Crowdsourcing is a production method, based on the Internet, which allows for economies of scale and offers new types of services through the exchange of many people. It is therefore an evolution made ​​possible by technological innovations, and in particular, the Internet. This development also has a social aspect because it is based on the interaction of ideas, networks and connections between individuals.

Crowdsourcing is also a founding entity because it allows for the appearance of a large number of new business models. The term was coined by Jeff Howe, Associate Editor of Wired magazine in June 2006: “Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing a task traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) to a large group of undefined people, in the form of an open call.” More importantly, it enables managers to expand the size of talent pool while managing to better understand what customers really want. The range of services offered is incredible, from reflections on software development to the creation of a logo or company name, images, video, or writing or translation of content.

Over time, different models of crowdsourcing have emerged:

The online market place: An early example is Fotolia, a site where photographers from around the world can sell their photos; it is the platform that sets the price. The key to the business’ success is to combine a large number of customers and a vast community of contributors. Without the “crowd”, the site does not function, but without customers, it is impossible to satisfy its contributors and attract new ones. The company works especially hard to create a sense of community among photographers: with rankings based on their success, forums to exchange information, and other interactive elements.

The model of competitiveness: An individual or a company publishes a project and then sets a reward for the best contribution. This competition model is mainly used in the field of web design, branding and merchandising, such as 99designs and Hatchwise.

The request for proposals model: Clients feature a project and members of the community react by making proposals on this project, and in this case, it is the contributor who sets the price. The client selects a contributor based on price, services offered, comments on his previous work left by other customers, and the deadline.

This exists in mixed models, such as Wilogo. The platform sets the price but the client can increase it to motivate contributors by offering them more and thus receive better proposals.

The benefits of crowdsourcing are quite clear, from an operational point of view because it reduces costs on everything from design work to employment by tapping into an online global network of independent professionals. SMEs can reduce costs by outsourcing via a number of websites that act as giant marketplaces for independent professionals located around the world.

In addition, the “crowd” in any field is available quickly, which allows you to obtain results in a few hours. The opportunity to work with a large number of employees with very flexible hours is particularly useful on busy nights before important deadlines.

One also benefits from a much wider range of ideas than by simply employing a local web developer. Businesses are no longer limited to a handful of concepts. By opening their ideas to third-party contributors, they are confronted with views that may otherwise not be considered, creating a collective intelligence. This allows for tremendous advances and generates a strong bond among contributors that boosts the overall project, as well as the company itself.

In terms of brand image, by using the contributions of an expert external public, organizations show their openness to the world and their desire to get in touch with their surroundings.

Gloria

TextMaster Communication Manage

What are your thoughts about crowdfounding? Share on Twitter @texmaster

P.S. For example, writing this article at the Standard level costs $30 at TextMaster

The internet has a unique advantage that allows any offer or web content to be accessible all over the world.  Internationalization that previously required opening an office abroad is now accessible to any e-retailer, offering growth opportunities that often require a limited initial investment and reduced risk.

A study conducted by FEVAD on the overseas development of French sites, states that over 80 percent of the sites surveyed expect an increase in international growth in order to develop their business.  Of these 80 percent, more than half expect double-digit growth in 2013.

As web professionals turn to overseas development without hesitation, there is now a rich palette of services they can rely on.  E-commerce and multilingual CMS, logistic partners who specialize in different countries, payment solutions adapted to each practice - the choice is vast and these tools can be addressed quickly without prior technical knowledge.

International expansion is less risky if it takes place in two stages.  First, substantiate business opportunity and translate your internet site into English, which plays on the fact that more and more Europeans speak English.  There are many advantages when using two stages of action:  it limits the initial investment, gives quick exposure to business and at the same time identifies the mother country of visitors.  During the second phase, you can focus on the countries with the greatest potential, and therefore optimize the cost of overseas development, the main cost being the localization and translation of the site’s content.

However, translating your site into a new language is not enough to gain access to a new market.  A lot of e-retailers think that keeping the same interface, translating the product descriptions and changing the money transaction is enough to launch sales.  After all, why would a travel site that has a very good conversion rate in France not have the same success with English buyers?  Successful localization of a site often depends on more complex issues than simply translating the site, not to mention the need to find more cost-effective acquisitions and use the appropriate communication channels.

The translation of your site’s content, as relevant and accurate as it is, does not ensure success and should be regarded as more of a trigger or a business accelerator.  By using a platform that provides translation services by professional writers an e-trader can open a Spanish, Italian, German or English version of their site in only a few days for an investment equivalent to a daily budget used on Google Adwords.  Similarly, a small production studio game that launches its application via the French App Store, will only pay a few hundred dollars to make it accessible a few days later by English or Spanish users, reaching millions of potential new users in a market where time to market is a major strategic factor.

In addition to the moderate cost of translation, human translation solutions available on request can result in sufficient reactivity to seize unreported business opportunities.  For example, the recent case of a young, ready to wear, French brand aroused the curiosity of influential blogger in the United States.  With the content translated urgently internally, it is not guaranteed that the listings accurately reflect the world’s view and it is therefore difficult to turn the new visitors into customers.  The conversation gap is striking, it peaks at a record rate with French visitors, but it is practically nonexistent across the Atlantic.

If traffic generation is necessary to expand business abroad, this conversation is crucial.  The descriptions of products can be mistranslated or a rough editorial can destroy an expensive marketing plan launched abroad.  Hence the importance of finding a reactive and quality translation service to adapt your site content and convert new visitors into customers.

François, Country Manager – TextMaster, France

What is your view?  Share your opinionon on Twitter @texmaster

P.S. For example, writing this article at the Standard level costs $35 at TextMaster.

If social media has changed the way we think about information and communication, companies still question the value of investing in developing content. This is a mistake.

The quality of content has never been more critical. On the one hand, because quality content will trigger virality and reach a new segment of the population. On the other hand, because this same virality is valued by Google in terms of SEO. In summary, good content = virality + SEO. And this isn’t even taking into account the impact on conversion rates!

This is the challenge that inbound marketing specialists seek to address - how to create value and increase traffic through content.

Key points to quality content

Don’t focus on the content itself or its services: Balanced content must include at least 80% general information, quickly providing information to the reader. The remaining 20% can be allocated to the company, its products or its services.

Write in the appropriate style:  Everything depends on your audience.  If you are specialized in a particular field, you must use the style and jargon that is appropriate for that audience.  In other cases, if your target is more heterogeneous, your style should be more direct and cater to readers with diverse interests. If your customers are not familiar with the industry, they will need content they can understand that will help them clearly identify what you are offering.

Stimulate interaction:  When we hear about a topic of interest, the first reaction is to engage in conversation or to listen to learn more.  A discussion that draws attention and directly connects to the public is more personal, relevant and profitable for you.  Do not hesitate to ask questions or create surveys to encourage your readers to react.

Be structured:  Not only is it necessary to pay attention to the information you want to publish, but also the manner in which you structure it.  The main ideas from the content should be listed briefly at the beginning, the details following later for the most interested customers.

Save some information for later: It is tempting to be exhaustive in your content. However, it is essential to be selective:

• to keep only the best. Your content will be even more powerful this way.
• not to bore your reader, who may not want to read to the end.
• to invite your visitors to contact you for more information, or to wait impatiently for your next publication.

Go through professionals. Finally, as you probably expected, the best advice we have is obviously to use professionals who have mastered the art of writing content. Who hasn’t faced the “blog turn around” phenomenon, where everyone is required to write an article a month? With results that we know lack consistency and the authors’ passion? You can take advantage of professionals to avoid the spelling and conjugation mistakes found in over 50% of blog posts!

So what do you think? Take action and share the knowledge with others @TextMaster or @GloriaRuizCg!

Gloria

TextMaster Communication Manager

P.S. As a point of reference, the copywriting or translation of this article at standard level would cost $25 with TextMaster.

Today our post is dedicated to one of our most talented author, Maria Esperanza Rodríguez who is an associate of TextMaster since 2011 and specializes in translation from English to Spanish.

TextMaster:  What is your professional background?

Maria Esperanza Rodríguez:  I started as an editor in a small independent editing house in 2009, after which I started in the world of translation at TextMaster in 2011.  In actuality, I work equally for Dreamspinner Press (link), an editing house in the United States, as a freelance translator of English to Spanish.

TM:  Why did you choose the literary world?

M.E.R:  Books have always fascinated me, almost since I learned to read and had the opportunity to learn languages, especially English.

TM:  Please tell us more about your interest in writing?

M.E.R:  I have written fiction since I was 16 years old and my biggest dream is to become a professional author.

TM:  How do you know when there’s a good quality text?

M.E.R:  First, I look at the spelling.  A misspelling can ruin a great text even if the content is very interesting.

TM:  Who are your favorite authors?  What are you reading at the moment?

M.E.R:  I have many favorite authors that I particularly like, but the author who, without a doubt, is at the top of the list is Lynn Flewelling, a fantasy writer.  Right now I’m reading “Without Feathers” by Woody Allen.

TM:  Since working with TextMaster, what topics have you worked on?

M.E.R:  On the translation of touristic descriptions, websites and advertising copy.

Thank you for your time. It has been a pleasure talking to you!

The TextMaster Team

P.S. Do you master one or more languages?  Join our community of 45,000+ professional authors here: author sign-up. 

Did you know that 90 percent of emails sent by companies to their customers contain at least one spelling mistake and that number increases to 95% when it is written in a foreign language?*  The cost of these spelling mistakes for companies is more than a million euros per year.

Businesses on the web are particularly subject to this problem, because without direct contact with their partners, 99 percent of communication is done by writing.  It is therefore essential that they closely check their emails.  Sending emails with spelling errors often results in the emails being ignored or the spelling error interferes with proper reception of the email.  An email containing errors can be mistaken as spam by the recipient’s email carrier, thus the recipient will never receive the mail.  If the mail is received, the recipient most likely does not want to deal with junk mail and will never read it.

We are very happy to present to you LOOP, an innovative service that allows you to easily have your emails translated and proofread.

Create a LOOP email address and transfer your emails to the to address to have them translated or proofread.  The content is automatically submitted to our community of professional authors to be translated or proofread and is returned directly to your inbox.

LOOP is easily applied and is suitable for individuals as well as companies with several thousand employees.

In addition to being quick and easy, LOOP is very affordable!  For proofreading, the cost is one cent per word and for a translation the price is two cents per word.  As the average email contains about 100 words, it costs approximately one euro for a proofread email and two euros for a translation.

For proofreading, the price starts at one cent per word and for a translation, two cents per word.  As the average email contains about 100 words, it costs approximately 1$ for proofreading and 2$ for a translation.

Thanks to this online translation and proofreading system, you can say goodbye to spelling mistakes in emails!

Stay in the loop!

The TextMaster team

*Study conducted by Textmaster between November 3rd, 2012 and February 10, 2013 on a representative sample of 347 emails received in English and French. Spelling, syntax, grammar and conjugation were taken into account.

Localization (L10N) and internationalization (I18N) are two methods that provide products, services or text in a variety of languages and cultural formats.  L10N is a method used to translate messages from one language to another and I18N ensures that the L10N code is applied.  L10N and I18N are abbreviations that in English, mean “localization” and “internationalization”.  Why the numbers 10 and 18?  For the 10 letters between L and N of the word “localization” and 18 letters between the I and N in “internationalization”.

Localization refers to the adaptation of a product, application, or text to the language, culture, or other specifications of a local market.  This includes the translations of text into other languages, the guarantee that the photos we display on a site will be culturally acceptable and that we will delete any references that are not relevant.  Internationalization is implemented once, localization is repeated each time you want to reach a particular culture.

Internationalization is the development of a product, application, or text that is easily localized for a target audience.  This internationalization must create the conditions for which the localization can be adapted to different cultures, languages or regions.  The two methods include encoding time zones, numbers, monetary currency, graphs and symbols.

The objective is for the software to independently adjust the time and alphabet.  First of all, we must think of the features that we want to implement, for example, Chinese, Hindu, or Russian do not use the Latin alphabet and Hebrew or Arabic are read from right to left.  These linguistic and cultural differences will inevitably affect the text, menu names, etc.

Even though L10N and I18N use different, independent methods with different objectives, it is importantly that they work well together to create a good user experience.

Platforms such as Transifex, PhraseAPP or LocalAPP offer services that help you with anything regarding localization, they offer services that contextualize text and thus make it easier to translate a site or application.

The TextMaster team

P.S. For example, the translation of this article into Spanish at a standard level costs $20 at TextMaster.

The development of customer loyalty is one of the main objectives of any marketing strategy.  In a previous article, we reported how companies could create customer loyalty through marketing content.  In today’s post, we will cover the topic of marketing permission as a method used to establish a trusting relationship with consumer and thus to succeed in achieving their loyalty.

Permission marketing (as opposed to interruption marketing) is a concept created by Seth Godin, used in marketing and particularly in e-marketing.  Permission marketing refers to marketing professionals requiring the permission of consumers before sending them advertisements.  This strategy is mostly used by web professionals, especially in e-commerce.  This form of trade requires that the prospective customer has previously given his explicit consent before sending a message (email, newsletter, catalog request, etc.).  Therefore, the company ensures that the information reaches the people who are interested in the advertising so it is not perceived as spam.

Permission marketing is based on the principle that the consumers will willingly give their consent, explicit (opt-in), usually by clicking a box that allows them to receive communication, or implicit (opt out), often where the consumer must uncheck a box.  The opt-in strategy is, of course, much more effective and considerate with respect to the consumers.  Proposing them the choice to receive information only if they are interested, if they take the positive step forward, has much better results in terms of customer loyalty.

What are the benefits for the customers?

With this sales strategy, the customers benefit from a more personal relationship, because even if the messages are sent to a mass audience, it is easier to customize the message to the consumer because we know our target and will therefore pay attention to their needs.  If they use the opt-in system, it is possible to further improve the personalization and offer various options to the customers.  We can then make precise profiles so that they will only receive information specific to their needs.

What are the benefits for companies?

The companies also benefit from the permission marketing strategy.  They can enhance their reputation with respect to their customers by being clear about how they use their data.  Consumers do not like their personal information to be used without their authorization, they do not like to continuously receive advertisements from companies they do not know.  If you receive the consent of the consumers to use their data for the marketing strategy, the company will be perceived as an honest and trustworthy business, which will improve the image of the brand.

The companies can also connect to their prospective customers in a very personal and specific way, therefore avoiding the mass mailing of information into a vacuum, hoping that someone clicks on the call-to-action.  This enables them to be in direct contact, on an individual basis, with the customers who use their marketing strategy, who are genuinely interested in their products.

This connection is the advertising method best adapted to today’s society.  The consumers want to be considered as individuals and prefer personal treatment that meets their needs.  Permission marketing opens the door of communication between the company and their prospective customers, but especially between people.

The TextMaster Team 

P.S. For example, the translation of this article into Spanish, in a Standard level,  would cost $32 at TextMaster

Use Case TextMaster #HeyWatch

Today we have the pleasure to interview Eric Fontaine from HeyWatch.

TextMaster: What does your business do?

Eric Fontaine: HeyWatch proposes a professional solution for encoding video in the cloud.  More specifically, we offer a video encoding service accessible online that permits businesses to externalize their needs through video conversation.  The video conversation is a very heavy process that requires real expertise, powerful servers and quasi-permanent maintenance hardware and software.  It is therefore extremely expensive.  As a result, we developed a “video encoder”, professional conversation software that is easily integrated into any system with a dedicated video API.

Thus, whether it is for the web, mobile phone, VOD or broadcast, our video encoding platform is able to respond to all types of video projects without a problem.

™. In your opinion, what is the importance of the text content in a platform like HeyWatch?

E. F. On a purely technical level, the text content doesn’t matter very much to us.  In contrast, from a web-marketing point of view, it is quite the opposite.  The video encoding is a complex area with a very specific language.  We therefore have to create a lot of content text to position ourselves on important key words at the heart of our trade.  We are clearly in the SEO dimension (natural referencing), crucial for obtaining new business.  Our site must give preference to the conversation with prospective new clients.  For this, quality text content is indispensible.

™. What are the needs of HeyWatch in reference to text content?

E.F. Our site is in English because we are directly targeting the American market.  To reach this market, we need market credibility and to attain new clients, perfect English is essential.  Our team has a good level of English, but that is not enough.  Our main need was to correct our texts.  This is how we operate today with TextMaster:  we write our own content in English, and then the TextMaster authors correct us.

™. What services did you use before?

E.F. Previously we only used the English knowledge of our team.  We did not use any external services.

™. Why did you choose TextMaster?

E.F.For the release of the new version of HeyWatch (November 2012), we wanted a site that does not let its French origin show, a site with English content, as written by an American.  From this perspective, a correction service became essential. Knowing Benoit for a long time and having learned of the release of his new site, I immediately contacted him.

™. What do you expect from authors who work on your projects?

E.F.To us the two most important points in our field are expertise and timeliness.

The semantics associated with the world of video encoding are very specific.  Consequently, it is necessary that authors understand our business to provide the best possible corrections to our text.

The speed of correction is also important.  The web is fast and you must be able to produce before the others.  Therefore it is important to have a service that responds quickly, from the time the text is submitted for text correction to the point where the client receives the corrected text.

™.Would you add anything about TextMaster?

E.F.The service is very complete.  If I were to choose a point for improvement, it would be interesting if the corrected area were highlighted in order to know where our English is sufficient. This would instantly identify the part that has been modified by the author.

Thank you to Eric Fontaine, who has the kindness to answer to our questions.

The TextMaster Team 

The E-Commerce Center (ECC) conducted a study to find out what is most important to users making a purchase online.  The conclusions are clear:  the e-shop should have an attractive design, be user-friendly and give detailed information about the products.

For 62.3% of consumers surveyed, a detailed description of products offered for sale on e-commerce sites is essential.  61.8% of respondents highlight the importance of providing clear conditions on the site.  Finally, for 49.9% of the consumers, the most important thing is that the landing page provides information that is organized and straightforward.

According to the study, users place less importance on the existence of apps that allow you to buy via smartphone or tablet, or if the brand is present on social networks.  However, there is still a change from 2012 regarding mobile devices, the users give more importance to the fact that the website is optimized to be viewed from smartphones or tablets.

Transparency is a key factor in being positioned as a leader in e-commerce.  It is essential to consumers that they can view the availability of products, their price and their description while buying the product.

What key points do you concentrate on to optimize the pages and products of your site?

You must provide relevant content to your visitors so they can evaluate the product.  Each product must have a title and a sufficient description. If this is not the case, you run the risk that the user makes the purchase from one of your competitors and then the search engines favor the sites of the competitors who provide the users with better content.  We must therefore take care to provide information that corresponds to the product providing maximum detail to the visitors so they feel they are dealing with a serious and professional online store.

If you display your own content, it will be seen as new and original and this will be positive, not only for your search engine ranking, but also to your visitors who do not like to find the same descriptions on each site.  Therefore, avoid providing similar content so the original content is something you have in your favor.

We also recommend that you regularly review your product pages to assure they still fit logically in the purchasing process.  The modifications to the website and the improvements you make will only be useful if the content is adapted as well.  Too many times we see sites that have a new, attractive layout, but the text fits the old version not the new.

For example, writing / translating a product page as it would cost $5

The TextMaster Team

E-commerce has expanded in recent years to include almost any category.  It is now possible to buy apartments, cars and an infinite number of other products on the Internet without having to move from your couch.  American Internet users spend on average around $1,200 and $1,300 per year.  It is expected that this figure will reach 1,738 dollars by 2016, which is a 44% increase.  At the global level, experts predict that the volume of global e-commerce sales will reach approximately one trillion dollars by 2016.

In 2012, Internet sales grew by 21.1% for a total of $958 billion, a new world record.  The growth forecast for 2013 is a slightly lower, 18.3%, and it is also expected that for the first time, Asia-Pacific will overtake the United States in the B2B market for e-commerce.

These estimates confirm the trends from previous year’s interviews for B2C commerce.  Asia and the Pacific accounted for 27.9% of the total B2C in 2011 and 30.5% in 2012.  At the same time, the share of the United States in the global B2C decreased to 33.5% and 26.9 in Europe in 2012.

What are the forces that are transforming the retail industry?

Scalability

Traditional shops benefit from the physical access they offer, but the online stores benefit from the scale.  In the long term scale wins.  A good execution plan will allow an e-commerce site to obtain this scale.  You can see how the traditional businesses have closed their shops and built their own physical centers to execute orders.  The case of Barnes & Noble, the biggest book retailer in the world, is particularly well known.  This company plans to close more than 30% of their stores in the next decade.  According to the CEO of Barnes & Noble, Mitchell Klipper, the key is to adapt to new models and to implement intelligent systems.  All businesses evolve and Barnes & Noble, in the same way as other book retailer chains, has had to face in recent years the success of e-books and the competition from other e-commerce sites like Amazon.

M-commerce

The services and products available to consumers through smartphone apps offer additional comfort.  To assure their success, the apps should be both simple and user-friendly, but also sophisticated.  The increase in smartphones also benefits traditional stores providing users with a real time information service.  In 2012, 22.4% of consumers used a smartphone to visit a page of an e-trader and 12% of them also used a smartphone to make a purchase.  IBM analyzed online sales# during Black Friday in recent years and the American business was able to quantify the increase of purchases made via smartphone.  While in 2011, 9.8% of online purchase were made on a phone, in 2012 the share increased to 16%.

PS: For example, writing an article like this would cost $27 at TextMaster.

The TextMaster Team