{"id":41,"date":"2017-11-10T10:59:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T10:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virtualtranscriber.co.za\/blog\/?p=41"},"modified":"2017-12-08T10:43:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T10:43:43","slug":"how-i-became-a-transcriber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualtranscriber.co.za\/blog\/2017\/11\/10\/how-i-became-a-transcriber\/","title":{"rendered":"How I became a transcriber"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I became a transcriber sort of by accident. This is my story of how I did it and hopefully, it gives you an idea of how to do the same if you&#8217;re looking to earn an extra income, intend working from home or want to make it your career.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, I had the opportunity to live with my family in Australia in 2016. Since I only had a tourist visa I couldn&#8217;t work in Australia. When I got on the plane to Melbourne my intention was to work with South African businesses via the internet. I advertised my administration services on <a href=\"http:\/\/gumtree.co.za\">Gumtree<\/a> but received no responses so I did a Google search for ideas on finding online work.<\/p>\n<p>I ended up on Reddit and a beer money site. They spoke about transcriptions as one way of making money online and Scribie.com was one of the sites they mentioned. I barely even knew what transcriptions were, but I took the entry exam for <a href=\"http:\/\/scribie.com\">Scribie.com<\/a>. All similar websites have an entry test, by the way.<\/p>\n<p>I remember sitting in the back garden of my sister&#8217;s house in Melbourne and doing the test for around two hours. I waited a few days and got an email to say that I passed and was now a transcriber on the <a href=\"http:\/\/scribie.com\">Scribie.com <\/a>platform. I quickly got into the flow of work and before long I had moved up to be a reviewer which meant more money. At that time Scribie paid US$1 per completed 6 minutes of audio which doubled if you reviewed the file. I was making decent money.<\/p>\n<p>But I also advertised my transcription services on Gumtree and then a German UCT doctoral student found me. I was asked to transcribe the interviews for her thesis. There were maybe about 10 interviews, of\u00a0varying length, with some of the most interesting people who I never knew lived in my hometown, Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>This work plus <a href=\"http:\/\/scribie.com\">Scribie.com<\/a>\u00a0 kept me busy for my time in Australia while the rest of the family were at work during the day.<\/p>\n<p>When I came back to Cape Town I decided to continue transcribing. By this time <a href=\"http:\/\/scribie.com\">Scribie.com<\/a> had reduced its rates to half of what it was, so I looked around for another online platform. Their test is a much more difficult test and failed it a few times. Eventually, I passed and found another source of income.<\/p>\n<p>My <a href=\"http:\/\/gumtree.co.za\">Gumtree<\/a> ad was still bringing in a steady stream of clients, mainly master&#8217;s and doctoral students and a few disciplinary hearings. During one less than a prolific week, I came across Upwork and registered and added my CV to their platform. I got quite a bit of work through Upwork but my intention was to use them to supplement my other sources of income. I wasn&#8217;t too happy with the 25%\u00a0 commission fee that they charged.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, my work comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/gumtree.co.za\">Gumtree<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/transcribeme.com\">TranscribeMe<\/a> and occasionally <a href=\"http:\/\/scribie.com\">Scribie.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I will elaborate in future blog posts on the various platforms and the pros and cons of working there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I became a transcriber sort of by accident. 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