General questions about BeWords
Provider/translator questions on how to use the site
Customer questions on how to use the site
Questions about pricing, VAT, etc.
Community features questions
Google Ads service questions

General questions about BeWords

What is BeWords?

BeWords.com is both a community site for translators and linguists, and an open and innovative marketplace where translation customers and providers can meet, work together and do business!

What does BeWords cost?

BeWords is free to use for customers. Our objective is to get as many customers to use the site as possible, so that our translators get a real benefit from using BeWords.

BeWords offers free membership to providers, which enables them to use all the main features of the site free of charge. The BeWords Premium Provider membership, available since September 2010, enables providers to pay for increased visibility and better features, but it is optional.

BeWords also offers a low-level commission Escrow Service.

Who runs BeWords?

BeWords’ management team is described on our Management page. Please click here to read about us!

Why choose BeWords and not another site?

Our website is open, collaborative, fun and we aim/are determined to generate business for you!

Our strategy also fully integrates the notion that providers need to have a say (a strong one) in the evolution of the site, its features, etc.

Also, we’re very motivated to make this site a success.

Provider/translator questions on how to use the site

How can I change my password?

To change your password on BeWords, please click on the Account Settings link.

Then go to the bottom of the page where you’ll find a “Change Password” section. Just fill in your old password, then your new password, click on “Save Info” and your new password will be saved.

How can I decide to keep part, or all, of my profile information private?

To change your visibility and privacy settings on BeWords, please click on the Account Settings link.

Then go to the first section, where you’ll find all the main parts of your profile data (personal details, work information, pricing info, etc.). For each of these groups of information, you can select whether you want to hide them from all users of the site, or just from users other than your friends/direct contacts. By default, your information is visible to all users (“Visible to All” option).

Don’t forget to click on “Save Info” to save your settings!

How can I decide not to receive email notifications from BeWords?

To change your email notifications on BeWords, please click on the Account Settings link.

Then go to the “Email Notification Settings” section where you’ll be able to select the type of emails you want to receive (or not). Don’t forget to click on “Save Info” to save your settings!

How can I set my status?

To change your status on BeWords, please click on the Account Settings link. Your status enables you to give other users (providers, friends and customers) information about what you’re currently doing (e.g. on vacation, working on a project, available for projects, etc.).

Then go to the “Set My Status” section in which you can fill in a status message of up to 140 characters explaining what you’re doing now.

Don’t forget to click on “Save Info” to save your settings!

How can I choose my BeWords profile URL?

Your BeWords profile URL is an important part of your visibility on BeWords.

You can choose it when you sign up on BeWords initially, but if you decided not to choose it while signing up, you can still choose a BeWords URL using the Profile > Edit General Info page from the menu.

Then go to the “Your Profile URL” section, and select the URL you prefer.

You can then use that dedicated URL (no one else has the same one) everywhere in your communication about your services: in your email signature, on your blog or website, on your CV, etc.

How can I let people know that I have a profile on BeWords?

You are welcome to use your BeWords profile as an online CV to show customers your professional information.

To do this, you can use your BeWords profile URL, by giving it to whoever you like. To copy+paste your profile URL, just access the Edit General Info page, using the Profile > Edit General Info page from the menu. There you’ll find your profile URL which you can copy+paste and use.

How can I set my language pairs?

To set your language pairs, please use the menu and go to: Profile > Edit Work Info.

Then go to the middle of the page, where you’ll find the “Language related information” section.

There you’ll find a Source languages field and a Target language field, in which you can choose the languages you work with. Click on “Add” to save the information about your language pairs to your profile.

How can I set the types of services I offer (translation, interpreting, etc.)?

To set your types of services offered, please use the menu and go to: Profile > Edit Work Info.

Then go to the top of the page where you’ll see the “Service Type” section.

There you’ll be able to select the different types of services you offer.

Don’t forget to click on “Save Info” to save your settings!

How can I set my pricing information?

To set your pricing information, please use the menu and go to: Profile > Edit Pricing Info.

On this page you are able to set your preferred currency for receiving payments from customers, as well as your other accepted currencies.

You can set your requested minimum price per project and the types of payment accepted (PayPal, bank transfer, etc.).

If you have filled in Language pairs on your profile, you’ll also be able to set the pricing information (per word or per hour) for each language pair.

For interpreting services, you can use a text field to describe your pricing freely.

How can I write my BeWords profile presentation text?

To write your profile presentation text, please use the menu and go to: Profile > Edit profile presentation.

There you’ll find a page with three sections enabling you to fill in your Title of profile, a summary description and a full description of you/your services.

In the full description, you can use text editing options such as putting text in different colors, in bold or italics, etc. Use these text editing options to personalize your profile text and make it stand out :)

Customer questions on how to use the site

What use can I make of BeWords?

BeWords.com enables customers to find, meet and work with professional translators, interpreters and linguists. Directly, with no intermediary, with no inflated fees or costs, and on a fun, community-oriented site!

BeWords.com is there to enable you to create real value for your business, by giving you access to quality translators at "direct relationship" prices.

How much does BeWords cost customers?

BeWords.com is free for customers.

There is no membership fee (you are welcome to sign up for free) and no commission is taken on projects paid to providers on the site.

The only cost you will incur on BeWords is the price of the actual translation/interpreting service as set by your chosen provider.

How can I find translators to work on my project?

To search for providers/translators to work for you, please use the Search feature.

Search is available in two modes: simple or advanced.

If you run a search in simple mode, you will be able to select the service type (translation, interpreting, etc.) and the languages.

If you search using the advanced mode, you can add other criteria such as location, field of specialization, pricing, etc.

Once you have found translators who are of interest, you can either contact them directly, or if you have created a customer account on BeWords.com, you will be able to "Save" the translator (keep his/her profile memorized in your profile), send a message, or add him/her as a contact.

Translators who agree to become one of your direct contacts will be visible in your chat list, so you can also chat with them.

Do I need to create an account?

We encourage you to create a customer account on BeWords.com if you are looking to offer work to translators or interpreters, either right now or in the future.

As we have no plans to set up a membership fee for customers, except (maybe) to allow access to high-level (and optional) extra features in the distant future, there is no risk in signing up.

We also have a very strong privacy policy and guarantee that your contact information will not ever be shared with any third parties without your prior approval (no unsolicited advertising here!).

How does the project management tool work?

To launch a new translation project, log in to your customer account and then click on "My projects".

The "My projects" page will enable you to see the list of your existing translation projects, as well as create new ones (by clicking on "Add project").

On the "Add project" page, you will be able to:

- create a name for your project (optional)

- set a target delivery date

- choose the source and target languages

- set whether you want the project to be "Public" or "Private" (if the project is Public, it will be visible to all providers on BeWords! Please be aware of this if your project and/or documents are confidential).

- upload the files to be translated

- give written instructions to translators with relevant details about your project.

Clicking on the "Add project" link will create the project and add it to your list of projects.

You are then able to "choose translators" from a list of translators proposed by BeWords based on our BeWords Ranking algorithm.

Request a quotation for this project, and once a translator has offered a price which interests you, validate the project and pay for it on BeWords.

The translators will then get to work and deliver the project to you, either on BeWords.com or by email, according to your preference.

Can I pay for translation projects on BeWords?

Yes, you will be able to pay for translation projects on BeWords, once you have received quotes that are of interest to you.

Paying for projects on BeWords has many advantages:

- it's free for customers (you pay exactly the price that the provider has offered)

- it enables providers to have better visibility and customer feedback on the site (part of our Ranking algorithm is based on the number of projects that providers have handled on the site and their financial value). Therefore those providers will be grateful to you and will probably be even more motivated to meet your expectations.

- it enables you to have a great "good payer" track record for future projects (some providers are reassured to know that a customer agrees to pay for projects upfront).

How can I make sure the translators I have chosen are good?

Progressively over the next few months, BeWords will set up plenty of features enabling you to assess the quality of translators.

In the current version, customers are invited to:

- visit the provider's profile, open their CV file, check out their profile presentation, etc. Having a look at the provider's profile is usually a first great step is assessing his/her quality level and professionalism.

- chat and exchange with your providers, you will be able to improve their understanding of precisely what you need making the job they deliver even better.

- if you want to make sure that your provider is good, before launching a full scale project with him/her, you can use the "Test translation" service, by which you pay BeWords a limited fee and we ask the requested translator to translate part of your text, so that you can assess his/her translation quality in a real project situation.

Questions about pricing, VAT, etc

What is the price of translation/interpreting services on BeWords.com?

BeWords.com is a platform on which pricing is negotiated directly between customers and providers. We (BeWords) don't have a role or say in the final decision about the pricing of projects: this is contractually not our legal responsibility. However, we do incite our customers to analyze the prices offered compared to quality of the services/profiles (keeping in mind that a very low price is usually not accompanied by high quality) and our provider members to offer reasonable and competitive prices.

How can I find the prices offered by translators/interpreters?

All providers on BeWords.com have a provider profile, which includes information about their language pairs, professional qualifications and indicative pricing for language pairs they translate. Some providers may choose not to display this information publicly on their profile, in which case you are welcome to contact them directly to request a quotation or ask them for their pricing info. 

Please keep in mind that pricing info found a provider's profile is not pricing guaranteed by BeWords.com. 

Although the price indicated on a provider's profile is the price they’re very likely to offer you, it is possible that a provider may increase (or decrease) that price depending on the specifics of your project. 

Translation prices are determined by a variety of factors: timeframe (if your project is urgent, it might be more expensive), difficulty of the text, volume to be translated (big projects are usually proportionally less expensive), etc.

What about VAT?

When a provider makes a pricing offer to a customer on BeWords.com, this provider is responsible for taking into account VAT when necessary, depending on the location of the customer and on the provider's national applicable VAT rules. 

Please note that BeWords.com is not responsible for the pricing offered by providers to customers. We decline any responsibility if the VAT isn't calculated correctly or is omitted from the price offered.

Community features questions

How can I view what my BeWords profile looks like to other users?

If you want to see what your BeWords profile looks like, please use the menu and go to: Profile > View my profile.

This link will open your profile page so that you can see how it appears to other users.

Feel free to browse thru your own profile in order to see what you could improve to make it more attractive to customers!

How can I win free membership months (for the Premium membership offer)?

Currently the only way to win free membership months for our Premium provider membership is by inviting friends to join the site.

To do this, please use the menu and go to: Community > Invite My Friends.

On this page, you’ll find two ways to invite your friends.

The first one is to use your personal invitation link, which you can copy+paste and use everywhere online to invite friends: on Skype, MSN, AOL, by email, etc.

The second option to invite friends is by using our invitation form, containing a predefined invitation message that you can change/adapt and filling in the emails of the friends you want to invite. Don’t forget to click on “Invite these friends” to send the invitations to them!

What are direct contacts?

Direct contacts are people whom you have accepted as contacts on the site, or that you have invited to connect with you.

If you want to see who your direct contacts are on BeWords, please use the menu and go to: Community > My Contacts.

How can I add new friends to become direct contacts?

To add people you know, or have met on BeWords, to become direct contacts, just click on the “Add as a contact” links in the Search or on the user’s profile.

Important note: when you send a contact request to a user, they have the opportunity to accept or decline your request.

How can I invite friends to join BeWords?

To invite friends to join BeWords, please use the menu and go to: Community > Invite My Friends.

On this page, you’ll find two ways to invite your friends.

The first one is to use your personal invitation link, which you can copy+paste and use everywhere online to invite friends: on Skype, MSN, AOL, by email, etc.

The second option to invite friends is by using our invitation form, containing a predefined invitation message that you can change/adapt and filling in the emails of the friends you want to invite. Don’t forget to click on “Invite these friends” to send the invitations to them!

How can I find friends already members of the site?

To search for friends who may already be members of BeWords, please use the Search > Quick People Search link in the menu.

Here you’ll be able to look for friends using their first and last name, country and/or the keywords that are used in their profile presentation.

Click on “Submit” to launch the search and view the results.

How can I find statistics information about the BeWords community?

To find information about the number of members who are actively using BeWords, you can use the “Community Stats” link present in the footer of all BeWords.com pages.

You’ll find information about the number of users, the number of countries represented by our users, etc.

How can I make an application to become a BeWords Ambassador?

BeWords Ambassadors are BeWords users who want to support BeWords in their local community and take an active role in supporting the translation industry in their city/country.

BeWords Ambassadors organize events, help other users on the site, etc. In exchange, they get extra visibility on the site and naturally tend to have a big professional network.

To make an application to become a BeWords Ambassador, please fill in the form on this page.

How can I make suggestions to improve the site?

To send us ideas and comments on how to improve the site for the benefit of all users, please use our Suggestions .

We very much welcome all suggestions and ideas to make this site better!

How can I contact the BeWords team?

BeWords is keen to communicate with its members and future members; you can contact us using the Contact us page or by sending us an email at info@bewords.com

Google Ads service questions

How does the Google Ads service work?

BeWords offers many innovations, such as the inclusion in our 12-month Provider Premium membership plan of free Google Adwords advertising directly targeted to the provider's profile. This means that for providers who purchase a 12-month Premium plan, the BeWords team will create a specific Google Ads campaign, using keywords and campaign text related to the provider's services and languages. For example, for a translator from English to French, we will set up campaign texts such as:

High-quality freelance translator

From English to French

10 years’, read my CV now!

BeWords will not specify your name in the ad for obvious privacy reasons, but the link included in the ad will connect to your own dedicated BeWords profile page.

Google Ads service: more details - budget

Google Ads are based on a pay-per-click system. Your ad will be displayed in Google search results when Google users (potential customers) type in specific keywords, such as "freelance English to French translator". If the Google user clicks on your ad, this will cost us some money (typically between 0.35 and 0.70 Euro/click depending on the keywords, languages, etc.).

With Google Adwords, we can keep track of the budget that your ad campaign has consumed in near real-time, so we are able to stop your ad when the budget you have paid for is reached.

Note: 12-month Premium Provider membership plans currently include 25 Euros of Google Ads traffic, directly targeted to your BeWords profile.

25 Euros of advertising will on average drive from 40 to 80 highly-targeted visitors (including potential customers) to your profile.

Premium members are also able to add more Google Ads funds, at any time and to the value they require (minimum 25 Euros), to direct more advertising to their profile. A 5% ad management fee is deducted from the Ads budget to cover costs (meaning that if you add 100 Euros of ads budget to your BeWords account, 95 Euros will be invested in real Google advertising on Google Adwords, and for your profile specifically). This pricing is more competitive than the vast majority of Google Adwords specialists on the market.

What is a good budget per day? That depends on how many visitors you want to attract to your profile. Spending 25 Euros in one day can mean that you'll receive more than 100 visits to your profile, and maybe a lot of requests in a short amount of time. It is a good idea to spread your budget over time, for example by setting a daily budget of a few Euros.

Google Ads service: more details - launching your campaign

The Google Ads format is very easy: 3 short lines of texts and a link. The link is your BeWords profile URL and the text is created by the BeWords team based on the information in your profile.

When you decide to launch your Google Ads campaign in the My Account section of BeWords, we will ask you to specify a target country for the ad (meaning that ads will be visible mainly to Google users based in that country. If you chose France, French people/customers will see the ad) and also which language you want the ad to be written in (the actual text of the Google Ads campaign can be in English, French etc., according to the countries/markets you want to target).