It's time for my annual year in review post!

I've been writing year-end review posts for a while. Here's 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021. I'll say that this year feels different. I had a great year, due to various factors including luck, experience, working hard, and being willing to try new things. And at the same time, I'm aware that a lot of people in the language professions had a truly terrible year. My goal here isn't to rub it in, it's to give some examples of what's working for me, a few fails, and what I'm looking forward to this year.

If you're thinking about shaking things up in your business in 2026 (a good idea in the current economic climate!), tune in for six ideas of how to do that, and three ways to market a portfolio business in which you do more than one thing.

This podcast episode is based on this post on the Training for Translators blog. And if you're not on the Training for Translators mailing list, you should be! Join from the sidebar of that blog post.

Happy 2026 and thanks for helping the T4T podcast get to 9,000+ downloads!

Join the Training for Translators mailing list at https://www.trainingfortranslators.com/ !

In this episode, I describe a pretty basic miles and points trick (earning the Amex Blue Business Plus welcome bonus and transferring the Amex points to Virgin Atlantic) that got me a free ticket to London for my summer vacation.

If you'd like to read this as a blog post or follow any of the links in it, here you go:

https://www.trainingfortranslators.com/2025/11/13/ot-a-beginner-miles-points-trick-that-got-me-a-free-ticket-to-london/

I've now had about 60 people go through my direct client research lab course, and in looking at their online profiles, I've seen a bunch of common mistakes that most of us (including me) are making. Here's some information on how to fix up your own online presence!

• Visit the Training for Translators website (https://www.trainingfortranslators.com/) to join my mailing list or learn more about our upcoming classes and workshops
• If you'd rather read about this topic in a blog post, here you go! https://www.trainingfortranslators.com/2025/10/21/online-profile-mistakes-that-were-all-making/

I feel like lots of translators are thinking about finding another career due to all of the AI/MT/Federal government/other challenges these days! If that's what you want, go for it! But if you'd like to stick with freelancing and you're simply frustrated with how things are going, here are some suggestions to try.

If you're not on the Training for Translators mailing list and you enjoy this podcast, you should join!

This episode is based on a LinkedIn post I wrote this week, that generated a lively discussion. If you're finding the current freelance environment hard, you're not the crazy one: perhaps, all these years (or decades, or since the 1980s) you've been more of a fractional employee than a freelancer?

If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to join the Training for Translators mailing list in the sidebar of my blog, and grab a copy of my new book, Getting Started as a Freelance Interpreter!

We've all been there! "I was in a great marketing routine, then something happened" (life event, huge project, etc.) "...and now it feels so overwhelming to get back in the groove!"

Don't give up hope; in this episode, I offer a few tips on how to get back on the marketing wagon after you've fallen off.

In this episode, I talk about how to self-publish something that you wrote or translated, with options ranging from minimum viable product (instant-download PDFs) to creating a book that is indistinguishable from something produced by a traditional publisher. To visit any of the links mentioned in this episode, visit the blog post that it's based on!

Visit the Training for Translators website to subscribe to my mailing list or to learn more about my classes and books!

Right now in the translation world, it seems like many people are doing great, or horribly, with very little in between. In this episode, I talk about how the first quarter of 2025 went for me, along with some observations about what I'm hearing from other people.

If you enjoy the Training for Translators podcast, visit our website to learn more about our classes and challenge groups!

In this episode, I take a look at three ways to not earn enough money as a freelance translator or interpreter:

1. You don't have enough work, period
2. You have enough work, but it's low-paying
3. You have well-paying work, but not enough of it

...and how to handle each of these situations!

Links mentioned in this episode

• The Training for Translators website
• The 2022 American Translators Asociation compensation survey
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' outlook for translators and interpreters
• The MIT Living Wage Calculator