Have any indie hackers i18n'd their website?
About 8 years ago, I had a pretty successful mobile app that I decided to internationalize and hired translators from Upwork to translate the app into multiple languages.
It turned out to be successful in that the app definitely grew in non-English speaking markets, but it also was a problem because
A. the copy in my app changed with every release, and I realized I would be needing to hire translators forever. Otherwise my "Spanish-localized" app would be littered with untranslated English phrases as I released new updates.
B. I started getting support requests in languages that I didn't understand, and Google Translate is only so good.
That experience basically turned me off of internationalization entirely as an IndieHacker. Has anyone had experience getting over that hurdle? Is it really worth it?
Lately I've been thinking that an "icon-first" approach to the UI might get me halfway there. Icons are pretty global (I think?), so if you can supplement each button's text with an icon (or replace the text completely), maybe you can help speakers of other languages figure out the app without needing to read a different language.
Why would it matter if you were making money?
Huh? Because I'm trading that extra revenue for more support work, more dev work, and ongoing payments to translators.
perhaps I should have said "profit" instead of money. If you're profitable after the fact does it matter? You can do a cost/benefit analysis and see if your revenue will drop if you don't support it. I'm currently working on a mobile app, and plan for i8n support.