Now There’s Passive Income for You!
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One morning, while sitting at my desk, the phone rang. The person announced himself, and said we don’t know each other, and he’s heard about a tips booklet I wrote and have been selling, “110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life,” All of that was true.
In a cordial way, he quickly took charge of the call, as he shared the reason he was calling. He wanted to license the content of my booklet into the Dutch language. He shamelessly offered a small 4-digit amount of money, and immediately justified the amount he offered to pay.
“As you probably know, the Dutch language is spoken by a small number of people worldwide; you probably never even thought about licensing it in the Dutch language; it’s basically ‘found money’ for you.”
This was the second such incident that happened the very same way, only a different person for a language with a considerably larger number of people, speaking the Italian language.
Since each of these translation inquiries appeared early in my tips product journey, the only business model I had then was “do you want to buy this booklet in large quantities or not?” It became among my first content licensing deals. I happily accepted both language translation invitations.
Yes, it was found money, albeit amounts nowhere near life altering. And, these were learning opportunities. Those two languages, plus one other language provided another important and profound learning moment. It gave me bragging rights to tout the fact the booklet’s sales were X amount of copies and in multiple languages beyond English.
Two of the language deals are described above. The third was a throbbing thumb example of how cutting corners can boomerang back in your face. Since Spanish is such a widely spoken language, I was introduced to someone whose native language was Spanish, who was more than delighted to do me the favor of translating my tips booklet into Spanish at no cost. Since my own Spanish vocabulary is about 6 or 7 Spanish words, I could not read the translation myself. It took years for someone to ask if I was aware the Spanish version was for a less-than-professional-level audience. Lesson learned on that one, big time!
The big takeaway from all of this is that most of the content formats you create from your tips that are initially in English language can become a “rinse and repeat” to expand your audience and increase your bottom line. You can help more people than ever, and without even leaving home. There are many ways to make translation licensing deals when your product is professionally translated with a good translation company who is highly aware of cultural and local differences so the translation stays appropriate.
We have since created an excellent professional translation and interpreting company who has made all the difference in the world.