I had remarkable success sourcing translations similarly from Mechanical Turk, also for a fraction of the cost of normal translations. I think translation prices are artificially high, because the translations companies became entrenched before the internet connected everyone.
I managed to get translations done for about .025/word, and then get the translation edited at the same price. This is total of .05/word, which is way way less than the average translation company that can charge anywhere from .25-.75/word.
And, you ask, how do I know these are good translations? Well, besides checking out the work with people I trusted, I also know they are good because my iPhone app went from unknown to top 20 ranked in many countries - I had big improvements in downloads, rankings, and revenue. The translations more than paid for themselves in the first couple of days.
The most successful so far was the Chinese. My app is now the 2nd most downloaded free navigation app in China, and it's top 10 paid. Before translation, we never had a single sale.
I also know they are good because my iPhone app went
from unknown to top 20 ranked in many countries
This does not mean that translations were good—merely that
they were just good enough to make some sense. People tend
to have error correction built-in, so it is possible to get
what translation meant to say and then laugh at what it does
literally say.
To verify it would be super-cheap as well: setup another job in reverse (lang -> eng), and see if the terms match. Alternatively you could just present them both to another user and ask if the translation makes sense.
So does being top 10 paid(navigation) app in China translate into sizable money? I was somehow under assumption that there aren't that many iPhones in China and Chinese aren't that wiling to pay for software, so I never bothered. Japan was a huge win for me, though, totally worth the expense.
The problem I have with translating for "experiment" is that it's kind of hard to undo a failed experiment - people who bought localized app would be upset if an update removes localization. On the other hand I do not want to continue paying for localization of new features where I know it's not going to do any good for me.
I should be clear - we didn't localize the app, just the description.
And China isn't large (less than $10/day), but it's growing, and it's definitely worth it considering it only cost $14 to get the translation written and edited. Same goes for South Korea.
South Korea is basically the same. We went from unranked to 13th free and 28th paid navigation app.
We're making ~$3-5/day in SK now, though I expect that will rise more as our Lite pipeline converts.
It's only a couple thousand a year right now, but i expect growth, and the price was definitely right! I've spent more time talking about translations on HN now than I spent getting them all done I think, and the cash was negligible.
By the way, if you want cheap but pretty professional translation, consider the Indian agencies. You won't get anybody working in Europe or the States, of course, but you'll get pretty competent work into Asian languages in the 2 or 3 cent range. (I'm guessing on the customer price based on what the agencies offer freelancers. Obviously, I've never taken any of those jobs; I do have to eat.)
I managed to get translations done for about .025/word, and then get the translation edited at the same price. This is total of .05/word, which is way way less than the average translation company that can charge anywhere from .25-.75/word.
And, you ask, how do I know these are good translations? Well, besides checking out the work with people I trusted, I also know they are good because my iPhone app went from unknown to top 20 ranked in many countries - I had big improvements in downloads, rankings, and revenue. The translations more than paid for themselves in the first couple of days.
The most successful so far was the Chinese. My app is now the 2nd most downloaded free navigation app in China, and it's top 10 paid. Before translation, we never had a single sale.
EDIT: I went ahead and posted some charts and graphs from my own experience: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1157824