Last week I had the honour of being part of the UK Delegation selected to attend the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (YEA) Summit in Moscow. The Summit brought together over 400 entrepreneurs representing 20 of the world’s most powerful economies, to discuss and try to solve many of the challenges facing Small Businesses in the current economic situation. The UK delegation led by Alex Mitchell of Young Brits and Helen Gale of YBI, were represented by 12 young entrepreneurs – the largest UK delegation to attend any YEA Summit to date. The Summit took the form of a combination of panel discussions, breakout sessions and guest speakers. Ernst and Young presented their findings on their ‘Entrepreneurship Barometer’ and Accenture presented on ‘Innovation as a major factor of growth and employment’, there was also a very interesting panel discussion on doing business in Russia. It was discussed how Russia’s strong telecommunications infrastructure, balance of labour cost vs. skills and above average […]
Internet Marketing to win Luxury tourists (1 Day Workshop)CEO of Web-Translations to deliver international eMarketing workshop for luxury tourism industry in conjunction with the institute of Export, Soft Skills and the Ministry of Enterprise for Mauritius. Date: 13th or 14th August 2012 (with future events TBC) Venue: Le Méridien, Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius (yes, seriously) Daniel Rajkumar is a multi-award winning internet entrepreneur that has created various web businesses, including web-translations.com which supports companies seeking to increase international trade by attracting more international visitors to world class websites. He analyses industry trends and researches the developments in the web before they become popular. He understands the constraints of small businesses as well as well as the challenges faced by large organisations and is able to consult on various levels, practically and strategically. Daniel Rajkumar has presented for UK Trade Invest, the Institute of Export and is writing a book on ‘the web as a function of business’.
WordPress Translation now easy with livetranslation.comWordPress (WP) has evolved a long way from the journalist-loving blogging platform it once was to becoming a powerful CMS of choice for many SME’s. What it lacks in out-of-the-box functionality is compensated for with the vast selection of user-contributed plugins, which evolve practically at the pace of the web itself. Matt Mullenweg (all hail) & the team beautifully balance the division between core functionality and community contributed functional extension, making it elegantly simple to learn. Making a platform so usable means that marketers can use it in as much anger as the journo’ types.
Peer to Peer Investment Funds Web-Translations GrowthIt is with a sense of anticipation that we enter into our 9th year, celebrating the recruitment of four new team members and carefully planning our expansion into Germany. For as long as we’re helping our clients to grow their profits from international markets, we can be confident of the growth of our own business. While organic growth has been steady, I feel that the business could be achieving more rapid growth. However, such growth wouldn’t be possible without access to funds. In today’s market, capital doesn’t come easy. While the base rate of interest is remarkably low, the banks are using the opportunity to improve their margins, failing to pass on the rate reduction. Before the economic crisis, I obtained a loan at 4.5% over base. However, the rates I’m currently being offered are in excess of 17% APR. Obtaining funding to grow has been unusually challenging…
Advantages of local hosting for multilingual sitesA few customers have recently asked me if they should host their multilingual sites locally for the market they are targeting, while others with locally hosted sites have asked me about the implications of moving to the cloud. Reading between the lines, the premise of such questions tends to centre around SEO and so my post is somewhat more marketing-oriented than IT. All comments are welcome.
How to find the best translation agencyWouldn’t it be great if there was a rating system to identify the best translation agency? Buying translation is a daunting prospect for those who have no prior experience of commissioning this type of service, and if the buyer has little or no knowledge of languages, then it’s hard for them to have a point of reference on what is needed to produce a good translation; specifically: the level of skill, and the combination of education and experience that qualifies one person as a translator rather than simply a native speaker of a language. Consequently many fall into the trap of buying translation as a commodity; as if buying rice or cotton; and go about comparing quotes on the basis of cost and/or speed of delivery. Translation is a service, however, and like all services, it is performed by people whose education, skills and time all contribute to delivering the final ‘product’ (for want of a better expression). While it’s […]
London Eye vs London ZooOh dear! If ever there was an example of how not to translate a website it must be the London Eye website. It would seem that the Merlin Group clearly don’t care about their international visitors…
How to pay < £0.03 per click on competitive keywordsI’ve been helping a client manage their PPC spend recently by training one of their team members. I don’t normally do this; it was just a favour to one of our best clients which happens to be a local company. It took me back; I remembered the very early days when you’d pay 0.05$ per keyword word and could expect to be in the top 5 results. For most industries, those days are long gone.
Online Purchases Increase Across EuropeAs e-tailers prepare for another record Christmas period they should consider the changing trends in consumer confidence across Europe for new opportunities. Consumers are buying more frequently in every country in Europe, but as the pace of growth slows in the UK and competition stiffens, smart businesses will look to serve multilingual markets where consumerism grows faster and is less competitive.
iPhone app Localization – Premail Case StudyUnless you’ve been sleeping under a rock in the last few months you’ll know that the big thing in development right now is the iPhone Application store. Apps such as iPint, BubbleWrap (yes, you can actually pop bubbles with your fingers!), and flatulence games have helped push Apple’s App Store over the billion-mark in just nine months. There are now over 25, 000 unique apps – making it very difficult to stand out from the crowd – but Web Translation think that localization is the way forward. To get familiar with the Software Development Kit (SDK) Web Translations developers have created a useful application of their own, and have aptly named it ‘Premail’. Premail allows a user to quickly create email or blog using prewritten templates. It uses the normal mail application and so doesn’t need any configuring: simply choose a template, input some variables, make any final ammends and send. Simple. It’s great when you’re on the go and just want […]