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I'm lucky in that I own a keyboard that has media controls that perform the same function as a footpedal does, so I was able to hold off on ordering one until I was officially put on the team.
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May 13, 2014 22:36
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I think most people use Infinity, and my IN-USB-1 has been serving me since I started transcribing many, many moons ago. As for software, it's up to you, but I particularly like InqScribe.
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May 13, 2014 22:43
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Apparently Writers Domain took a large chunk of about 3,000 400 word articles and outsourced them to Text Broker and Writers Access. I can't confirm personally, but the article count went down instantly the other day and those same keywords are now appearing on those sites. This was on their Facebook page today quote:WritersDomain.net We have a lot of older articles that need to be written so we've enlisted the help of other places. We'll also be hiring soon.
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May 13, 2014 22:44
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And yet I know of at least three people, myself included, on their waiting list because they aren't adding more writers to meet their demand. Writer's Domain is such a goddamn weird place.
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May 13, 2014 23:03
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Every time I see Focus Forward send out a call for an urgent revision opportunity, and it's for one of those 2-hour focus groups, I smile and know I'm not alone. The last time I ever did one, there were ten different women talking over each other in this free-for-all about some fashion brand, and constantly rattling off different brand names that my goony self has no drat clue about to even start Googling for context. I think this was actually a psychological breakthrough for me to help overcome my perfectionist tendencies, cause by the time I got to the last half hour and it was devolving into a sea of [INAUDIBLE] [CROSSTALK] I was pretty much like "I don't even care if this sucks rear end, it's all you're getting and you're gonna like it, gently caress you guys!"
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May 13, 2014 23:38
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kazmeyer posted:I think the starting pay rates may have changed, but everything in that little quote box I wrote still stands as far as I can remember. It can be fun, but it can be really mind-numbing as well. Do the little self-test I mentioned, transcribe some spoken word or comedy piece, and see if you still want to do this for money. If so, Focus Forward and Daily Transcripts are still probably your best bet for starting out. My only actual experience with transcription has been through DT, so I have no idea how to get transcription work through craigslist. My guess is they would be looking for people with at least some experience and the fact that I'm based outside of the US would be another limiting factor. Ideally, I'd want to get back in with DT so I can build up my transcription experience. My problem is that I haven't worked in a couple years so my resume is in a deplorable state and with inadequate experience I am stuck in a catch-22. With DT, even though I may be on their list of inactive employees, at least I've shown I can do the work. I was always very meticulous with my assignments, turning in work that was high quality and on time. I stopped signing up for work and disappeared after awhile so they probably see this as unreliability. Fair enough, but what to do now? Should I keep trying to convince them to take me on by offering to re-do the test or something to prove my abilities? I am home all day so I have all the time to make it work this time. Any advice?
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May 13, 2014 23:38
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Slightly Used Cake posted:But snail mail is the best! It' the only thing that comes in that isn't bills and coupons for Big Macs! Getting back to you on this: No, we don't. We had a bad experience with PayPal before I was hired, so it's just snail mail if you don't have a U.S. bank account. Still haven't gotten any resumes--maybe some of you with less than 6 months experience wanna PM me, if you swear on your e-honor not to flake or wash out...!
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May 14, 2014 00:19
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Astro7x posted:Apparently Writers Domain took a large chunk of about 3,000 400 word articles and outsourced them to Text Broker and Writers Access. I can't confirm personally, but the article count went down instantly the other day and those same keywords are now appearing on those sites. Speaking of which, there are over 1000 articles available on WA right now for everyone with an account. Though the "David" client has like a 16 point checklist for his SEO requirements so have fun with that.
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May 14, 2014 01:06
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I have an infinity pedal, and I swear by inqscribe whenever possible. the ability to have macros is loving priceless!
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May 14, 2014 07:49
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:Attention transcribers who have been at this for at least six months: I can't PM on the site but I would be interested. Any way you could shoot me an email? nisselphatATgmail
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May 14, 2014 13:24
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Astro7x posted:Apparently Writers Domain took a large chunk of about 3,000 400 word articles and outsourced them to Text Broker and Writers Access. I can't confirm personally, but the article count went down instantly the other day and those same keywords are now appearing on those sites. So they outsourced these $20 articles to Textbroker for $4.25 a piece? I'm assuming they're the hundreds of three-star articles now available on TB.
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May 14, 2014 14:10
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thylacine posted:So they outsourced these $20 articles to Textbroker for $4.25 a piece? I'm assuming they're the hundreds of three-star articles now available on TB. Just went to see. Close to 3000 right now  Uhh, if anyone wants 'em, head on over.
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May 14, 2014 18:53
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They turned off the article cap at Writers Domain for the first 15 days of May for a contest. Usually it's 80 articles a month for $1,600. Some writers I spoke with have written as many as 10 a day so far to take advantage of it. If I knew they were going to send stuff over to TextBroker for $4.25 a piece instead of $20, I would have outsourced them to you guys for much more than that.
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May 14, 2014 19:06
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Derek79 posted:I can't PM on the site but I would be interested. Any way you could shoot me an email? nisselphatATgmail Sent. Hope to hear from you soon.
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May 14, 2014 20:44
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Got an email from Helium.com today. They're closing their doors, setting everything to read-only so you can't publish more content. I only ever wrote one or two things for them, and it was always "here have six cents for that over the course of a month" so completely not worth it. Amusing that it took this long for them to give up.
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May 15, 2014 08:27
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The audio: I don't know what to do now. The transcript: Okay. Screw you. 
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May 15, 2014 23:54
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:The audio: I can top it. Once at 3 AM I couldn't sleep and decided, gently caress it, I may as well give up on that and get some work done instead. Found a 2 second file up for grabs: "Hello, blah blah blah blah blah." Well uh, yeah, I wrote that down and handed it in. Thanks for the buck, guy 
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May 16, 2014 00:07
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Would you like to do this very editing heavy job that's a rush, and also very finicky for this super detail oriented client, but at the regular rush rate? *super eager puppy dog face* No. No I would not. *goes back to knitting and watching The 100*
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May 16, 2014 01:26
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Jedi Knight Luigi posted:The audio: Coincidentally, I received and promptly finished up my first official project this afternoon. Went better than expected, really. Gotta take some time to get more used to this whole footpedal thing, though. EDIT: Quick question regarding DT. Are they being affected by that oil spill down in LA or something? I haven't heard from them at all today, even after emailing them to check if there's any work I can do today (I also had to do the same thing yesterday to get that first assignment that I mentioned in my original post). Shima Honnou fucked around with this message at 03:23 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 16, 2014 02:32
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I just have a quick question before I send in my w9 to daily transcription: Does the HR person (HRdailytranscription) use gmail? I just want to make sure I am getting a legitimate email from the company before I send in my social, address, full name etc etc. Also, if this is on the up and up, I'm pretty stoked that I got in!
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May 17, 2014 03:59
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It is on the up-and-up, and HR does use a gmail account. They've been pretty lenient though, you could probably mail your documentation to any of the main set of employees that do the email stuff. And as proof that speak of the devil always brings that devil around, I just got my next work assignments a few minutes ago, although it does seem a bit late in the night but whatever, I've got until Monday morning to turn these around so it's no big, knock those out tomorrow morning.
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May 17, 2014 04:46
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Shima Honnou posted:Coincidentally, I received and promptly finished up my first official project this afternoon. Went better than expected, really. Gotta take some time to get more used to this whole footpedal thing, though. They'll send you work as it comes in, based on whatever amount of audio you asked for. Sometimes you'll get all the minutes you asked for, sometimes you'll get just ten minutes, and sometimes you'll get nothing. It really depends on their work flow. In other words, you don't have to email them asking about it, just make yourself available and wait for them to get back to you. You will, on occasion, have weeks where you get only a couple piddly projects. Also: you might receive your work at 1pm, or you could get an assignment sent out to you at 11pm. I've had one or two show up at 12am my time (10pm PST), so it's all over the place.
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May 17, 2014 04:57
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Good to know, I just figured they did a 9 to 5 operation, since until now it's been pretty set that I'd get the first responses of the day for a question or whatever starting between 1pm to 2pm my time (So right around 10 to 11am their time).
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May 17, 2014 05:09
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Nope, I've seen the girls on all hours... I am one of the girls, I do all of the hours. Just make sure your calendar is up to date. This is only your first week so you're probably still being worked into the schedule.
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May 17, 2014 05:47
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Shima Honnou posted:Good to know, I just figured they did a 9 to 5 operation, since until now it's been pretty set that I'd get the first responses of the day for a question or whatever starting between 1pm to 2pm my time (So right around 10 to 11am their time). Typically, you'll get a response to just about anything, especially some kind of scheduling concern, it could just take some time. Rest assured, though, you will get work if you signed on for it, and if it's really slow, Sally or someone else will come right out and tell you that it is if you ask. One thing you do want to be prompt about to cover your rear end is if suddenly you have plans for a day you're signed up for, and can't remove from your schedule on account of the software not allowing takesies-backsies within a 24 hour timeframe. Sometimes they miss the emails (this happened to me recently), but given it's the busy season, it's understandable. So long as you sent the initial email, and say again that you can't take the work as soon as you see the assignment, they generally won't penalize you for turning it down. In my case, I didn't get the refusal sent back to them within the usual 6 hours, since I was in training for a job for eight, and they managed to send me the file right after I left for work. They were still cool about my backing down from it when I explained the situation. That's about the only main issue I've had with them, though (save one of the QC folks sending me an emailed rebuke that was meant for another transcriptionist, but that was far more  than  on both sides of the fence, and doesn't really count as an issue). Everything else's been pretty straightforward, once you get used to it.
Old Boot fucked around with this message at 04:06 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 04:03
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Heh, that's because you both have really similar names. And yes, this week was slow, but it's shaping up to be better. Big point is always stay in contact if there's any big issues. We're not expecting you to respond if it's four AM... I mean I do, but I apparently don't sleep. Oh, and fi you know you're going to be finishing an assignment and heading out of town shortly after, just let Sally know and she can leave a note on the log or something. Or even better do tat AND cc submissions. It's by no means required, but it's greatly appreciated. Otherwise we're left thinking you're the jerk who never answers QC... which some people are. Don't be them.
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May 18, 2014 08:52
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Haha, I haven't had time to fiddle with freelancewatchdog.com for a week or so. I just noticed it's been the victim of a massive spam attack. There are thousands of spam posts I need to cull, now. This should be a learning experience.
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May 19, 2014 14:51
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Moral support is mostly all I can offer for a month or two, but Freelance Watchdog is a worthy endeavor. It might take six months to start to realize its potential, but until someone else comes up with a better venue for this kind of information and discussion I think you're incubating something that has a lot of potential.
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May 19, 2014 17:27
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If you were to start some kind of kickstarter like shenanigan so that I could donate to help the cause, I would be very into doing that, and I would spread the word. Good companies breed good contractors.
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May 19, 2014 19:10
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I think I remember some people here on the waitlist for Writers Domain, and I just got an email from them. I applied back somewhere around November, and today I got an email saying that I would need to complete the application process over again (because of all the changes to their system they've made) BUT that I could be immediately accepted after doing that. So... I guess it's good to know that our applications didn't just disappear into the void? I haven't redone the application yet, so I don't know how different it will be from the original.
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May 19, 2014 19:12
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Looks like I got the same e-mail, so I guess they're letting people in, finally.
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May 19, 2014 19:19
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Mark Kidd posted:Moral support is mostly all I can offer for a month or two, but Freelance Watchdog is a worthy endeavor. It might take six months to start to realize its potential, but until someone else comes up with a better venue for this kind of information and discussion I think you're incubating something that has a lot of potential. Thanks for the encouraging words. I also believe that Freelance Watchdog could grow into something very useful. I wish I could devote more time to the project, but I am currently unemployed and trying to keep my poo poo together while working on getting my fingers into more freelancing pies. Slightly Used Cake posted:If you were to start some kind of kickstarter like shenanigan so that I could donate to help the cause, I would be very into doing that, and I would spread the word. Good companies breed good contractors. Some other people mentioned that. I am not opposed to the idea, I just don't know if I have the time or expertise to do it right.
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May 19, 2014 19:37
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Goldfinch posted:I think I remember some people here on the waitlist for Writers Domain, and I just got an email from them. I applied back somewhere around November, and today I got an email saying that I would need to complete the application process over again (because of all the changes to their system they've made) BUT that I could be immediately accepted after doing that. So... I guess it's good to know that our applications didn't just disappear into the void? I got the same email after the same kind of wait. Let us know about the new test, I haven't done it either and have to go research the proper "it's" again before I try.
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May 20, 2014 06:08
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For those getting into Writers Domain, I'll post my tips on what I think they like based on my past 150 or so accepted articles under the new format. If anybody has any questions, ask away! quote:Title The only other weird grammar thing that I found they are picky about is the oxford comma. I can't think of anything else 'writing style' wise to be aware of. Maybe it's spelled out in the writing guidelines now. At one point they were picky about a single space after periods, but now they are not. Astro7x fucked around with this message at 21:24 on May 20, 2014 |
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May 20, 2014 20:16
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That's super helpful, thanks! The headers thing never would have occurred to me for a 400-word article. Or writing such short paragraphs. It... might take me a while to get the hang of this. 
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May 21, 2014 00:16
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I was wondering about turnaround times for Daily Transcription. They claim most jobs have a 24 hour turnaround, so does that mean if I sign up for a small amount of work on Friday, I will have until maybe Saturday afternoon to finish it? This is assuming I don't literally get work at like, one AM Friday morning I guess?
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May 21, 2014 03:35
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KentuckyFriedBonBon posted:That's super helpful, thanks! The headers thing never would have occurred to me for a 400-word article. Or writing such short paragraphs. It... might take me a while to get the hang of this. If you check out the blog posts at the end of February they have some example articles. It's a bit misleading, as the 5 star examples are not representative of what they want at all in terms of content, with no actionable specifics. But they give you an idea of content structure.
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May 21, 2014 03:41
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Zorblack posted:I was wondering about turnaround times for Daily Transcription. They claim most jobs have a 24 hour turnaround, so does that mean if I sign up for a small amount of work on Friday, I will have until maybe Saturday afternoon to finish it? This is assuming I don't literally get work at like, one AM Friday morning I guess? You won't get it that early. Typically most assignments start rolling out anytime after 10AM PST, and honestly it depends on the job because of course clients do get a discount for large volumes of work, longer turnaround, etc. So depending on the client really. One client I know of will typically dump anywhere from 10 to 1,200 individual files on DT and so it can be a couple of weeks to roll through all of them so when you get a chunk they typically have a two or three day turnaround. Rush jobs are 24 hours or less depending on how taxing the format is.
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May 21, 2014 03:49
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Zorblack posted:I was wondering about turnaround times for Daily Transcription. They claim most jobs have a 24 hour turnaround, so does that mean if I sign up for a small amount of work on Friday, I will have until maybe Saturday afternoon to finish it? This is assuming I don't literally get work at like, one AM Friday morning I guess? Unless it's a rush order, the schedule will typically be that you sign up for work on, say, Monday, get an assignment, and your due date will be Tuesday EOD (6pm PST). Sometimes, it's 12pm PST on Wednesday. Really, though, rush jobs are the only ones that are expected right away, as the name implies. Friday sign-ups can land you anything from a Saturday/Sunday deadline to a Monday EOD deadline. e;fb, and she knows more about this than I do anyway  But that's been my experience with deadlines overall.
Old Boot fucked around with this message at 03:53 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 03:51
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S'cool Boot you fleshed it out way better than I did. 
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May 21, 2014 03:59
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