Does my website look convincing? Thread poster: Lawrence Lam
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Lawrence Lam 
China
Local time: 03:10
English to Chinese
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Hi Colleages,
I'm a Chinese legal translator with some unique advantages, and I put these advantages on MY WEBSITE, hoping them to be seen by more potential clients.
Would you mind taking a look at my website and let me know if there is anything that I can improve?
Regards
Frank
| | | | Aakash5555
India
Local time: 00:40
Member (2014)
English to Hindi
+ ...
| It looks good | Apr 14, 2015 |
Hi,
Your Website looks good and compact. Its simple as well as precise in terms of information.
| | | | Angela Malik
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:10
German to English
+ ...
| Looks good overall | Apr 14, 2015 |
I'm not your target market, but for what it's worth I think you lay out a fairly good argument. I also like the understated format, as it's simple and straightforward whilst also being professional and dare I say elegant.
With respect, there are a few things I feel could be improved upon:
Given that your target market may not be well versed in Chinese and/or translation, it may be worth explaining briefly what simplified Chinese is (e.g. "the official language used in M... See more I'm not your target market, but for what it's worth I think you lay out a fairly good argument. I also like the understated format, as it's simple and straightforward whilst also being professional and dare I say elegant.
With respect, there are a few things I feel could be improved upon:
Given that your target market may not be well versed in Chinese and/or translation, it may be worth explaining briefly what simplified Chinese is (e.g. "the official language used in Mainland China and Singapore, not to be confused with traditional Chinese, which is more commonly used in Hong Kong"). When I worked as a project manager I often had clients asking for translations into Mandarin or Cantonese and the concept of simplified vs traditional was really foreign to these clients.
For that same reason (being clear for non-translator target markets), I would suggest revising the following:
Additionally I also care for the document formatting of my translations. All my work is clean and clear.
Perhaps changing to this: "Additionally I also care for the document formatting of my translations, ensuring that your translated document is ready to use from the moment you receive it."
...I have some very unique advantages that may be some interest to you:
Minor typo here. I would say "...may be of some interest to you"
I worked for a professional legal translation agency as well as an leading international law firm, both as an in-house legal translator, together for 7+ years, during which period, I translated various kinds of legal documents...
I found this sentence choppy and difficult to read because of all the comma phrases. Might I suggest the following?
"I worked as an in-house legal translator for a professional legal translation agency as well as an leading international law firm for more than 7 years, during which period I translated various kinds of legal documents..."
My understanding of legal terms and intentions in legal documents is way better than other translators who have not had advice from relevant lawyers on their translation work.
I personally find it gimmicky and a little desperate-sounding to say "way better than other translators..." -- you could rephrase to:
"Thanks to longstanding cooperation and consultation with relevant lawyers on my translation work, I have developed an in-depth understanding of legal terms and intentions in legal documents that surpasses the knowledge of an average translator."
My last point would be that you should remove the word "translating" from the beginning of all of the bullet points with your most recent projects. It's repetitive and unnecessary, in my opinion. Instead, I would have a bullet point list of the projects on their own. You're a translator so it's implied that you translated these (as opposed to doing something else with the projects).
I hope that helps! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | English text | Apr 14, 2015 |
There are a number of points where the English text could be polished somewhat, so I would recommend getting this looked at by a good editor. In particular I'd change "very unique" to just "unique" (actually, the whole of that sentence needs some work).
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Lawrence Lam
China
Local time: 03:10
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER | excellent advice | Apr 14, 2015 |
Angela Rimmer wrote:
I hope that helps!
It does help! Angela, your advice is very specific and reasonable, I'll make the revision accordingly. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 19:10
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Looks good to me | Apr 14, 2015 |
Very good. My only comment is that you could do with reducing the words in the Recent Projects section. It seems that every point has the words "translating" and "English into Chinese" and I found that very repetitive. Why not take them out and put them as a heading - once?
| | | | Joakim Braun
Sweden
Local time: 20:10
German to Swedish
+ ...
Too much text that runs on and on.
The list items could have a few bold/colored words at the start - you should be able to get the gist at a glance without reading the entire text.
Where lists have multiline text, there should be spacing between the items.
Don't use capitals for long text, it's unreadable.
"My name is Frank Lin and I..." - a bad, semi-amateurish start. We already know your name - it's there at the top, and again under the picture.
Recent projects ... See more Too much text that runs on and on.
The list items could have a few bold/colored words at the start - you should be able to get the gist at a glance without reading the entire text.
Where lists have multiline text, there should be spacing between the items.
Don't use capitals for long text, it's unreadable.
"My name is Frank Lin and I..." - a bad, semi-amateurish start. We already know your name - it's there at the top, and again under the picture.
Recent projects - consider a simple table with the columns "Subject", "Description", "Word count". Again, reading through all that text takes too long. We want to get the gist at a glance.
"Back to top" - we know how to scroll.
Write short, snappy headlines, not long copy. Be assertive!
Not Unlike other legal translators, I have some very unique advantages that may be of some interest to you:, but simply: Unique advantages:
Consider not presenting all information on a single page.
By the way, "WP-Copyprotect" is not only overkill but entirely useless. Right click, text selection and copying works fine in my browser. It also works fine on the WP-Copyprotect demo page (if I disable Javascript). If all else failed, I'd copy the source code. You can't copy-protect things on the Web.
[Bearbeitet am 2015-04-14 13:37 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | David Earl
United States
Local time: 12:10
German to English
| Looks good overall, however... | Apr 14, 2015 |
Frank Lin wrote:
Hi Colleages,
I'm a Chinese legal translator with some unique advantages, and I put these advantages on MY WEBSITE, hoping them to be seen by more potential clients.
Would you mind taking a look at my website and let me know if there is anything that I can improve?
Regards
Frank
I have to agree with others that it needs a little bit of polishing. For example
Besides, I also have following advantages:
If you really want the introductory clause, I would suggest "in addition" or another alternative. Perhaps this is merely the way that I react to "besides" ("Oh, the subsequent material is beside the point, skip ahead"). For myself, I would leave introductory clauses away and focus on writing an active statement, perhaps something like:
Collaborating with me also has the following advantages.
Additional advantages of using my services include:
I do feel that you're on the right track and putting the important information in front of the reader.
Hope that helps,
David
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I know it's not easy to identify unique advantages as a translator, but surely your unique advantage number 3 could be said by virtually any freelance translator? For that matter, I'm not sure 1 and 2 are that unique for a specialist legal translator either.
In addition, the 'Contact me' link in the 'About me' section doesn't work for me.
Personally, I would make the text column narrower too.
Other than that, and the fact that, yes, the English needs polish... See more I know it's not easy to identify unique advantages as a translator, but surely your unique advantage number 3 could be said by virtually any freelance translator? For that matter, I'm not sure 1 and 2 are that unique for a specialist legal translator either.
In addition, the 'Contact me' link in the 'About me' section doesn't work for me.
Personally, I would make the text column narrower too.
Other than that, and the fact that, yes, the English needs polishing, I like it.
[Edited at 2015-04-14 14:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lawrence Lam
China
Local time: 03:10
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER
Joakim Braun wrote:
Write short, snappy headlines, not long copy. Be assertive!
Joakim, thank you, I'll think about your advice carefully and see what I can do to make the site look better.
| | | | Lawrence Lam
China
Local time: 03:10
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER
Alistair Gainey wrote:
I know it's not easy to identify unique advantages as a translator, but surely your unique advantage number 3 could be said by virtually any freelance translator? For that matter, I'm not sure 1 and 2 are that unique for a specialist legal translator either.
Alistair, thank you for your advice, very logical. By Number 3, the message I try to deliver to clients is that my sufficient knowledge of their legal documents can ensure high quality translation. I'm not sure if this can be said by any freelancers. However, I'll rephrase that to make it look more professional and clear to target clients. As for #1 and 2, I always believe that every good legal translator should have their own unique advantages, as their experiences are not exactly the same.
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 03:10
Chinese to English
I think the structure of the page is great. I don't think the copy has to be any shorter, because you've got good headings that allow the reader to see at a glance what each section is, and to decide for themselves if they want to read it. I also think your sample translations are really good, which helps a lot.
I have two suggestions:
1) You need to get an editor to go over it. There is no excuse for a linguist to have language errors on their own website, and there are still... See more I think the structure of the page is great. I don't think the copy has to be any shorter, because you've got good headings that allow the reader to see at a glance what each section is, and to decide for themselves if they want to read it. I also think your sample translations are really good, which helps a lot.
I have two suggestions:
1) You need to get an editor to go over it. There is no excuse for a linguist to have language errors on their own website, and there are still many on yours.
2) I would add a little more detail about the law - any qualifications or experience that you have, or just some more information about the way you translate (e.g. talk about how mainland law is different to Taiwanese/HK law). ▲ Collapse
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Hi Frank
I thought the website was rather good. The only issue I had was with the time it took to load the translation samples (which seem to be done as images). Now we all know that putting things up that people can rip off and use as their own is not very good, but I am wondering if images are the best option? You might want to consider something else. I don't know what though.
Cheers
J
| | | | Lawrence Lam
China
Local time: 03:10
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | legal knowledge will be added | Apr 16, 2015 |
I have two suggestions:
1) You need to get an editor to go over it. There is no excuse for a linguist to have language errors on their own website, and there are still many on yours.
2) I would add a little more detail about the law - any qualifications or experience that you have, or just some more information about the way you translate (e.g. talk about how mainland law is different to Taiwanese/HK law).
Phil, thank you for the suggestions. Your second suggestion reminded me of something I should've put on my website in the first place. As a pragmatist, I rarely mention my legal education background to current clients, as many of them are legal professionals or bilingual lawyers. This website, however, is set up for promotional purpose and is my window to the outside world, so I should and will add something in respect of my legal knowledge on it. As for the first suggestion, thanks, I'll have it polished soon.
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