 So, but there are some things that I do now every time I get a new client just to be sure so Let me list those out just to help you out Because yeah, you're gonna need them like I said, everyone's gonna make mistakes They're gonna happen But there's certain things to keep in mind that can always help out if you're a freelance translator Anyone who hires you look them up on pros.com slash Blueboard pros.com slash blueboard has a list of a bunch of providers and Chances are you'll find whoever is hiring you on there now Another place to look is translators cafe Hall of Fame and shame It's a bit harder to navigate but you can find names there as well There you need to be careful because many times you'll find two different types of ratings One of the ratings is from an affiliate. Don't trust those affiliates get paid to put those up But other ones that aren't from affiliates you can trust So yeah, these are two places you can look every time you find a new client just to check if they're legit Another thing you can do is get as much information as you can about this client. You need to Get any email address any LinkedIn any online profile? They have phone number, you know mailing address anything they might have just so you have the information Just in case they decide to take their profile down one day or you know, who knows what happens at least you have all this information and Another thing you can do is try to get paid in milestones and So what I would what I'll do many times is Especially if it's a big job obviously I won't do a whole big job for them and then send it and wait to get payment. No, I send I'll send you a little bit of it I'll send you the first couple pages you pay me for that and then I'll send you the rest Do something along those lines if it's a new client, especially if it's for a large amount of money You're gonna have to take risks at some point and so for any new client I have I have a cap of a couple hundred bucks I won't do a job for more than that if it's some new client out of the blue that I can't find rated anywhere Or anything about because that way my downside is only a couple hundred bucks and in fact What what happened recently was I had a new client I did a job for a couple hundred bucks and they needed more done right away And I just said look, you know since this is the first time working with you I'm gonna have to get paid for that before I start anything else Usually I only invoice at the end of the month, but I'm like I'm gonna have to ask for it then and he was completely In fact, he paid me right away. He's like, oh, yeah, I know I completely understand I just sent you the money and So, yeah, you know, there's certain things you can do to try to make sure you get paid Those are some of the basics. I think you should try And and try to keep in mind other things that I do personally you can apply them or not depending on how you feel Is I never work with Freelancer.com again. I feel like they were They basically did no follow-up and and they're like, well too bad, you know What are you gonna do? So I cut them off. I don't use them at all If they've changed in the meantime if they've changed their policy where people have to actually sign up and give A real address or credit card number something To to offer jobs there then maybe I'll look into them again But otherwise no translators base.com as well. I don't use them anymore either You know, again, they don't they don't ask for that It's not so much for that But they they also didn't have that many jobs And you know, if you're gonna be if you're not going to be one of the top ones like pros or translators cafe You need to offer something a little bit more and to me that would be like Getting someone's personal, you know getting their if they're offering jobs They need to provide a credit card number a bank account, you know something so that I can follow up in case I don't get paid Um, and I've become a big fan of escrow up work always use is escrow, which I've explained many times in the past I won't do it again. Um, and uh, otherwise, uh, yeah, that's pretty much that's pretty much it I mean The only other thing to do is use your head use your brain Very often if things look a bit shaky look a bit weird if someone has a generic name They're emailing you from a yahoo email address They even if they provide a mailing address like that guy did but it seems like someplace random then It might not be legit and if I had to do that over again, what I would do is I would send him I think what he what he asked me to do was something like 10 pages I would send the first one or two and be like send me a good faith payment You know for this one or two and I'll send you the rest. I sent it. It was password protected, but Password protected doesn't mean much of anything. Um, and uh, and yeah, so that's it That's pretty much all the advice I have and that's some of the mistakes I've made Oh, but let me cover some of the other mistakes I've made just so you don't make them another one. I've done I've legitimately done this instead of asking for Whatever it was say instead of 10 cents a word. I literally wrote 0.01 cents per word And I realized what I had done after and I'm like, oh, I was so mad about that But uh, but I went ahead and did the job anyway, and I told them I'm like look obviously that was a typo And but it was my it was my mistake. So I'm gonna do it because you know, he confirmed right away. He's like, yeah We'll totally hire you and uh, you know, I did the job because it was my mistake You know, I have to I have to deal with it. You know deal with my problems. Um, and then uh, what else? Oh, and another one was these Anyway, again, it was my mistake as someone had sent me these letters that had been made into pdf's and um and to To translate and so I wrote back and I was like, yeah, I can do it at a price of whatever it was say 10 dollars per Per letter now the ones he had sent me I think for the most part if not all were one page per pdf file No, actually, no because at the end I was going to call him out But he had been right he sent me like three or four files and I think I think actually two of them Had more than one page You know per file So it was several pages per pdf file and one or two were just one page per pdf file I wrote back and I said I would do it for 10 bucks per file I meant 10 bucks a page He wrote back and he's like, okay sounds good And then I realized my mistake and I told him I'm like actually I meant per page But you know, I told you I'd do it. I'm gonna do it In fact, I ended up working on that job for a long time because actually I found it very interesting And I've mentioned it in past videos as well as a job about it's probably one of the most interesting jobs I've had so I'm very glad I took it But it was a mistake I made and the the the issue is when I make a mistake I try to own up to it and I'll do it anyway if I by mistake I say I'm gonna do this job For one cent a word or even free. I'm gonna do it because I said I would do it and You know, I I it's my mistake. I have to deal with it Um And uh, but yeah, so that's pretty much it. I'm trying to think of other mistakes that I've made in the past Those are the main ones that come to mind I've been most of the mistakes. I think I've made have been On the opposite end in fact and I've been also because when this stuff happens I get too scared of everything that go go wrong and I don't apply for jobs Or I ask for way too much or something like that And you can't do that either because who knows what you're who knows what I've missed out on because of that You need to apply to jobs and you need to have Thick skin, you know, you need to have faith in yourself that you can deal with it and And even if you overestimated it and it means they're pulling an all-nighter to do it That's that's life. That's a life of freelancer, you know, you have to figure it out And but yeah, hopefully what I mentioned before for the payment and some of my past mistakes I'm not getting paid can help you out Please look out for them But things are going to happen bad things are going to happen either way And you'll get a better feel for it. I have friends who have, you know, they won't deal with certain countries at all And other other people won't deal with certain types of clients if they have been yahu or gmail address They were like, I don't want to deal with that only if it's a legitimate company Which I understand I don't have that really As a general rule, but I do have many other things I look into first and so at least so far that's kind of limiting my downside And so yeah, that's pretty much it. I'll stop it right now. And I hope you found this useful Otherwise, I mean or if you have any other stories or any other Yeah issues or horror stories, feel free to let me know. I've been talking for way too long already So I'll catch you in the next video. Thanks. Bye Actually, what I might do is just divide this into two videos that would make more sense Um, because I don't like having these long extended videos. So maybe I'll do that either way regardless. I'll see you in the next video. Thanks. Bye