So You Think You Will Get Rich in General Transcription
- By Pam F Lokker
- Published 10/6/2008
- Business
- Unrated
Pam F Lokker
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So you want to be a transcriber. Your friend told you that a good place to bid for general transcription jobs is freelance sites, and you can charge $25.00 per audio hour. (Legal and medical transcription are also options; however, you need schooling to be able to go into these fields.) Your initial thought may be Wow! I can make $25 an hour. Super!
Hold on, Charlie. Let me reiterate; that was per audio hour. So, what is an audio hour? Transcription jobs do not normally follow the same pay scales as other freelance jobs. That's right. General transcription is an odd ball.
An audio hour is the length of time that a speaker or speakers talk. Okay, so what's the big deal? You said that they might talk for an hour. So I can type it in an hour. No, no, no, no, no. It could take you 4-6 hours to actually type that audio hour. If you have no experience at it, it can be even longer. Starting to get the picture?
You are normally not going to get rich in transcription. Audio recordings are not always clear and easy to understand. Maybe the recording is poor quality, or maybe you need to do extra research in order to get spelling of cities, countries, or industry-specific language, etc., correct. If your client instructs you to transcribe verbatim and to put time stamps every paragraph, every speaker, or whatever, it can cause you to tear out your hair.
My advice before you quit your job and go into the field of general transcription in a virtual environment is to bid for short audio recordings
(if you're a freelancer) like 15-30 minutes long and try it. Or if your friend is still in the transcription business, spend some time with that individual. Learn what type of equipment your friend uses and what exactly does your friend do. It is essential that you do not put out poor quality work, or you will be blackballed in the transcription field; and your business will fail. That brings up another point.
In order to be a good general transcriptionist, you must have excellent language skills. Know frontwards and backwards your punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Pardon me if I am blunt here; your client does not want a piece of crap that he or she has to go back over and correct. You must have good listening skills. You will be listening to an audio that will sometimes have traffic in the background, airplanes, banging noises, and all sorts of extraneous sounds; and you will need to listen carefully to hear what the speaker(s) are saying. This will all add to how long it takes to transcribe the material.
So in summary, it is not a piece of cake to transcribe. The pay is low, and there is a lot of time involved. You can charge by audio hour or even by audio minute, but be reasonable. If you like to type and enjoy providing good quality work to a client, general transcription can be a good way to supplement your income. When my partner and I first started transcribing, it would take the two of us a week or more to transcribe thirty minutes of audio. Now, we generally say that it takes us 24-48 hours to provide a completed audio hour of transcription. Transcribing is not always easy, and you definitely won't get rich overnight.
Hold on, Charlie. Let me reiterate; that was per audio hour. So, what is an audio hour? Transcription jobs do not normally follow the same pay scales as other freelance jobs. That's right. General transcription is an odd ball.
An audio hour is the length of time that a speaker or speakers talk. Okay, so what's the big deal? You said that they might talk for an hour. So I can type it in an hour. No, no, no, no, no. It could take you 4-6 hours to actually type that audio hour. If you have no experience at it, it can be even longer. Starting to get the picture?
You are normally not going to get rich in transcription. Audio recordings are not always clear and easy to understand. Maybe the recording is poor quality, or maybe you need to do extra research in order to get spelling of cities, countries, or industry-specific language, etc., correct. If your client instructs you to transcribe verbatim and to put time stamps every paragraph, every speaker, or whatever, it can cause you to tear out your hair.
My advice before you quit your job and go into the field of general transcription in a virtual environment is to bid for short audio recordings
In order to be a good general transcriptionist, you must have excellent language skills. Know frontwards and backwards your punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Pardon me if I am blunt here; your client does not want a piece of crap that he or she has to go back over and correct. You must have good listening skills. You will be listening to an audio that will sometimes have traffic in the background, airplanes, banging noises, and all sorts of extraneous sounds; and you will need to listen carefully to hear what the speaker(s) are saying. This will all add to how long it takes to transcribe the material.
So in summary, it is not a piece of cake to transcribe. The pay is low, and there is a lot of time involved. You can charge by audio hour or even by audio minute, but be reasonable. If you like to type and enjoy providing good quality work to a client, general transcription can be a good way to supplement your income. When my partner and I first started transcribing, it would take the two of us a week or more to transcribe thirty minutes of audio. Now, we generally say that it takes us 24-48 hours to provide a completed audio hour of transcription. Transcribing is not always easy, and you definitely won't get rich overnight.