Real Translator Jobs Scam Review

Product: Real Translator Jobs
Overall Ranking: 5 out of 100 or 0.25/5 stars
Price: $34 with downsells to $24 and then $14
Owner: Melissa Hoover??
Website: http://www.realtranslatorjobs.com

I think most people will be disappointed if they join Real Translator Jobs com. Although the idea sounds good, this program makes it seem too easy to make money online from freelancing. They give figures that the average freelance translator makes more than $50,000 a year.

As a member you are told that they are recognized in the translator market worldwide. In this review I will see if their reputation is really that good and if it’s as easy as they say to earn money translating.

What is Real Translator Jobs?

This is supposed to be a platform that can put translators in contact with companies searching for employees via their job database. They give the impression that it’s free to become a member, but once you have given your email address to proceed any further you have to pay.

Who is this for?

If you have a good knowledge of two or more languages this could be for you, but you must beware that you are paying to find jobs that you could unearth yourself for free. Real Translator Jobs (RTJ) say you need no experience, this is far from the truth. To find a job most companies will need details of your experience.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone to join this program.

What you get in the Members Area

There is not any real training as such, just some advice from Melissa Hoover, who gives you the impression that she is an experienced translator.

You are again urged to take advantage of the free site they offer. Then you are encouraged to set your goals and given some idea of how to set your rates. This information is available for free on many sites.

The tools and resources they offer are free items that you can find elsewhere very easily. In fact some of the tools are almost an insult to people who are meant to be translators and who are used to using a computer: translation tools like Babel Fish, a word count tool and Open Office.

There are some free and also paid tools that are used by professional translators that are not mentioned at all. For example computer assisted translation (CAT) tools.

Probably the best advice you are given is to join some associations. I say this because when you join these associations you will see that making a living is not as easy as Real Translator Jobs would have us believe.

You are recommended to get certified by the American Translators Association. However, when you go the this association’s website you will see that getting certified isn’t easy. In fact, the current pass rate is below 20% and just to qualify to take the exam, you must meet some stringent criteria, either:

• Be accredited or certified by a member association of Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs
• Have a Translation and Interpreting degree or certificate
• Have a bachelor’s degree or higher plus evidence of work as a translator or interpreter
• Or if you have less than a bachelor’s degree you must prove you have been doing translation work for at least five years

There is a fee of $300 to take the certification exam.

So here you get an idea here of the credentials that successful translators need and this is certainly nothing like the assurance of RTJ, that you don’t need any experience.

This is one of the questions in their FAQ and shows what bad advice they offer.

Can they really be serious? Anyone who pays for a translation will want work that is 100% accurate, not some automated translation from an online tool like Google translate.

The last section of the members area deals with other ways of making money from home, here they recommend freelance writing jobs and taking surveys. These are both legitimate ways of earning money, although they make it sound very easy to be successful.  Surveys are something I don’t recommend, you spend too much time for a small reward and to make a living as a freelance writer will take time and determination.

Finding a job

When you join RTJ, they tell you companies are desperately seeking translators, giving you the idea that it will be easy to find a job. However, all you are given is a database of companies/agencies that hire freelance translators. There are no real jobs. They just provide links to these companies, but even not all these links are working. This just goes to show they don’t keep the site up to date.

You will have to apply to each company in the database, to perhaps be offered a job. When you fill out the registration forms for these companies you will see they are seeking qualified and experienced professionals and sometimes you are even asked to provide a sample test sheet of translation. Remember on the RTJ publicity it said no experience required!

I have read comments from people who have applied to many of these companies and have never had a single reply.

You can obtain a free list of translation agencies from proz.com. This list provides many more details of the industries the agencies work with, the languages offered or supported and the type of documents you might have to translate. If you are serious about getting started as a translator this is a site you should visit, they provide some free training courses and webinars. You get so much more than with Real Translator Jobs and for free.

ProZ.com also have a forum subject about RTJ where it is clearly considered a scam.

Other ways to make money

Real translator Jobs also offer some free ebooks, video courses and generally low quality information for other money making ideas. They probably do this to try to give their program some legitimacy, but don’t fall for this.

Yet again, they promote the free website, that will end up costing you money, when you pay an exorbitant price for the hosting.

If you want to earn money online you need to invest in some up to date, thorough training that will take you through the process from start to finish. There’s no point in wasting your time with these outdated resources.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• 60 days Clickbank guarantee

Cons

• No real jobs offered
• No free trial
• Numerous upsells
• You have to pay to find a job – you can find the same work without paying
• You need experience before you will find a job – the opposite of what you are told in this program
• No support – they don’t even bother to reply to your messages if you need help or information
• You are given inflated earnings figures

Cost to join

The first price you see is $68 but straight away there is a reduction of 50% to $34 for “today only” because they are desperately in need of translators. Of course, the price everyday is $34, this is just a pressure tactic often found in scams.

After that there are a couple of downsells to $24 and finally $14.

There is a Clickbank 60 day guarantee, if you want your money back contact Clickbank. Some people seem to contact RTJ, but never get a reply,  so they think the guarantee is not honored. Clickbank is a reputable company who honor their guarantees.

Upsells

When you’re signed up you have to go through a number of upsells.

1. Get paid for teaching English online $27
2. Get paid for translating websites $27
3. Special offer for both programs $27

After these upsells I thought I could get started, but no.  In the members area they are promoting a binary options program, something else to steer clear of.  They are also promoting a couple of other dodgy looking programs on this page – Surveys Paid and Real Writing Jobs. But that’s not all, they are also giving away one of these free website worth $1995, which is a web hosting scam that several programs are promoting.

It’s rare to see so many scams in the same place and this is the meant to be the exclusive members area! What legitimate program would show ads like this in their member area?

Member complaints

There are many complaints online for:

• The absence of any support, they don’t even bother to reply to any questions, although before you are a signed up member they reply very quickly to your queries
• Problems getting a refund, although if you deal with Clickbank there is rarely any problem
• The excessive earning claims
• Charging a fee to see a list of companies that is available for free
• Being told experience is not needed

This is just a small selection of the many complaints to be found at TranslationDirectory.com. You can see more here.

Strange testimonials

This site has some of the strangest testimonials I have yet seen. Why do they blur the photos and withhold the names? Most scam sites include stock photos and false names. Lots of hype with the earnings, do they really think people will believe this?

You can see what sort of people they are aiming at “stay at home mom”, “enjoys travelling and watching movies” or “dropped out of college”. They count on making people dream of easy money.

There are hundreds of complaints and just these three false testimonials, you can certainly see this is just a scam.

My Final Opinion

Don’t bother to join Real Translator Jobs:

• They don’t offer any legit translation jobs, just a list of a companies that hire experienced translators
• All information that you can find here you can find for yourself for free, in fact, the info on RTJ isn’t very good and they will mislead you into thinking you can do this work with no experience
• There is no training, you are paying for some poor advice
• Unrealistic earning potential for someone with no experience
• A great number of complaints
• They promote other scam products

All this, means it’s best to avoid this hyped up service, that won’t find you any translating jobs.

Paying to find a job is always a bad idea, but if you are still interested in translating work, I would consult the translators’ associations, articles written by real translators and ProZ.com. You will get a much better idea of how to proceed and some free training.

Verdict: Scam

If you’re not sure that being a freelance translator is a job you’re capable of doing or is not something you want to do, it’s still possible to earn money online. Have you thought about starting your own business? Your business could be built around a passion or a hobby and can be very enjoyable. Yes, it’s hard work and takes time, but with some good training it’s possible to have your business website online very rapidly.

Below you can see a comparison table between Wealthy Affiliate, a training program that’s free to join and Real Translator Jobs.

I would love to hear your experience about Real Translator Jobs. Have you been a victim of this scam?  Please let me know.

Thanks,
Peter