Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/28/2011
Posts: 19
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A wee question about translations.
I enter (nearly) all my tags/keywords in English, its an American company selling mainly to the English market after all. I do this in the Dutch site, because that is my default.
For some reason I cant enter the Dutch site tonight and I defaulted to my shop site in the .com form.
It all looked all a bit odd. Many of the titles making no sense in English. I am not sure but does anyone know if they are assuming that because I am entering tags/keywords in the Dutch site, they are automatically translating them into English? I.e it translates my English tags/keywords into English assuming they are Dutch keywords/tags. This could be the source of the problem as often you have the same word with completely different meanings in English and Dutch.
groetjes,
Richard
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/16/2009
Posts: 4,093
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I think that's exactly what's happening. Although I use the .com site, if I use any French words - place names for example - they get 'translated' into French too on the .fr.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 2/10/2011
Posts: 1,163
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Being in Germany, I always work from the .com domain since I noticed what happens to my titles and descriptions. Besides, only there I have all products available, and I noticed that I sell (if ever) all over the world.
The downside is that my german page is full of ridiculous translations, but I guess so is my french, spanish, japanese …
We can log in to zazzle.com, no matter where we are located.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/28/2011
Posts: 19
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Thanks for the answers. It looks like no matter what you do you end up with silly translations. I am not quite sure what to do as I am not sure if the translations go to defaults based on the url or on the ip address of the user.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 2/10/2011
Posts: 1,163
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Funkyworm wrote:Thanks for the answers. It looks like no matter what you do you end up with silly translations. I am not quite sure what to do as I am not sure if the translations go to defaults based on the url or on the ip address of the user. It's the URL - try changing the domain, you'll see the different languages.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/28/2011
Posts: 19
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Thank you. I think henceforth I'll produce via .com.
It does make me wonder how many sales I could have lost by realising so late. Ach... conjecture... stay positive.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 5/28/2011
Posts: 19
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A very prompt answer from Leontine from zazzle:
"Hello Richard,
I saw your question on the forum.
This is how it works. If you are Dutch and post your products for sale on zazzle.nl and add Dutch tags, you will have the correct language (no auto translations). This will definitely help in search. The auto translator will translate your title and tags to all other languages on the other domains.
The risk of posting Dutch language on zazzle.com is that it's "double" translated on zazzle.nl Example: If you add a "cool pet" on zazzle.com which is Dutch for "cool hat", it will show up as "cool animal" on zazzle.nl Which makes your title useless.
Same for iPhone Case. To be sure the word "Case" is translated correctly by the auto translator, enter the title and tags in your language on your domain.
Hoesje on zazzle.nl, Hülle on zazzle.de etc.
Concluding: Add Dutch tags on zazzle.nl, German tags on zazzle.de, English tags on zazzle.com etc.
You can log in with the same account on all domains and add the products in that particular language.
Feel free to share this answer with others."
groet,
Richard
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/16/2009
Posts: 4,093
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It's not a "one size fits all". You either have Dutch tags on the Dutch site for the Dutch market, or English tags on the .com site for the English speaking market. By far most of my sales come from the English speaking market so that's where I do my products, but in spite of the translations, I've still had sales to German, French, Spanish and even Japanese & Korean speaking people, and in spite of the fact that in French, my goat has a pair of car horns on her head : )
And probably, more Dutch people speak English, than English speak Dutch!
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 12/24/2010
Posts: 294
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And you should very carefully consider whether what Leontien suggests will be good for your shop. When you are selling, in English, through the .com site, and you're getting after a while a solid custom base, it will do you more harm than good if you regularly post products in Dutch on the Dutch site, because your followers or fans will think you're going bananas. (with the pseudo English translations that is). So, I second ruralfrance. However, if I really, really had much more time, I would open a seperate store for the Dutch market on zazzle.nl(hup Holland hup products!), a seperate for German on zazzle.de and so on. Vriendelijke groet vanuit Vlaanderen. 
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 2/26/2011
Posts: 726
Location: BUDERIM
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Hi guys, Im sure the benefits of working through the .com site,outway working from outside,I worked out about six months ago that to receive some selling bonus's you have to be in .com, I was missing out on some benefits.Also some of the new items can only be created on .com. Jill
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Groups: Member
Joined: 9/30/2009
Posts: 7
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greendeer wrote:Funkyworm wrote:Thanks for the answers. It looks like no matter what you do you end up with silly translations. I am not quite sure what to do as I am not sure if the translations go to defaults based on the url or on the ip address of the user. It's the URL - try changing the domain, you'll see the different languages. When I write and upload on the german de site, the language stays on all sites German. Only when I write in english a translation happens. Everybody can read my german text in Japan, UK and anywhere else, only the product discribtion itself is in the other language. Check out MyFineCards. Bye, bye Pia
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 7/30/2009
Posts: 101
Location: Huntington Beach
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All that being said, it might be fun to put some of the most ridiculous translations on some product and see if it sells. If you use the idea and make money be sure to send me 10% of the earnings please 
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