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Poll: How many words have you translated as of today in 2015?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:15
German to English
+ ...
Not amazing at all, Chris Feb 2, 2015

I have a myriad of different customers. I have no reason to keep statistics on word counts. It does not serve me in any way. I could tell you how many projects I have done so far this year. I can tell you what my gross earnings were. I can tell you how much I earned from each repeat client and how much I earned from end clients of the "man and woman on the street" type of person.

I use those statistics. For example, if I don't earn a certain amount in a month and it doesn't
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I have a myriad of different customers. I have no reason to keep statistics on word counts. It does not serve me in any way. I could tell you how many projects I have done so far this year. I can tell you what my gross earnings were. I can tell you how much I earned from each repeat client and how much I earned from end clients of the "man and woman on the street" type of person.

I use those statistics. For example, if I don't earn a certain amount in a month and it doesn't average out after a few months, that's important. If regular client X is pulling in most of the work, then I should be aware of that - both the value of client X and also the danger of becoming dependent on one client.

I have noted that the number of end clients has increased substantially proportionally the last few years.

But keeping statistics on total word counts - to what end?

There is also the fact that not every project goes by word count. There are small projects for which I charge a flat fee. I just finished a project which was charged by the hour. The word count doesn't tell you much.

[Edited at 2015-02-03 07:57 GMT]

[Edited at 2015-02-03 07:57 GMT]
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Georgie Scott
Georgie Scott  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 12:15
French to English
+ ...
Not as obsessive as real-time bidding Feb 3, 2015

I think it's funny to hear people's shock that someone might keep a word count in a day and age in which real-time bidding takes place. When I think about the details that some of my clients stress over and keep track of, recording word counts seems such a little thing.

It's nice to know though that it's possible to be a translator without being an obsessive business person, but personally I do enjoy keeping track of how my "business" is evolving. I would have thought it's obvious t
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I think it's funny to hear people's shock that someone might keep a word count in a day and age in which real-time bidding takes place. When I think about the details that some of my clients stress over and keep track of, recording word counts seems such a little thing.

It's nice to know though that it's possible to be a translator without being an obsessive business person, but personally I do enjoy keeping track of how my "business" is evolving. I would have thought it's obvious that if I keep a word count in my little spreadsheet I also keep track of about 15 other variables that some would no doubt find trivial.

I don't think being interested in the word count of other translators has anything to do with being competitive. As has been mentioned, that would be a terrible variable to measure your translation skills by.

And funnily enough, I found the comments provided by the people who thought it was a trivial poll to contain some of the most useful and interesting information... but there you go, there are many ways to skin a cat. Thankfully.

Was the question whether January has been a slow month? Not especially.
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Elina Sellgren
Elina Sellgren  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 13:15
Member (2013)
English to Finnish
+ ...
Misunderstanding Feb 3, 2015

My morning brain thought this meant 'from the beginning of time', hence the huge volume...

I have actually translated c. 15,000 words this year. Plenty of other stuff that had to be done so it's a good amount!


 
564354352 (X)
564354352 (X)  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 12:15
Danish to English
+ ...
Useful statistics Feb 3, 2015

Guilty as charged:

I'm one of those people who enjoy keeping track of the weirdest things, both in business and in my personal life. Keeping a check on how many words I translate is just such a simple little thing, Excel does the work for me, more or less.
So of course I know. I'm puzzled as to why the figure would be of any interest to anybody else, though.

I use the figure to see how the amount of words I translate compares to the amount of money I invoice, i.e.
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Guilty as charged:

I'm one of those people who enjoy keeping track of the weirdest things, both in business and in my personal life. Keeping a check on how many words I translate is just such a simple little thing, Excel does the work for me, more or less.
So of course I know. I'm puzzled as to why the figure would be of any interest to anybody else, though.

I use the figure to see how the amount of words I translate compares to the amount of money I invoice, i.e. whether I am invoicing roughly the amount I want to be invoicing for translation and not giving too many discounts or doing too much volunteer translation work...
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Yaotl Altan
Yaotl Altan  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 05:15
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Exactly Feb 4, 2015

Gitte Hovedskov, MCIL wrote:
...
I use the figure to see how the amount of words I translate compares to the amount of money I invoice, i.e. whether I am invoicing roughly the amount I want to be invoicing for translation and not giving too many discounts or doing too much volunteer translation work...


Then, we have the "magic" of dynamic tables to easily see that ratio or, still better, in a chart.

This is a sample:




[Modifié le 2015-02-04 03:10 GMT]


 
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Poll: How many words have you translated as of today in 2015?






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