You probably came to this article because you’re considering applying for an online transcription job, caption job, or translation job, and came across this site called Rev.com. So here’s what you need: a complete Rev.com work review.
You may also be wondering: is it true that Rev is not all that great? Or maybe it’s a scam or just a complete waste of time. You’re here because you wanna know what’s behind the curtain.
Well, you’ve come to the right person because I worked for Rev.com for about a year. I worked as a freelance captioner around 5 days a week, 2 hours a day.
And here, in this article, I’ll answer some questions about Rev that you may have, and what to expect if you choose to get started with Rev.
Here are the questions we’ll be covering in this article:
- Is Rev a scam or a waste of time?
- How does Rev actually work?
- How much does Rev pay and when do you get paid?
So, with that said, here we go.
Is Rev a Scam?
Okay, let’s get the scam part of Rev out of the way first. So, here’s the honest truth: Rev is NOT a scam!
They are a legit company and have been around in the transcription and caption industry for a number of years now. Many big companies like BuzzFeed turn to Rev to have their video files captioned.
Having worked with them for some time, I can honestly say they pay on time, the payment is on par, and I haven’t had any major issues with them at all.
At this point, I hope you can see that there’s nothing scammy about Rev.
But, then, you have people in forums and review sites that may be bashing Rev for some reason, right? Well, actually, believe it or not, I used to be one of those people! Here’s my story with Rev.com.
My Story with Rev.com
My First Try
I first came across Rev around 2017 as I was looking for an online transcription job. I thought they were a cool-looking company and I saw that their online application was a breeze. No resumes are needed! All I needed to do was prove to them I was a good fit to transcribe and I was in!
So I did. I put on my earbuds, played back the audio, and typed what I heard. Once everything looked and sounded good, I submitted my work. Then, weeks later, Rev got back to me.
They sent me an email saying I was disqualified. I was shocked. I had good spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and I wrote down what I heard to the best of my ability. Yet, they chose to deny me work. That’s when I sympathized with all the Rev haters.
My Second Try
For months, I never again dealt with Rev. Then, in May 2019, I decided to give them a second chance.
I did the same exact thing that I did in 2017: put on my earbuds, played the audio, and typed what I heard. In addition, I made sure to carefully review their style guide to make sure that Rev and I were on the same page. I submitted my work, and though I felt very skeptical, I patiently waited.
Weeks passed and guess what happened!
They actually accepted me into their transcription team!
That’s when my feelings about Rev really changed. I realized that they have good intentions about their work by picking and choosing really good transcribers. In my first few weeks of using Rev, I just transcribed for them.
Another Type of Work
But, then, there was a different line of work Rev offered that I was interested in trying instead of transcribing, and that was captioning. So, I went ahead and applied for that. I typed what I heard and aligned my captions to the correct parts of the video, and then I submitted it.
Weeks later, I was accepted as a captioner as well, and ever since, I’ve made the transition from transcribing to captioning. I realized I enjoyed doing that more than I did plain transcribing and not only that, I made slightly higher pay. Every week, I earned $5 more captioning than I did transcribing for the same amount of time.
I continued to caption and earn good money on Rev doing it. Every week, I would earn close to $100.
So, all in all, I used to think badly about Rev, but now I’ve come to see their awesome side, and so my advice to you when it comes to Rev is to give them a chance and do your best with them.
How Does Rev Work?
The Workspace
Before I begin, I need to let you know that I’ve never worked as a translator for Rev. I can only speak for transcribing and captioning. So, with that out of the way, let’s give you an idea of how Rev works.
After you’re accepted as a worker in Rev, you will encounter the Workspace. This is where projects are submitted to the website live to be completed. Everyone who works for Rev sees the same workspace, so everyone picks and chooses what projects they want to work on that are being shown.
It’s just like when a pinata opens and candies fall to the ground. Everyone sees the same candy and everyone picks and chooses what candy they want as quickly as they can.
It’s the same thing with projects on Rev. Here’s a picture of the Rev workspace showing the various projects that anyone can choose from.
Notice that some projects have been grayed out and marked as Claimed.
This is what happens when a project gets claimed by someone else in real time. This can happen anytime, from as soon as a few seconds to as later as a few minutes. I recommend you click on any project and watch the preview of the video or audio as quickly as you can. If it appeals to you, claim it right away!
Studying the Style Guide
Now, here is something important you must think about when working with Rev, and that’s their Style Guide.
You must make sure you understand what’s written in the Rev Style Guide whether you’re a transcriptionist, captioner, or translator. The Rev Style Guide is also the primary factor that determines your eligibility to be able to work with Rev.
I highly recommend that you read the Study Guide and polish your typing, writing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills. All this gives you a better chance of getting accepted!
To help you accomplish this, I made an article on how you can successfully pass the Rev application test, so you might want to check that out!
Working on the Project
You may assume that, like any other transcription or caption site, you need to do your work on a separate program like Microsoft Word. Not with Rev. Once you claim a project, you will see the Rev dashboard, where you will be getting the work done.
Not only is the dashboard conveniently inside the Rev website, but it offers an array of tools to help you get the job done. The dashboard offers simple keyboard shortcuts so you don’t have to switch between your mouse and keyboard. You’ll learn these simple shortcuts when you apply to join the company.
Rev also comes with “text expanders” as you see on the left side of my screenshot. Text expanders allow you to type an abbreviation, for instance, after which Rev will spell out the entire word for you.
As you see in the screenshot, I have Rev spell out “[Announcer]” if I simply type “ann”. By using text expanders, you can save a little time and energy on typing.
Rev even comes with its own spelling checker to make sure you’re up to par with the correct spelling of your words. Of course, keep in mind that the spell checker will not recognize a few special words in some videos or audio, like “operationalization”, so make sure you double-check your spelling anyway.
Taking Responsibility
When you first start out on Rev, any projects you complete will be constantly graded, so you need to prove that you’re going to take Rev seriously. Failing to do so can lead to your account being suspended.
But, don’t be anxious! As I said before, learn from the Study Guide, polish up your English and grammar if you need to, and just do your best. That’s all I did, and because of that, I was able to make it through!
Work Metrics
How well you do in Rev is measured with special metrics such as my metrics shown below.
Rev scores you on a few specific areas: accuracy and formatting, as well as alignment if you are captioning. These specific areas may be different when it comes to translating.
- Accuracy measures how accurate your transcription or caption is to the words that are being heard.
- Formatting measures how neatly you transcribe or caption according to the Rev Style Guide. Again, it’s easy to slip up here, so study that guide!
- Alignment measures how precise your captions are to the parts of the video where they are supposed to appear.
You must make sure your score stays high and consistent. If Rev realizes your scores are dropping substantially, you could be penalized for that. But again, do your best and keep the Study Guide and your English knowledge handy!
Claiming and Unclaiming
You must also have a reliable turnaround. There are no set work hours on Rev, but once you claim a project to work on, you need to be able to complete it before a certain number of hours.
But what if you claimed a project and, for some reason, you changed your mind about it? Maybe you realized you don’t have the time to finish it on time or you have a hard time hearing the audio or speaker accent. Don’t fret!
Rev gives you the option to “unclaim” the project within one hour after you claim it. If you unclaim past an hour after or fail to submit a project on time, your scores drop and you start to become a disreputable worker for Rev.
Different Levels
As long as you continue to keep your scores high and successfully complete projects as a transcriber, captioner, or translator, you’ll eventually level up from the Novice level to the Standard level, where you won’t be graded nearly as much.
And, if you really dedicate yourself to your work, within a few months, you can achieve the Professional level and you’ll be able to grade others’ work. Remember to do your best to be a good Rev worker and you’ll do just fine.
Is Rev Right for You?
If you’re not a fast typist or a neat writer, Rev may not be best for you.
In addition to studying the Style Guide and polishing up your English and grammar, you may want to consider increasing your typing speed to somewhere like 70 words per minute (which is my typical typing speed).
You can head over to a website like TypingTest.com. There, you can record your typing speed and practice typing faster and improving your speed.
How Much Can You Earn on Rev?
Now, since Rev is meant to be a side income, the money you make is on the lower side. However, if you keep working at it every day on Rev, you can expect pretty good weekly paychecks. Just look at the payments I’ve received in the past four weeks in that screenshot above.
Exactly How Much Money?
The amount of money you make depends on how long the video or audio files that you worked on are. Typically, Rev pays you around 30 cents to 90 cents for every video or audio minute. That means if you’re working on a 5-minute video, you would be making between $1.50 and $4.50.
The only exception to that is for the translators. You get slightly additional pay for every video or audio minute for translating a file into a different language. This should be obvious since it takes more skill to translate.
Over on the Rev workspace, you will see for each video or audio file how much you will get paid for completing it.
Higher Levels Earn More
Another factor that determines your pay is your Rev level, which I mentioned in the previous section. If you can level up, you can earn even more pay. As a beginner worker, you have a limited number of projects to work on that only pay a little bit.
As a standard worker, you get lots more project choices that pay more. Finally, as a professional worker, you can claim projects before others do and you can earn additional pay for grading other workers’ work.
How Do I Get Paid?
Rev pays you solely through PayPal. It’s free to sign up for a PayPal account where you can receive your money. If you choose to have your Rev paychecks sent to your bank, you can simply transfer your PayPal money into your bank account (like I do).
In Rev, your workweek ends at midnight on Sunday GMT, and you get paid through PayPal automatically every Monday.
Final Remarks
Rev.com Work Review
Summary
Rev.com is definitely a great place to work online as a transcriptionist or captioner. They will be a little strict about your work, but if you do your best and stay consistent, you can pass their application test and earn great money with Rev.
It’s been nearly a year since I joined Rev, and I must say I had a fairly good experience working with Rev.
All Rev really asks is that you thoroughly review their Study Guide, do their work based on it, and be loyal with your work: complete it on time and just do your best on it. If you can prove to them that you’re serious about what they want in their application, there’s a really good chance you’ll get accepted.
But, even if you don’t, be patient with them. Maybe they have enough workers or they overlooked your potential. Feel free to redo the application anytime in hopes of getting accepted.
Again, if you’d like to improve your chances of succeeding in the Rev.com application test, be sure to read my article on how to pass the Rev transcription or caption test.
Once you become a Rev worker, you might not get paid a whole lot, but Rev, like most online transcription and caption jobs, does pay more than any online survey out there. Working for Rev is truly a great way to make a side income from home.
So, feel free to try them out for yourself and see if they’re the best fit for you and your income.