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Canadians, go to Daily Transcription because they pay in USD so the exchange rate will favor you to the tune of 26 extra cents on the dollar.
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Apr 28, 2016 02:50
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Shima Honnou posted:Canadians, go to Daily Transcription because they pay in USD so the exchange rate will favor you to the tune of 26 extra cents on the dollar. Haha, that's been great for me on Fiverr; they automatically take 20%, so while they're paying me $4 for every $5 earned, it's in USD, which has been netting me over $5.  Thanks for the suggestion, and also to the previous goon who recommended Leapforce. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Apr 28, 2016 |
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Apr 28, 2016 03:18
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Ugh, I wish DT offered direct deposit. I have three overdue paychecks I haven't received yet. At first I thought they were just running late like they sometimes do. I just got the check I was supposed to on time, but who knows what the gently caress happened to the three that were supposed to come before it. Guess I won't be paying off my credit card this month while I wait for HR to solve this mystery.
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Apr 28, 2016 03:21
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Killfast37 posted:Ugh, I wish DT offered direct deposit. I have three overdue paychecks I haven't received yet. At first I thought they were just running late like they sometimes do. I just got the check I was supposed to on time, but who knows what the gently caress happened to the three that were supposed to come before it. Guess I won't be paying off my credit card this month while I wait for HR to solve this mystery. Yeah, I don't really understand what their deal is. I doubt it's hard to set up payroll through Paypal like some of the writing sites do. But they're cheapskates in general. Direct deposit must cost more than printing out a check, having someone sign it, stuffing it in an envelope, and postage for it.
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Apr 28, 2016 04:06
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thylacine posted:Yeah, I don't really understand what their deal is. I doubt it's hard to set up payroll through Paypal like some of the writing sites do. But they're cheapskates in general. Direct deposit must cost more than printing out a check, having someone sign it, stuffing it in an envelope, and postage for it. Usually for corporate scale, Direct Deposit can be quite expensive because you usually have to go through a third party payroll company.
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Apr 28, 2016 05:33
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Anyone who is recorded arguing and there's two or three people talking at the same time should be shot, and if you handed me the gun I would loving do it without hesitation.
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Apr 28, 2016 16:20
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My advice to them would be: use a condom next time
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Apr 28, 2016 16:46
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24 minutes of three people trying to talk over each other and DT isn't even paying extra for this garbage, it's still the base rate of .80 cents/min which confirms my earlier suspicions that the change to .80 was so they could pay less for being the equivalent of a garbageman for bad audio work.
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Apr 28, 2016 17:55
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Shima Honnou posted:24 minutes of three people trying to talk over each other and DT isn't even paying extra for this garbage, it's still the base rate of .80 cents/min which confirms my earlier suspicions that the change to .80 was so they could pay less for being the equivalent of a garbageman for bad audio work. I got some .75 cents work yesterday, and one was some idiots who thought cutting for 1-5 seconds after each question was gonna save them a million dollars or something.
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Apr 28, 2016 19:42
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thylacine posted:Yeah, I don't really understand what their deal is. I doubt it's hard to set up payroll through Paypal like some of the writing sites do. But they're cheapskates in general. Direct deposit must cost more than printing out a check, having someone sign it, stuffing it in an envelope, and postage for it. Paypal is going to make some money on one end or the other. I'd just as soon it wasn't my end, and DT probably doesn't want it on its end either. Same for direct deposit, and I think that's harder to do with independent contractors. However, the ribbon (or toner cartridge or whatever) that printed my last DT check was so used up that I couldn't auto-deposit it, because the kiosk thingy couldn't read the amount. Now, that is cheap. (I was able to deposit it, I just had to take it inside.)
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Apr 28, 2016 20:12
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I've got one client that pays via Paypal (and they eat the fees), two that pay by direct deposit, and one that still sends paper checks. The last one used to drive me nuts before my credit union released an app with mobile deposit capabilities. I used to have one that sent me hand-written checks every month. Really small shop, though.
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Apr 28, 2016 20:45
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Thanks Amazon. Got approved to MTurk. Now that I'm on a research visit in the states and will break every law in existence if I do somehow earn money during this stay.
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Apr 28, 2016 21:44
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With the way that contract employment works I just assume it's not worth setting up direct deposit, especially with DT, a company known for trying out new transcribers, many of which burn out in six months. I never thought about it until the other day a friend of mine pointed out how absurd it was that every part of the business takes place online except the pay checks.
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Apr 28, 2016 23:40
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Rhymes With Clue posted:However, the ribbon (or toner cartridge or whatever) that printed my last DT check was so used up that I couldn't auto-deposit it, because the kiosk thingy couldn't read the amount. Now, that is cheap. (I was able to deposit it, I just had to take it inside.) God, I thought I was the only one this was happening to. My ATM still accepted them, but I had to hand-type the numbers for the last few checks. Also do we need to let HR know if we're planning a temporary hiatus? My other job is getting pretty busy, so I won't be able to put myself on the schedule for pretty much the whole summer. I will still be able to occasionally take rush work from Sally though, so I don't want to tell them to take me off their emailing list or something.
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Apr 29, 2016 03:25
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I just straight up ghost DT for months at a time, they've never said anything to me and when I feel like I want to die I just slap some minutes into their calendar.
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Apr 29, 2016 03:49
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Killfast37 posted:Ugh, I wish DT offered direct deposit. I have three overdue paychecks I haven't received yet. At first I thought they were just running late like they sometimes do. I just got the check I was supposed to on time, but who knows what the gently caress happened to the three that were supposed to come before it. Guess I won't be paying off my credit card this month while I wait for HR to solve this mystery. Wait, how did they explain that lapse? Because the last time that sort of poo poo happened they released a message saying their pay clerk had gone on maternity leave right before Christmas and not let anyone know she hadn't finished her work so they had to play catch up, but they did let people know even just in case. I don't think any of my checks were delayed more than a day or two but still.
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Apr 30, 2016 00:23
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I've found sometimes DT just loses track of your invoices. Usually they'll say you mailed the wrong invoice e-mail address or some poo poo but if you bring it up they'll usually get you set.
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Apr 30, 2016 00:40
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If you guys don't mind me asking, and feel free to PM me if you'd rather not say here, how much are you making with DT?
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Apr 30, 2016 00:57
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It'll always vary depending on how much time you give them and how much work they have. As far as their work, as a general rule, about 95% of the time if I have minutes on the calendar for a day I will get an assignment that day. Sometimes even if I'm not on for that day. And also they usually give me like 10 minutes more than I ask for. I don't super like giving them my time but captioning's been spotty this year so far so I've had to double-dip for more than just keeping myself on the DT roster. Anyway, using that metric above, if you were to put in for like 60 minutes of footage a day seven days a week (With fortitude that's like 6 hours of work, maybe less, but I can't take that sometimes with them so I stretch it out further), then you'll probably get in the ballpark of 440 minutes of footage in that week, and at the current apparent payscale of 80 cents/min, that's $352. If you remove taxes each pay which is good practice but not necessarily required, then you bring in about $296 for that week and set aside the $56. So basically 60/min footage a day with DT is the rough equivalent to 40 hours full-time at minimum wage, maybe even a few cents higher depending on the state. This week I did two suicide-inducing DT projects, total of 67 minutes for $53.60. Last week I did 144 minutes for $115.20. Currently I'm only really putting myself in for 30-35 minutes a day and then not every day of the week. If DT were my only gig I'd be doing a shitload more, possibly even up to 90 minutes (Roughly $500/week) since I know for most projects maybe 15% of it will be dead air or non-interview or questions I can repackage so it would be closer to 75 minutes or less of actual work, except for when hell happens and they decide to give a shitload of Ink Master or, god forbid, anything with dialogue. Shima Honnou fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 02:25
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Slightly Used Cake posted:Wait, how did they explain that lapse? Because the last time that sort of poo poo happened they released a message saying their pay clerk had gone on maternity leave right before Christmas and not let anyone know she hadn't finished her work so they had to play catch up, but they did let people know even just in case. I don't think any of my checks were delayed more than a day or two but still. Rupert Buttermilk posted:If you guys don't mind me asking, and feel free to PM me if you'd rather not say here, how much are you making with DT?  Next week I'm thinking about just signing up for 70-90 minutes across the board and start trying to snatch more rush jobs.
Killfast37 fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 05:11
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And you should also keep in mind that these are starter wages. DT's great for getting your feet wet, but there are much better pay rates out there and much easier jobs to be had once you build up some experience. If you get good at juggling multiple clients, the sky's the limit.
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Apr 30, 2016 05:58
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Well, I'm eternally grateful for this site. Gonna follow the OP's instructions after I finish this bit of work I'm doing. Writing music's my passion, but if the work's not there, it's not there, so transcription it is! Thanks so much everyone! Edit: I have a Spanish-speaking friend (it's his first language), is there demand for that in transcribing? We're both in Canada, btw. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 12:10
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kazmeyer posted:And you should also keep in mind that these are starter wages. DT's great for getting your feet wet, but there are much better pay rates out there and much easier jobs to be had once you build up some experience. If you get good at juggling multiple clients, the sky's the limit. Could you give a bit more details about how you find additional jobs? I don't know if it's the country I'm in or what, but Craigslist gives incredibly poor results and now while I've got experience, I'm still doing low paying jobs.
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Apr 30, 2016 14:37
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Well, I'm eternally grateful for this site. Gonna follow the OP's instructions after I finish this bit of work I'm doing. Writing music's my passion, but if the work's not there, it's not there, so transcription it is! There is absolutely a demand for Spanish/English transcribers, and it pays better than regular transcription: http://www.fftranscription.com/spanishapplyportal.html
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Apr 30, 2016 14:49
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Radiation Cow posted:Could you give a bit more details about how you find additional jobs? I don't know if it's the country I'm in or what, but Craigslist gives incredibly poor results and now while I've got experience, I'm still doing low paying jobs. What country are you in? Maybe hit up production companies directly? Or look on CL in bigger cities? I'm gonna assume Canada, so maybe Toronto? It was suggest in here to check LA CL for 'mericans, which after checking it a 100 times I finally found something really good, but not high volume all the time, which has led me back to doing some DT work. But it's shown me there are easy transcription jobs out there that pay good if you know where to look/get lucky when you look/have good timing. I say hit up production companies directly, because I was curious about DT, and digging through their websites, their parent company has another company that actually produces like all the Food Network stuff they have. And I think some production companies just work through contractors directly, not through houses like DT. unbuttonedclone fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Apr 30, 2016 |
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Apr 30, 2016 16:40
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AuntBuck posted:There is absolutely a demand for Spanish/English transcribers, and it pays better than regular transcription: Thanks so much! I've passed the info on to him.
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Apr 30, 2016 16:54
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Radiation Cow posted:Could you give a bit more details about how you find additional jobs? I don't know if it's the country I'm in or what, but Craigslist gives incredibly poor results and now while I've got experience, I'm still doing low paying jobs. Craigslist is how I've found most of my clients. What I do is start a search for "transcription OR transcriber" in a LA zip code in one of the search aggregators. The vast majority of listings for transcription houses are going to be on the west coast, but some post ads throughout the country. Unfortunately, most of the decent-paying outfits only place ads when they want new transcribers and they pull them down relatively quickly, so if you're hunting clients you need to search at least once a week to stand a chance at finding anyone. (When I was building out my client base or whenever I had a client close up shop, I'd run that search every morning.) You can also check other work-at-home forums. There's one called WAHM (work at home moms I think) that has a lot of information about a lot of different online gigs, including transcription houses. I've never picked up a client from them, but I've seen some worthwhile info. And God yes, translation is huge. I'm regularly tempted to brush up on my high-school Spanish enough to try to apply for some of that work. Verbal Ink in LA regularly posts Craigslist ads looking for translators of various stripes, and I don't think I've ever run my CL job search without finding at least somebody looking for a Spanish-speaking transcriptionist. (Also, weirdly, I used to run into tons of listings looking for Farsi and Urdu.)
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Apr 30, 2016 17:32
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thylacine posted:What country are you in? Maybe hit up production companies directly? Or look on CL in bigger cities? I'm gonna assume Canada, so maybe Toronto? Unfortunately, no. I'm based in South Africa, so most of the freelance working opportunities are extremely limited. Most of our TV shows are subtitled, you'd think they need transcribers, but work on the ground is scarce or pays extremely low rates. I was just wondering if there was some strategy I was missing.
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Apr 30, 2016 18:58
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Does anyone use usertesting.com? I'm sure I found that in a blog post rather than this thread, seems like it's fairly good rates for what should be easy work if you like critiquing others' work. Will be signing up this weekend and giving it a try anyway.
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Apr 30, 2016 19:27
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Saw Flying Fingers is hiring on CL, anybody know how much they pay? They're also hiring specifically for ABS, but after seeing one of the samples Sally sent out, I don't think I'm into that! https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/wri/5557911605.html Here's the link for anybody else who wants to give it a shot (I think it's been mentioned here-they do say one year of experience.)
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May 2, 2016 03:21
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Flying Fingers is my oldest client at the moment, and one I've talked about when Renee told me she needed some new blood. Standard (raw) transcription is usually $1 a minute, and as-broadcast varies with complexity but you should always be looking at at least $1.25 per minute. Definitely a great client to have, but she does want experience, she's a stickler for deadlines, and she really doesn't like having to correct mistakes over and over. So if you want to give it a shot, break out your A game and pay attention. Definitely worth signing up if you meet the criteria, though. I'm a lazy prima donna and will drop a client that bugs me at the drop of a hat, but I've been on Renee's roster since the end of 2010. ABS isn't all that hard. Essentially, with raw transcription you're doing some form of timecode -> dialogue. ABS is typically timecode -> description of what's on screen -> dialogue. Some clients want super-detailed stuff where you describe individual shots like "close up on Bob" "wide shot of Bob and Ted" while others just want something like "Bob and Ted talking in workshop." Some clients want TCs of every new speaker, others let you group dialogue into 30-second blocks. The format can take some getting used to, but as long as you can figure out how to import multi-column text into Excel you can usually make it work. Also, Renee's a lot easier on scheduling. She likes it if you can give her a rough idea of your availability as far in advance as possible, but she'll usually send out an email or three a day saying "work available" and you can respond if you're free to take something. kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 05:39 on May 2, 2016 |
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May 2, 2016 05:25
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My wife and I want to sign up with http://waywithwordsjobs.com . Would it be a problem if we're both using the same mailing address? I don't want to raise any red flags.
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May 2, 2016 15:29
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The only red flag I see there is their starting rate of .35 per minute. In any case, you shouldn't have a problem with two transcribers in the same household signing up for the same client as long as you make it clear to them what the situation is.
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May 2, 2016 17:21
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kazmeyer posted:The only red flag I see there is their starting rate of .35 per minute. Do I have many other options, being in Canada? And yes, we'll be sure to somehow let them know of our situation.
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May 2, 2016 17:27
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Do I have many other options, being in Canada? And yes, we'll be sure to somehow let them know of our situation. I know there's at least one other transcriber here from America's Hat, but I forget who. Hopefully they can provide some better leads. 
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May 2, 2016 17:33
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kazmeyer posted:I know there's at least one other transcriber here from America's Hat, but I forget who. Hopefully they can provide some better leads. I think Slighty Used Cake is Canadian and worked for DT so there is that option.
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May 2, 2016 18:06
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I said it not too far up above but if you're Canadian and think you can handle transcription, DT is definitely one of the ways to go since exchange rate is favorable for you up there.
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May 2, 2016 18:13
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I signed up for odesk (now Upwork) from the 2nd page, and my God is it the most depressing poo poo ever. Nothing but 'companies' who can't spell a single word correctly in their proposals offering $2/hr for skilled work, and South and East Asians with copy pasted bios willing to do it. If you want to feel like you're absolutely worthless, that's the site to do it. My whole team was laid off this week without notice to outsource to India, and it just feels like this is going to be the standard for any work where you're not absolutely required to be on site. Support those fast food workers who want $15/hr, cos that's all that's going to be left soon...
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May 2, 2016 18:19
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Shima Honnou posted:I said it not too far up above but if you're Canadian and think you can handle transcription, DT is definitely one of the ways to go since exchange rate is favorable for you up there. You did say this, yes. I don't know why I got it in my head that I had to go through Way With Words.
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May 2, 2016 18:49
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EL BROMANCE posted:Does anyone use usertesting.com? I'm sure I found that in a blog post rather than this thread, seems like it's fairly good rates for what should be easy work if you like critiquing others' work. Will be signing up this weekend and giving it a try anyway. I remember signing up for it and never getting into a user test so I dumped it
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May 2, 2016 19:01
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