In the recent years, you might’ve noticed an explosion of blogs written by translators. It feels like there’s a new one launching almost every day. I write mine quite regularly as well. All this may lead to some confusion and perhaps even a feeling of being behind if you don’t write a blog, for a change. This is precisely the reason why one of my students asked me, quite frankly, if blogging is necessary to market her translation business successfully. Let’s look at what arguments she put forward and how I replied.
There’s certainly a case against blogging. I do agree that blogging, first of all, is time consuming. Even if you don’t blog on a regular basis, you have to find the time to actually write your blog posts. And it’s such an easy thing to procrastinate and end up feeling guilty you never actually find the time to update your blog. It ends up being a chore.
If you find the time and commit to write, another problem pops up. What to write? It may be difficult to find the right topics that would actually make interesting posts. This is by far one of the biggest obstacles to writing a blog.
Even if you know what you want to write about, you’ll find that there are others out there who’re already covering this topic. It’s very difficult to be original and find something totally new to say.
Perhaps the biggest question mark related to blogging from the business perspective is the doubtful return on investment. You spend your precious time on blogging rather than working and you can never know if it’s actually bringing you any clients, or any benefits at all. It’s easier to measure the effectiveness of your website, or your direct mail campaign, than your blogging efforts.
I do agree with all that and that’s why I replied: no, you don’t have to blog to market your translation business successfully. I know many busy and successful translators who don’t blog and yet they manage to find more clients than they can handle. Blogging is yet another tool in our marketing, and you have to decide for yourself what works for your business (and your personality).
However, there are a number of benefits that come with blogging. You may want to consider them before you look at your business and decide whether to blog or not. The majority of these benefits can actually be achieved if you make the right decisions about your blog (which I’ll talk about in the next blog post). Blogging will also depend a lot on your business goals. How can you benefit from blogging then?
Build a professional network
If you have a good blog, people will want to read it and inevitably, they’ll get to know you. Blogging is good if you want to build a network (but it’s not the only way you can do that). Your blog can become a focal point for a community of like-minded people.
Improve Google ranking
Blogging on your website will improve your Google ranking dramatically over time. It took me about 18 months of blogging to jump to the first page for certain phrases but now I get to reap the fruit. If your goal is to rank higher, you should consider blogging.
Low-cost marketing
Out of all marketing tools available, blogging is a relatively low-cost solution to promote your business. You only need to invest your time.
Showcase your skills
Especially for translators, blogging in your target language can be a great opportunity to showcase your skills. First of all, you get the opportunity to show that you can write well, an essential feature for all translators. But if you blog about topics related to your areas of work, you get to show your clients you really know your stuff. Like the one client I got because I blogged about market research.
Generate leads
A well-written and, more importantly, well-targeted blog will generate leads (i.e. potential clients). It’s true that you can’t measure it very easily, but one good, long-term, repeat direct client is likely to make up for all hours you spent writing your blog, believe me on that.
Help others
On a more human level, your blog may actually help others. If you write valuable, thought-through articles that result in positive actions for others, you’re helping the community. How’s that for a benefit?
I’d love to hear your views on that. Do you think blogging is a must? I’m going to be delivering a workshop on blogging and social media in Leeds soon - your views would make a great addition on the day!
Marta Stelmaszak
Marta Stelmaszak is a translator between Polish and English, combining language skills with a thorough understanding of economics and business to help SMEs make as big an international impact as possible, providing translation and interpreting services for the legal, business and marketing sectors. Read Marta's book on business.
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20 Comments
I agree it is not a must, however, I believe it’s a channel for showcasing your ideas on the translation market and/or field of expertise. I decided to create a site/blog to help me better understand my professional choice, to stop and really think about it, its ups and downs. Maybe with that effort I will help other colleagues lead their ways in this market.
Marta, excellent topic! Can’t wait for the next blog post!
Thank you, Carolina, and best of luck with your blog!
Excellent article, you make a good case for blogging. The most important question in my mind is what to write about. I think it’s important to write about something you feel strongly about, and probably, since we have specialization areas, most of us have quite some knowledge about the business areas we serve. I know I do, and I also know it is a passion for me. I specialize in the developing world and love it! So for me, I might be focusing on developing world issues I have encountered along the way.
I am also waiting impatiently for the next post! And I’d like to suggest a topic: for those who decide to commit to blogging, what advises can you give regarding blog planning?
Thanks in advance!!!
I completely agree, Mariana, and thanks for the suggestion - it’s a really good one 🙂
I must have felt the ‘you must blog’ pressure a long time ago, since I first registered the Tranix Translations blog account in May 2007. However, I didn’t actually post anything until six years later (October 2013 on the IAPTI conference). Why? Probably because I didn’t know what to say and/or had no time. Now I have more ideas than I have time to write up and actually post.
To sum up my opinion then, you make some excellent points. Blogging can improve your SEO ranking, get you noticed, help you network, etc., but if your heart is not in it, and you need someone to tell you what or how to write, then it’s probably best if you don’t bother. Because, as you quite rightly point out, there are enough blogs out there already.
I agree - passion is a very strong motivator and give you staying power in whatever you choose to do.
I also have the ‘problem’ of having too many ideas and tend to write them down in an Excel file, it can be an invaluable resource for later 🙂
Love the post, Marta! Blogging has turned out to be beneficial for me. My favourite long-term client noticed me thanks to my blog, and a few more decided to use my services after reading one of my posts. Apart from that, as you mentioned Marta, it improved my Google ranking.
It’s a shame I stopped blogging for a while and was publishing posts irregularly, but this year it will change and you’ll see more of me on http://www.transliteria.blogspot.co.uk
Best of luck, Ewa, I’ll be sure to visit your blog!
Whilst you don’t have to have a blog to market your translation business successfully (whatever ‘successfully’ means?), there are a few other great reasons to have a blog, for example: to learn new skills, such as design, formatting, creating writing, marketing, etc, etc, (not to mention you’ll almost inevitably be in a better position to learn more about various techy-type subjects like HTML, CSS, servers, web hosting, etc.) - all of which can be very interesting and may even lead to new ideas that will help you further down the line. One of the biggest benefits to blogging however, in my opinion, is the sense of achievement and ownership you get each time you publish a new post! Having a blog can – and should be – fun!
I think so, too 🙂
You really make a case for blogging, Marta! I suppose blogging is alright as long as you remember there isn’t a straightforward relation between blogging and getting more clients. I think in the end the fundamental thing is your wanting to say something and sharing it with others.
Thank you, Juan, and you’re right 🙂
I have a translation category in my Feedly. Unfortunately, I have found that several of my favourite translation bloggers have neglected their blog for several months (how dare they! 😉 )
Like, they only post a couple of times a year and each time they apologise for the delay in posting and then it is another couple of months before they post again. Now I do get it, things happen 🙂 However, it is a shame to see an interesting blog tail off. I suppose the writer may have run out of things to say, but the least they could do is tell readers they’re wrapping up the blog.
I see this with the other blog categories I follow, but not in translation.
Maybe this is because of the pressure to blog that some of us are reluctant to take that step. I know late posting can be very frustrating to the readers, and ultimately send the wrong message about the blogger’s commitment. In the end, maybe it is for the best to re-brand your blog or even end it if you find yourself in lack of ideas.
Just to add to what I posted earlier. I subscribe to 46 translation/language blogs. I would say only 15 of them are active by which I mean at least one post per month. The rest just post occasionally.
In fact, three of these blogs have not been updated in well over 2 years and yet one of them keeps being nominated for various language/blog awards in spite of the lack of content. It would make you question if the writer even translates anymore! 🙂
Well, this might prove there is still space for decent translation blogs 🙂
Hi Marta,
Karen Tkaczyk’s guest post on The Case against Blogging very nearly put me off from starting my blog two years ago, but I’m glad I went ahead.
I agree with all your points, but would just like to comment on the last one - Help Others. The benefit here is definitely two way. Yes, I help others (in my case by providing medical resources and tips on Trados Studio) but I also use it to save time when answering questions on Studio user forums, by simply linking to the relevant posts. That makes them a kind of sticky thread, I guess.
And I use my posts for my own reference. They’re a record of how I’ve solved different issues and I often go back to them when I’ve forgotten the answer myself!
I use my own posts as reference material for when it’s time to update my CPD files 🙂 Any other ideas on how your own blog can be your friend?
Blogging is a great way to discover best and worst language providers and get the feedback of other clients. It was through blogging that our company started working with http://mastertr.com/ and http://www.wintranslation.com/ and we are very happy with the results. Blogging helps us much.
Thank you, it’s great to know 🙂