NatiS Hi @NatiS and welcome to our forum! Lovely to have you here!
NatiS So, my question is regarding the translation samples and references to the clients. First of all, when you send translation samples to your clients, are these the samples from your previous projects or are they translated by you on purpose just to be sent as samples? I wonder because usually we sign confidentiality agreements, so I don´t know if we have right to send the text to somebody else.
I believe in that situation it's always better to ask your existing clients for their permission to use your previous work as a sample. Just send your existing client an email, saying "Hey, I'm building my online portfolio and I was wondering if I could use the texts from your project as an example"
You can even create several samples with different bits of text and send your previous client for their approval prior to making them available publicly.
Another way is to take a piece of text that is in public domain, matches your area of expertise and haven't been translated yet and translate it for the purposes of using it as a sample. Although in that case I'm not sure if you'll be able to make that sample public (because technically you need the permission of text's author to use it), but I believe if it's shared privately with a prospective client, then there shouldn't be any problems.
You can also ask the prospective client to give you a test and show them how well you can translate.
NatiS I have a humble website, so could I mention the companies I performed the translations for on my website? Because I translate a lot for big international companies but through agencies, so I don´t know if I can use their names or should I put the agencies´ names? Is it allowed in general?
You can't use the logos of the end client because you haven' worked for them. You worked for an agency and you could ask them to include their logo.
Rule of thumb: always ask for permission ?
P.S.: As far as website goes, I found that testimonials with real people and real faces are more powerful than logos.
Just my 2 cents. I hope some of other forum dwellers will give you additional tips ?
