If you’re looking for online transcription jobs where all you do is listen to words and type out what you hear into text, you’ve come to the right article. I’ll be going over the 11 best online transcription jobs for beginners like you.
Companies need people to transcribe their videos and/or audio into written text. This allows people who are deaf to be able to read what is being spoken.
All you need is a good ear, good typing skills, and of course an Internet connection. There may be some other things you need like a word processor program and a pair of headphones, but these things are usually affordable.
Keep in mind that companies have specific style guidelines, meaning that the way you transcribe must be in accordance with their guidelines. They may want you to transcribe specific events in the video with specific words, and of course, they will be particularly keen on spelling and grammar.
Anyway, with that being said, let’s go through the 11 best online transcription jobs for beginners as well as details on each company so you know what to expect.
1. Rev.com
This is a general overview of what Rev is. If you’d like more information of what it’s like to work with Rev, check out my Rev.com work review.
There is a reason why I put Rev at the top of this list of online transcription jobs for beginners.
Rev is a professional company that offers pretty good payment and a lot of convenience for its transcriptionists. Not only do they offer jobs for online transcription, but they also have jobs for those interested in captioning or even in translating between English and a foreign language.
With Rev, you can easily earn around $10-20 per day, depending on the amount of work you put in. There are even some people who work for Rev full time and earn at least $100 a day, so Rev can serve as a decent source of income. Rev will pay you out every Monday through PayPal.
What makes Rev great is the fact that you work directly on their website and you don’t have to install anything else on your computer. Keep in mind that Rev can be a little strict so if you’re not that good with detail or sticking by the book, Rev may not be the best choice for you. However, it never hurts to give Rev a try and see for yourself if the site works well for you.
CHECK OUT REV’S FREELANCE OPTIONS HERE!
2. Transcribe Me
Another great website with online transcription jobs for beginners is Transcribe Me.
Now, I never tried applying for this site, but I’ve heard many good things about it.
If you’re thinking about applying to Transcribe Me, you can expect pretty good payment as well as fairly easy and flexible work, meaning you only have to transcribe very short audio clips (which last between 2-4 minutes) wherever and whenever you want. You will get paid weekly through PayPal and your payment amounts to $15 for every hour of audio you transcribe.
One thing, though. Transcribe Me only supports the Google Chrome browser so you will need to use that particular browser to complete your application and eventually start transcribing for them.
APPLY TO BE A TRANSCRIBE ME TRANSCRIPTIONIST!
3. 3PlayMedia
This company, based in Boston, hires transcriptionists from all parts of the world. The team at 3PlayMedia seems to be friendly and they have a laid-back perspective in their work. They are flexible with their transcriptionists and allow them to choose the projects they would like to complete.
However, they only accept people living in the United States, so 3PlayMedia is not for you if you live outside the country.
3PlayMedia offers a pretty good salary for its transcriptionists. Based on the projects you choose, you will earn $10-30 for every hour of work you complete.
When you submit your application to 3PlayMedia, they may not get back to you. The only time they would select you is when they are hiring transcriptionists like you or if they find you to be a perfect fit for their transcription team. So it would help if you look into a different transcription site after you apply to 3PlayMedia just in case they never respond to your application.
And, of course, 3PlayMedia has some qualification criteria that you must meet before you can complete their application form, and you can review those requirements below.
GET STARTED TRANSCRIBING FOR 3PLAY!
4. CastingWords
The workers at CastingWords do primarily transcription, but they can also do transcription editing and QA (quality assurance). They can be a great company to work with and the application process in CastingWords is fairly simple and straightforward. Simply create an account and complete your application.
How much you make on CastingWords depends on the quality of your work. When you submit your work, it gets graded and you get paid based on your grade. So I recommend that you go over the CastingWords grading guidelines and make sure you understand what kind of work they expect from you.
CastingWords will pay you out through PayPal. However, CastingWords only supports certain countries. You can use this PayPal site to check if your country is eligible. Select your country from the dropdown and make sure the Receive option appears on the screen, not just Send.
If all this sounds good to you, feel free to apply for CastingWords below.
5. Scribie
Scribie is a great site to transcribe online because of the different ways you can get paid and the different kinds of jobs and roles you can get promoted to. Another awesome thing about Scribie is that each audio file that you need to work on is no longer than 6 minutes long, saving you a lot of stress.
There are four different kinds of workers on Scribie: the transcriptionist/editor, the reviewer, the proofreader, and the quality checker. As you do better quality work with Scribie, you will get promoted and have the ability to become each of these kinds of workers. So you will start out as a transcriptionist and editor, but if you demonstrate superior quality, you can become a reviewer, then a proofreader, and finally a quality checker.
Scribie will pay you anywhere between $5 and $25 for every hour of audio you work on. But they also have other ways they pay you. For every three hours of audio you work on, you can earn an additional $5 per month. They even have a referral program. That way, you can get other transcribers and customers to use Scribie using your referral link and, whenever they do, you get paid for it.
These are great qualities that make Scribie really worth checking out for your online transcription needs! Check out the link below for even more information on what to expect when you work with Scribie.
LEARN MORE ABOUT WORKING WITH SCRIBIE!
6. Speechpad
This company is very similar to Rev.com. Speechpad offers not only transcription jobs, but they also have caption and translation jobs you could apply for.
When you become a Speechpad worker and do some work with Speechpad, you will have an overall grade based on how well you did your work. If you maintain a grade of nearly 100, you could become a Speechpad reviewer and review other transcribers’ work.
There will be some jobs that are easy to do and some that are a little tough. So they will pay you based on the difficulty of the job. Easy jobs will pay you $0.25 for every minute of audio and harder jobs can pay you $1.00 for every audio minute. Caption work pays similarly, between $0.30 and $1.00 per video hour. And, if you get a perfect grade on your work, you will earn an extra bonus.
Speechpad will pay you out through PayPal twice a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays. Overall, Speechpad is another good website for not only transcriptionists, but for those of you who might enjoy caption or translation.
DISCOVER WORKING WITH SPEECHPAD!
7. Tigerfish
This company has been in the transcription industry since 1989 and has been trusted by big brands including Samsung, Intuit, and Google. Not much is known about how transcribing for them works, but based on the clients they serve and their years of operation, I would expect them to have high expectations for their transcriptionists.
How much they pay their transcriptionists remains a mystery until you actually get accepted into this company. This seems like a great company to work for, but you will have to be very serious about working for them. Sometimes, they will hire new transcriptionists, so you might want to check to see if they have openings available.
SEE IF YOU CAN APPLY FOR TIGERFISH!
8. SpeakWrite
Another great company you could work for is SpeakWrite. However, to work for them, you need to live in the U.S. or Canada and have specific equipment like a foot pedal to speed up the transcription process. You also need to have at least one year of law experience, so chances are this may not be best for you.
But, if you happen to be a good fit for SpeakWrite, that is awesome because you have the potential to earn thousands of dollars a month just by completing transcription work for SpeakWrite.
With SpeakWrite, you get paid one cent for every two words you type. Your payments will be cashed out twice a month by either check or direct deposit.
There’s a lot of criteria you’ll need to meet before you can join SpeakWrite. If you’d like a look at those criteria as well as more information about being a SpeakWrite transcriptionist, look through their transcriptionist page below.
LEARN HOW TO WORK FOR SPEAKWRITE!
9. AccuTran Global
AccuTran is a Canada-based company that provides transcription services for different Canadian companies, including the government of Ontario. The company has a one-page website from where you can choose to hire a transcriber or apply to become one.
To apply, just click the Apply for Work button toward the bottom and follow the steps. There may or may not be available positions, so it never hurts to check.
Unfortunately, they don’t have enough information to determine how or when you will get paid. And, unless you live in Canada, I would recommend you to consider a different transcription company.
10. Fiverr
Fiverr is actually a freelancing website, not a site that hires transcriptionists. However, with Fiverr, you can share your transcription skills with anyone who could use them. If you check out their transcriptionist section, you can see that there are many people on Fiverr willing to transcribe in various ways.
Here’s how Fiverr works: you sign up and create a gig. In this gig, you will tell searchers that you can transcribe and what ways you can transcribe. Then name your price. You can even offer different levels of transcription and price each of those levels. Then post your gig and wait for your customers to hire you.
The price for your gig can go for as low as $5, which is the number that Fiverr gets its name. By offering a low price, you increase your chances of earning money especially as a starter.
Freelance websites are a great way to sell your transcribing skills to others. If you’d like to learn more about how you can make money with freelancing, check out this article.
11. Upwork
And just like Fiverr, Upwork is a freelancing site where you can tell other people you have transcribing skills to sell to them. Upwork is the site you should join if you want to take your transcribing and earning to the next level.
You can check out the transcriptionists using Upwork here. It just goes to show that many people earn well by being a transcriptionist on freelancing websites. Again, Upwork is a great site to increase your work and your earnings.
Unlike Fiverr which pays you for projects, Upwork pays you by the hour. Just choose what kind of transcription work and price points you would like to offer other people, post your job, wait for customers, and then you can transcribe for others and earn consistent income doing it.
Conclusion
Other Ways to Earn by Typing
Transcribing is not the only way you can make money online just by typing. There are other writing jobs that you could actually make money from. Feel free to look through this article on ways to earn money writing online.
And, if you would like to earn hundreds of dollars a day in life-changing income that you can earn passively, you could start a money-making WordPress blog. This article will take you through the six steps on how to blog and make money from it.
Final Words
That will do it for my complete list of best online transcription jobs for beginners.
I hope this article helped you in your quest to become an online transcriptionist. It’s a pretty neat way to make a good salary from the comfort of home. I actually do it myself since I transcribe with Rev.com and make extra money doing it.
So start listening, get typing, and earn the money you deserve.