Payment Practices now a “Member Benefit” of ATA June 10, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Tools.trackback
This has been in negotiations for a while now, but now it is official.
Payment Practices, Inc. (www.paymentpractices.net) is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with the American Translators Association (ATA) to become the very first vendor in ATA’s new “Member Benefit” program. Under this agreement, current ATA members will be able to subscribe to Payment Practices for an annual fee of just $14.99, a 25% discount from the normal price of $19.99/year. To receive the discount, ATA members must use the link provided at the ATA Member Provider page (www.atanet.org/member_provider).
Current subscribers to Payment Practices who are also ATA members can take advantage of the discount when their current subscription expires. If you have established a recurring payment via PayPal, you should cancel that subscription before the renewal date and then pay the discounted rate either by check or a one-time payment via PayPal.
I feel Payment Practices is one of the most beneficial services for translators out there – and now it is available at a 25% discount to ATA members. How cool is that?
Musings from an overworked translator 
I used to be an active participant in PP in the early days of the mailing list, before and after the Karin A. days. I replied to dozens of questions with the details of payments for the many agencies I work for, but I never needed to ask for information. When it went to a paid membership model, I decided that spending so much time to help others and having to pay (albeit a small amount) to do that, was not a good idea. I know several colleagues that really like the current PP, but I can’t see what benefit I might get out of it.
Hi Marcello, I figure if PP saves me from working for one bad (slow-paying or non-paying) client a year it pays for itself. Even if you don’t send inquiries you can still look up potential new clients and find out their ratings. Sure, there are a few lists out there that you don’t have to pay for, but Payment Practices has the largest number of members (aside from the ProZ Blue Board). More members means a bigger pool of knowledge to tap into. And $19.95 is a heck of a lot cheaper than $129 a year for ProZ.
Also, as an agency, I have to say that our reputation on Payment Practices is something care a lot more about than BlueBoard, etc. Payment Practices actually gives an agency an opportunity to explain or defend, whereas BlueBoard et al does not. Of course, not being paid on time is not being paid on time, but someone could go on ProZ and blatantly lie or maybe they weren’t paid on time because they moved and never sent the agency their new address so the check went to the old one. With Payment Practices, since there’s actual discourse, you get the why and wherefore, which you DON’T get with free sites. To me, understanding and being able to make my own decision is worth $19.95.
Excuse me. Make that “something I care a lot more about.”
Proofreading before you hit submit–still a not yet acquired skill, apparently.
No worries. It happens to the best of us. Next time just send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to edit it on my end.
Hi Marcello,
If you never take work from a new client, then I can agree with you 100%. There would be no benefit to you from subscribing to PP, except perhaps feeling good by helping others avoid “bad payers” or helping them make a decision to work for a good agency.
But as Jill pointed out, if PP helps you avoid just one bad apple a year, it has more than paid for itself. And it is a legitimate business expense so it’s a tax write-off anyway.
And another “but” to expound on my statement above. One of the wonderful and surprising things I experienced when I became a freelancer all those years ago was the support I received from what I assumed were my “competitors”. Whether it was help with terminology, software questions, or business matters, other translators and agency personnel/owners were always freely giving advice and assistance. When Karin started PP back in 1999, that was one of the reasons I supported it with my contributions as well as why I volunteered to take it over in 2001 when the job became too big for her. I figured my donating my time and effort to PP was “payback” to the community that had helped me when I started. And even though PP has become a paid service since going to an online database in 2007, I still donate my work in order to return a benefit to the translator community. I have not taken a single dime from PP for my personal use or as pay. Every penny that has come in has either gone to pay off the debt I incurred personally to pay for the database and website design and legal expenses or for marketing expenses to promote the service. My point here is not what a great guy I am, but simply that I, for one, and probably almost all of us owe other translators (and agency owners as well) a debt for the assistance they have provided to us in advancing our freelancer careers. And participating in PP is just one small way we can repay that debt to the community.