8 Simple Rules You Can Apply to Tame Your Content, and Make it Cheaper, Easier, and Faster to Translate

Back in 2002, John Ritter starred in the ABC sitcom, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. According to Paul Hennessy (John Ritter) the rules were:

1. Use your hands on my daughter and you’ll lose them after.
2. You make her cry, I make you cry.
3. Safe sex is a myth. Anything you try will be hazardous to your health.
4. Bring her home late, there’s no next date.
5. If you pull into my driveway and honk, you better be dropping off a package because you’re sure not picking anything up.
6. No complaining while you’re waiting for her. If you’re bored, change my oil.
7. If your pants hang off your hips, I’ll gladly secure them with my staple gun.
8. Dates must be in crowded public places. You want romance? Read a book.

On Thursday, June 9, Michael Meinhardt, CEO of Cloudwords, and I will present a webinar featuring eight of our own simple rules. Instead of dealing with teenagers (of which I have two though Michael’s children aren’t quite that old yet), we are gong to be discussing the 8 Simple Rules You Can Apply to Tame Your Content, and Make it Cheaper, Easier, and Faster to Translate. In a nutshell, here are the rules:

1. Not all errors are created equal. Some can cost you thousands of dollars.
2. Creative writing is a myth. Standardize.
3. Real copy editors don’t do it without a terminology manager.
4. The best companies use a multi-lingual glossary and style guide.
5. Got translation memory? Your vendors do.
6. Tired of managing projects through spreadsheets and email? Stop the insanity.
7. No complaining about the quality of your tech writers. Afterall, you agreed to outsource your docs to _____________________in the first place. (Insert your country here.)
8. Translation is a team sport. You want to work alone? Become an accountant.

Over the next few weeks, I will go into detail about each of these rules and add a few more of my own. Until then, I hope you’ll join us on Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00). To register, just click here.

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Val Swisher

Val Swisher is the Founder and CEO of Content Rules, Inc. Val enjoys helping companies solve complex content problems. She is a well-known expert in content strategy, structured authoring, global content, content development, and terminology management. Val believes content should be easy to read, cost-effective to create and translate, and efficient to manage. Her customers include industry giants such as Google, Cisco, Visa, Facebook, Roche, and IBM. Her fourth book, “The Personalization Paradox: Why Companies Fail (and How to Succeed) at Creating Personalized Experiences at Scale,” was published in 2021 by XML Press.

Val is on the Advisory Board for the Technical Communications Program at the University of North Texas. When not working with customers or students, Val can be found sitting behind her sewing machine working on her latest quilt. She also makes a mean hummus.

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