A beginner’s guide to working with Kolibri Online
Congratulations! You’re now one of the Kolibris. But what exactly does that mean? Well, you’re now a firm part of our agency team and we’re thrilled to have you on board. This page covers:
- Our values for fruitful collaboration
- Project processing and your contact
- Information on payments and the freelancer portal
- SEO tips
The basis for a positive partnership
Fundamental values of our cooperation
Harmonious cooperation and a wonderful working environment don’t just happen by chance. We firmly believe that shared values make us better – because we shape, embrace and embody these values as a team.
“To us, respect and appreciation mean communicating clearly and openly, being helpful and planning transparently – within our team, in our external network and with our customers.”
“Every single one of us is better when we work together! We promote diversity and authenticity to strengthen our mutual trust, foster creativity and bring our personal strengths to bear.”
“It’s very simple: achieving the best possible results requires people who shoulder responsibility.”
“The world around us is changing every day. For us, this means always striving to learn new things, develop and improve. This applies to us internally but also to our external network.”
Our portal for processing projects
Our freelancer portal is the beating heart of our project management process. We are always trying to develop and tailor it to our partners’ needs.
The portal allows you to access all your current and outstanding orders, manage new assignments and view financial documents.
We recommend familiarising yourself with our portal before accepting an order from us. We’ve put together a brief guide to help you find your feet. This way, you’ll be well prepared and know where to find different functions.
Typical process for a translation project
Project request
- We offer you a suitable assignment
- You receive a request via email with a link to our portal
- Note: We only send assignments to individual freelancers; we do not send out mass requests
Confirmation
- The portal provides all key data: deadline, fee, source files and, if applicable, a briefing and reference materials
- If you accept the assignment, you will automatically receive a purchase order
- You can then download the Trados package and start work
- Note: If you decline an assignment, please contact us to tell us why
Delivery
- After completing the translation, you upload the return package to the portal – along with any key terms for the glossary in a separate Excel file
- You set the project as complete in the portal
- The proofreader reviews all files
Completion
- You receive the reviewed translation and glossary entries for a final check
- You check each change, either accepting or rejecting them, and make any other improvements as necessary
- You send the finalised package and glossary entries back to us
- We deliver the translation to the client
Payment
- You receive a credit note, which is paid within 30 days
- If we receive feedback, we will pass it on to you
Working with glossaries on translation assignments
We create a dedicated glossary (and Trados termbase) for each customer. Existing, established translations help to ensure consistency and should make your work easier. It is therefore important to include all relevant terms in the glossary.
If you would like to have any terms added to the termbase, please send them to us in a separate Excel file. We can then confirm these terms with the client before adding them to the Trados termbase so that they are displayed in Trados directly next time.
Caution: You should not enter terms in the Trados termbase directly as these terms will not be transferred back to us when you deliver the return package.
What terms belong in a glossary?
– Company-specific or industry-specific terminology and abbreviations
– Company-specific terms and designations, e. g. product names, department titles, etc.
Typical process for a copywriting project
Project request
- We assign you a suitable project
- You receive an email with the key project details: topic, scope, deadline and fee
- Note: We only ever offer assignments to individual people and do not send mass requests
Confirmation
- If you are interested in the assignment, you can find more information in our portal, incl. briefing, keywords and reference materials
- If you accept the assignment, you will automatically receive a purchase order
- Note: If you decline the assignment, please contact us to tell us why
Delivery
- In copywriting assignments, you work with a set template in Word
- You upload the finished text to the portal
- You mark the project as complete in the portal
- Your text is reviewed by a proofreader; this step is often carried out in-house by a member of our Content team
Completion
- You receive the reviewed text, either to consult for your information or to edit further on the basis of comments and proposed changes
- You upload the final text to the portal; we conduct a final check and then deliver it
Payment
- You receive a credit note, which we settle within 30 days
- If there is any feedback, we’ll pass it on to you – either for your information or with a request to revise the text as instructed
- A feedback round is usually included within the project scope
Information on orders, credit notes and payment terms
Here at Kolibri Online, we use a credit note-based system. This means you don’t need to send us an invoice once a project has been completed; instead, we will automatically send you a credit note for the agreed fee. We will pay the amount stated on the credit note within 30 days. This 30-day term starts from the date that the credit note is issued, not as soon as you deliver the files to us.
You can find complete information regarding Kolibri’s payment terms in your collaboration agreement. You can also find a PDF with the most important information here:
Information on payments
Tips and insights for SEO and more
Not all of our translation assignments require knowledge of SEO, but almost all of our copywriting and content editing assignments do. Google and other search engines evaluate website copy and content using a variety of criteria. It is important to consider some of these criteria, particularly when it comes to copywriting and keyword research. In our online magazine we have put together a series of resources for you to find relevant information on SEO, content and translation.
Do you have any questions? We’d be happy to help!
Partner Management
For any queries regarding the portal, changes of address, periods of unavailability or our collaboration in general:
Anne Addicks and Marvin Bennies
+49 40 5247774-15
freelancer@kolibri-online.com
Backoffice Management & Accounting
For any queries regarding credit notes and payments:
Jennifer Maader
+49 40 5247774-13
j.maader@kolibri-online.com
SEO training sessions for freelancers
We regularly offer live online training sessions – with reduced prices available for our freelancers. Take a look and see if there’s one that interests you! Currenty, we only offer trainings in German, but can offer English on request.
Seminar: Fundamentals of Content SEO
In this basic training course, we’ll help you to find your feet in the world of search engine optimisation, providing a useful introduction to the topic. You’ll learn about:
- How search engines work
- Which current SEO trends are most important
- How you can derive insights from search results
- How to research keywords and use them effectively
- How best to structure online texts
- How to produce optimised metadata
Duration: 2 x 4-hour sessions across two days
Location: Online
Participation requirements: Initial experience with online copy
Group size: max. 10
Price: €299 excl. VAT (standard price €899) as a Kolibri freelancer
Next training date: 19 and 20 October 2023, 9am to 1pm CET each day (in German)
Additional training sessions on: 25 and 26 January 2024, 9am to 1pm CET each day (in German)
We offer trainings in English on request.
Practical workshop: Content SEO
In this workshop, you will consolidate your knowledge of SEO with practical exercises. We will send you exercises to complete in advance so that we can discuss them during the workshop. The workshop content includes
- How to conduct SEO research
- How to create a keyword set
- How to structure an online text and heading tags
- How to formulate headings suitably for online content
- How to write and implement links correctly
- How to produce metadata
You will build on your theoretical SEO knowledge and learn the conventional way to produce user-friendly content using Google and other tools. At the same time, we will look at how ChatGPT can help us to identify suitable topics, conduct keyword research, structure texts and produce metadata – and where the tool’s limits lie.
Duration: 3 hours
Location: Online
Participation requirements: Completing our ‘Fundamentals of Content SEO’ seminar or basic SEO knowledge
Group size: max. 10
Price: €179 excl. VAT (standard price €499) as a Kolibri freelancer
Next training date: 10 November 2023, 9am to 12pm CET (in German)
Additional training sessions on: 9 February 2024 , 9am to 12pm CET (in German)
We offer trainings in English on request.
Who we are – the Kolibri team
Onboarding
Content marketing
Onboarding
Localisation and Multilingual Content
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Content marketing
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Localisation and Multilingual Content
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Localisation and Multilingual Content
Onboarding
Localisation and Multilingual Content
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Content marketing
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Content marketing
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FAQs
Finance
We make payments within 30 days of issuing the credit note. You will receive the credit note once the project has been closed (i.e. shortly after we deliver the files to the client).
Please log in to the portal and change the appropriate details in your user account.
Bank transfer and PayPal. Bank transfer is the most convenient solution for everyone in the SEPA region.
Bank transfers outside the SEPA region are only possible for sums above a minimum threshold (€100) and are subject to fees. You are liable for any fees incurred in payments via PayPal.
No. Our credit notes remove the need for invoices.
Many freelancers save our credit notes for their files and note their own invoice number on the top. This allows you to identify payments when they arrive, as only the credit note number is given as a reference. It also means you also have an invoice for your own records and can continue your invoice numbering system. If you generate an invoice for your own records, please don’t send it to us. Only our credit notes are valid.
Firstly, please check whether your question is answered in your collaboration agreement or in our guide to the most important payment information. If you can’t find the information you need there, please contact our accountant Jennifer Maader via email.
General collaboration with Kolibri
We are available from 8am to 5pm (German time) from Monday to Friday. Our office is in Hamburg. Make sure to swing by and say hello on your next city break!
No, unfortunately not. You must consult us before publishing details of any projects you’ve worked on for Kolibri – but, in most cases, contractual obligations mean we are unable to grant permission. We have to consult the client’s marketing and legal departments in each instance. However, you can disclose that you work with Kolibri Online.
Freelancer portal
It would be great if you could let us know when you’re on holiday or otherwise unavailable. We don’t have a calendar in the freelancer portal at the moment. Simply send an email to Anne. We’ll note the details down centrally so that everyone in the team is aware of your unavailability.
And, when you go on holiday or are otherwise unavailable for an extended period, please remember to set up an automatic out-of-office reply.
No problem. Simply get in touch with Anne and ask for a new password.
We don’t currently use this function, so you don’t need to select anything.
No. In 99% of cases, we only ask one freelancer (for whom the subject, style and price are suitable) if they would like to work on the project. We often work with the same teams on projects for specific clients. Now and then, we offer projects to more than one freelancer from our database simultaneously if a project is particularly urgent. In this case, whoever answers first will get the assignment. We also inform the other freelancers that the assignment has been given to someone else. However, such cases are very much the exception.
Trados (only relevant for translators)
Yes, we always want to see the changes, because we normally send the text back to the translator, as this creates an exchange of ideas and enables everyone to learn and grow.
We usually send a Trados package containing a project TM. This includes relevant entries from our client-specific TM and our general TM. We enter translations in our TM shortly before delivering the files to the client. This means you don’t have to send us a separate TM export.
We create a TB for each client. If you would like to add new entries to a TB, please note this upon delivery and we’ll take care of it – ideally after consulting the client. This makes sure that we only enter approved terms in the TB.