Someone offered to convert my course to French, sell it and give me 30%. Any advice?

[Michael Lee]

Hi Warriors,

Someone from isi-cnv.com is proposing to translate my course to French and give me 30% of whatever sales they made.

I was wondering what you think of this? Has anyone heard of isi-cnv.com and is this a good or bad move?

Thanks a lot,
Michael

[CliveG]

I am not familiar with isi-cnv.com but, in principle, if I found a company that I was happy with making such an offer I would consider it seriously. They are not really in competition with you (unless your product is local to parts of Canada or a few other locations) and it is income that you would probably not otherwise get. Also, a local language product could become very popular in its local market due to its scarcity value.

Consider the 30% an initial offer though and negotiate. Happens all the time in the (paper) book field.

[actionplanbiz]

how about ok and do it.

but you host the transations of the product and you pay him instead the other way.

[mmurtha]

Originally Posted by Michael Lee

Hi Warriors,

Someone from isi-cnv.com is proposing to translate my course to French and give me 30% of whatever sales they made.

I was wondering what you think of this? Has anyone heard of isi-cnv.com and is this a good or bad move?

Thanks a lot,
Michael

Hey Michael,

That would depend for me to accept it - Is your work copyrighted?

If you thought it was good enough and/or a big enough project to get copyrighted, then you have placed a high value on it. In this case, I would ask him for a higher percentage because you've done the majority of the work on the course.

Remember it is him who is asking you for permission to use your work.

If you do decide to work with him, I would indeed write up specific licensing or use terms, and have him sign it. Getting him to sign an agreemnt document isn't a bad idea either. This way you and your works are still somewhat safe, and you have something to fall back on.

Hope this helps ...


Mary

[sbucciarel]

Get a contract and a foolproof method of knowing how many sales have been made. Other than that, I would do it. It wouldn't be direct competition to me and it was nice they asked instead of just stealing it and selling it for all of the profits.

[BradCarroll]

It's hard to trust someone to pay you out like that, when you've never even met them before. Perhaps it would work out better in the long run if you paid someone to translate your product (and possibly even sales page?) into the French language? That's just my take on it though.

[LB]

For a lot less than 30% of profits you could pay a translator and keep 100% of the profits.

That may be a short-sighted view of things, but based on no other factors that's what I would do.

[Fernando Veloso]

Michael, I am Portuguese, so I can see both sides of question - here's my take on this one:

Check the market. Check it real hard. Ask a french Warrior to team up with you. Check searches, competition, etc etc.

If there is a market for it, go ahead. These non EN markets can bring a good amount of $ if you have a local guy working them.

I am on the market too searching for non-IM products to bring to Portugal: small market but growing everyday. Makes sense to use a tested product to sell here or in France.

I'd say go get them.

Fernando

[Troy_Phillips]

I speak fluid Ga mountain hillbilly .

I will convert your work into my native language .... take care of all sales ... I will even let you know when I make a sale for you .

Don't worry about any contracts or anything like that. Just look at my profile pic .... would a face like that lie?

Come on ...admit it ... you would buy a used car from me .

Be careful my friend .

[David_Preston]

Originally Posted by CliveG

Consider the 30% an initial offer though and negotiate. Happens all the time in the (paper) book field.

I had a marketing company settle to translate all
my offline niche products to spanish.

They did ALL the work and even had a webinar with
me and an "on the fly" translator there as well.

Worked out really well at 50% to me :-)

Hope that helps,

David

[DrewG]

I'd probably take the offer. Heck, I'm surprised he made the offer in the first place, there's a lot of people who would just steal/translate it and never tell you about it. You could try negotiating a higher percentage (45%-50%).

[mmurtha]

Originally Posted by David_Preston

I had a marketing company settle to translate all
my offline niche products to spanish.

They did ALL the work and even had a webinar with
me and an "on the fly" translator there as well.

Worked out really well at 50% to me :-)

Hope that helps,

David

David,

Deals like that usually do work out well, especially when there is more media exposure for you.

I think sometimes people are too short sighted, and miss other bigger opportunities. For instance, I'd gladly sacrfice $15 or more times however many copies being sold on my own then to give up someone else doing most of the work for me, and giving me the extra exposure with a wider audience thru bigger medias. To me the latter makes more sense in the long run.

[Mary Gallivan]

Hi

As a bit of a cynic because of being let down, scammed etc - even from members of this forum who I felt were trustworthy - my first thoughts would be, what do I know about them? Can I trust them? Why are they only offering me 30% and not 50% (it's my product)?

Then I would do some research into how much it would cost to just pay someone to translate the product for me and sell it myself for 100% profits or get affiliates and offer 50%.

Do some research into this company, think very carefully and stay in control of your product.

Mary

[cima]

First, I don't know If it can help in any way but I'm French !

Concerning the french internet market, it is really a gold mine. It's comparable to the English speaking market as it was back in 2006. So I can tell that there are a lot of opportunities left in there.

Depending on the king of product that is going to be translated, the abilities of the person who proposes the deal, that could be an amazing opportunity for you.

Even though I think you must discuss all the details and the conditions of this deal. You must be the one to decide if your "image" or trademark or whatever is going to be exposed and used by this person . In the other case, if this is only a king of "copying" of your product to "build" a new poduct made for the french market and if you're not directly involved (and of course if you still get the 30%) then, you can be less resilient.

Cheers, Samuel.

[John Burton]

I would make sure you get a watertight contract drawn up, and make sure you know for certain exactly how many copies are being sold. Other than that, go for it. He will be doing ALL of the work, and you'll be bringing in a very nice 30 percent.

John Burton

[cima]

I've taken a look at their website, made some research on the french market about their credentials and their reputation and they seem to be reliable.

Did Raymi Phenix contact you ?

Isi-CNV is actually a french institute of hypnotherapy and hypnosis but I think you know that !

Cheers, Samuel.

[jamestame]

Well, iv'e been hearing rumors from several sources that products in french are doing really well! Apparently french markets are still full of hungry crowd, i suggest that you pay a proper french translator to translate the product for you and sell it yourself! don't let anyone get their hands on your product it's never that good of an idea unless you 100% know the person is honest and will stick to their word...

James

[Profit-smart]

Hm,

I suppose it's time for me to learn french!
I've thought a few times of expanding into foreign markets, I didnt know that market was so prosperous right now.


I rather dislike the idea of marketing to an audience I can only properly understand through an intermediary.

As for your question OP, Like the others said; You would be better off hiring a translator and marketing it yourself. But is that feasible for you? Like I said; I wouldnt want to market to an audience I couldnt clearly understand. To many tiny grammatical errors can absolutely devastate sales volume.

I would ask for a copy of some statistics, if the proposed partner can drive a decent amount of traffic they might make for an excellent "affiliate" of sorts. But if your going to do what they ask, I would only do it if it requires a minimal amount of effort on your part.

If they expect you to contribute much, I would go the translator/partner with a french speaking warrior route . If your going to put a bunch of work into something, you might as well keep 100% net.

[Desmond Ong]

Hi Michael,

If I am you, I would say yes and let them do the magic.

If i see it selling well, I will reproduce that product in spanish and portuguese because there's a market for other languages besides english.

It's like getting paid to let them test other market for you. :-)

[Fernando Veloso]

Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan

Then I would do some research into how much it would cost to just pay someone to translate the product for me and sell it myself for 100% profits or get affiliates and offer 50%.

Mary,

If you want to sell a product in Spain or France or Portugal, you better grab a local guy to work with.

There's no point in translating a product to other languages IF you don't know the market.

You'll make some sales, sure, BUT not the amount of sales you can make with a local guy working it inside out.

Besides, local IMers have niche sites with traffic, they have targeted lists in those markets and so on

Fernando