Christmas is over, 2015 is here and the busyness has begun already. After spending nine days away from home, most of that time without an Internet connection for the laptop (this must have been a temporary blip because my dongle usually works almost everywhere, especially at my mother’s), I find myself playing catch-up before the new year has really got underway with two long to-do lists (work and personal). Unfortunately, I also spent half the holiday suffering from a winter bug that I’m only just recovering from. Feeling under the weather is the main reason why I got so far behind with the posts of the day in December and didn’t manage to complete a book review I’d been planning to post before the end of the month. The latter will now have to wait its turn in the queue, but the posts of the day are all below.

Astute readers will notice that three of the last few posts are all on the same subject: standing up whilst working. I’m finalising my decision about which stand-up desk to purchase and will probably get a small treadmill* to go with it. I certainly feel it’s time to do something about the amount of time I spend on my chair and get moving a bit more. I’ll let you know the outcome on the blog in a while.

Another theme running through December’s posts is rates: whether to raise them at the beginning of the year or not, whether to display rates on your website or not, how much to charge and how to charge it (word/hour/lump-sum). Whatever you decide to do, I wish you an extremely successful 2015.

31/12/2014 Why Academics Stink at Writing by Steven Pinker (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

30/12/2014 Stop sitting now! 3 easy ways to get fit while getting paid by Marie Jackson (Looking-Glass Translations)

29/12/2014 Social media, branding & marketing by Caroline Alberoni (Carol’s Adventures in Translation)

28/12/2014 Are formatting surcharges still viable? by Claire Cox (Lines from a Linguist)

27/12/2014 Increasing your rates: is it possible? by Sara Colombo (LinkedIn)

26/12/2014 Let’s Get Analytical by Jonathan Downie (The Pillar Box)

25/12/2014 Video: Karen Tkaczyk’s sit/stand desk by Corinne McKay (Thoughts on Translation)

24/12/2014 The Standing Desk Experiment by Judy Jenner (Translation Times)

23/12/2014 Resolution: Edit the Client List by Adrienne Montgomerie (Copyediting) (post no longer available)

22/12/2014 4 Things You Never Knew You Wanted to Know about the (Spanish) Dictionary by Carlos García-Arista (Smartling) (post no longer available)

21/12/2014 Not Asking for Feedback will Hinder Your Growth as a Translator by Ofer Tirosh (LinkedIn)

20/12/2014 Specialise and own your area of expertise by Nicole Y. Adams (LinkedIn)

19/12/2014 How Should Freelance Translators Price Their Services by Nataly Kelly (post no longer available)

18/12/2014 Tips from professional proofreaders by Stan Carey (Sentence first)

17/12/2014 The Translation Rate Conundrum by Martin Boyd (Diálogos)

16/12/2014 New dictionary words for 2014 by Transpanish

15/12/2014 Become a Project Manager’s favourite translator by Angela Benoit (post no longer available)

14/12/2014 Six reasons for going to a conference on translation and interpreting by Jenny Whiteley (Lakesidelinguist’s Blog)

13/12/2014 How to foster trust in new clients? by Else Gellinek (Sprachrausch Blog)

12/12/2014 Machine Translation Technology and Internet Security by Joseph Wojowski (Translation Technology Blog)

11/12/2014 Planning your exit strategy by Jenny Whiteley (The Pillar Box)

10/12/2014 Cost of Living: are you really in touch? by Sarai Pahla (Loving Language) (post no longer available)

09/12/2014 10 Simple Steps to Build a $1 Million Translation Business by Dana Shannak (Dana Translation) (post no longer available)

08/12/2014 Rates: To publish or not to publish? by Rob Prior (Fuzzy Matches Blog) (post no longer available)

07/12/2014 Should I put rates on my website? by Marta Stelmaszak (WantWords TV)

06/12/2014 EU Translation Tourism by Deborah do Carmo (Lawyer-Linguist) (post no longer available)

05/12/2014 Charge for results, not by word or hour by Nicole Y. Adams (LinkedIn)

04/12/2014 “Copywriting is dead.” Madmen v Mavens by the DMA (Direct Marketing Association)

03/12/2014 9 Marketing Mistakes Translators Make by Sara Colombo (Balance Your Words) (post no longer available)

02/12/2014 The Right Rates by Simon Berrill (Only Human Translators)

01/12/2014 A guide to understanding translation costs by Transpanish

 *Since this post was first published on my previous blog, I have bought the stand-up desk and treadmill and currently walk between two and three hours a day whilst working.

Posts of the Day – November 2014