Classes for translators

To get our weekly posts directly in your inbox, sign up for the Training for Translators mailing list!

This month’s master class is Introduction to content marketing, taught by Corinne McKay. Join us if you’d like to use blog posts, newsletters, e-books, social media posts, videos, or lead magnets to:

• Market your translation or interpreting business, or other products and services that you offer
• Translate content marketing materials for your clients
• Do native-language content marketing writing for direct clients or content marketing agencies

The live class runs for two hours on May 23, and registration ($75) includes the recording. We’ll cover:

• How to start an e-mail list; the foundation of any content marketing effort
• Blogging for your own platform, or for standalone platforms like Medium and Substack
• How to use lead magnets and social media posts to grow your e-mail list
• The advantages and disadvantages of using social media versus your own platforms
• How to generate ideas for your content marketing materials
• A few fails/things to avoid

Learn more and register here!

Training for Translators will be taking a break in July and August, but we have two master classes on tap for you in June to wrap up the “school year”:

• On Wednesday, June 14, I’ll be teaching Finding and marketing to translation agencies. This two-hour class is for freelancers who want to create a doable plan for marketing to agencies. Whether or not you want to work for agencies forever, realistically, they are where most freelancers start out. So, you want to create a streamlined process for screening, applying to, and successfully working with agencies. We’ll discuss all of that, plus how to follow up with agencies to increase your chance of getting work from them.
• On Thursday, June 15, I’ll be teaching Find a new direct client, using e-mail or LinkedIn. If you’d like to work with direct clients, but you quickly get “analysis paralysis” (who to contact, how to contact them, when to contact them), this is the class for you! We’ll discuss how to use e-mail and LinkedIn–tools you’re probably working with every day–to market to direct clients in increments of 15-30 minutes.

Registration is $75 per class, including the recording. And if you’re thinking about your professional development plan for the fall, our September classes are already open for registration. We’re bringing back our two best-selling classes of this past academic year; on September 13, I’ll teach Aiming for six figures as a freelancer, and on September 26, Karen Tkaczyk will teach Editing and proofreading for into-English translators. We hope to see you there!

The fifth annual edition of the Training for Translators March Marketing Madness challenge group kicks off in less than two weeks, on March 6, 2023! If you’re looking for more work, better work, or different work, come join in. Back for a fifth year, this challenge group (registration is US $90) features:
✔️Twenty business days of marketing challenges that will take you five to 30 minutes each day to complete (five minutes to just do something, which is a big challenge for all of us; 30 minutes to do a more involved marketing task)
✔️Twenty motivational videos to keep you going
✔️An optional but very fun Slack group to share ideas and inspiration with the other participants.

We already have 50+ people signed up and there’s room for everyone who wants to participate! Here’s the best testimonial I can give you: three people who participated in MMM last year, have already told me that they can’t participate this year, because *they have too much work* as a result of what they learned in the group! Full description/registration here!

The final Training for Translators master class of 2022 is on Tuesday, December 6. I’ll be teaching How to prepare for (and pass!) an interpreter certification exam. Based on my experience preparing for and passing (on the first try!) three sets of interpreting exams, this 90-minute class will help you create a training plan for any type of interpreting exam and set yourself up for success on exam day.

Registration is $60 and includes the recording, and the live class runs from 12 noon to 1:30 New York time. I hope to see you there! After this class, T4T will take a break until mid-January, when Meghan Konkol and I will kick off 2023 with a master class on Translating for the international development sector.

This month’s master class, Finding and marketing to translation agencies, is open for registration. In this two-hour class taught by Corinne McKay, you’ll learn:

• The advantages and disadvantages of working with agencies
• How to find agencies to apply to
• How to screen agencies for creditworthiness before you apply to them
• How to create a targeted resume for agencies, and how to answer common questions on agency applications
• How to follow up with agencies to increase your chance of getting work from them

The live class runs on November 28 and everyone who registers receives the recording! You’ll also have time to ask your own questions about the agency marketing process. Hope to see you there!