[peterdelrosario]

This post piqued my interest because I've been working for one of the bigger players in the translation industry, and I have a lot of thoughts about your predicament.

You are a commodity. That's the reason why it's difficult to raise your prices. App developers could easily find alternatives to your service quite easily... they can go to myGengo or tens of other services (including the company I work for), and they could probably get it at a cheaper price. When you have a situation like that, then you have no leverage.

You need to find your differentiation. For example, a good niche some translation companies we work with specialize in medical translation. You can't easily substitute translators with medical expertise... They have more price leverage than your regular run-of-the-mill translator. I'm not sure what specialties you have in your skillset, but you need to find a niche that you can serve.

Another differentiator is speed. The translation industry is changing rapidly. In the past, most translation jobs were completed in the order of months (think documentation for Microsoft). Nowadays, most jobs require translations to be done in less than a few days (think blog posts). Running an efficient and scalable operation is quite difficult.

I have much more to say, but I'm at work, so I'll reply later.

[roblobue]

Hi Peter, great comment. Thanks. I'd love to hear more from you and you can add me to Skype on "robertlobue" or "applingua" if you want. Or rlobue at gmail . com