My vacation is officially over. Work has to be done. This is what this post is all about. Work.
More precisely: the work I do for others.
Work for others? Why are you even writing this? Spare us your boring life story, duh.
Relax, this post has a lot to do with the Steem ecosystem.
As some of you may know, I have provided German translations for different people. Eventually, this brought me also another job: the position of the German Language Manager of the 
BUT.
As you can imagine, this came along with an increasing number of hours I had to work each week, to make sure my team gets a fair scoring and feedback. This is not a complain, just a mere fact.
So, what exactly happened forcing me to write this post?
During the last weeks/months, the number of people who asked me to translate their posts has increased quite a bit.
Source of British Flag | Rest is either CC0 or created by myself.
I declined some offers but accepted other ones. And I realized something: the amount of work I put into a translation is not justified by the payment I receive for it.
Usually, I charged about 30-35% of the post’s rewards (Steem, SBD and SP accumulated), to be paid in Steem.
What might sound high to some, is actually not as much as people would think. Considering the fact, that I need for a decent 1000 words translation about two hours to complete it (at least), including formatting, etc., the reward is usually not worth the effort.
You now could argue “You don’t do it for the money, but because you are a nice guy.”
Let me put something straight:
I am NOT a nice guy. I like to get paid for my work. Which is, I guess, quite natural for most people.
Updated Terms of Service
Change of style
If you order a translation, you get a perfectly formatted and well-written German text for your money. Since I had some troubles in the past with authors whose original articles had some language issues, I insist on correcting every weird phrase and strange grammar – even if the translation is not “your” style anymore. If your style is awful, I will change it to achieve a higher accessibility for everybody.
Payment based on difficulty and time
Difficulty includes not only the content but also the language used.
If your original post is written in some very weird way, which makes it difficult to translate because your grammar is odd – you will have to pay more, since it’s going to take me more time to correct this.
If you are explaining your content using a James Joyce style – it will also be more expensive. Although I always appreciate well-written literature, translating it can turn out to be more difficult.
The more time I need, the more you are going to pay me. Easy as that.
If you need something done by tomorrow or quicker in general, the costs will also increase.
Absolute and relative payments
Time is precious. Especially mine. Therefore, I now calculate the following rates, based upon a scoring I will do after reading your original text.
First, you should be aware of a fixed rate, which has to be paid upfront and depends on the number of words you are ordering to be translated.
- <1000 = 10 Steem
- 1000 – 2000 = 20 Steem
- 2000 – 3000 = 30 Steem
- …
You get the point. In addition to these fixed rates, I might, as stated above, charge additional fees for high difficulty or translations, which need to be finished quickly. If not stated otherwise, I will usually finish a translation during a seven-day-time-period. If you need your translation faster, it is going to cost you more.
These fees are relative to the number of words, difficulty and time period, so I will calculate the final price for each translation individually.
If your post reaches rewards of 80 or more STU (Steem Token Units), I am going to take 60% of that – regardless of length and difficulty (note: time is not included here). The amount of Steem you paid upfront will be included in the final calculation. For example:
30 Steem upfront, the article gets 150 STU of rewards, 60% of that are 90 STU (to be paid in Steem), minus the 30 Steem you already paid, equals 60 STU (to be paid in Steem) you will have to pay me additionally.
Keep in mind: you already received full rewards for your original work. A translation is practically zero effort for something, which will still get you some money.
Before you start complaining about the price, which is too high in your opinion: don’t.
Given the current Steem price, 10 Steem for an up to 1000 words translation are a bit more than 5$/hour – which is still a horrible wage to work for.
I’m not translating your work, because you are such a nice guy and I want to help you – I’m doing it because I’m good and you are going to pay me for it. If you don’t agree on my rates, then don’t bother asking me – these prices are non-negotiable.
There are, of course, other translators available who might be satisfied with lower rates. I can forward your request to some of these, so you can negotiate other terms with them.
Whether you agree on these terms or not, is up to you.
Either I get more money or more free time - sounds like a fair deal to me.