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kazmeyer posted:You could always resend the email with the headers to prove when it went out, couldn't you? Yeah, the time this happened to me, I ended up screenshotting my inbox to show that I didn't have it. It's not as much 'proof' as could be given, since obviously it's fallible, but apparently that kind of thing happens from time to time. I never got follow-up emails, either, which, also, apparently, happens from time to time.
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Jun 8, 2013 18:37
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Yeah, I'd resend for proof, honestly, there's no excuse, I've have a few times over the last few weeks that they've been like, where's this thing, you haven't confirmed! And I've been like, uh, you never sent me that. Usuaully when this one girl takes over for the weekend, and also, lately their guide sheets are loving pants. I have always been told even in verbatim, interjections and parroting are not included...their definition of clean verbatim is looking really dirty to me right now...and folks who are on their books, did you see that one thing with the loads of columns and this dialogue has to be in excel oh by the way it's a REALLY picky client, 70 cents a minute, kk bye! The gently caress? And also my legal client did try dicking me about a bit too. Newsflash, it is unprofessional of you A to tell us the inner workings of your business and claim you're not being paid by a government agency, and B, even if it wasn't, telling us our pay was delayed because they didn't pay you, basically saying, oh we partition payroll for each contract? The gently caress? That's not how you run a business! And C...I want to get some steady work above 80 cents a minute, I work drat hard and I have a good ear, and I do a lot of minutes for you people, and I get my stuff back quickly! And when I get correction emails, you know what, I drop everything and I do them. So...smut eh? drat I could write some smut...someone, how do I write smut for money? And...how smutty, are we talking like 50 Shades of Grey, or like something people who have actually had sex would find dirty?
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Jun 9, 2013 06:17
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There's a bit in the OP about Amazon smut writing, but the thread links were out of date. The current one I believe is http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3503700
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Jun 9, 2013 06:25
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Yeah, I have gotten emails asking if I can confirm when I sent confirmation like eight hours ago. Pretty annoying on a Saturday night. They seem to be getting busier and everyone dumping emails into submissions probably isn't the best way to keep track of everything anymore.
Spartan421 fucked around with this message at 12:00 on Jun 9, 2013 |
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Jun 9, 2013 11:55
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Probably not, also, they just picked up a new editor. From what I've been told THIS is the busy season coming up, whether or not that's typically true I don't know, but anyway...yeah, I know for the projects I've been working on, I've been getting hammered. That medical assignment dropped 1200 files in the other weeks, and that's nothing when you consider the Food network projects we have on the go, and the rest. I think it's why they're going to be doing that review over the next little bit.
Slightly Used Cake fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Jun 9, 2013 |
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Jun 9, 2013 17:24
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A friend suggested I try writing articles for Jon Leger at INeedArticles.com. I've been enjoying it so far, they don't seem to be picky about style guides that much and all my stuff has been accepted. The pay seems to be... 600 words for $3.90 500 words for $3.20 400 words for $2.50 300 words for $1.80 100 words for $0.70 Is this decent for what it is? Or does this guy pay incredibly low and if I am going to do this I could be doing it elsewhere? I guess I like that I don't have an hourly commitment, and anytime I am bored I can hop on and pump out a 500 word article in about 15 minutes. My dashboard says I've made about $9.55/hr, and so far have submitted 7 articles for $20.00
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Jun 9, 2013 22:19
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My major beef with transcription is when the QC editors don't follow the same rules. I'm anal about details and will ask questions for clarifications about formatting to make sure I'm doing things correctly. When I'm given answers, I do my best to make drat sure I follow their instructions to a T (save for the occasional 'Hey, I'm human and not perfect' mistakes). So, when I get an email from a different editor dinging me for a formatting error, when I followed QC instructions to the letter, I get irritated, especially knowing that they're currently "reviewing" all transcribers for quality. How am I supposed to be detailed and return "client ready" files to QC when their editors can't agree with each other and I'm wrongly accused of making a mistake? At least I save all chat transcripts and emails so I can let them know that I was doing exactly what I was told. I just hope whatever system they use for tracking transcriber mistakes is updated correctly when they review my performance.
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Jun 9, 2013 23:04
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Astro7x posted:A friend suggested I try writing articles for Jon Leger at INeedArticles.com. I've been enjoying it so far, they don't seem to be picky about style guides that much and all my stuff has been accepted. 600 words for $3.90 is .65 cents a word 500 words for $3.20 is .64 cents a word 400 words for $2.50 is .625 cents a word 300 words for $1.80 is .6 cents a word 100 words for $0.70 is .7 cents a word At the 4 star level on Textbroker everything you write is 1.4 cents a word, so double the best rate of what those are paying. Even the 3 star level pays 1 cent a word, with the 2 star level paying .7 cents. So you'd be making much more on Textbroker, assuming you write the same volume. Of course, article availability is always a concern for the 2 and 3 star levels on TB. Less so for 4 star. So yeah, you're being paid "content mill" prices for probably higher quality work. I'd look for better paying clients or sites.
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Jun 10, 2013 00:15
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Any consensus on good writing sites besides Textbroker? I'm returning to the game after a long hiatus. I do write Level 5 stuff, but selection is generally poor. Much of the work is in Level 4, but the 1.4 cents per word rate is pathetic, especially given how demanding the orders can be at that level. When I write a 5* article I don't mind spending an hour+ on it to really polish it, but I can't stomach the thought of doing that for 4* stuff for a third of the pay.
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Jun 10, 2013 00:21
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Yeah, content writing is hard to come by these days. Sites either pay poo poo or are hard as hell to get into thanks to Google's algorithm changes making it a lot harder to make money.
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Jun 10, 2013 00:43
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Huh, so I got an email just now saying that DT will no longer be needing my services. That sucks considering that all of the trouble was over a technological error/misunderstanding. Should I try for Focus Forward?
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Jun 11, 2013 04:39
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Budget Bears posted:Huh, so I got an email just now saying that DT will no longer be needing my services. That sucks considering that all of the trouble was over a technological error/misunderstanding. That sucks, sorry to hear that. I would definitely give Focus Forward a try. I worked with them a few years back, and they were nice and professional to work with.
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Jun 11, 2013 07:01
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That's a real bummer - sorry to hear that happened, especially when it wasn't even something you could have prevented. If it's any consolation, I may not be far behind. I was fussed at yesterday, again, and this time it was for putting 4 blank lines after my main header. I have ALWAYS used 4 blank lines, and just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I went back to check the style samples I was sent back when I was first hired. Yep, right there under the main header it clearly says [FOUR BLANK LINES] I sent the original email to them but their response was that the transcribers have always used 3 blank lines.. okay then, how do they explain their style sample saying something totally different? They didn't even address the fact that I had a document sent to me FROM THEM that states there should be 4 lines. 
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Jun 11, 2013 13:29
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Naga Warlord posted:Any consensus on good writing sites besides Textbroker? I'm returning to the game after a long hiatus. I do write Level 5 stuff, but selection is generally poor. Much of the work is in Level 4, but the 1.4 cents per word rate is pathetic, especially given how demanding the orders can be at that level. When I write a 5* article I don't mind spending an hour+ on it to really polish it, but I can't stomach the thought of doing that for 4* stuff for a third of the pay. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet (sorry, I haven't read the whole thread), but there is a company called CrowdSource out there that at least pays semi-decently ($10 per 275-word article, $11 per 300-word article). All articles are made available to be written through the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. As of this post, their test to be an editor is up on MTurk, but their test to be a writer is only on Write.com. I've been an MTurk member for over two years, and have been watching the ups and downs of MTurk in general and CrowdSource in particular (though I've written a grand total of two articles for them - I only do this in my spare time). I will bookmark this thread and will try to answer questions, if anyone has them.
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Jun 11, 2013 17:20
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I've been working there a year now and I've always used four blank lines so I don't know wtf is their problem.
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Jun 11, 2013 21:38
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Spartan421 posted:I've been working there a year now and I've always used four blank lines so I don't know wtf is their problem. The QC department is weirdly fussy about things they absolutely shouldn't be sometimes, and most of it has to do with style tweaks that I hadn't been informed about for, well, yeah. A year. There's also the whole 'waiting three days to tell me corrections need to be made right then and there on a day that I have said, time and time again, that I honestly do not have time on' thing is starting to be a huge annoyance, as well. I get needing corrections done, but after two+ days of waiting for a response, I typically assume(d) that the file's been cleared, everything's cool, etc. It gets to a point where an easy fix turns into a giant pain. These days, I've just made it a point to schedule my 'days off' for an hour of work time for DT, just in case, because it's easier on me in general. So, yeah, basically, I'm not fond of their QC department. And the nitpicky rules-change-out-of-nowhere thing is part of it.
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Jun 11, 2013 22:56
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Have any of you been doing transcription in lieu of a full time "regular" job? How viable is it, and how long did it take you to work up to that point? I'm pretty interested in this. I transcribed some lectures for a requester on Mturk and though I was seemingly underpaid, it was pretty easy and something I could do every day without much fuss.
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Jun 11, 2013 23:03
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The problem with being a full-time transcriber is that the work isn't always there for you, and the more clients you have, the more of them will put demands on your time at once. I've had my main three clients go fallow for days and then all demand my time at once due to the intermittent workflow. You can definitely be a full-time freelancer, but you're going to want to diversify enough so you can stay busy while not being swamped, and that's not something that's you're going to figure out how to do quickly. My current portfolio includes three transcription clients (one of whom is in the doghouse right now but I'll probably keep on), a primary writing gig, a secondary writing gig, and search engine work to fill in the gaps. And when I'm not working on one of these gigs, I'm generally writing with an eye toward self-publishing through Amazon. I'd say it probably took me two years to get to the point where I was comfortable enough to do the full-time thing and had enough of a resume to land new gigs when I needed to without much work.
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Jun 11, 2013 23:48
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Okay, so for the last year I've been doing crowdsourcing work for AppenButlerHill. And by work I mean I've probably logged five hours if I'm lucky but they let you stay on indefinitely whatever volume you do. Anyone else getting tons of what are obviously supposed to be private emails from them today? It's pretty funny.An Old Boot posted:The QC department is weirdly fussy about things they absolutely shouldn't be sometimes, and most of it has to do with style tweaks that I hadn't been informed about for, well, yeah. A year. Wow you must do a lot of work. I agree though. Last week they wanted me to fix some time codes because as you know their instructions are not the most clear. I don't know how they are a transcription place yet some of them apparently can't form coherent sentences. But that just gives them character I'm not really complaining. Anyway I also submit these files like 2 days ago and they send me a request to fix the time codes like 3 hours before it's due to client. I told them I had school which I did. Pretty annoying though. Spartan421 fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jun 12, 2013 |
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Jun 12, 2013 00:02
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Spartan421 posted:Okay, so for the last year I've been doing crowdsourcing work for AppenButlerHill. And by work I mean I've probably logged five hours if I'm lucky but they let you stay on indefinitely whatever volume you do. Anyone else getting tons of what are obviously supposed to be private emails from them today? It's pretty funny. I'm getting them and haven't used ABH in years. People are getting mad with the reply alls so I'm doing that by telling corny jokes.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:36
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A month later, I finally heard back from DT. They said I didn't qualify and that their decision was based on "issues with dialogue". Aaarrgh. Haven't heard back from Focus Forward but I don't really have much hope at this point. OH WELL.
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Jun 12, 2013 17:17
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kazmeyer posted:The problem with being a full-time transcriber is that the work isn't always there for you, and the more clients you have, the more of them will put demands on your time at once. I've had my main three clients go fallow for days and then all demand my time at once due to the intermittent workflow. You can definitely be a full-time freelancer, but you're going to want to diversify enough so you can stay busy while not being swamped, and that's not something that's you're going to figure out how to do quickly. My current portfolio includes three transcription clients (one of whom is in the doghouse right now but I'll probably keep on), a primary writing gig, a secondary writing gig, and search engine work to fill in the gaps. And when I'm not working on one of these gigs, I'm generally writing with an eye toward self-publishing through Amazon. This but I feel like after six months I could mange it, but I live cheaply, and don't drive, so my "livable wages" only have to cover me and a dog. I also have other intersts which I'm developing to hopefully pad out that income too, but, yeah, knowing multiple different types of transcription definitely helps, general is...like sticking pins in your eyes, media seems seasonal, educational stuff is awesome, technical is really cool (I know so goddam much about network security now it's unreal!...nothing I could do anything with, but I know stuff!) and currently I have a legal job with steady work. It is out there, you just need to be detail oriented, patient, and above all friendly. I get that sometimes DT takes a few days to get corrections out, but I find as long as you're willing to work with the editors and stuff, and be congenial, and ask questions I've never had a problem. As for the four lines thing, yeah, I always do four lines, I dunno what that was about.
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Jun 13, 2013 04:05
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How much writing would you have to do to actually make a living doing stuff like Textbroker / Constant Content / etc.? Is it even possible? A lot of the posts seem to be about transcription, so I'm wondering if the content writing stuff is even worth pursuing.
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Jun 15, 2013 04:07
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Content writing took a major hit when Google tweaked their algorithms a while back; at the time, Demand was paying $15-18 for 400 words and other outfits offered similar prices. Now, most of the easy-to-get stuff is Textbroker tier, which I can't imagine doing full time. There are still decent (and even well-paying) writing jobs out there, $25 an article and up, but you generally need specific credentials to land them or they take some effort to dig up. Transcription's easier to start in right now, and a lot of the regulars in this thread are doing it, hence the volume of posts.
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Jun 15, 2013 04:32
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It depends on a lot of factors. I find it relatively easy to make around $30 a day in a couple of hours tops, depending on availability of orders. Some people pump out more content, and some sites make more per article. It really all depends on how much time you put into it, how quickly you put out content and of what quality. Transcription is more lucrative off the bat but it takes a specific kind of mindset to do it.
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Jun 15, 2013 04:34
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Might have to look at transcription work, then. I really enjoy writing so I was hoping I could make decent money by doing textbroker / CC, but thus far I've been waiting a week for CC to "review" my first articles, and Textbroker is taking just as long to verify my 120-word writing sample. If it takes a week or more just to get your content out there, let alone however long it takes for someone to buy it... Hopefully it's just a slow start or something.
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Jun 19, 2013 17:51
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Both sites are slow to review your initial samples, yes. CC I've found is slightly slow to accept articles for posting unless it's for one of their rush job standing offers, which they send out via e-mail. Of course, you have to wait for someone to be interested and buy your piece, so the sell time could be anywhere from (I've had both of these happen) two days to a year. Textbroker is slow to give you your initial ranking, but once you're free to write, you don't have to wait on their editors. There's a 96 hour autoaccept for clients so they can't hold your article pending indefinitely. Most clients also accept articles before that happens, though I have a few that let them lapse. Textbroker's editors swoop in once every couple of months and mass rate your articles, so you'll get a stack of emails in your inbox saying each individual article has been rated, what the rating is and if there are any comments. These are important ratings (as they can affect your star level) but for me at least they've been so rare I don't even worry about them. I may get a couple 3 star ratings somewhere in the 150 articles they rate, but as long as the most recent five are 4-star level, I'm still a 4-star writer.
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Jun 19, 2013 19:51
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Well, just got my rating back from Textbroker. Does everyone start out with 3 stars or what? Considering they only wanted a 120-150 word sample, which I know for a fact had no spelling or grammar errors, I'm not sure how exactly they rate these things. Figured 5 stars is reserved for people that prove themselves over time, but I was sure I could at least manage a 4 from the jump. I mean I'm rated in the top 1% for writing and proofreading on ODesk and Elance, so I know I'm at least above average. Now I'm just hoping that's standard protocol so my enthusiasm doesn't die out, since there's very few options for 3-star writing that I can see. Guess it gives me something to do while I wait for CC to review my articles.
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Jun 20, 2013 05:35
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I didn't have trouble getting in at 4 stars, but it was in 2011. I've been hearing a lot of people getting in at 3 on TB these days. It sucks because 3 star is both short on ops and on pay. 5 stars is for people who pass the proofreading test at 4 stars and somehow trigger an official 5 star review, it's kind of a special side deal because your official ranking stays at 4 and they very rarely rate an article above 4. They just manually give you access to 5 star stuff. Which, due to the smaller writer pool and higher cost, is almost as slim pickings as 3 star. For getting promoted from 3 to 4, write the best you can (obviously) and try to focus on applying to and writing for teams. Start on the last page of the casting call teams, since the most recent ones are added to the end. The lowest team pay rate is higher than the 3 star rate, though a bit lower than 4. Ideally you'll be able to attract some clients for direct orders as well.
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Jun 20, 2013 06:04
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So...I shelled out for Inqscribe for the added functionality of saving, and backups, and now after running my virus scan today, every time I open it up, I can't use my backups because it has decided one of them, I don't know which because it won't tell me, is not an inqscribe file...I don't know where this backup folder is, and now I have lost an hour's work because it also made it fantastically unstable, and is a persistent problem with this backup file itself, I know that one for sure because I did a reinstall...I may do murders...Argh!
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Jun 21, 2013 04:45
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Can you make an exception in your antivirus program for InqScribe? What is your AV software?
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Jun 21, 2013 05:17
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In Windows 7, it stores my backups in users/kazmeyer/appdata/roaming/inqscribe/backup.
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Jun 21, 2013 05:59
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I...have not upgraded in a very long time, I'm still running XP, I ran AVG and Spybot. Had a couple of hits for Spybot and that was it, healed, needed to run again after a restart, and ever since it's been causing issues. And yes, I know I need to upgrade, my next major purchase it going to be upgrading my PC I think.
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Jun 21, 2013 06:41
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Slightly Used Cake posted:I...have not upgraded in a very long time, I'm still running XP, I ran AVG and Spybot. Had a couple of hits for Spybot and that was it, healed, needed to run again after a restart, and ever since it's been causing issues. And yes, I know I need to upgrade, my next major purchase it going to be upgrading my PC I think. Have you tried running Inqscribe in compatibility mode for XP?
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Jun 21, 2013 07:48
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...there is such a thing? How do I do that? Because I think it could actually solve all of my other programs. Oh, and I didn't post last night because unconsciousness needed to happen, but I found the folder, deleted the corrupt backup and everything i working okay now. Thanks for the map Kaz :-)
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Jun 21, 2013 12:39
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I had what was probably my worst DT file this weekend. I had to slow the audio down to 70% for him to even talk at a somewhat normal speed. He also liked to jam a bunch of words together and then randomly mumble. Only 70 minutes of him talking, probably 2 minutes of the interviewer asking questions and then him rambling on and on and on. Probably had around 100 inaudible's over ~40 pages.
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Jun 24, 2013 04:18
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Yeesh! Hey if the podcast files case you way though, take them, they're the same pay rate I think as the normal docs from that client, but all audio, very easy, as long as Google is your friend, and LOTS of work with that. But I know what you mean, even every file I had this week form my legal has been a case of the mumbles. Diction people, diction!
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Jun 24, 2013 05:25
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I'm at my wit's end with the  SUPER PICKY client formatting. It keeps changing and they don't update the samples, yet every assignment says to "follow the sample carefully!!"So when I spend way more time than usual paying attention to special rules and excel formatting, it's just spit back at me with new, different rules. Then when I follow those rules, the next set of files is spit back at me again with even more changes. Is it in bad taste to let them know that not making me aware of proper formatting BEFORE I do a job should mean extra pay for the extra time spent correcting every file? They keep apologizing for the outdated sample and for the inconsistency with formatting, but an apology doesn't give me back the extra hours I spend correcting files that I've already done, as well as putting me behind on my other projects.
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Jun 25, 2013 00:24
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It's definitely not bad taste. If I screw up formatting, of course I fix it on my dime. If there's a minor glitch with the template, something that's easy to fix, I generally don't complain. But if I do something they way a client tells me to do it and they change their mind, I'm not going to fix it for free. (Well, if it's one of the crazy network jobs where they pay like they've suffered a concussion, I'll be a little more liberal with corrections.) But if it's taking you more than a few minutes to institute whatever changes they ask for, and they're not paying you a premium rate, you should definitely bill them for it. Just make it clear on the next job that you'll be doing it in line with the sample and instructions provided, and if there are any changes beyond that they can either handle it themselves or compensate you for your time.
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Jun 25, 2013 03:04
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Excel is always a horrible choice for word processing. I'd swear when I run its spellcheck it's only checking the visible text in cells. I try and do them in Word first if I can and transfer them over.
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Jun 25, 2013 04:02
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