How to Make Money Transcribing (Up To $25/Hour)
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Have you ever thought about making money by transcribing? As a typist who writes out documents from recorded audio, you can work from the comfort of your own home. Plus, with transcription jobs, you can choose your own hours.
That means you can earn money early in the morning before kids get up, late at night after they go to bed, or anywhere between. If you like the idea of working from home doing transcription work, read on for details on how to start making money transcribing.
How Much Money Does a Transcriptionist Make?
Transcription jobs are generally remote jobs that involve converting live or recorded audio files into text. You can earn real money transcribing files.
There are two types of transcription jobs online:
- Verbatim
- Non-verbatim (or intelligent)
Verbatim transcription jobs involve converting all text, even “umms, ahhs,” and laughter. Legal transcriptionists are common in this niche.
Non-verbatim transcription jobs convert the relevant text and make minor changes to grammar. You can get jobs doing general, medical, and legal transcription.
One of the great things about general transcription opportunities is that you can do the work anytime day or night. That means you can work around your schedule.
Pay for transcriptionists varies by company. Some pay per audio or video minute, while others pay per video or audio hour. Others pay per word transcribed.
However, when companies say they pay per media minute or audio hour, that isn’t the same as a true per-minute or per-hour rate. Instead, it’s an actual media minute. This takes you longer than one minute to transcribe.
What this means for you is that you have a lot of control over your income.
The better you get at transcription, the faster you can transcribe a media minute or audio hour. And that can mean a better pay rate for you.
As an experienced transcriptionist, regardless of whether you are doing legal, general, or medical transcription, you can often get paid anywhere from $15 to $25 an hour. A beginner transcriptionist may start out making less.
With some effort and experience, you can work in the field and take on more lucrative transcription jobs. The top monthly earnings from the best transcription jobs could replace your day job when making money online.
How to Get Started as a Transcriptionist
To become a transcriptionist, it might be a good idea to start with some training. Learning the ropes from an experienced transcriptionist, such as Janet from Transcribe Anywhere will help you understand what you need to do to perfect your transcription skills.
You might want to ask yourself if transcription work matches your skill set.
To be a successful transcriptionist, you need to have skills such as:
- Good listening skills
- Good typing skills
- A detail-oriented and organized nature
You’ll need four main pieces of equipment to get started as a transcriptionist.
These include:
- A computer
- A high-speed, reliable internet connection
- Transcription software or speech recognition software
- A high-quality foot pedal
The foot pedal is used to start and stop the audio file or recording. Although a foot pedal is not essential to working as a transcriptionist, it will be beneficial. Starting and stopping audio transmissions with a foot pedal rather than your hands will save you time.
The bottom line is that time savings in transcription often result in a higher rate of words per minute you can transcribe. A faster typing speed means that you can earn more money.
Where to Learn How to Transcribe
You can probably find work as a transcriptionist without taking a course. Several companies out there hire beginner transcriptionists with no experience.
However, those who take quality transcription courses will have a serious head start on getting higher-paying jobs.
Taking the Transcribe Anywhere course (or a similar high-quality course) will teach you how to be a successful transcriptionist before you even get your first job.
For instance, the Transcribe Anywhere course helps you by giving you:
- Access to the best deals on quality equipment
- Keys to valuable shortcuts
- Time coding instruction
- A guide to transcription styles
- Links to the best software
- Practice guides and tests
- A step-by-step guide to finding work
And other valuable tools. Before you start, this type of training and experience means you’ll have a head start over the competition. There are plenty of online transcription jobs, but the best and highest-paying ones go to transcriptionists who really know their stuff.
All courses vary in length, but the Transcribe Anywhere course usually takes two to four months to complete. There’s a time variance for completing the course because you can take the course at your own pace.
7 Companies That Hire Beginner Transcriptionists
Several companies hire beginner transcriptionists. Some online transcription jobs require specific qualifications. For instance, the best transcription jobs require a certain typing speed.
Other companies in the transcription industry have assessment tests you need to pass before they give you work. Note that most transcription companies hire transcriptionists as independent contractors. That means you’ll be responsible for keeping track of your income and expenses.
Independent contractors are also responsible for paying their own taxes. For this reason, you’ll want to put aside some of each paycheck into a savings account.
That way, you’ll have money set aside when it comes time to pay your taxes.
We’ve chosen some of the better companies hiring beginner transcriptionists to highlight here. I’ll share their requirements, typical pay rate, and other relevant information so you can start your transcription career.
1. Rev
Rev is a transcription company started by five MIT classmates. The goal is to create a service without geographical borders for freelancers who want to work and clients who want services.
- Pay rate: $0.30 to $1.10 per audio or video minute
- Pay Frequency: Weekly via PayPal
- Work Availability: High
- Qualifications: You’ll take a quiz to demonstrate your English and grammar skills, and also submit a transcription sample
If you are fluent in a foreign language, you can work as a subtitle translator for Rev. This position pays a higher wage of $1.50 to $3.00 per audio/video minute.
Rev regularly looks for experienced transcriptionists with decent typing skills, so this company is worth looking into if you want to get paid to type.
Learn More: Rev.com Review
2. GMR Transcription
GMR Transcription was founded with the goal of integrating the latest technology into the transcription business and combining that technology with highly skilled transcriptionists.
- Pay rate: Undisclosed; some estimates say $0.70 to $1.25 per audio minute, and pay is based on the number of speakers in the audio, audio quality, and turnaround time
- Pay Frequency: Monthly via PayPal
- Work Availability: High
- Qualifications: Submit your résumé and then wait for qualification test instructions
With GMR Transcription, you must submit two hours of audio work before you get paid. During this probationary period, they assess the quality of your work. After being hired, you must commit to working at least four audio hours per month.
3. Daily Transcription
Daily Transcription has been providing transcription services for over a decade. The company is located in the USA and doesn’t outsource its work. That means they almost always have openings for transcriptionists.
- Pay rate: starting pay of $0.75 to $0.85 per audio minute
- Pay Frequency: Weekly
- Work Availability: Medium
- Qualifications: Submit and pass a skills assessment test and transcription test
The company says their top transcriptionists make anywhere from $250 to $950 per week. This means that the monthly average earnings clock in at around $1,000 to $3,800.
It’s safe to say that the better you are at transcription, the more jobs you’ll get.
One nice thing about this company is that they support you by providing feedback when you first get started.
4. GoTranscript
GoTranscript was founded in Scotland. Although the company’s base is in the UK, they hire transcriptionists from all over the world.
- Pay rate: Up to $0.60 per audio minute
- Pay Frequency: Weekly via PayPal
- Work Availability: High
- Qualifications: Transcribe a test job with passing results
GoTranscript’s transcriptionists’ average monthly earnings are around $150 a month, with their highest earner making over $1200 per month.
The company gives you six hours to transcribe ten minutes of audio, so there’s plenty of time, even for slower typers. You can work as much or as little as you want with GoTranscript.
And you can choose which jobs you want and which you don’t. GoTranscript provides support and feedback to help you grow your skills.
5. Way With Words
If you want to make money transcribing, the Way With Words transcription service has locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa.
- Pay rate: $0.45 to $1.73 per audio minute
- Pay Frequency: Monthly via PayPal
- Work Availability: High
- Qualifications: Pass the assessment test
This platform offers paid on-the-job training, and you can work as many or as few hours as you like. However, unlike GMR Transcription, this company only pays once a month.
Therefore, if you’re counting on your transcription income to pay the bills, you’ll want to manage your money using a budget. Otherwise, you might find going a whole month between paychecks challenging.
6. CastingWords
CastingWords was founded in New Mexico. They sell transcription services in several languages. So, if you’re bilingual, it means you could have more opportunities for work.
- Pay rate: $0.85 to $1.00 or more per audio minute
- Pay Frequency: Weekly via PayPal
- Work Availability: High
- Qualifications: Pass the assessment test
Each job with CastingWords has a different pay rate. The company grades your performance on any given task. If your work on a job is graded too low, they discard the work, and you won’t get paid.
If your work is acceptable, the higher the grade level you complete, the higher the pay rate. For example, Grade 5 work gets paid the base amount, Grade 6 work gets paid 1.5 times the base pay of a job, and Grade 9 work gets paid three times the base pay amount for a job.
So, the better quality transcription work you do, the more you’ll get paid. Of course, typing time is a factor, too, so keep that in mind.
Summary
Making money from home as a transcriptionist is entirely possible. However, you’ll earn more and enjoy online transcription jobs more if you take a quality training course.
Once you gain experience as a transcriptionist, you might be able to earn $100 a day or more in your work.
Depending on the number of words per minute you type and your accuracy in transcribing the media file, you can earn more with every week of experience.
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