Pricing question

Just wondering, if anyone is willing to share, how much you charge over and above for creating a dual-language website? I have a set fee-per-page for standard pages that works well, but I’ve never had the headache of working with dual content before. On the surface, it sounds easy enough- but I’m guessing it can get messy. Is it twice the work? More? Or, maybe less?

Around a half more. I copy one final project with language a) and replace the language with language b) and add links between the project’s pages. On the server I create an additional folder for the new language and publish the new project in this folder.

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Ouch. that sounds brutal. You should really check out Agent. The language stacks are really powerful.

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The answer is “depends” :rofl:.

It can get really messy if you have images with text content in there or not only translations but also different structures (e.g. different content for different countries). Sometimes you have to change the layout, as the translated words in buttons, for example, might be way longer, or or or or…

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I don’t. I’ve been asked twice, initially thought it would be “reasonably” easy, but once I looked into the logistics, I declined.

With my email mailshot hat on I do quite a few, typically it’s the same email with the text translated, one I do goes out to five different lang’s. This alone, just a single bit of content, is challenging enough, so I figure I was right to avoid the website side of things.

If I had to do a site though, I’d charge about an additional 150% per translation.

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Actually my projects get way too crowded when using Agent or any other solution, I did try them. I like the better overview when having different project files.

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Hi Dave,

rates are always difficult. I live in France now (coming from Belgium with its 3 official languages) and based my rates on how much web builders charge overhere. I usually make multi language websites using RWML stack. I think this is the cleanest way to do this kind of work.

These are my rates as published on my own website:

Hans

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Have you tried it since I added the language macros? Those are super cool. No extra stacks on the page.

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Not yet- but I might be soon. I have a local law firm that I’m talks with now about revamping their site- and FoundationBox’s Speak is PERFECT for the job. But, I have one holdup. I think I read somewhere that TCMS wasn’t working with GoDaddy. Unfortunately, that is who they have long used for web hosting - and for a variety of reasons, they are not interested in changing at this time. I’m hoping they can get me temporary FTP access; if I can show TCMS works, then I’m in business- if not, I’ll recommend a local WP guy instead.

There are many Total CMS sites working on GoDaddy. There was a post from a user on WS that as getting some firewall issues but that is configurable on the GD side.

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Just in case you are not familiar with Agent’s lang macros, there is the syntax…

%lang(en:Home,fr:Accueil,es:Inicio)%

Getting back to the pricing question. There was a couple superb talks last year at the WS Summit about pricing. I recommend going back and watching some of those. Eric’s talk was very intriguing about moving to a subscription model.

Mark your calendars! This year’s summit is coming Oct 22-24. :slight_smile:

Thanks, Joe! That is great news!!!

Not a fan of GoDaddy, but one has to work within the confines of what the client provides.

I have lost hours putting in place a translation of webpage. These days I just use the Translate stack from Weavers Space. It is free and users can translate a webpage into one of over 100 languages. In my experience users love it and the translation is instant. Admittedly it relies on Google Translate but really does it matter anymore as people can also translate webpages in their browser too for free. Unless it is highly technical content do we really need to spend hours providing the translated page content for a few users who might or might not use it?

If you’ve ever read a page translated by Google, you’ll know why it’s not always the best option.

Don’t get me wrong, in some instances, it’s a great option, but the problem is it translates “as-is”, word for word, or at least that’s my experience. And language doesn’t work like that.

My experience is if your foreign language market isn’t overly important to you, and really all you want to do is pay it lip service, Google is fine. But if you want to actively encourage engagement in other languages it will only alienate these markets.

If you want a laugh, and a great example of this, go onto any property website and get the listings translated by Google. The results are often hilarious and almost always imcomprehensible.

You’d be amazed how many two bedroom apartments with a sunny south facing outlook and a roof terrace end up as lightweight terranced houses with a high luminance roof and a happy face.

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I used to manage a bilingual site. Yes, I charged about 50% more. I did it using Will Woodgate’s RWML stack. PLUS Joe’s CMS The website was shut down last year when the owner’s business shuttered due to COVID. I haven’t had any bilingual clients since.

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