August 29, 2007

How to conduct business - not

I think this creator of a very well known and widespread product in SL misses out on a business opportunity.
[8:47] Peter Stindberg: Hi xxx, my name is Peter and I run a translation office in SL. I was approached by a user of your product who asked me to translate your manual from English to German since he doesn't know English good enough. Though I'd love to do this for him, I wonder if not maybe you would be interested in requesting a German (and maybe a French, Italian, Spanish...) manual yourself? It would certainly benefit your business. I am taking the liberty to send you my latest notecard, and I'm certainly open to negotiate bundle deals for translations. Best regards, Peter!

[8:48] xxx: Sorry, not interested. If I appeal to forgein users that means also giving them support in german. I cant do that.

[8:48] Peter Stindberg: You really think so?

[8:49] xxx: I already get more questions in spanish, german, and japanese than I can handle. I dont want to make them think I can help.

[8:51] Peter Stindberg: Hmm... I see your point. And you don't think a disclaimer "No support unless in English..." would help? After all German users are the second largest language group in SL.

[8:52] xxx: Let me put it this way. English users dont read the notes in my profile. English users dont read the manual. German users arent giong to notice the warning even if it were in 72 point font and blinking.

[8:54] Peter Stindberg: OK, but you'd be OK if I do the German translation for a private user?

[8:54] xxx: Sure. Since when are instruction manuals a trademark secret? Just make sure that there's a disclaimer at the top notifying that I am not condoning or supporting this document. So they dont think its official or something.

Well, I am going to check out the competing products and see if their creators are more receptive to my offer.

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