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Ugh. The only thing worse than when I have to turn down a tape because the pay rate just isn't commensurate to the work is when the client hits me with a subtle guilt trip over it. I appreciate that times are hard, but I'm still not going to do a tape that's going to take me three times longer than normal for 25% above the standard rate. (This is why diversifying your gigs is a good thing.) kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Aug 25, 2012 |
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Aug 25, 2012 20:55
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Anyone have any idea what the requirements are like to pass the BH internet judge test? They said they would be forthcoming with them but they were not, and now I must wait until Monday to find out if I passed the first test or if I need to take the idiot test.
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Aug 31, 2012 22:32
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I recently found a site called InfoArmy, which this GigaOm article describes: http://gigaom.com/2012/06/12/infoarmy-mobilizes-the-crowd-to-build-business intelligence-reports/ It's business research and they walk you through it, basically you claim a company, look up some information about it on Google and do a few calculations. Seems like anyone can sign up at the moment but I wouldn't be surprised if that changed. It's similar to Constant Content, the main researcher gets $40 each time the report sells and the senior researcher gets $10, plus InfoArmy plans to add revenue share from companies that subscribe to the entire database later on. AFAIK if you claim a company another researcher can't claim it. This site just showed up in June so I'm not sure how popular it will get, they've paid out a few thousand so far.
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Sep 1, 2012 01:07
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The March Hare posted:Anyone have any idea what the requirements are like to pass the BH internet judge test? They said they would be forthcoming with them but they were not, and now I must wait until Monday to find out if I passed the first test or if I need to take the idiot test. Check the info they sent again, they're pretty drat specific (though obviously they won't actually tell you your results until they said they will).
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Sep 1, 2012 04:35
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mezzir posted:Check the info they sent again, they're pretty drat specific (though obviously they won't actually tell you your results until they said they will). All I saw was a one-off chart in some training material and the lady on the audio track literally says "I'm not going to explain how we arrive at these numbers." but I kept track of the ones I got right/wrong and how far off I was for each one I got wrong, but I don't know how they weight them  .
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Sep 1, 2012 04:38
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The March Hare posted:All I saw was a one-off chart in some training material and the lady on the audio track literally says "I'm not going to explain how we arrive at these numbers." but I kept track of the ones I got right/wrong and how far off I was for each one I got wrong, but I don't know how they weight them PM'ed.
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Sep 1, 2012 05:56
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I just recently started doing Leapforce, and was wondering if there's any better way to keep on the look out for tasks than what I do now, which is to have the Firefox-running-in-VM window in the corner of my screen and the tasks screen set to autorefresh? Also, when do I start getting qualifications to do tasks that require them? I started on Monday.
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Sep 1, 2012 09:09
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Found an upfront pay content site http://www.independent-publishing.com/refund by looking up media related startups on AngelList. This one seems more like Textbroker with three tiers, $8.40/400 words for the lowest tier, $12/400 words for the middle tier and $23.60/400 words for the highest tier. They also have copy editing work at $1.68/400 words, but even the other content sites pay more than that for editing I think. The site's based in Germany and it seems like they accept writers from any country. I have not signed up myself so I don't know how many assignments they have available.
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Sep 1, 2012 09:24
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Huh, I haven't gotten a star rating in Lionbridge since May, not that I had any idea how they calculated it. Still, it felt reassuring since I usually got 4 stars. Anyone else have this?
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Sep 3, 2012 20:51
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Doghouse posted:Huh, I haven't gotten a star rating in Lionbridge since May, not that I had any idea how they calculated it. Still, it felt reassuring since I usually got 4 stars. Anyone else have this? I was wondering the same thing myself when my other friend mentioned it a week or two ago. I think it is based on mostly URL/SXS rating, but since there have been like maybe 2 urls a week if that, maybe there isnt enough to judge it on? No idea really.
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Sep 4, 2012 00:44
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dms666 posted:I was wondering the same thing myself when my other friend mentioned it a week or two ago. I think it is based on mostly URL/SXS rating, but since there have been like maybe 2 urls a week if that, maybe there isnt enough to judge it on? No idea really. It's been really slow. I think I got like, 20 hours for all of august, and that was checking every day. I really hope it picks up.
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Sep 4, 2012 02:44
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Ramadu posted:It's been really slow. I think I got like, 20 hours for all of august, and that was checking every day. I really hope it picks up. I'm guessing it will based on last year. If I remember right, right around September it returned to normal, might have to do with people going back to school and maybe not doing tasks.
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Sep 4, 2012 03:57
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Logging into that stupid toolbar every time with no work is getting kind of old.
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Sep 4, 2012 04:13
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dms666 posted:I'm guessing it will based on last year. If I remember right, right around September it returned to normal, might have to do with people going back to school and maybe not doing tasks. Yeah, I had no issues from September until it got to July and then there just seemed to be an everpresent lack of tasks. Also yeah, that toolbar is really annoying.
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Sep 4, 2012 04:50
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The summer months are typically slow for Google in terms of updates. The same thing happened last year, though the work had picked up by this time a year ago. I think we'll see more work available soon. http://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-quality-update-slow-15433.html quote:Summer months tend to be slower at Google, so I am hoping that it is just a month off thing.
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Sep 4, 2012 15:36
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I wish they would have some kind of system where you could claim tasks at the beginning of a day, week, or month. I wonder if that is just not feasible, because it would really make a heck of a difference. How do they expect people to do exactly, set aside four hours a day and then just sit and click refresh the whole time? Or just give up after 5 minutes and go play tiddly winks because you arranged your schedule to have four free hours and now there are no tasks? Maybe the whole program is aimed at people with no life at all whatsoever who will anyway be just sitting around watching youtube videos all day? I guess I can't complain, it pays decently and is decent part time work overall. But I would think that a company like this would put some modicum of effort into trying to make the work at least palatable instead of totally aggravating 100% of its employees.
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Sep 4, 2012 21:19
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I always figured it was the kind of thing you do while you're doing other things. Work on writing an article, browse forums, read or whatever, just refresh occasionally to see if there are any tasks. They made that harder with that whole "closing other windows" thing, though.
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Sep 4, 2012 23:26
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Doghouse posted:I wish they would have some kind of system where you could claim tasks at the beginning of a day, week, or month. I wonder if that is just not feasible, because it would really make a heck of a difference. How do they expect people to do exactly, set aside four hours a day and then just sit and click refresh the whole time? Or just give up after 5 minutes and go play tiddly winks because you arranged your schedule to have four free hours and now there are no tasks? Maybe the whole program is aimed at people with no life at all whatsoever who will anyway be just sitting around watching youtube videos all day?
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Sep 5, 2012 01:53
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So for the last few months I've been trying to get into transcription, and I've done about 20 or so jobs, but I feel like I haven't been making any real money because the jobs are spaced so far apart. Focus Forward sends me only a few jobs a month. I was doing transcription for SpeechInk on mTurk for a while, but I calculated the pay and it was something like 2~3$ an hour and it just wasn't worth my time. kazmeyer, you seem to be the resident expert on transcription here. How do I diversify? I've tried applying to a couple different places but I feel like my resume just isn't strong enough to get my foot in the door. Also, is there a slow season for transcription and are we in it?
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Sep 9, 2012 23:14
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takishan posted:So for the last few months I've been trying to get into transcription, and I've done about 20 or so jobs, but I feel like I haven't been making any real money because the jobs are spaced so far apart. That's kind of weird, I've had issues with FF but "not enough work" has never been one of them. And over the last couple weeks they've been posting a lot of rush jobs, so they're definitely not in a drought right now. Maybe it's an issue with your availability? It needs to be at least 45 minutes a day, preferably an hour, if you want to get work regularly. Also, try and get qualified for Focusvision jobs if you aren't already.
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Sep 10, 2012 00:46
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Unfortunately, I can't really speak much to Focus Forward; I actually signed on there once, but I got another (far more lucrative) gig at the same time so I've never actually done any work for them. Amro's got a good point on the availability angle -- if you're only putting yourself down for 30 minutes it could be that the assignment editors are having difficulty finding work that short (and they might not want to cut up longer tapes for various reasons). There are definitely slow seasons when it comes to transcription, but it's all based around the work. If you're doing media work, you're dependent on the shows that are filming, because if all of the shows that your client handles are done for the season, things are going to slow down. With FF, I understand it's lots of focus groups, so it's highly dependent on their production schedule. Which is why diversification is good; if one client slows down, others may be able to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, until you get some good experience, getting other gigs can be difficult. Watch Craigslist for job postings, and try Daily Transcripts if you haven't. They've been a little on the slow side lately, though, so they may not be hiring at the moment.
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Sep 10, 2012 07:12
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What are people looking for in terms of transcription experience? I've done a ton of work for DT so far but not sure how that translates to other companies. Should I be adding up my transcription hours or months as an employee or what?
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Sep 10, 2012 19:27
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Basically, it's just what you've got on your transcription resume: total length of time as a transcriptionist, and how much of that time's been spent on media work. When you hit six months' experience (of any sort) it becomes easier to get hired on places, and 1 year makes it easier still, because transcription work isn't for everyone and the vast majority of people who try it burn out in their first 12 months (most in the first three or four). If you can get to two years and most or all of it's media experience, they can assume you're reliable, talented, and know what you're doing to the point where they'd barely have to train you if they took you on. Skill's also a part of it, though. No one's is going to pick you up on experience alone, you'll have to do some sample work to prove you're as hot-poo poo as your resume suggests, but if you've been doing this a few years and have the commensurate skills that experience brings, it's not hard to get hired on anywhere. You do need to spend a lot of time watching Craigslist, though, because the jobs which you really want generally don't hire year-round, they only post ads when they need someone to fill a spot.
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Sep 11, 2012 07:49
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rocinante posted:Found an upfront pay content site http://www.independent-publishing.com/refund by looking up media related startups on AngelList. This one seems more like Textbroker with three tiers, $8.40/400 words for the lowest tier, $12/400 words for the middle tier and $23.60/400 words for the highest tier. They also have copy editing work at $1.68/400 words, but even the other content sites pay more than that for editing I think. The site's based in Germany and it seems like they accept writers from any country. I have not signed up myself so I don't know how many assignments they have available. Has anybody submitted to them and gotten a reply? I submitted my 150 words about a week ago and haven't heard back. Hopefully that's doesn't mean what I think it does 
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Sep 13, 2012 13:02
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Arnold of Soissons posted:Has anybody submitted to them and gotten a reply? I submitted my 150 words about a week ago and haven't heard back. I have been thinking about trying them out, but it looked kinda sketchy so I never did.
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Sep 13, 2012 20:00
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Dunno about anyone else but as of this week I'm starting to reliably get tasks on Leapforce again.
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Sep 14, 2012 02:53
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Dr. Kyle Farnsworth posted:Dunno about anyone else but as of this week I'm starting to reliably get tasks on Leapforce again. I haven't been having luck with that. Seems like I always get redirected to the 1.0 interface instead of 2.0 recently too.
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Sep 14, 2012 04:21
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quote:That's kind of weird, I've had issues with FF but "not enough work" has never been one of them. And over the last couple weeks they've been posting a lot of rush jobs, so they're definitely not in a drought right now. Maybe it's an issue with your availability? It needs to be at least 45 minutes a day, preferably an hour, if you want to get work regularly. Also, try and get qualified for Focusvision jobs if you aren't already. I've been available for >90 minutes a day for the few months and I haven't really been getting anything. How do I sign up for Focusvision jobs and what are they?
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Sep 14, 2012 21:29
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That's disappointing. Figured that they'd have money to spend because they were on AngelList, but looking at the listing again here, https://angel.co/independent-publishing I only see previous investors, not current ones. Have also looked at SEO marketing agencies on LinkedIn, since they always need writers, although most of them probably won't pay much.
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Sep 15, 2012 20:44
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takishan posted:I've been available for >90 minutes a day for the few months and I haven't really been getting anything. FocusVision is one of FF's larger clients, whose jobs have to be done in a special format. They're a bit more work than normal jobs, but they also pay a 20% bonus over the usual rate. Just send an email to the assignments@... address and ask about taking the FocusVision qualification test.
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Sep 16, 2012 03:01
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kazmeyer - I've recently joined up with DT and have been getting maybe 200-300 minutes a week, even when I request around 2hrs / 7 days a week. I'm curious how much time you schedule yourself for and what they typically give you? Also, If you don't mind me asking, what was your /per minute rate when you first joined and what is it now? The .60c rate they started me at is okay for tv shows etc... but doing 2 hrs of lower quality telephone meetings with 8 speakers at around 50 pages for $70 is barely worth it...took me like 14 hours to complete. I like the rush jobs that pay $1/min, but drat do I want to strangle some of these heavy accented speakers who mumble and stutter....haha....but I'm new, so I just suck it up and do it. I added you to my AIM, in case you still use it... wouldn't mind having a fellow transcriptionist to chat with on occasion.
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Sep 17, 2012 06:00
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I have multiple clients, and lately I've been focusing on a couple of other gigs, so I probably only schedule myself for around 120 minutes a week these days. I haven't gotten anything in a week or two, actually, but I'm on for ~30 minutes a day and they usually have a hard time filling that low a request. You'll almost never get all the work you ask for, just because it's dependent on production and things have been a bit slow lately. Currently, DT pays me .70/minute for standard work, which is considerably below my usual rate (which is why I'm on the schedule so sparingly, basically I'm just sticking on the roster for rush jobs/as-broadcasts right now). I stick around primarily because I like them so much, and some of the stuff they throw me is pretty fun. Because of the pay issue, I generally limit myself to video shoot work; as a rule, I don't do anything with more than two speakers at a per-minute rate unless it's really well moderated. They know this, and don't send me those huge multi-speaker calls. Unfortunately, when you're first starting out and don't have a lot of irons in the fire, you don't have the luxury of being able to do that -- you have to spend some time in the salt mines, build up experience, and then once you've got more work than you need you can afford to get picky. And I don't use AIM anymore -- used to pile everything through Trillian, but lately I just run Google Talk and Windows Messenger. You can also PM me here if you have questions about anything. EDIT: Missed a part of your question. I think when I first joined DT, the rate started at .60/min, but they had this weird thing where you could kind of set your own rate between .60 and .75 and it would determine the amount of work you'd get. I think I started at .66. I was with them for a while and worked my way up to .75, dropped off after they had a lull and were offering nothing but those awful group discussion tapes, and then signed up again early this year. They offered me .70, and I didn't haggle overmuch, as a good portion of my work is rush and as-broadcast stuff that pays a lot better. My primary clients tend to pay by the page, by the work hour, or by the job, and all work out to much better per-minute rates. Like I said, I stick around DT because I like them. kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Sep 17, 2012 |
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Sep 17, 2012 12:16
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kazmeyer posted:I have multiple clients, and lately I've been focusing on a couple of other gigs, so I probably only schedule myself for around 120 minutes a week these days. I haven't gotten anything in a week or two, actually, but I'm on for ~30 minutes a day and they usually have a hard time filling that low a request. You'll almost never get all the work you ask for, just because it's dependent on production and things have been a bit slow lately. Seems strange that they keep hiring on more people when they can't even meet the schedule requests of the people they already have. I guess they like to have as many people as possible in case they get a flood of work or something.
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Sep 19, 2012 18:26
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pentagon posted:Seems strange that they keep hiring on more people when they can't even meet the schedule requests of the people they already have. I guess they like to have as many people as possible in case they get a flood of work or something. Well, it's a couple of things, really. The work really does fluctuate, and you can go from nothing to slammed in the course of a couple of days, and vice versa. You're dependent on the clients shooting and their schedules; if a client delivers a ton of tape and wants it all back in two days, you need enough people to handle that volume. If that volume keeps up, you can keep them all busy, but the reality is it ebbs and flows. And transcribers burn out like you can't imagine -- clients have told me nine out of ten newbies are gone in the first few months because they get sick of it. So having extra scribes in the stable is a requirement just to make sure you've got coverage.
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Sep 19, 2012 19:39
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Is it possible to work for these transcription companies online from Canada? Or do I have to live in the states.
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Sep 23, 2012 20:06
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Phiberoptik posted:Is it possible to work for these transcription companies online from Canada? Or do I have to live in the states. That I'm not sure about. I actually stumbled across one Canadian transcription gig, and they were only hiring Canadians. You can always ask the individual shops, see what they say.
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Sep 24, 2012 00:22
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Hey kazmeyer, ever heard of CaptionMax? Is there disdain for companies like these from you freelancers?
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Oct 1, 2012 02:44
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:Hey kazmeyer, ever heard of CaptionMax? Is there disdain for companies like these from you freelancers? Well, considering that at this very moment I'm working on an as-broadcast script for CaptionMax, no, no disdain.  Could you be more specific?
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Oct 1, 2012 03:16
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kazmeyer posted:Well, considering that at this very moment I'm working on an as-broadcast script for CaptionMax, no, no disdain. I was just wondering about the general differences between the full-timers' and freelancers' playing field. I imagine the pay is different?
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Oct 1, 2012 03:58
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:I was just wondering about the general differences between the full-timers' and freelancers' playing field. Most of these places use independent contractors. CapMax uses in-house people for closed captioning, as I understand it -- as that takes some specialized training and fast hands -- but they farm out (at least some of) their transcription work. One of my clients handles a lot of work for them, so I end up doing a lot of their as-broadcast scripts. The pay is different, usually a set price per 30/60 minute episode (meaning 20-22 minutes/40-46 minutes, sans commercials) and sometimes you even get the closed captioning data or a shooting script to work from. The detail can range from dialogue only, to timecoded dialogue, to timecoded dialogue with shot lists and whatever other nonsense the company requesting the script asks for. I generally prefer as-broadcast work to other types of jobs, because it's easier -- you're working from a finished episode, and not raw video -- and the pay rate is usually higher (sometimes much higher). It depends on the client and the complexity, but ABS starts at $30 per 30 minutes and goes up from there. The really insanely detailed ones can get up over $75 per 30 minute segment, although there does start to come a point of diminishing returns where you're actually having to spend so much extra time on the work that it's not that great anymore. I try to stick with the low- to mid- complexity jobs for the most part, and CapMax is usually one of my better clients.
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Oct 1, 2012 05:52
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