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Nighthand posted:My only experience with them was registering right before I migrated to more private clients, thus making their value proposition look a lot worse. They proceeded to send me weekly emails for like two years begging me to come write for them. The pay's very nice ($10.50 for 300 words starting), but having to compete with other writers for the jobs is rough since you don't make anything if they don't accept the work or purchase someone else's instead. Lots of the assignments take a decent amount of research too, so there's definitely days where you can sink 4+ hours into writing and get paid literally nothing for it. It's really nice if you write medium+ quality copy quickly and are okay with a decent amount of rejection. I'll have unlocked the longer pieces in a few weeks and once i do that i'll put together a summary and see if it's worth recommending
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Jul 30, 2019 19:30
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Yeah, I'm super leery of the competition aspect of it. I don't like to put the time in to do a job unless I'm actually going to get compensated for it. I think that's why I never tried them out in the first place.
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Jul 30, 2019 19:37
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Spokes posted:The pay's very nice ($10.50 for 300 words starting), but having to compete with other writers for the jobs is rough since you don't make anything if they don't accept the work or purchase someone else's instead. Lots of the assignments take a decent amount of research too, so there's definitely days where you can sink 4+ hours into writing and get paid literally nothing for it. It's really nice if you write medium+ quality copy quickly and are okay with a decent amount of rejection. I'll have unlocked the longer pieces in a few weeks and once i do that i'll put together a summary and see if it's worth recommending What the gently caress.... so is this like the 99 Designs of content writing? Put out an order, have a ton of people write different variations, and then let the client pick their favorite and screw over the rest?
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Jul 30, 2019 20:48
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That's spec work, baby! I could see going for it if the pieces that aren't sold are kept in a pool and can be bought any time down the line, or if they revert back to you and you can throw them up on something like Constant Content, I guess. Speaking of, I sold something on Constant Content for like $35 the other day, and I haven't posted anything new up there since 2014.
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Jul 30, 2019 21:32
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Astro7x posted:What the gently caress.... so is this like the 99 Designs of content writing? Put out an order, have a ton of people write different variations, and then let the client pick their favorite and screw over the rest? Yeah... A lot of the work is for blogs or whatever so they'll purchase more than one piece but there is a very real risk that you'll just get screwed (at which point the content is yours and you can recycle it or whatever, the site makes that pretty easy)
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Jul 30, 2019 22:21
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Hey everybody, I've been out of the game for awhile, but I've got a good friend who is looking for some of that transcription money. I steered him towards Daily Transcription to start (along with an infinity foot pedal and Express Scribe). Is that still the grindhouse where everyone gets their feet wet and moves on? Just browsing the thread it sounds like CM is not as great as it once was. Any advice on step-up shops or a better place to start as a rank beginner?
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Sep 25, 2019 15:22
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Unless CM has changed in the past year it pays worse than DT does now except for overnight stuff, but you'd be getting generally better poo poo from it* than you would DT. I was working directly with Syncwords for a while earlier in the year and they pay better than DT and also pay instantly but that dried up at some point, not sure if they just dropped me or if they aren't giving out work like they used to. Keystrokes is good but work is sparse from them I generally found. But these days I'm more or less out of the game so things may have changed over the past year. *as long as you're cool with lots of loving reality TV or sports
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Sep 25, 2019 16:01
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Spokes posted:The pay's very nice ($10.50 for 300 words starting), but having to compete with other writers for the jobs is rough since you don't make anything if they don't accept the work or purchase someone else's instead. Lots of the assignments take a decent amount of research too, so there's definitely days where you can sink 4+ hours into writing and get paid literally nothing for it. It's really nice if you write medium+ quality copy quickly and are okay with a decent amount of rejection. I'll have unlocked the longer pieces in a few weeks and once i do that i'll put together a summary and see if it's worth recommending Spec work. Never do spec work.
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Sep 27, 2019 02:29
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Hey guys. While I sent out a few transcription applications before I ended up getting an office job, I have now fallen rear end-first into pretty much heading the transcription project (thankfully it is the tiniest department in our small office). I'm currently using a gaming headset I bought for comfort purposes when working briefly taking calls from home but I would really like to improve how much I'm able to hear without cranking everything up to 100. I've read a couple dozen reviews but nothing seems to fit the particular specs I want. I'm willing to drop a bit on them but... not Bose prices. I work entirely with non-media transcription and some is really rough. Features I NEED: great vocal clarity as my clients seem to frequently conduct their business inside wind tunnels, and an over-the-ear design with a decent cup. A good volume. Works with gearplayer. Features that I want: USB connection (computer is old, definitely not designed for sound), a replaceable cord, inline controls, very comfortable. Things I don't need at all: ability to use for any other purpose like music, wireless functionality, cool design, great bass. I am prepared to compromise, so I'd appreciate your recommendations. I have a whole new respect for this gig. eta: how do I teach my big stupid foot to use a pedal instead of just stomping myself to the beginning or end of my file every time
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Oct 4, 2019 04:55
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During the first chunk of my time transcribing I used a downright ancient Sony set of studio headphones that my family just happened to have, which I used for probably most of my life until the wire finally gave out. After that I tried a few things of varying quality, which I learned never get headphones that aren't mostly metal inside, but what I settled on last which is still going is a Sennheiser, I think HD6 or something. It generally worked very well for my use (trust me I know what you mean with poo poo like wind tunnels or my personal hell which is city-council level medical conference poo poo) but on the whole may be more basic than what you're after, since it's essentially just cups with a replaceable wire. I will also recommend getting an onboard soundcard to gently caress with and tune sound settings if you need it, probably a bit outdated but I always like having the option, they generally sound a bit better than motherboard sound, and they're only like $20 or whatever these days. Since I'm an epic gamer I also have a modmic hooked to that headphone to turn it into a headset, for when I must enter the epic gaming zone. For the pedal, I never got the hang of full-foot, I taught myself to control that poo poo entirely with my big toe almost all the time. It gets tiring but it works. Shima Honnou fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 09:19
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I use some Amazon top-rated $30 headphones, they're very comfortable. OneOdio is the brand. I don't think it will help a lot though. I've seen people in transcription facebook groups think they need to buy a bunch of stuff to hear the audio better. But I have experience with audio files, it's more in the file itself. Adobe Audition or whatever would probably be a bigger help. Learn how to look at a spectrograph and figure out which frequencies to cut or just explore the various noise removal options. Also there is a program from Windows called Equalizer APO - it's a very good equalizer. You also have to d/l the frontend for it called Peace for Equalizer APO - but you have very granular control of which frequencies to cut. So theoretically you cut cut out most of the wind tunnel noise and boost the vocal frequencies - it's not gonna be perfect because they overlap but it can help. Consider buying some Zoom H2Ns or what not and sending them out to clients on a rental basis. Also some computer phone call programs give you recordings that sound like 1975 ship-to-ship communication, which is unfortunate. Better yet, just outsource the work to DT or Rev. As for the pedal, yeah, I use it barefoot/in socks exclusively and just use my toes. Transcription stories: I had a file yesterday that the client used some kind of auto remove silence operation on it to save a few bucks. Good luck with your file with choppy-rear end sentences that make no sense, will definitely turn those down in the future because you can't really anticipate what they're gonna say when it cuts off mid word and starts in the middle of another sentence  Also had some interviews last week that were a: outside right next to an airport b: next to a busy road going to the airport. It was an interesting interview though at least. Most of the work for this client is thankfully interesting except when it's a focus group talking about bad TV shows, but that's very rare.
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Oct 4, 2019 15:57
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Unfortunately I can't implement any tech solutions myself other than buying a new headset as they're all above my pay grade.
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Oct 4, 2019 22:29
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thylacine posted:Transcription stories: I had some dipshit customer try that a long time ago. They actually cranked it up so high I was just getting garbage syllables. I kicked it back to the client and he told me "just do your best with it" so I got paid $1 a minute for fifteen minutes of "ee aa no tt err as um." Doing a gameshow right now, and had a funny moment because I'd just watched a British gameshow earlier today. Countdown: "Here's six numbers, you have 30 seconds to make them total 1,484." This show: "Which Beatle was married to Yoko Ono?"
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Oct 9, 2019 21:10
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Yeah, shows like Jeopardy ask like mostly pop culture English 101 content these days. It's pretty sad.
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Oct 9, 2019 23:16
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Hmm... So, I was looking up something about AutoHotKey today and... there is a sendInput command (versus the plain send I've been using). It misses time codes sometimes when I paste 'em in with the script so hopefully this will fix it - feel pretty dumb! Any new legitimate online moneymaking jobs out there. If I could make 5-600 more a month I could change my living situation. I don't think I can write anymore after transcribing some very bad talking for the last 4 or so years.
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Oct 29, 2019 02:59
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my boss warned me only to use the audio of a project and not a video because apparently they showed her a naked dude with no warning. thanks boss, duly noted
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Nov 2, 2019 23:28
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thylacine posted:Yeah, shows like Jeopardy ask like mostly pop culture English 101 content these days. It's pretty sad. i wish! i was on jeopardy a couple months ago and got thrashed that said (and the reason for my return to the thread), i'm also a few more months into Verblio/Blogmutt and I feel like i can actually do a review here: Verblio (fka Blogmutt, pre-2018) is a fancy, gussied-up content mill. They take care to ensure that writers don't feel they're treated like cattle (they are) and they do their best to hide that you're writing on spec (you are). If you have any experience with freelancing, your brain should be going  .Yes, that means that you might write a full article and not get paid (in fact, this is virtually guaranteed, and can happen 1/3 of the time or more when you're just starting). The vendor outlines an article they want with anything from five words to a full two-page outline and writers can "compete" to deliver the best product. The vendor then purchases that article and that writer is paid, everyone else gets nothing. You retain the ownership of any unpurchased writing. This means you can repurpose it for another client or put it on Constant Content or something. There's strategy here. If you're not guaranteed a sale, it makes more sense to write something like 10 Ways To Get A Jump On Spring Cleaning (so you can resell it) than it does to write something more specific like "Orientation Material for Geico's 2017 Spring Seminar". Acceptance rates usually start at ~60% for solid writers since to start you're going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel and fighting for short pieces with other new writers (or those that haven't been able to progress). The gimmick of Verblio is that you earn "points" and "level up". Each level confers "perks" but the only ones that matter are really matter are level 4, which gives access to 600-950 word jobs, level 6, which allows 1000-1400 words, and level 8 for 1500 words. Also, you get a T-shirt at level 6 and you can join their stupid linkedin verblio writers group at level 5. Whatever. Also, at level 8 you begin earning "Shares of the Company" which I cannot imagine have any real value. So what's the point? The point is that the money is good, for a content mill. 300-550 words: $10.50-$19.25 600-950 words: $21.00-$46.38 1000-1400 words: $50.00-$82.00 1500-1900 words: $90.00-$122.00 2000-3000 words: $130.00-$210.00 Starting at better than 3 cents a word and going up to 7, it's not peanuts. The longer pieces can take the better part of a day, but, you know, a hundred bucks! Also, since the rates are set by Verblio you can just select the pieces you want to write most without worrying about this specific client's rate. As I said, acceptance rates usually start around 60% since there's competition but once you get to 600+ words you can easily break 90%. There's lots of articles to write and less competition, plus the website is quite good at letting you know how many other drafts or submitted pieces there are for the assignment. There's a forum on the website that's pretty good about answering any technical questions (and very, very dumb about everything else). They reliably pay every Monday. i don't know, it's fine. anybody have questions about it?
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Nov 4, 2019 21:57
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How active is their available work pool? I know some of the content mills have dropped off somewhat or gone mostly to private teams. What's the range of topics available?
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Nov 4, 2019 22:08
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There's about 450 active clients currently looking for pieces 300-550 words that have purchased something in the last month. Subject-wise, a lot of them are blog material, some are newsletters, there's a few that are website copy. Many are stuff like "eight things to do in Austin, TX" that go up on apartment websites in the area. Some press releases, some mailing list stuff. Pretty varied overall, nothing at the lower levels that requires any sort of expertise or knowledge
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Nov 7, 2019 00:54
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subpar anachronism posted:my boss warned me only to use the audio of a project and not a video because apparently they showed her a naked dude with no warning. thanks boss, duly noted That is a good boss right there! Headphones: I work with my family and two dogs in the house so I needed something that could muffle a shuttle launch. I had Monster Inspirations for a while and they were great as active noise cancelling and didn't eat through batteries too badly, but started falling apart within a couple months. I've had a pair of Audio Technica headphones for like 3 years now and the ear pads are just starting to show wear and tear a little bit, but they still sound phenomenal. You can get some great cheaper headphones I'm sure. I just know I struggled to find something that was both comfortable and noise occluding enough to be doing this gig full time. But I would also say definitely have like a selection because there's sometimes when the audio is weird and I can get a better read on it if I'm using earbuds, or even my bone conduction headphones. But if you're just working for an in-house client you might also be able to whack their fingers if they give you crappy audio.
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Nov 11, 2019 16:25
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https://twitter.com/thricedotted/status/1193929045328576512
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Nov 11, 2019 20:07
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Rev's been a garbage file for a while, consistently paying under the industry standard and pushing their automated transcript service. However, if you're a transcriber who doesn't live in California, finding work may become way easier in the next couple of months. The new independent contractor law the state passed has spooked more than one transcription house into dropping all their CA-based transcribers for fear of having to classify them as employees, so there may be a few job postings coming up in the near future looking for out-of-state contractors.
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Nov 11, 2019 23:27
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kazmeyer posted:Rev's been a garbage file for a while, consistently paying under the industry standard and pushing their automated transcript service. Oh man, that sucks for Californians though.  The last time I worked for Rev the base rate newbie files, some of them were coming in at .32 a minute, but those were ones that were classed as single speaker, clear audio, clean verbatim, no timecode. Most of that was not true because a LOT of Australian firms holding business meetings in the middle of restaurants were just tagging their poo poo wrong. But if it's rated too cheap then it just sits in the marketplace. Honestly I think they use their in-house forum to judge whether orn not they can get away with it. There were a lot of super active go team type folks on there the lasty time I looked in but that was like two years ago.
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Nov 13, 2019 19:59
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Sometimes I look back on my early posts in this thread and am amazed at how much I've fallen into accidental success. Going from textbroker to being picked up as a dedicated writer for a bunch of blogs was one thing, but now the guy who runs them has started a content marketing agency and is raking in new clients faster than he expected. I've barely had to put effort into building this career and it keeps improving in front of me. How many of you still do writing? Depending on how quickly this agency grows, we may need to pick up another writer or two to pick up the slack I can't handle all on my own. I'll be sure to post here when that happens, of course, but I'm curious how many of you still do writing versus the usual transcription.
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Dec 14, 2019 17:00
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Nighthand posted:Sometimes I look back on my early posts in this thread and am amazed at how much I've fallen into accidental success. Going from textbroker to being picked up as a dedicated writer for a bunch of blogs was one thing, but now the guy who runs them has started a content marketing agency and is raking in new clients faster than he expected. I've barely had to put effort into building this career and it keeps improving in front of me. I started out in transcription, but I made the transition to writing earlier in the year. It's so much more fun and rewarding. And unlike transcription, I can actually make enough money to live on, which is great.
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Dec 14, 2019 17:48
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Yeah, making enough money to live on is super nice. When I started out I was making something like $500 a month, but these days I'm pulling in $1,000+ per week, and that's still mid-range for writing work. I know someone who gets paid $10,000+ per ebook and typically does 1-2 per month.
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Dec 14, 2019 18:35
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I need to look into this writing then. That’s impressive.
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Dec 14, 2019 19:01
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Pretty much everyone I know who has found a good level of success got started with Writer Access and eventually moved on to working with companies directly. Also apparently the trick to Writer Access casting calls is to just submit blank applications to everything. A lot of companies just want bodies in the room and aren't reading the applications. I can't guarantee that's true for all of them, but it's seemed to work out for several of my friends. YMMV.
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Dec 14, 2019 20:41
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My ability to write is severely ruined by years of transcribing. I get lots of transcription work lately but it's not going anywhere - and it could dry up in an instant.
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Dec 14, 2019 21:02
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Nighthand posted:How many of you still do writing? Depending on how quickly this agency grows, we may need to pick up another writer or two to pick up the slack I can't handle all on my own. I'll be sure to post here when that happens, of course, but I'm curious how many of you still do writing versus the usual transcription. I'm still grinding it out part-time at Verblio/Blogmutt. I know I should reach out on my own to potential clients or something but like a lot of writers i loathe interaction and would prefer to just crank out articles for the mill even if i'm not making as much as I should. On that note, here's some stuff from their end-of-year email (none of this is confidential or particularly interesting, but it relates to what was discussed upthread re: California (where i live, uh oh!): quote:I also want to address the issue of California AB 5 regarding gig workers. Our Verblio team has been reviewing this new legislation with our legal team, other gig platform leaders, and legislative experts to ensure that we have an accurate understanding of what it will mean for our California-based writers. While there is a great deal that is not yet clear, I want to assure you that we are committed to finding the best solution to the challenges this bill could pose both for our California writers, our clients, and for us. As soon as we have a clear path forward, we will let you all know. So it sounds like even the mills don't really have a plan. Also if anyone's curious about scope here's their "stats" from 2019. Fewer folks than i thought signing up. quote:New writers: 297 They also mentioned they'll be raising rates early next year, which, who knows what that'll amount to.
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Dec 18, 2019 07:02
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Nighthand posted:How many of you still do writing? Depending on how quickly this agency grows, we may need to pick up another writer or two to pick up the slack I can't handle all on my own. I'll be sure to post here when that happens, of course, but I'm curious how many of you still do writing versus the usual transcription. I still primarily do Writers Domain since 2013 when I accidentally stumbled across it during open registration. People keep telling me I can make more money with Writers Access, but I think I'm doing pretty good. I'm on target to hit 30K this year as supplemental income on top of my normal 9-5 job putting in an extra hour or two per day, and I honestly couldn't fit more writing in at the moment unless I dialed back what I do for Writers Domain. I just have the WD formula so engrained into my brain, and the predictability of the work that pops up means I can pre-write articles when there is no work I can grab at the moment. So whenever I have a free moment, I just write...
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Dec 18, 2019 07:39
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So is Writer Access the one where you write on spec? I can't remember, these things bleed together. I've been looking to move away from transcription and more into writing, but it was gonna be more in the vein of publishing on Kindle than anything like this.
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Dec 18, 2019 19:01
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Verblio and Constant Content are the writing on spec sites. Writer Access is more like Textbroker with the open pool (that is usually empty whenever I check) and the casting calls for individual team lists for specific clients. Let us know how the kindle thing goes if you go for it, everyone I talk to says it's super saturated and hard to get any traction these days but I've never tried it myself.
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Dec 18, 2019 19:16
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What ya'll know about taxes. I will be making more than $10k this year, not much, but more. So, I didn't pay any taxes yet, I'm hoping I can slide in a bunch of them before the end of the year and not get any penalties. I know this isn't the thing to wishfully think about, so just wondering if anybody has some experience paying your quarterly taxes at the end of the year (I'm bad with money). Also, if I buy some new computer parts and deduct them is it going to make any difference (maybe $300). My deductions for Word I usually take don't add up to much. How much would an accountant cost to sort this poo poo out. I understand medicare/SS taxes are important but goddamn why am I being taxed so much when I make so little money.
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Dec 18, 2019 21:26
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Instead of buying computer parts, start an IRA and throw that $300 in there. Talking to an accountant is a good idea. It's gonna cost a little money, but it'd be worth it. There's so much stuff that varies from state to state, and person to person.
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Dec 18, 2019 22:26
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thylacine posted:What ya'll know about taxes. I will be making more than $10k this year, not much, but more. So, I didn't pay any taxes yet, I'm hoping I can slide in a bunch of them before the end of the year and not get any penalties. I know this isn't the thing to wishfully think about, so just wondering if anybody has some experience paying your quarterly taxes at the end of the year (I'm bad with money). Also, if I buy some new computer parts and deduct them is it going to make any difference (maybe $300). My deductions for Word I usually take don't add up to much. How much would an accountant cost to sort this poo poo out. I understand medicare/SS taxes are important but goddamn why am I being taxed so much when I make so little money. I am not 100% sure on all this stuff You only pay a penalty on your income if you owe over $1,000 in Federal, not sure about state. You may not have to pay a penalty the first year you owe more than that, but you will the second year. That penalty is pro-rated throughout the year based on how much you should have paid each quarter, but it adds up. It's 6% on underpayed tax. You'll likely never be able to deduct any expenses because the standard deduction is so high you won't cross the threshold, unless you have a bunch of other stuff going on that I am not aware of. The cost of having an accountant work on your taxes for that little of income may be more than what the penalty is. I don't know what your tax bracket is, but I take that tax bracket of the highest income I make, add 6.2% onto it for self employment taxes, and then use that to figure out how much I owe. So my additional writing income falls in the 22%, plus 6.2% = 28.6%. If I make $30K in additional income over the year, I set aside $8,580 a year to pay in taxes. Q1 due April 15th, pay $2,145 Q2 due July 15th, pay $2,145 Q3 due Oct 15th, pay $2,145 Q4 due Jan 15th, pay $2,145 If you work a day job, consider having your job withhold more taxes to go towards that freelance income. I have 0 allowances and am considered Married Filing Single to take the most taxes out. That may cause it to work itself out, or reduce how much you owe at the end of the year. Figure out how much more is taken out per paycheck, multiply that out for the year, reduce how much you pre-pay quarterly from that. That's what I have done and still somehow manage to owe money every year, but under $1,000 and no penalty
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Dec 18, 2019 23:27
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Hey writers, i'm looking to pick up a few freelancers to help me crank out a bunch of articles over the next few months. Nothing huge volume. Honestly 1 guy could probably do it if he worked for me full time. But we're planning to scale up pretty soon here so my real goal is to start putting a team together. Guaranteed acceptance rate and very simple guidelines. Also anyone comfortable uploading and formatting their content on a wordpress blog would be a huge asset and we can compensate more for that. For deets check out my sa mart thread. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3907633 Safety Meetings fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Dec 22, 2019 |
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Dec 21, 2019 13:24
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Just heard a commercial on TV of stuff I transcribed months ago - it was very memorable for some AS SEEN ON TV poo poo  . And yes, I paid my taxes - should avoid a penalty.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:10
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Those of you that are doing transcription still, with whom are you working? I've been working for one company for most of last year and ended up as their only transcriptionist. I was not hired to transcribe and had to entirely teach myself. I hesitate to say I did a good job, but seeing some of the work that's been returned to me for repair under our guarantee is honestly abominable (like objective spelling and grammar errors, inconsistent formatting, etc) but clients have been happy with what I've returned to them and I assume they're taking a closer look the second time around. Long story short is I know my department is shrinking and I'm really worried for my job. Is there any place better for me to get into online now that I have some experience other than Rev with their cut rates these days? Thanks goons.
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Jan 17, 2020 01:20
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My current place isn't hiring right now but I've found my two other clients via LA Craigslist (a tip from this group, NY probably works, too.) Namely by using a browser extension that pops up certain keywords on CL. So, you find the plugin - I was using Chrome at the time, something about CL alerts, you put in transcription, typist, transcriptionist, etc. And then it'll pop up stuff when someone posts an ad there. Beware Rev/DT use different types of ads for the same thing so email 'em and ask who the hell they are before you start doing a test or whatever. There was a third one I was accepted at but their formatting was just so goofy I didn't wanna deal with it.
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Jan 17, 2020 17:27
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