tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post2058437080477770838..comments2023-05-31T11:46:50.421+02:00Comments on Financial Translation Blog: The Economics of the Sealed-Bid Auction in Online Translation Databases, or Why Petitions Against ProZ.com Are UselessMiguel Llorens M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-8656589068439038532011-07-10T00:13:42.329+02:002011-07-10T00:13:42.329+02:00A little pruning? More like a lot, Miguel. But the...A little pruning? More like a lot, Miguel. But there are some gold nuggets in the mud. I just have to filter out about 98% first.Kevin Lossnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-25807478585801125242011-07-06T06:41:29.055+02:002011-07-06T06:41:29.055+02:00Interesting. So you say you can actually find good...Interesting. So you say you can actually find good leads on the auction platform if you do a little pruning? Perhaps that might be worth looking into. Maybe my view of the auction mechanism is biased: I never found a single client through the auction platform. I'll be going into more detail about my experience of bidding on jobs in a couple more posts this week.Miguel Llorens M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06617102771655076833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2477329189905907968.post-89575310500864516862011-07-05T21:27:22.821+02:002011-07-05T21:27:22.821+02:00It's tricky generalizing on this subject, Migu...It's tricky generalizing on this subject, Miguel. My general experience of the past ten years of the "sealed bid" auctions at ProZ is that, for serious customers worth having, the project very often goes to someone bidding on the higher end. As far as I can tell, the presentation carries the most weight <i>in my language pair</i>. But I'll grant that this may not be true for pairs with Spanish, Russian or other languages. I think the main problem with crappy rates on ProZ is the number of "emerging world" outsourcers, who also include most eastern Europeans. Why anyone in their right mind would want to send a German text to a Czech or Romanian agency for translation into English is beyond me, but when these usually very nice people contact translators in a German or English-speaking country, their notion of rates are inevitably only good for a laugh. The same applies to most French or Italian agencies dealing with language pairs that do not involve their national language. And don't get me started on the Chinese.<br /><br />The key for me, at least, has been to filter out all the "noise", i.e. nearly anything from a country where one of my languages isn't a national language, and then be very selective about what remains. Eventually you develop a nose for the ones who don't have a problem with rates in excess of 20 cents a word or 60 to 100 euros an hour or more.<br /><br />A professional presentation can be quite effective at getting good rates from those sealed-bid portal projects or sometimes taking an offer from those who approach you via that venue and increasing it by some integer multiple. Couple that with a developed sense to distinguish between real prospects and time-wasters, and you can do well in those channels if you have something good (and specialized) to market.Kevin Lossnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com