|
AuntBuck posted: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. Is there a way to do that without copy and paste and wanting to shoot yourself?
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 21:31 |
|
|
Spartan421 posted:Is there a way to do that without copy and paste and wanting to shoot yourself? You can import from a text file into Excel. So if you have: 01:01:01 [TAB] SPEAKER 1: Dialogue 01:01:32 [TAB] SPEAKER 2: Dialogue and import that into Excel, it becomes two columns, the first with the time codes and the second with the dialogue. It can take some monkeying with to suit whatever specific format you want to follow, but I find it's the best way to get transcription into an Excel file. (I'm doing a job with that format this very week, actually.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:16
|
|
|
Spartan421 posted:Is there a way to do that without copy and paste and wanting to shoot yourself? What kazmeyer said, just hit [TAB] for every new cell, and [ENTER] for a new row. I have one job that's been asking for some bolded and italicized stuff, so I do that in Word and make sure the formatting's right, then just copy and paste the whole thing into Excel. Changing the font size, etc afterwards in Excel can be tricky, using find and replace is almost worthless. I don't envy the proofreaders either.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:48
|
|
|
Okay, that trick with the text delimiters for importing into Excel has cut my formatting time by like 75%. Seriously. I feel really dumb for not being aware of that. I suddenly don't hate this Excel project anymore.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 13:40
|
|
|
It's the only thing that keeps me sane with that kind of a job. I stumbled across it myself after doing one or two the annoying hard way and figuring there had to be a better option. There's generally some cleanup on the back end, getting fonts and spacing right, but holy poo poo it saves you time. Welcome to my nightmare: Client: "So which do you want, Two and a Half Men or Big Bang Theory?" Me: "Can you just give me a papercut on my eye and we'll call it even?"
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 14:16
|
|
|
Crunch Bucket posted:Okay, that trick with the text delimiters for importing into Excel has cut my formatting time by like 75%. Seriously. I feel really dumb for not being aware of that. Hmm. I think I know what job you're working on...yeah that ain't gonna stop if it is. I think it's one I saw pop up a few months ago and the editors were like, the client is insane, please don't murder us. Three letter initials, paying at...70 cents a minute?
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 15:59
|
|
|
^^^ Yes indeed, and a cheap client at that. That project is way underpaid for how nitpicky it is, and for how the format keeps changing at a moment's notice, and no one bothers to update the samples or make a blanket announcement when something has changed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 17:14
|
|
|
Yeah...even I turned that down, and I take everything...it's actually paying out less now than it originally did. When it came up I asked Boss Lady about it and what was going on and she said she couldn't give us any more for it unfortunately. I remember it coming through the first time though, and you could feel the annoyance even i the emails from the editors. This is one of those cases where there's no point, this client is just jerking people around. I mean come on, they REFUSED to acknowledge Excel doesn't work that way. Flat out. They have the dumb, sigh.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 21:37
|
|
|
The good things about it are that the audio is crisp, it's clean verbatim, and most of the speakers speak clearly and slowly. There's also the reduced number of TC's so that's a high point. What chaps my rear end is the repeated format changes. I was getting pretty miffed at the editors until I realized they probably are just as frustrated about this whole thing as the transcribers. Even then, though, I shouldn't have to fix things that we weren't made aware of beforehand. If they want to say "From here on out, do it this way!" That's all fine and dandy, but sending me a list of oh, five or six of my last hour long files and saying "Oh yeah new rules go back and change this and that."? Not okay man.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 21:57
|
|
|
Oh I remember, they were doing that last time, and they are playing up, because when she issued the assignments last week first thing I asked was have they cemented a format and is this really as much as you guys can pay for it, and she said yes on both counts. So yeah, they're getting screwed around again too. Glad it's clean verbatim now, it wasn't the first time around. Full verbatim, and they were getting bitched at because when it prints according to the client you should be able to see all the dialogue on the printed page. Guess that explains why Boss Lady has switched to all caps again. You can always tell when clients are being dicks, even in G chat it's nothing but caps. :-(
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 22:58
|
|
|
Crunch Bucket posted:The good things about it are that the audio is crisp, it's clean verbatim, and most of the speakers speak clearly and slowly. There's also the reduced number of TC's so that's a high point. What chaps my rear end is the repeated format changes. I was getting pretty miffed at the editors until I realized they probably are just as frustrated about this whole thing as the transcribers. Even then, though, I shouldn't have to fix things that we weren't made aware of beforehand. If they want to say "From here on out, do it this way!" That's all fine and dandy, but sending me a list of oh, five or six of my last hour long files and saying "Oh yeah new rules go back and change this and that."? Not okay man. Holy poo poo. I think I rejected one of those jobs because of medical stuff laying me up. I'm glad I did. As a note: I got word back from the HR lady at DT, she said that passing work off to people is absolutely okay. It'll be on your shoulders if the other transcriber has to bail out, but I think we've got a good network of people on here that will enable us to trade poo poo assignments every once in a while when you're just like 'no I don't want to do this' but want to stay in good standing with the company. I'm down if you guys are down. What say we make a small mailing list? Old Boot fucked around with this message at 07:43 on Jun 28, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2013 07:39
|
|
|
I'm always down to make more money since they rarely max out the minutes I want when I sign up for tons of stuff. I'm glad I never got on board whatever you all are talking about haha. I can be reached at my bullshit email arkady_grigorovich_urumov at yahoo or just PM me here.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2013 15:22
|
|
|
I am very happy at Leapforce, but I'd like to get a friend working as well. She is a speed demon at typing, is a walking dictionary and has done excellent transcribing work in the past. The problem is that she needs good audio for transcribing and this is not something an employer will provide anymore. (When audio was good she could type in circles around any other transcriber. She cannot cope with microphone noise though.) We are looking at something that does not involve listening anymore. She hated the idea of writing for money, so I'm thinking data entry or a keying job of some sort. I'm not sure where to start. Any hints? (We are in Canada.) Thanks for any suggestions. I know this is picky, but I want her to be comfortable in her work.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2013 08:08
|
|
|
Hey guys! Two things, Focus Forward is hiring at the minute again, I just caught an ad online and am on their webpage, unfortunately not being American, I can't take advantage, but they're hiring bot English Ttranscribers and Spanish Transcribers, so, get in there! And two, I would like to say that I trusted against my better judgement, and am now severing from a company called ANP for a variety of reasons, late pay being ONE of them, but the rest mostly revolving around them saying that their trancribers aren't listening, we aren't giving them the quality, blah, blah,blah,and then they forwarded the quality control report on from the client. So basically they wrote a guideline for us without fully understanding it, which means that everything we've done in three months is wrong to some extent. They are giving the client the same bullshit excuses. Oh and apparently collating documents you're sending to the client is hard so they've been doing that wrong to, all adding up to pissing off the client and taking it out on us with summary 15 cent a page fines. Prime example, this is a legal client, when describing an exhibit, I put the date in and everything the judge used to describe it. This was wrong and I had to amend for a shorter, vaguer version because I also put down the page the item is marked into the record on. Looking at this report, I can see that case, I can also see I was previously correct. I can also see where the client had to tell the company how their assignment direction sheets were incorrect. These people would not be worth it if they paid their bills on time without quibble. As it is, I cannot recommend strongly enough not associating with them. Legal however can be interesting, so that I cannot recommend highly enough if you're so inclined.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 17:03
|
|
|
That sucks, Slightly Used Cake. It looks like ANP has a history of not paying people too. I don't know if you've heard of them, but AccuTran is based in Ontario and they do more business type transcription, earnings calls etc. They seem to have a good reputation, though I have not worked for them personally: http://accutranglobal.com/jobs.html
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2013 23:57
|
|
|
I actually managed to wrangle something with a connection of mine through some awesome joyous miracle, and now I'll be working with a referrals company called Transcription For Everyone. I met the owner through a different client and asked if he needed an extra pair of hands. Also looking at Accutran paying by the word, considering their demands, the pay doesn't seem that good with a range between 65 cents a minute up to 97 cents a minute for bad foreign audio by their estimation. Yeesh! But thanks for the heads up. Always good to add to the rolodex just in case :-)
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2013 16:05
|
|
|
Hey DT people, I have an 82 minute and a 14 minute file I wouldn't mind offloading. I have a lot of school stuff going on and could use the extra time doing other things. They are due Tuesday end of day. Anyone interested? Oh yeah, they are nice professionally done interviews so it won't be torture. .70/min
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 07:49
|
|
|
I won't be much help there since I'm loaded up until EOD tomorrow. I'm working on a file right now that is liquefying my brain. Four people with their backs to the camera and the audio is just horrendous. So many inaudibles I'm only vaguely aware of the topic of conversation. It pays $1/min, but I feel bad because even though I'm going over each section at least twice, there's just no way I can make out a lot of what they are saying. At least this is the first file I've had in a long time with truly bad audio, so I guess I was due?
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 16:49
|
|
|
Haha I know what you're talking about. I turned it down with the excuse that I had a ton of that other stuff previously mentioned. Why even use a camera if it won't be facing the subjects and the video quality is crap? Think of the poor transcribers people!
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 17:31
|
|
|
Crunch Bucket posted:I won't be much help there since I'm loaded up until EOD tomorrow. I'm working on a file right now that is liquefying my brain. Four people with their backs to the camera and the audio is just horrendous. So many inaudibles I'm only vaguely aware of the topic of conversation. It pays $1/min, but I feel bad because even though I'm going over each section at least twice, there's just no way I can make out a lot of what they are saying. I feel your pain buddy! High Five! No seriously though it's fine, better to inaudible then put in something that's not correct, it's cool, Sally is aware of the situation, that's why this set uis tagged just do your best :-)
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2013 17:36
|
|
|
I've read the thread and checked out a few of the links but the OP and thread seems heavily oriented towards Americans. Does anybody know of any reputable freelance sites that provide online work to Europeans or Aussies? I'm going to set up an elance account (and I've read the other thread on it, which I think has dropped back a few pages) but I know somebody who has one and they got bummed out by how India, Bangladesh, etc. have locked down 90% of the work by spamming and underquoting and then providing lovely (but passable for the price) services.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2013 10:54
|
|
|
So is LiveOps still worth it? I was approved, however they want that background check fee. So does everyone here still believe in it as a supplemental income?
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2013 00:40
|
|
|
Beefstorm posted:So is LiveOps still worth it? I was approved, however they want that background check fee. So does everyone here still believe in it as a supplemental income? I've got several friends making a full-time living with it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 06:50
|
|
|
Sulla-Marius 88 posted:I've read the thread and checked out a few of the links but the OP and thread seems heavily oriented towards Americans. On this note, anyone who has suggestions and sites that fall under this category, I can make a section for them. Being American myself I don't know what all on there already is available to other countries.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 06:54
|
|
|
Nighthand posted:On this note, anyone who has suggestions and sites that fall under this category, I can make a section for them. Being American myself I don't know what all on there already is available to other countries. oDesk.com welcomes workers from all countries. It's a freelancing site similar to eLance.com, catering to graphic designers, web designers, programmers, voice actors, article writers, personal assistants, marketing assistants, social media coordinators, and other freelance workers of almost every specialty. Clients post the jobs they need completed, and workers bid on them. oDesk's fee is 10%, and oDesk has a fairly robust payment guarantee and dispute resolution system.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2013 21:56
|
|
|
Tried applying to Daily Transcripts, after putting in all the info I get taken to a page that, while not blank, has nothing but their site template on it. No real content besides that. Is this normal? I noticed that a few days ago the "Careers" link just took you back to their main page, so I was thinking this might be because they still haven't finished the work on their site or something. Still haven't gotten the email they said I'd receive after applying either, despite that being hours ago.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2013 22:58
|
|
|
I'm having the same issue as Roland. Except it's been two days and I haven't heard anything from them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2013 00:29
|
|
|
be hoed --> behold I should make a twitter for these. #transcriptionistproblems
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2013 03:41
|
|
|
I would follow that. Also, "volumptuous"
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2013 22:30
|
|
|
I've been working for Demand Media lately, and there's a huge variance in how good the copy editors are. Some accept anything and only change a few words, some send back articles asking for total rewrites, and some don't even seem to understand the subject matter, while others have expert-level knowledge. It's kind of annoying- more than half my articles get approved on the first round, but sometimes I feel like the result is out of my control.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2013 16:25
|
|
|
WAMPA_STOMPA posted:I've been working for Demand Media lately, and there's a huge variance in how good the copy editors are. Some accept anything and only change a few words, some send back articles asking for total rewrites, and some don't even seem to understand the subject matter, while others have expert-level knowledge. It's kind of annoying- more than half my articles get approved on the first round, but sometimes I feel like the result is out of my control. Woah, they're still paying people for content? Are you doing specialized writing or did they restart the general nonsense they used to do? And, fwiw, they've always been that way. I've had some articles I wrote on subjects I am familiar with get kicked back for just total failure to understand on the editors part. Similarly, I have published content on their site that I was paid for on things like how to refine crude oil or whatever. It is totally hit or miss with them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2013 17:12
|
|
|
The March Hare posted:Woah, they're still paying people for content? Are you doing specialized writing or did they restart the general nonsense they used to do? Demand has changed a lot -- now, all the work is divided into "Writer Sections" which are all specialized. Science, Tech, Business, Culture, etc. There's no general "how to tie your shoes" stuff anymore. Getting into a section requires actual credentials/demonstrated experience, and some of the channels are extremely picky about your CV. It's also shifting heavily in favor of "ace writers" who turn in more than 75 articles a month and maintain good quality scores; they get bonuses, larger article queues, and priority when it comes to editing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2013 19:04
|
|
|
LB has been absolutely horrible this week. At least getting a bunch of DT work.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2013 03:04
|
|
|
Just finished my LiveOps certification. I was told I'll be able to take calls in about 3 hours. SO PUMPED! I do sales all day already anyway, so I feel like I got this.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2013 20:29
|
|
|
I just wanted to add a note to this thread, since I've been lurking a while. I managed to clear $10,000 for July by doing a lot of writing work. I made about $6,000 in June and I only really worked the last half of the month, for personal reasons. However, the summer months are the best months for writing, so I anticipate my income will go down starting September. The key was signing up for a load of casting calls and groups in Textbroker and Writer Access, and then focusing only on the clients that posted like 200-300 articles at a time. I'm also going to attempt to do eLance, oDesk, Write.com and some others but all the work seems pretty similar. High volume ends up transitioning into more per hour because once you get a unique format down you can bat it out really quick, and other writers tend to avoid these because they're always really specific. I'm going to check into self-publishing for times when I don't have anything else to do, too. Anyway I'm not sure if anyone is still interested in Writer Access or Textbroker, but if they are I have information I could share.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2013 03:09
|
|
|
Doesn't Textbroker's pay rate top out at something like $5 per article?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2013 03:23
|
|
|
I have recently signed up for Textbroker and have not seen a cap. You are paid based on your rating (1-5, you want 4) and the number of words in the article. The highest I've had on one is a little over $8, but I've seen some articles of 1000-1500 words which would be in the $20+ range.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2013 03:28
|
|
|
Wiggy Marie posted:I have recently signed up for Textbroker and have not seen a cap. You are paid based on your rating (1-5, you want 4) and the number of words in the article. The highest I've had on one is a little over $8, but I've seen some articles of 1000-1500 words which would be in the $20+ range. This is correct. At 4 star, you get 1.4 cents per word from the open order pool. Personally, I try to shoot for longer projects and I've gotten some very large ones, including one single order that encompassed a couple dozen subpages for a website that topped out around $370. You can also set your direct order rate to something higher, though the higher it is the less likely clients will contact you for work out of the blue (I just had one bitch at me that my 4 cents a word for them was over their budget). Team orders vary as well, with the lowest I've seen at 1.37 cents a word and the highest stretching up to 30 cents a word. Teams do have one issue, namely there is no way to see before you apply how active the team is. I've been accepted into teams that have never posted an article, and I have a half-dozen pending applications from months ago. Textbroker is in a bit of a lull right now actually, at least in the open order pool. The 4th holiday cleared everything out, and the pool went from 6K available articles to under 100, and it's hovered under 200 at any given time since. It's interesting, though, because the assignments are different most every time I look, so there's a high number of orders being placed and written, there's just a balance of writers and clients rather than the surplus of assignments before. Kilo India posted:Anyway I'm not sure if anyone is still interested in Writer Access or Textbroker, but if they are I have information I could share. I'm interested in Writer Access, and really anything other than Textbroker or Constant Content (the two I'm most familiar with) is helpful. I've been breaking Rule #1 and relying too heavily on too few sites recently.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2013 03:37
|
|
|
It's true you can't tell which groups are active on Textbroker, but there's a hint: if the group says it's a "managed group" it is far, far more likely to be active. Managed groups are done by Textbroker themselves. They're super picky about writing and send things back a lot, but they're also usually fairly active and pay quite a bit. It'll say it's a managed group at the very bottom of the group listing. I got on a ton of groups this way. Here's the problem with Textbroker: once you get to 3 star you're pretty much screwed. Even if you write 3 star articles really well, they will virtually never get over a 3 star rating either due to their format or due to the editors. The only way you can get bumped to 4 star is by getting into a group and writing quality articles and then -- this is imperative -- just sitting there and waiting until you're rated a month later. The whole rating system in Textbroker is seriously broken and they seem completely uninterested in fixing it, which means they constantly have no 3 star articles and a huge amount of pending 4 star articles. Goons should create their own Something Awful Content Website and make it not dumb. Anyway I don't bother doing open orders for Textbroker at all anymore, it isn't worth the trouble. Writer Access is probably the best thing I've found right now. Textbroker is more consistent, but Writer Access pays a lot more and has a pretty high volume of work. If you log in, you can see that their revenue has been going up consistently over the last two years. Of course, you don't want to rely on that, but for now you go where the work is. I'm also signed up for write.com when they begin hiring again, and I just got approved to the wait list for WritersDomain.net without much hassle, though I'm not sure how active they are. I'm trying to break into eLance and oDesk, but it's seriously hard work. What I did was I created a professional looking portfolio out of my Constant Content articles that are up for usage rights only, so I didn't have to create extra work for myself. This has helped getting responses, but everyone wants to video chat with me before they give me a $5 job and I'm really just not that into it. Edit: I've come to the conclusion Constant Content isn't really worth it. I think if you want to write your own articles you should instead write a 3000-5000 word eBook and sell it through Amazon. Constant Content doesn't seem to offer the volume to make it worthwhile. Kilo India fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jul 31, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2013 03:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 21:31 |
|
|
Kilo India posted:Goons should create their own Something Awful Content Website and make it not dumb. Seconding this.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2013 04:22
|
|