Of the 150 blog posts written by ProZ.com site staff in 2020, it is only fitting that a blog post about the disease that defined 2020, COVID-19, topped the list of most read blog posts. Other popular posts included those about how to position yourself for jobs, ways to improve profiles, explanations of some site features and the most popular from the translation postcard series.

Mike Donlin

ProZ.com offers solutions for help translating terms or short phrases. For help, site members, users and guests can either post a KudoZ question where ProZ.com users will suggest answers or use term search to find these answers through glossaries and previous questions.

Mike Donlin

ProZ.com head of training Paul Urwin has created a series of episodes to discuss topics for translators and interpreters. The episodes will appear as part of the Facebook group Translators & Interpreters (ProZ.com). The audio recording is very short (hence the name!), with the idea that it leads straight into a discussion in the comments. Transcripts from the first two episodes are included here.

Paul Urwin

A number of translation industry companies have been working on providing a response to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, in order to help out industry professionals all over the world navigate these difficult times.

Rocio Palacios

The weekly "Thinking Out Loud" virtual powwow is brought to you by Andrew Morris for ProZ.com, every Thursday at 3pm CEST (1pm GMT). Morris moderates ProZ.com Facebook group is a French to English translator, Translation Mastermind founder, and has a language agency with 40+ direct clients.

Mike Donlin

Jobs posted by business members will now also appear on Facebook via the new ProZ.com Translation Jobs page. All members of the language community are invited to like or follow the page to receive updates.

Presently, all jobs with the COVID-19 tag are appearing there. Soon, this offer will be extended to all business members.

Mike Donlin

Now, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, CafeTran is available in its unlimited version to all ProZ.com paying members, regardless of membership level.

Many thanks go out to Igor at CafeTran for agreeing to make this benefit available to all members. The ProZ.com site team hopes that access to this program will be of use to those who are looking for a CAT tool now.

If you are just getting into translation, or find yourself looking for a new CAT tool at the moment, you may want to consider CafeTran.

Mike Donlin

Interested in meeting up with your colleagues from home? ProZ.com is excited to bring you virtual powwows, where you can hook up with your colleagues - even during this time of social distancing. 

Mike Donlin

More than ten years ago, ProZ.com released an online rates calculator designed to help you determine the minimum rates required to meet your objectives. Together with forum discussions, the record of average rates reported by the community, and other useful resources such as the the article "Determining your rates and fees as a translator", the rates calculator has proved to be very helpful in answering one of the questions asked more frequently by freelance language professionals: what rates should I charge for...?

Mike Donlin

You already know how to assess a new client and decide if you're comfortable starting a professional relation with them. Unfortunately, clients new and old may sometimes get behind with payments for a number of reasons. From a change of personnel in the finance department, through an inefficient new management software, all the way to cashflow issues; there are a myriad factors that may cause a client who has long been reliable and trustworthy to leave your invoice unpaid.

Andrea Capuselli

Among the many benefits of ProZ.com Plus membership is the chance to take part in the Translation Mastermind group on Facebook. It’s an established community of professionals who enjoy sharing ideas and tips about translation, in a completely troll-free atmosphere. It’s into its fourth year now, an independent entity, but sponsored by ProZ.com from Day 1.

Andrew Morris

On Wednesday 4th September 2019, twelve translators (one of whom arrived after this photo and one of whom was holding the camera!) met in the outdoor pergola of the fine Vista Corona restaurant in Barceloneta, the leisure and marina area of Barcelona, in one of the ProZ.com 20th anniversary powwows!

Andrew Morris

Heading to GALA 2019 in Munich? Henry Dotterer and Jared Tabor of ProZ.com will be giving a talk there on the future of the industry.

The talk, titled "Human Response to a Changing Industry", will be given at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 25. It is in the first session, following the welcome and keynote.

Mike Donlin

André Lisboa is an English - Portuguese translator based in Brazil. He is a ProZ.com member, and member of the Certified PRO Network (CPN). He has been working in the translation industry for over 25 years now, and has recently published a book, How to Become a Successful International Translator. In the book, he discusses some translation basics like resources and CAT tools, and also goes into detail on marketing, building a portfolio, time and resource management, and other subjects. The English edition of the book includes an interview with Ofer Tirosh, CEO of Tomedes Translations, on the translation industry in general, and what they look for when they hire new linguists.

I interviewed André about How to Become a Successful International Translator, and his thoughts on translation and the industry:

Jared Tabor