Developers, I need your opinion...
Hi!
I'm embracing the challenge of 12 startups in 12 months. This month I've been working on https://htmltranslate.xyz/
As the name suggests, it allows you to translate all the text of html documents on a single click.
Right now it's an MVP, I've placed google ads for it but barely anyone searches for terms related to "translate html file" or such.
The idea occurred to me at first because I had the task of translating an entire website and I didn't want to use google translate nor translate it by hand...
What do you guys think? Please be brutally honest. Why do you think there aren't much searches for it on google?
Ok many thanks. I see the recurring theme that people do not have static html websites. Which makes sense!
I'll probably be abandoning the project. Glad it was something that only took me a few days due to a leftover script I had.
I would question how many put the translations directly in HTML vs a JSON resource file such as a PO file.
That's a really good point
I don't think your idea will fly, but I have a suggestion for something related to app translation that would be much more useful to devs.
I think not every project starts off with i18n in mind. And if you have a big app, switching all text entries with a function with tag_strings can be quite time-consuming.
I would try to come up with a RegEx (or even use ML) to find these instances of untranslated strings and switch them with proper translated tagged strings. Basically to automate this manual tedious job.
You could start with React Apps, and add i18next support, for example.
Hi Douglas! Thanks a lot for the feedback. As stated on other comments, I'll probably be abandoning this project. About the idea you suggested, it's very good!
I'll do some market research first, because I think ReactJs apps will have the same problem, by the end of the day, most load their contents through JSON?
I'm experienced with React yet inexperienced with translating a website in it. Will give it a look.
Apps use JSON to pull dynamic data, and that might be translated in the backend. For example, a blog's post, or any user-generated info.
But there are lots of texts that are handled by the Front-End in any app, like, titles, descriptions, buttons, user-flows, tutorials, and so much more.
I think your took would work on that.
Anyways, good luck with your projects!
Hey, I think because in the dev world we are using libraries to parse text translation and they use JSON format because it is easier to change and maintain.
For my opinion, HTML is much harder to maintain because it has more complex and duplicated structure where JSON works perfectly.
Also, I think you should check the demand for the problem and then build solution for it.
For this case I already had it made. It was a simple python script I had developed for the task.
Thanks for the feedback. Didn't know about the widespread of json!
Congrats on taking up the challenge! Sounds exciting.
My honest opinion on this:
Hi 88gabriel, thanks for the reply!
I did some market research and this is what I found:
there is a tag you can add to certain text which will allow google translate to handle the translation. The problem with this (at least I found was for me) that google translate was faulty, and you couldn't edit what google translate outputted.
Here is a good reference to what I mean:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53786003/translate-html-file-and-save-it
Also, good option
Agree
The entire concept of 12 startups in 12 months is problem #1. Do you mean 12 projects in 12 months? If you're learning to program, building 12 projects (with no intention of making money) is a reasonable goal.
If you're looking to start a company, put all of your effort into building one company at a time. Saying 12 in 12 is not only a recipe for failure (not to mention burnout) but it starts with an assumption that each one is going to fail.
If you have 12 concepts, I ask you: which one is the most promising one? The one where you have people waiting to be your first customers and you can see yourself working on it happily 12-15 hours a day for the next 2-3 years before making as much as you would as a manager at a grocery store? That is the company you should build.
Success in business does not come from a shotgun approach. Even the best concept will be barely begun in one month. Three months from concept to sales is fast for a startup.
If you have 12 priorities, you will fail at all of them.
I strongly recommend that you watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2F-2-I2-5k and hopefully read https://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank/dp/0989200507
Hi @leastbad!
The main reason I'm doing 12 startups in 12 months is due to the recommendations in this post: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/im-really-struggling-to-find-ideas-any-tip-is-greatly-appreciated-973e99dba6
TLDR: I've got a vast programming knowledge yet no ideas. The ideas I have are either impossible to do by a single developer or outside my knowledge field. I'm not currently searching for a billion dollar idea but something that'll help me pay college and generate an income.
I've read The Mom Test (after I did htmlTranslate, I now realise the mistakes I did), the LEAN startup and I'm now reading LEAN analytics.
The objective of doing 12 startups in 12 months it's to not reach the twelfth (not even the eighth!) but to find something I can stick to and work on.
Hopefully you understand what I mean. Thanks a lot for the recommendations. Already watched the video and I'll keep the book in my radar.
Anything else you might want to add I'm highly appreciative for.
You watched the video - now put it into action.
It's the answer to this, not a "oh, cool" that you move on and forget.
Has been mentioned before but yeah, mostly everyone creates dynamic data from another source and renders it on the HTML.
Now if you can create the translation for that other source it would be great.
Let's say you have properties files
// English.txt
message: Hi
// Spanish.txt
message: Hola
HTML
<body>
${message}
</body>
It's not the HTML you have to worry about but the translation source.
I think that's still valuable and very useful. Some sites need to translate to 10/20 different languages and it takes a while.
I would say: research what's the most on demand source (could be a CMS, or some other system) and provide that service for them.
Thanks for the tip! Ill do some research onto it. If it's mostly JSON, I can very easily modify the current code.
Search android string xml translation
That's for xml not html right?
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Unfortunately no, I've got a very good experience with google and facebook ads (did dropshipping before it became a course-money-grab) and I'm a broke college student so I'm doing everything as cheaply as I can.
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