Some translators’ professional associations have websites with electronic databases where you can look for a translator with the language combination and subject specialization you need. (I’ll make a separate entry on this) The qualifications you need to join a professional association vary.

There are also sites started by translators that allow translators to exchange information and offer their services and allow clients to look for translators. Usually anyone can register, but sometimes the sites inspect the translators’ qualification documents (for what that’s worth).

Here are some sites. I can’t begin to describe them fairly – I don’t use them. I have answered questions on ProZ under a pseudonym (this was when a number of FLEFO members visited ProZ to see what it was like) – ProZ collects a glossary of past transation problems and awards points in connection with terminology help.. I have decided not to comment in detail, as I might imply that one site lacks a feature if I am not thorough:

www.aquarius.net
www.proz.com
www.translatorscafe.com
www.translationdirectory.com

Aquarius is the oldest. I think Translatorscafe was set up by some as a competitor to Proz. It has a photograph of Adrian Melman in it (proving that what barristers say about wigs is true).
There must be more – what have I left out?

I’ve been meaning to write this up for some time. Today I received the ITI Bulletin and there was an article by Adrian in it with quotes from some of the marketing of translators on Translatorscafé; caption: ‚The good, the bad and the ugl sell themselves on the website’. So I decided the time had come to post this. It’s true that you can learn a lot from reading the CVs and advertising spiel of the contributors on these sites. On some sites, you are invited to suggest a slogan (to quote TonyTK at ProZ: ‚Deadline!? What deadline?’
How do you find a good translator? That’s a question for another occasion too, and it would need a long entry to answer it.