7 Steps for Becoming a Website Translation Provider

Translators have to be flexible when building their translation business. By being flexible, they are able to better adjust to changes in the industry and take advantage of any new opportunities that will arise.

One of the new opportunities that has come up in the last few years is the need that businesses have for website translation. This is a perfect opportunity for translators to take advantage of the (relatively) new technology of the Internet. More and more businesses are looking for ways to globalize, and one of the easiest ways for companies to do that is to have their publicly accessible information translated into other languages. The easiest way to do this is to have their websites translated. That is where you as a translator can come in and take advantage of the situation.

At first, it might be a little intimidating for a translator who has never worked in website translation to add that dimension to their business. However, it isn't as difficult as it may seem.

Here are seven steps (in no particular order) to adding website translation to your list of translation services:

1) Take a class about the Internet

If you don't know anything at all about the Internet, take a class. There are a lot of classes you can take that will give you a brief introduction. A good place to check is your local library.

2) Build and translate your own website.

Nothing will build credibility like showing potential clients that you have your own website and that it is the face of your business online. A business will be less likely to trust a translators that doesn't have a website.

3) Know the difference between text and images.

There is a big difference between translating the textual information on a website and translating words that are part of an image. If a company wants me to translate their website, I will translate the text and then send them translations for the text in the images. Make sure that the client doesn't want you send back the translated images. Doing that goes beyond the price for just translating the information.

4) Get a book on HTML.

When clients want their websites translated, they can either send just the text or the actual HTML files that includes both the content and the code. An HTML book can help you figure out what the code is and what it represents.

5) Start small.

Websites come in all shapes and sizes. Some are thousands of pages while some are only a few. Until you get familiar with the way website translation works, it's best to stay with the smaller websites and then gradually work your way up to more complicated websites.

6) Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Especially if you're just starting out with website translation, always be willing to ask questions about things you might understand. If you're not comfortable asking the client, there are many translator forums you can visit where people are more than willing to help out other translators.

7) Just go for it.

You'll never be able to take advantage of this new opportunity if you don't go for it. It can provide you with an additional income stream, which is always a good thing.

Clint Tustison is a translator interested in helping other translators improve their businesses. His website, Spanish-translation-help.com is filled with information regarding the translation industry, and his monthly newsletter Translator Techniques is filled with tips and techniques for translators.

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Dance Music Producer - Easy Steps to Becoming a Top Producer

When it comes to music producers, Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles - known as the godfathers of House music - brought about a near-revolution into the world of Dance music. Over the years, the music they evolved has grown and newer themes have formed and spawned new genres in music. It brought hope for many enthusiasts who always wanted to create a little Dance music for fun and more so for those professionally inclined.

Are you among the enthusiasts that who would like to be a music producer? These days, it's incredibly easy to get into producing Dance music in your own home and it isn't all that expensive.

It's pretty simple!

These days, the entire Dance music evolution is packed into one incredible piece of software. All you have to do to learn how to make music like a pro is install a good piece of music production software, or DAW (digital audio workstation), on your home computer or laptop.

With the help of a good music program, getting started with making Dance music is definitely a great deal easier than jumping in at the deep end - probably a lot easier than you may have ever imagined it. You do not need to know much about music theory and you do not have to be a technical expert. All you need is a home computer and a passion for dance music to create a good dance track.

To become a professional Dance music producer you need to identify what type of music you would like to specialise in. This should be the style you are most passionate about and want to get to grips with. You could choose from drum-n-bass, synth-pop, electropop, electronica, house, trance, electro... the list goes on. With a little research, you will find a host of options you could experiment with and you can take inspiration from other artists, both new and old, as well as growing trends to hone in on your style and work out what makes a good Dance production, in terms of arrangement, mood and instrumentation.

The opportunities

As a dance music producer, you can either write your own music and market it or collaborate with other artists in remixing. You could also work as freelance music producer. Another option is to write music for media and jingles for advertising agencies.

One can expect a decent salary as a dance music producer though it is difficult to find such jobs. There are, however, many an opportunity for freelancers and there are limitless returns if you are willing to put in a bit of hard work to establish yourself as a music producer.

What it takes?

With some dedicated work and good music sense, it is possible to create some excellent sounding tracks sitting right in your house and with the help of minimal instruments. To be able to reach a stature whereby you can deliver a decent track and quality sounding mix of a professional level, you need to invest some time and some concentrated effort. As the quality of work improves, you need to start looking into the marketing aspects of your career. This can be done through researching promotional websites, playing at parties and other gatherings, press releases, etc. and may even entail hiring a marketing company to get your name out there.

First Step - Take a crash course!

There are a number of dance music tutorials are available, which will help you initially to get going. Listening to music of popular artists that interests you will also help. The top favorites include the likes of Deep Dish, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren etc.

Be inspired!

DJ Jack Smooth is an example of a successful dance music producer. He was working as a DJ of a pirate station when he got addicted to house music. He got himself a set of decks and started to work. After getting into music production, by the time he was 23 years old he had put out over 250 records.

Jack Smooth's music stands out because he makes his own music rather than remixing other peoples music. This should be an inspiration for anyone who dreams of making it big in the field of dance music production.

Ashley Mason.

As an established Dance music producer I know how hard it can be to get started and even harder to get your foot in the door. That is why I've created a lens on becoming a Dance music producer which tells you everything you need to know about making Dance music, from what you need to get started, the software you can use to create music down to recommended tutorials and, of course, the wages.

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Facing Rejection? Here Are 5 Key Steps To Handle Them Like a Pro

Rejection can be tough to handle. I know because I face them often in my life.

As a personal development blogger, some readers reject what I write in my articles, sometimes writing lengthy personal emails to tell me why I'm wrong. In my work as a speaker, there are times when participants reject what I share during my workshops. In growing my business and blog, there have been countless times when I reach out to others for collaboration opportunities, only to get turned down.

Even in my personal life, I experience rejections too. For example, my family members are private individuals - they don't like to talk about themselves. There have been times when I try to connect them on a personal level, with limited results. Some of my friends can be quite nonsocial - Often times I contact them to arrange for a meet-up, only to receive lukewarm responses. Here, their rejection comes in the form of non-reciprocated efforts.

Needless to say, rejection can be quite a downer, especially when you're banking your hopes on a positive outcome. No one likes to receive a "No", when it's so much better to get a "Yes".

The thing is, rejection is part of growth - be it in work, relationships or life. In the past few years of actively pursuing my growth, I've learned it's not possible to avoid rejection if you want to truly develop as a person. Rejection helps you to uncover blind spots, to learn more about yourself, and ultimately to grow.

The only way to avoid rejections is to box yourself tightly in your comfort zone, in which case you fail to live by default. This is not how you want your life to be - You're capable of so much more.

While rejection isn't easy, there are ways to deal with it and make it manageable. Here, I'd like to share with you 5 key steps that have worked very well for me:

1. Don't take it personally
   When you approach someone, you open yourself up, so getting a rejection naturally makes you feel like they're rejecting you. That's why most people tend to take rejections personally.
   
   For example, when I get rejections on things that are very important to me, I feel hurt. I'd wonder if there's something wrong with me or if I'm not good enough. I'd also wonder if there was something I could have done to make things different. This puts me in a state of self-doubt.
   
   Of course, such thinking doesn't help. It only makes you feel bad about yourself. For whatever rejection you've faced, recognize it's a rejection of the request, not you. Your request is merely an extension of your thoughts; it does not represent you as a person. Both are two entirely separate things.
   
   Recognize that many rejections are rarely personal. They usually reflect more about the other person and how the request doesn't meet his/her needs, than about you. By taking yourself out of the equation, you'll realize a lot of your emotional responses with the rejection are unnecessary.
   


2. Expect rejection
   Anticipating rejection helps me in 2 ways.
   
   First, it challenges me to set a high benchmark to what I do. Since I'm expecting a rejection, it forces me to push my boundaries and put my best work forward, so as to increase my chances of a "Yes". Secondly, even if a rejection does arise, it helps me to handle it better, since I'm already prepared for it.
   
   This doesn't mean you start going "Oh the world sucks and no one will accept what I do/say" and adopt a doom-gloom view. The underlying principle here is to do your best, while preparing yourself to handle the worst.
   
   Make sure you don't end up procrastinating instead. The point is to use rejections as a driving force to become better, not as an excuse to put off the work.


3. Maintain your focus of control
   There are 2 focuses of control in life - External focus, which refers to anything outside our sphere of influence, such as our environment, colleagues, society and the world out there. Internal focus refers to what's within our sphere of influence - our thoughts, feelings, actions, behaviors, etc.
   
   Someone with an external focus of control sees the world as the main controller of his/her universe - He/she feels that he/she has no say in his/her life, and everyone has power over him/her. On the other hand, someone with a high internal focus of control sees that he/she is the sole determinant of his/her reality. He/she recognizes he/she has the power to do what he/she wants.
   
   Most people will adopt a high external focus of control in the face of rejection. They lose self-confidence and see themselves as incapable, lousy, or even worthless.
   
   Yet, doing so does not address the situation. It only sends you on a downward spiral, which serves absolutely no purpose other than to feel like crap about yourself. Not only that, you're also relinquishing your power to others. That's not good at all, and you definitely don't want that!
   
   The best way to handle rejection is to maintain your focus of control. In life, there are always going to be naysayers - the key is to learn to tackle the naysayers vs. let yourself be beaten down by them. Focus on the things you can action on. What can you do about this situation? What have you learned about it? (See point #4) How are you going to apply what you've learned? What are your next steps? The more you focus on actions you can take, the more you empower yourself.


4. Learn from the rejection
   There's always a reason behind each rejection. Sometimes it may be a lackluster idea, a mismatch of needs, bad presentation (of the idea), bad approach, incompatibility of values, misunderstanding, and so on.
   
   If you can understand the reason behind the rejection, you can do things differently next time. This will be immensely helpful in your growth.
   
   One easy way is to follow-up and ask why. This can be done for almost any situation - interviews where you were rejected, client proposals, suggestions your managers turned down, and business meetings. Let them know you accept the rejection and you sincerely want to learn what went wrong, so you can improve. When done in an appropriate and sincere manner, the other party will often be more than willing to share and help you to improve.
   
   The second, less direct way is to objectively analyze the situation and troubleshoot what went wrong. Why did the person reject this? What was the person looking for? Did the request not meet his/her needs? What could I have done better? By way of self-questioning, I'm able to uncover a lot of learning points that I was not privy to before.


5. Realize rejection is progression, not regression
   Most people dislike rejection because they associate it as regression - moving backward. To get a rejection means to face a dead-end in your goals. It means you have wasted your time and effort on this for nothing.
   
   Right? Wrong. Contrary to popular belief, rejection is progression, not regression.
   
   It took me sometime to realize this, but I finally did so a few years ago. It wasn't a sudden a-ha moment, but more of a gradual realization over time. I realized all the fears about rejection are just mental, and rejection is actually a step forward to knowing what people want, what's out there in the reality, and how to improve ourselves to achieve our goals.
   
   In fact, the more times one gets rejected, the better - because then you'll have such an extensive understanding of your blind spots and what people are looking for that nothing can take you by surprise anymore. In which case, rejection becomes your best friend and partner in growth.Learn to handle rejection, and it'll become your vital tool to your growth and success. Today, I integrate rejection as a part of my daily life, where I constantly challenge myself to new opportunities that may well result in rejections.

The result? It has made me a more active participant of life and I'm totally loving it. Rejection has turned into one of my best tools for growth, just as it will for you too as you embrace it into your life.

Written on 5/17/2011 by Celestine Chua. Celestine writes at The Personal Excellence Blog, where she shares her best advice on how to achieve personal excellence and live your best life. Get her RSS feed directly and add her on Twitter @celestinechua.

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How to Turn Your Dream Into a Plan In Five Simple Steps

I’m sure you have plenty of dreams for your life. They might bubble away at the back of your mind. They might loom in your thoughts all day. They might even keep you awake at night.

Dreams can be powerful, encouraging and even a bit scary. A dream alone, though, isn’t going to get you far.

What you need is a plan.

And if that sounds too boring, think of it this way: if you want to actually have that dream, a plan is the map that gets you there.

Here are five steps for turning that vague dream into a concrete plan:

Step #1: Write Down Your Dream
How many of your dreams have you actually written down?

Perhaps the idea of committing your dreams to writing is a little frightening. Don’t resist doing it. The act of putting something into words on paper (or in a computer document) suggests that you’re committing to it – and this can be very powerful in helping you eventually achieve that dream.

Even better, when you write something down, you’re forced to think it through. That vague dream of “have lots of money” has to become something firmer – perhaps “make $100,000/year” or “have $200,000 in the bank”.

Step #2: Brainstorm Some Possibilities
Whatever your dream, there’s more than one way to reach it. For instance, if you want to make lots of money, you could:

• Change careers to something more lucrative
  
• Work harder in your current job to get a promotion
  
• Go back to college and study for a degree
  
• Start up your own business as an entrepreneur
  
• Save up money and put it into a high-interest account
  
• Marry someone rich
  
• Buy a winning lottery ticket
  

There are lots of possibilities (and I hope you can see that some of those ones are a bit more realistic than others!) When you’re brainstorming, include all the ideas that come to mind – even ones which seem silly or impractical. You might find that a “stupid” idea leads you on to a really good one.

Step #3: Pick One Clear Goal
Once you’ve figured out some possibilities, come up with one clear goal. You might decide, for instance, that your goal is to change to a particular career which will give you a $80,000/year paycheck.

Look for a goal which is perhaps challenging, but achievable. There’s no point in picking a goal which you’re convinced you can’t really manage – that’s just going to put you back in the world of dreams, where you constantly think about a better future without taking any action towards getting there.

Step #4: Give Yourself a Deadline
It’s much easier to hit your goals when you’re working towards a deadline.

Again, you want to be realistic here – but don’t be afraid to challenge yourself a little. If you’ve got a really big goal, you might want to look two – five years ahead. With smaller goals, you can probably achieve them within a year.

With the example of changing career, you might decide that three years is a realistic timeframe. It’s often helpful to tie your deadline to a particular event – perhaps your 40^th birthday or Christmas 2014.

Step #5: Write Down the Steps to Get You There
And now we’re onto the plan itself. This is where you really get into the nitty-gritty and start turning that dream into something real.

With big goals, it’s often helpful to work backwards. So:

• What are the job requirements of that new career?
  
• How can you achieve them (e.g. take night classes)?
  
• Are there any pre-requisites for that (e.g. you need some money to pay for the classes)?
  
• How can you do that?
  

You should be able to get to a clear step which lets you move forwards from where you are, such as “save $20/week for six months”.

If you have any steps which you don’t know how to complete, try breaking them down further. Figure out exactly what you need to do to achieve your dream – and you’ve got a plan which really can change your life.

So – what’s your dream? And what’s the first step on your plan? Let us know in the comments.

Written on 5/20/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

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9 Little Steps to an Awesome 5K Run

Five kilometers is a great distance for runners of all abilities. Its 3.106-mile length is perfect for the beginner looking to test their stamina. There’s a 5K race almost every weekend for those intermediate runners looking to set a personal record. For the advanced runner, it is a perfect length to tune-up before a longer distance race.

However, the best part may be that the 5K isn’t just for runners! If you would like to have a lot of fun, set an attainable fitness goal and feel fantastic about your accomplishment, you should find a local 5K run and give it a try.

You can even run with your spouse or bring your entire family to share the experience together.

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced runner (or not a runner at all), these nine little steps will lead you to an awesome 5K. Let’s get started!

1. Find Your Motivation
   The choice to change and improve your fitness level is resonating within you, but you may lack motivation, desire or self-control. If you find you start new fitness quests but never finish them, you likely don’t have a big enough “Why” or enough Whys to see you to the end.
   
   Your Whys are the specific emotional ties that help you get out of bed in the morning to workout and control yourself at meal time. Your reasons should be very personal, but they could include things like feeling confident when you enter a meeting, looking sexy for your spouse on an upcoming vacation, or even living to see your kids grow up and get married.
   
   Write down all of the emotional reasons that you have for completing your 5K run and don’t hold back.
   


2. Pick a Plan that Fits You
   There are many plans out there, both free and paid, that will take you from a sedentary state to running a strong 5K within 6-10 weeks. Picking a plan that is right for you is of utmost importance since finding a plan that fits your particular fitness needs and available training time will increase your chances of staying on track to your 5K.
   
   At Fit Marriage, we have developed a free 6-week 5K training plan that is designed to get you running well while improving your overall fitness and shedding excess weight, and it requires less than 30 minutes for each training session. Feel free to pick it up and see if it suits you.
   


3. Commit To The Plan
   The excitement that occurs when you begin a program is awesome! You launch out of the starting blocks with everything you have. Unfortunately for some of you, that excitement will fizzle out and it makes it difficult to continue on your 5K journey.
   
   Once you find a training plan that will accommodate your life, you simply need to commit to your plan and mentally make it your own. This would also be a great time to find a specific race that coincides with the completion of your training and get signed up!
   


4. Set Measurable & Specific Goals
   Once you’re committed to a plan, you should set goals that will keep you motivated and excited about completing your 5K. This could be as simple as completing your first 5K, a specific time you want to complete the event in, running the entire course without walking or stopping, or it could be a combination of losing weight and toning your body over the course of your training program with the 5K race simply representing the final event.
   


5. Track Your Progress by Writing it Down
   Print out your program and after each workout that you complete put a check mark by it or cross it out. Add comments that will help you during your next workout.
   
   This will be a visible reminder of what you have accomplished so far. Make it known to your family and friends that you are training for a 5K. Share your experiences, post about your runs on Facebook, or blog about it. If you have a GPS device, track your run/walks and upload them so you can monitor your time, distance, average speed, and calories burned as specific measures of your progress.
   


6. Focus on Your “Personal Best”
   In today’s world, we are always looking at how well the other person did. It’s time for you to look at yourself in the mirror and become the best version of you that you can become.
   
   There are many ways that you can grow as an athlete. When it comes to running a 5K, it could be setting a time for yourself and beating it on race day, or you can compete in a race with hilly terrain. For your non-running workouts, you can add weights, bands or a medicine ball to each exercise to add an element of difficulty. Push yourself to do your best.
   


7. Build Your Support Team
   Having a support group around you can make the difference when it comes to putting your very best effort into your 5K training. These are folks who will be there to pick you up when you are down, and you should be selective to choose individuals who will stick by you. Your spouse makes a great accountability partner!
   
   The social aspect of running is one reason many get into it. If you are not training with your spouse or a close friend, look for a local running club you can meet up with if your schedule permits.
   


8. Find a Mantra
   Pick a short phrase that you say over and over in your head to keep you motivated. You can even yell it out if you have to, as long as it keeps you fired up and moving forward! Finding a mantra is as easy as finding a quote in a magazine, listening to your iPod and hearing something that resonates with you, or getting words of inspiration from your spouse.


9. Prepare for Obstacles Along the Way
   Life happens. We are busy folks with jobs, families, other activities, and more. If we don’t prepare ourselves and how we will get our workouts in when obstacles happen, more times than not we simply won’t do our workouts.
   
   Instead of focusing on how you won’t be able to complete your workout, refocus your energy on how you can make it happen. Maybe you can’t do the entire workout because you’ve had a really long day at work or a meeting came up. Instead of spending 30 minutes on the workout, just do 15 minutes worth. If you can’t be outside, use your stairs or run in place if that’s what it takes. Just get something in on the workout days so that you keep moving forward.

Just follow these nine little steps to get ready for your first (or best) 5K run. You’ll feel fantastic when you cross the finish line, and you may even start calling yourself a runner!

Written on 6/17/2011 by Tony DiLorenzo. Tony s the co-founder of Fit Marriage where he helps busy couples and on-the-go parents get fit, stay healthy and live a life they love. Pick up your free Ready, Set, Go! 5K Training Blueprint along with five other awesome (and free) fitness resources when you visit today!

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Four Steps to Change Your Life – With Books

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. - Mark Twain (attributed)

How many books are on your shelf collecting dust?

As a coach, educator and self professed life-long learner, I believe that books are one of the very best bargains around – with years of experience and best practice crammed into a $20 package.

However, that doesn’t mean you should read indiscriminately. A book may only cost you $20.00, but the cost of your time to read it may be significantly higher. If your time is worth $100+ dollars per hour, then reading a book must be worth thousands of dollars to make it worthwhile

Here are four suggestions to make the most of the current books on your bookshelf, and, the future books you plan to read:

1. Choose the Right Books
   By choosing books which are aligned with your professional and personal goals, you will be feeding your mind great thoughts that will fill you with the knowledge for greater achievement.
   
   “The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.” - E.M. Forster


2. Underline or Highlight Key Points
   Look for points that hit the mark with your specific interest or needs. This lets you filter through the different messages so you can narrow your focus to ideas that will be useful to you.
   
   From Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, I took these key points:
   
   • Autonomy – having the ability to influence our world
   • Mastery – continuing to grow, evolve and learn
   • Purpose – the importance of meaningful work and contributing to our world
     
   Our work should fulfill those three areas. As a coach, I’m supporting people in their personal and professional journeys on the road to mastery. I work with people seeking meaning in their lives as parents and as business people. The three above points are highly relevant to what I do.
   


3. Put the Book Away – Then Review
   Once you’ve finished reading, put the book away for at least a week and then go back over the items which you’ve underlined and place an asterisk (*) or other symbol next to the top ideas for future follow up.
   
   Once a week has passed, review all the * items and then create a list of follow up actions you will take to execute on these ideas. There’s no point capturing these valuable ideas if you don’t have a follow up action plan. Capturing these valuable ideas without a follow up action plan is worthless.
   
   Good action items involve the development of a specific project, with an end goal in mind – for instance, “become healthier and fitter.”
   
   Your goal should:
   
   • Be specific (e.g. “lose weight”)
   • Be measurable (e.g. “lose 10 lbs”)
   • Have a time frame (e.g. “lose 10lbs by summer vacation”)
     
   Your action items should be clear tasks, like “remove all trans fats from home” or “buy fruit and veg every Saturday morning.”
   


4. Open Up Your Calendar
   Put these new, actionable items into your calendar. Make sure that you block out sufficient time to complete these priorities.
   
   It takes time to establish a new behavior: you need to engage with it consistently until you’ve created a habit. Remember that it’s better to do a few things well than to do many things badly: if you were digging oil wells, you’d want to have a few deep ones rather than lots of shallow ones.
   
   Look for actions which you can repeat on a daily or weekly basis. For daily actions, you might want to create an easy way to record your progress – e.g. by using a food log to monitor your portion sizes and your fruit and veg intake.

What books have made a big difference in your life? How did you act on the ideas provided by the author? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Written on 6/22/2011 by Barry Demp. Barry is a highly-skilled Michigan Business and Personal coach. He specializes in helping small business owners, executives, consultants and other professionals to boost their productivity, profitability, and life balance.

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