Proz.com👌

Being part of a professional community can be important for many reasons, including:

1. Professional development: Professional communities can offer opportunities for training, certification, and skill development. They can also provide access to exclusive resources, workshops, and educational opportunities. 

2. Networking: Professional communities can provide opportunities to meet new people, build connections, and develop mentorship relationships. 

3. Recognition: Being recognized by your peers within your profession or industry can be an impressive way to boost your resume. 

4. Staying informed: Professional communities can keep members informed and educated through continuing education offerings, webinars, and information sessions. This can help professionals and businesses stay on top of breaking industry trends and regulatory changes. 

5. Sense of belonging: Professional communities can provide a sense of being part of something bigger than yourself. It may take some time to see a return on your investment in a professional community, so it's important to be patient.

You can try to stick it out for a few years, and if you need to leave, you can keep in touch with the people you connected with.

According to the ProZ.com Basics page, you could have the following benefits as a member:

1. Give and receive help translating tough terms.

2. Hire language professionals and meet new clients.

3. Attend ProZ.com events - conferences, trainings and powwows.

4. Leave feedback about outsourcers; read feedback by others.

5. Discuss translation issues with other professionals. 

It is important to mention that you could obtain these benefits even if you are not a paid Proz.com member. On the other hand, you will get access to free resources, courses and event recordings, have a better ranking in the translators directory and job postings, have the opportunity to become a member of the certified Pro translators network, and join professional groups if you are a paid Proz.com member.

"These videos were originally published on Proz.com: https://www.youtube.com/@ProZdotcom"  

There are important recommendations to follow when you create your profile on ProZ.com:

1. When you create the catchy phrase below your name, you have to type your specialization and your years of experience💼: For example, IT specialist translator for 5 years, management expert for 10 years, education translator for 20 years, marketing campaigns specialist for 25 years, and so on. Therefore, the idea is to be different from other competitors and gain credibility as an expert in a specific field. 

2. When you indicate your expertise, try to choose the four fields you have more experience in first ⚖️✝️🩺: You can select more options to show that you are interested in working in those fields, even though they are not your best options.

3. Create your professional website and paste the link in your profile to look very professional and attract people to you💻: If you do not know how to do that, you can pay someone to create your website, or you can watch YouTube videos to create one by yourself, or you can create a beautiful, easy website on Canva for free on your own. Therefore, hurry up and create your dream professional website! 

4. Create your CV or resume in your pair of languages📃: For example, a CV in Spanish and another CV in English. Sometimes, employers are used to reading resumes, and they can know you better in that way. 

5. Write your bio in detail with bold headlines, and underlined, colored sentences✍️: You can also include images of your certifications and membership links (Translators Without Borders member, ProZ Pro Bono member, Proz.com Certified PRO certificates, and so on). 

6. Select many keywords for your profile to be found easily for potential clients🔑: These keywords should be related to your specializations and services and translated to the different languages you work with.

✨If you are interested in reading a colleague profile, you could read mine by pressing here.✨

The following suggestions could help you rank in a better position on Proz.com Directory:

1. Complete your profile 💯: Follow the last recommendations about getting started with Proz.com. 

2. Request your ranking position to the Directory Rank page🔢: Proz.com has a page that can tell your position in its professional Directory and give you some advice to improve it. If you are not in the first 100 professionals in your pair of languages and specific fields (religion, literature, education, etc.), you could receive a message on your Proz email box giving you detailed information about your rank and tips to improve it. Besides, when you request your ranking position on the Directory Rank page, it will give you some great suggestions to improve your ranking automatically. Follow them thoroughly to get better results. Lastly, you could press here to access this page.

3. Verify your identity🪪: You could verify your identity in 3 different ways. First, you could pay one of the Proz memberships. Second, If you know a member of the Proz staff, you request them to verify your identity. Finally, you could pay $5 with your credit card that matches with your profile on the Proz website. Finally, you could press here to access this page.

4. Use your real name🧑‍🏫: Register your real full name to look more professional. It could also happen that you register your name correctly, but your name has symbols not recognized by the English version of the website, so try not to use accent marks and letters not included in the English alphabet. To end, you could press here to access this page.

5. Verify your credentials🧑‍🎓: If you have obtained degrees from academic institutions and certificates for completing courses and programs from professional associations, you could register your credentials and request verifying them to the Proz staff. Finally, you could press here to access this page. 

6. Get Kudoz points🪙: Kudoz is the perfect place to ask for help when you cannot find the translation for difficult terms in any language and any specific field. You could also help to answer your colleagues´ requests by discussing and suggesting proper translations for the terms given. Proz will give you 4 Kudoz points each time your suggested terms are the most accepted by the community and the requester. Lastly, you could press here to access this page.

The following tips could not help your ranking, but could make your potential clients trust you more as a professional: 

1. Verify your email and telephone number✉️: You could verify them to help your potential clients to know that you have updated your contact information. Finally, press here to access this page. 

2. Include continuing professional development (CPD)🏫: You could add your certificates for your volunteer work, publications, presentations, and mentorships. This could help your potential clients learn more about your professional skills and interests. Lastly, you could press here to access this page.

3. Do networking🤝: You could participate in the forum and the Facebook group to discuss ideas with other colleagues and support each other. You will also be more visible in the translation, localization and interpreting communities. This could help your potential clients verify that you have social and professional proofs. To end, you could press here to access this page.

4. Take training courses💻: You could improve your efficiency at work and knowledge in a specific field if you take some training courses on Proz and walk them out. These courses will also be reflected on your profile, so your potential clients will be able to learn more about your professional language skills. Finally, you could press here to access this page.

5. Verify you are a native speaker of any language🗣️: Some employers could prefer someone who has been verified as a native speaker in a specific language, so you could do a native speaker verification on Proz. Lastly, you could press here to access this page.

6. Add projects to your profile📂: You can create a list of projects done so potential clients and colleagues can learn more about your recent work experience. Adding more information to your profile about your recent projects could also attract people to spend more time reading it. Last but not least, you could press here to access this page, and if you are interested in learning more about this feature, press here.