forum threads you post the more incoming links are generated for your own website.
Redundancy only helps to strengthen your virtual networks (remember the spider
analogy?): Be listed and engage in more than just one business portal. By creating
profiles on and actively participating in multiple platforms your virtual self
will be ranked higher in search engine results and connected to more keywords.


Continuous investment
As in real life, maintaining virtual networks is time and, sometimes, money
consuming. You do not need to provide original content daily - but do it regularly.
Give yourself at least three hours per week to write some content for your website
and to participate in online forums. If you have gathered unique information
in your business, or written essays on translation, tips for freelancers, or
wish to publish new linguistic research results, contact our administrators
who will put them online for free at babelport.com. Doing this you gain expertise
and reputation directly and add to your virtual network at the same time.
Joining business portals does not need to cost money - there are many benefits
you get for free. Investing in annual member fees for two or three portals,
however, may cost you a couple of hundred Euros per year, but remember it is
investing into your business and may earn you more reputation than spending
the same money in printed newspaper advertisemenAt. It certainly creates more
lasting links immediately and pays off in the long run. Especially if you are
running a business with global reach - and as a freelance translator you most
likely are - you will need to promote yourself as heavily internationally as
locally. Business portals offer great opportunities for this.
Creating, maintaining, and extending your personal and virtual business demands
continuous engagement and investment with success often not immediately visible.
The benefits, however, will be measurable in steadily increasing website-traffic
in the long run.
Christian Hansel
CEO cpi service, Leipzig, Germany
SiteFounder of babelport.com

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