How to outsource (website) translation effectively?

You should prepare a plain text file and send to translation online service or freelancer specialized in this. Better is to use one translator for translation and after that other for proofreading. Look for native speakers only with some knowledge in the field. I have seen horrible translations by professionals that have no domain knowledge.

I suggest do not go to a site with freelancers for hire. There are many background speakers there, but you will get quite a few people applying for the job who don't have expertise in translating and good luck getting it proofread.

If it is a professional site go to somewhere like:

http://www.appliedlanguage.com/website_translation.shtml

There are many similar sites, just search on Google.

Many of these sites have a certified team of translators and can organize proofreading etc. and their prices aren't so expensive.

This site:

http://www.icanlocalize.com/site/translation-process/simplified-translation-management/#

Claims to integrate inside a CMS, so may be just what you need.

Apart from the obvious issues of quality, translation is very different from "localization". When you prepare to sell a product, it is imperative to analyze your targeted market and audience; this involves typical product marketing tasks (needs, importance, satisfaction, competitive analysis etc.).

A PMM (product marketing manager) should then deliver the relevant "message" statements (i.e., with the right product positioning) via PSD and/or text files in order to create the market-specific CMS pages. Keep in mind, you one get one 'first impression' with a potential customer...

Localization is usually a major hassle, really. I mean, it is not that hard, but it is surprisingly time-consuming relative to the ease of the task.

If your CMS is based on resource files (.NET RESX fx)(most CMS's are not) then you could use a service like Amanuens to handle the string synchronization for you. If your CMS is Wordpress or Drupal, then ICanLocalize has native translation plugins that could help you.

Two other common approaches are:

• Copy and paste the text into an Excel spreadsheet / Word document, and email that around. Always gets to be a hassle, and if you're not super-careful then one day you'll find non-translated strings mixed in with translated content somewhere.

• Teach the translator to use the CMS, and handle all translation inside the CMS. Don't allow the translator to publish pages, have a separate step for test, approval and publication of the translated content.

Given that your CMS is already 'out on the Internet', I would clearly prefer having the translators all translate from your native language and doing it directly inside the CMS. Email-based workflows break down fairly quick when multiple people are involved.