Mid-year report to members, 2007
Thread poster: Henry Dotterer
Henry Dotterer
Henry Dotterer
Local time: 14:17
SITE FOUNDER
Jun 14, 2007

Dear ProZ.com members,

We are approaching the halfway point of 2007. I would like to update you all on trends, new developments and improvements made to ProZ.com so far this year.


Site features and performance

Several new services have been added this year, and several improvements have been made to the site. These include the following:

* Average page load time has been cut in half, despite the increased traffic, thanks to
... See more
Dear ProZ.com members,

We are approaching the halfway point of 2007. I would like to update you all on trends, new developments and improvements made to ProZ.com so far this year.


Site features and performance

Several new services have been added this year, and several improvements have been made to the site. These include the following:

* Average page load time has been cut in half, despite the increased traffic, thanks to investment in additional infrastructure. Those who search the KudoZ archives frequently know that it is now much speedier (even as the archive continues to grow.)

* Teams of volunteers have worked diligently to localize the site into 11 more languages so far this year: Chinese, Italian, French, Dutch, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Turkish, Polish, Greek, Serbian, and Georgian. (Languages that are now underway include Croatian, Hindi, Japanese, Czech, Catalan, Vietnamese , Bengali, Thai, Farsi, and Arabic.)

* Vendor management functionality has been added to the ProZ.com Connect! platform. Whereas ProZ.com has traditionally been used by outsourcers only when they seek new translators or interpreters, the new functionality gives translation companies a means to search the profiles of, and manage communications with, professionals with whom they already work. For the first time, companies can see at a glance which of their translators are currently available.

* A ProZ.com-facilitated training service was announced and has been greeted with a high degree of member enthusiasm. Since the announcement of the program in March of this year, by staff member Leonardo, there have been 14 training sessions held in eight (8) countries. If you are an experienced trainer and would like more information about this program, please let Leo know with a support ticket.

* A mentor/apprentice program was started. Requests for mentors or apprentices can be found in the ProZ.com exchange.

* ProZ.com's fifth "international" conference (as opposed to "regional") was held in Budapest, Hungary at the end of April. The conference was a great success with about 250 attendants from 39 different countries. (Thanks and congratulations to Csaba Ban on this stellar event!)

* The addition of a dedicated team member -- Rebekka Gross -- for conference planning and development will allow more regional conferences to be held across the globe. Currently there are plans for three (3) regional conferences to take place before the end of the year: Montreal (October), France (November), Germany (December)

* Powwows have been held 91 times in 38 different countries so far this year. (Organizing a
powwow in your area is easy: just pick a place and time, and interested professionals in the area will be notified. If you are interested in meeting other professionals in your area, staff member Romina is there to support you with any questions you may have about kicking off a powwow.)

* A refreshed design is in the works, and will soon be released to members in 'beta' form. The new look is designed to be more appealing and intuitive to outsourcers, including end clients, and is expected to contribute to further increases in client flow. If you are interested in testing the new design, please let us know via a support ticket.

* A new section for "just for fun" translation contests was created. Two successful translation contests took place earlier this year and a third one is now underway. This time around, source texts are available in English, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Indonesian. Try your hand, optionally with a partner!

* Group purchases were organized for tools from TRADOS, SDL, Wordfast and Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking. In each case, ProZ.com members buying together in bulk enjoyed the lowest prices worldwide for the products.

* At the end of 2006 there was a campaign to encourage more site users to complete their profiles. Since then, over 80,000 of people have updated their profile--22,000 which have completed all fields marked as 'required' in the quick profile updater. To make sure that your profile is up to date, go here: http://www.proz.com/quick_profile

* Additional granularity has been added to the availability calendar--you can now specify that you are mostly available, or only partly available. You can also optionally specify your productivity rate. To enter / edit this information, please click here.

* A lightweight version of ProZ.com jobs for mobile devices (beta) has been been created. See: http://www.proz.com/?sp=mobile Additional requests for mobile features may be made via the support system: http://www.proz.com/support


Membership

Welcome new members!

Membership in ProZ.com, and use of the site in general, continue to rise. Daily page views now consistently exceed 1 million, with over 100,000 visitors stopping by ProZ.com on busy days. The number of daily registrations has risen to nearly 200. Our community of professional members continues to increase worldwide, driven in part by benefits related to localization of the site in a handful of new languages. Members can now be found in over 130 countries. See comments from brand new members here: http://www.proz.com/new_member_comments

In addition, new forms of ProZ.com membership (and corresponding profile types) were released specifically for (1) translation companies and (2) students. The community welcomed its first batch of members in each category in February and March, with those joining coming from 43 countries. See lists of the companies and students here: corporate directory, student directory.

As staff members, we are looking forward to exploring in more detail the particular needs and wishes of student and corporate members. As a result of the feedback we have had so far, we have decided to include the use of the Connect directory and job posting system (for 1 project manager) in the corporate membership package.

As usual, membership revenue is being reinvested in (1) improving member features throughout the site and (2) marketing the services of members to a wider audience of potential clients.

If you are a professional translator who is not yet a full paying member of ProZ.com, please consider joining under the current campaign, which runs through the end of June. See this page for details: http://www.proz.com/join


Client flow

The number of directory searches, job postings, and job-related emails sent via profiles have all reached new highs, with increases of 20-25% in each area.

The new Connect! platform has been instrumental in generating increased activity. In less than a year since the release of Connect!, eight (8) of the world's top twenty (20) translation companies have used the platform. Overall, Connect! has been used to find professionals for over 1725 projects.

Another factor contributing to increased client traffic is further improvement in the site's search engine rankings and overall traffic. Traffic to profile pages is up substantially on the year, and job-related emails generated via profiles have increased 25%.

Note: To maximize traffic to your own profile, consider making use of the localization and customization features. Click here for instructions on these and other techniques.

Remember, if you are a member, your Visitors Tab shows the IP address of your visitors, along with the search terms they used to reach your profile from Google, Yahoo or the ProZ.com directory. Use this information to optimize your profile's client appeal!


Moderators

Moderators play a key role in the ProZ.com workplace. This year, we have welcomed a new group of enthusiastic moderators, including: María José Iglesias, Fabio Descalzi Sgarbi, Katalin Horvath McClure, Eva Blanar, Susanne Rosenberg, Christine Andersen, GoodWords, Monika Jakacka, Ramona, yam2u, Hipyan Nopri, Hikmat Gumila, Harry Hermawan, Henrik Pipoyan, Mihai Badea, Maria Diaconu, Austra Muizniece, Maya Gorgoshidze, Jacqueline van der Spek, Marian Pyritz, Antoinette Verburg, and Joris Bogaert

Please consider pausing periodically to thank the moderator or moderators who mind the areas of the site that you use most frequently. They help make ProZ.com a better and more useful resource for us all!


Site staff

Increased membership income was used in part to hire new site staff members in the first half of the year. We would like to welcome Pablo, Ricardo, Rebekka, Andrew and Jon to the team! With the larger staff, it has become possible to undertake more event planning, to further develop the Connect! platform, and to deliver more of the custom features sometimes requested by members in support tickets.


Appreciation

Many members contributed to the accomplishments listed above. In particular, we would like to thank the following members for community activities, suggestions or feedback that influenced our activities this year. (Moderators have also contributed significantly, but with the exception of those who led localization teams, they are not listed here.):

Özden Arikan (moderator), Sule Bülbül, Marina Jovanovic , Mira Stepanovic, Kevin Yang (moderator), Percy Balemans, Henk Peelen, Valentini Mellas, Oddie (moderator), Olivier MANESSE, Maya Gorgoshidze (became moderator), Harry Hermawan (became moderator), Claudio Nasso, Nicole Maina, Joanna Borowska, Magda Dziadosz (moderator), diana bb (moderator), Marius Reika, Gabriela González, Juan Martín Fernández Rowda, Ljerka Polegubić, John Di Rico, Angelika Zerfass, Fabio Descalzi Sgarbi (became moderator), ICL, Milagros Chapital , Jabberwock, Ashar, JaneTranslates, John Cutler, Alfredo Tanús, MÓNICA ALGAZI, Larissa B and many, many others.

In addition, our community's ongoing success has been supported so far this year by the following advertisers: Lingotek, Alchemy CATALYST, XTRF, Terminotix, WordFast, WordFinder, SDL TRADOS, Idiom and others.


Closing

Remember, members: we--the ProZ.com team--work for you. Let us know how we are doing, and what more we can do for you. (Entering support tickets is the best way to communicate with us.)

Thanks for making ProZ.com possible. Happy translating.

Sincerely,
The ProZ.com team

If you are a translator or you work with translators, ProZ.com's Mission Statement explains how the site works for you: By providing tools and opportunities for you to network, expand your business, improve your work, and have more fun.


[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2010-06-16 13:28 GMT]
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Mid-year report to members, 2007






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