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Topic: Short term freelance assistant?
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| Author | Message |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/22/2004 6:35:57 PM | show profile Not an ad. Not looking to hire anyone from this board. However I am wondering how much I should pay someone to help me out a little bit? I'm going in with a series of crazy deadlines and a lot of the work is grunt work, transcribing mostly. I'm a slow transcriber and it might be worth it to me to hire someone for a day or two to transcribe a couple of interviews, while I do the writing. Let's say I've got about two hours worth of audiotape to transcribe. Anybody here ever hire someone to do that sort of thing and if so, how much did you pay them? |
| WritingSoul | Posted – 2/22/2004 8:32:49 PM | show profile | email poster $400-500 sounds fair for the two hours worth of taped time, with maybe a few extra tasks here and there. Or you may outsource to a company specializing in transcribing. |
| fourfold | Posted – 2/22/2004 8:44:48 PM | show profile Try calling your doctor's office and ask who they use to transcribe case notes. I was able to find a transcriber who charges $3/page, which came out to about $80 for a 45-minute interview. |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/22/2004 10:22:09 PM | show profile 400-500 dollars for two hours of tape transcribing? Which even at my slow ass typing wouldn't take more than five hours? 400-500 dollars? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH... Oh, that was good. No, but seriously... I know copywriters with ten years experience that don't get a hundred dollars an hour. The pro transcribing service sounds okay, but I wanted to help out some freelancer first. I figured about two hundred for the whole mess, but I have a feeling the upper limit hasn't been reached yet. I'm sure at some point someone will come up with a rate even higher than I'm getting paid. Nevermind this thread-- I'll get a friend with a kid to do it for a couple of hundred bucks and she'll be thrilled with the easy work as compared to waitressing... Forget further posts, I don't need to know anymore. |
| writenow | Posted – 2/22/2004 10:25:26 PM | show profile | email poster hours Keep in mind that 2 hours of taped time doesn't take 2 hours to transcribe. it's possible that it could even take up to 8 hours, who knows? Sometimes tapes need to be played over and over and over and over....because it's hard to get every nuace, word, and phrase. Some people actually charge per page. There's lots of agencies that do this - just call around and see what kind of rates there are... |
| ClaudiaCT | Posted – 2/22/2004 10:32:57 PM | show profile Four years ago I transcribed tapes of phone conversation for a lawyer. A two hour tape DID NOT get done in two hours. I got paid $1 a page, about $300 for five hours. I hear prices have gone up though. |
| thedamagedape | Posted – 2/22/2004 10:45:57 PM | show profile | email poster Jesus. How do I get involved with this racket? At my last job, I spent half my time transcribing interviews for a research project at about $10 an hour. What a sucker. |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/22/2004 10:49:04 PM | show profile I'm a terrible typist and I could get 120 minutes of tapes or less done in less than a working day. Perhaps I wasn't clear. I don't need these like court transcripts. I'm writing a couple of celebrity profiles and I just need the conversation in fairly readable format. I would have to listen to the tapes anyway because I'd have to double check the content, so I'm still doing a bunch of work. For five hundred bucks I'd just do it myself. |
| WritingSoul | Posted – 2/22/2004 11:01:37 PM | show profile | email poster After getting a more clear picture of what you need, you can probably get away with spending $200 or so on it. It's not two hours worth of work though. We're talking somewhere between 8 and 12 hours, depending on the quality of recording. $16-25/hour -- I think for such a joyless/technical/tiring job as transcribing $25/hour is fair. And I'd expect it to be done in 8-12 ($16 an hour). No? |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/22/2004 11:35:11 PM | show profile Ok another misconception. I don't believe I ever said it was two hours worth of work as at least a couple of posters have mentioned. I've said it was about two hours (actually probably a bit less maybe an hour and forty minutes) worth of audiotape to be transcribed. It would take me about five hours, because I'm slow as shit. I figured even a monkey should be able to do it in five hours because that's how long it would take me (and I'll never bet against a monkey being faster than me) and paying someone five hundred bucks or essentially a quarter of what I'm getting, would seem counterproductive. I now realize that it's easier to get a civilian who's just a good typist so the question is now terribly moot. |
| coronazip | Posted – 2/23/2004 1:15:48 AM | show profile For a half a grand you could get a hooker for a couple of hours. If you find one who can type, you'd really be set. All joking aside, don't abandon your freelance buddies. I'm sure there's someone out there who would be happy to help you out. And just to be a gadfly, why don't you want to hire anyone from this board? |
| Hunten Peck | Posted – 2/23/2004 9:22:12 AM | show profile | email poster I hear you Folks, I transcribe for a living and industry production standards state that it takes a *minimum* of 4-5 hours to transcribe a 1-hour tape. If only one person is dictating, approximately 3 hours will sometimes suffice, assuming the recording is clear and intelligible. Poor sound, accents, heavy industry terminology, and rapid-fire conversation will cost more because it's more difficult to transcribe. I charge by the hour as do most professional services. Some charge by the page but you end up not really knowing how you're being charged. Margins and fonts can be adjusted to create more pages ($$). And just like many here, I’m a freelancer and charge freelancer rates, meaning not an employee’s $10/hour! I run a professional service; I’m not a student doing it for beer and dope money, or doing it ''on the side'' for any reason. I don't mean this to be an ad for me and am more interested in clearing up misconceptions about the transcription process and what it is that you end up paying for. Transcribing is difficult to do well. I've re-listened to recordings where two transcriptionists have typed completely different sentences because they've heard different things, so you want someone intelligent and sophisticated enough to have a broad amount of knowledge in different areas (knowing that you’ve heard “chypre,” not “cheaper”). You also want someone who has a firm grasp of English, e.g., knowing when to use “it's” or “its.” Believe it or not, there are many transcriptionists who don't know the difference. If you want more information, feel free to contact me or ask on this board. No purchase necessary. |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/23/2004 11:28:46 AM | show profile I don't think that's the right usage of gadfly, but I'm also too bored to look it up. I wouldn't hire anybody from this board because I know people personally who could use the money. Also I'm not going to use the message board for my personal gain like some people do, advertising my products, services or help wanted in a thread when according to the board's rules I should pay for an ad. And while I'm sure that transcribing is a valuable skill, it's not worth a hundred dollars an hour to me. Maybe a big corporation can shell that out, but I can do it myself for a lot less or have a nonwriter do it and be fairly happy with the results. I'm sure if Oprah needs transcripts of her show that's a more valuable service at that point. For me, not so much. |
| westsidestory | Posted – 2/23/2004 6:30:48 PM | show profile Hal, I have hired transcribers (college kids who type) for $15 per hour and they've done fine with normal conversational recordings (this was on west coast). A 90 minute tape would take about three hours, or slightly longer than if I transcribed it myself. (It is pretty boring work) One thing I did do was have them work in my office, and provide them with a transcribing machine, the kind with headphones and foot pedal. Panasonic makes them, they are about $100 bucks or less. If you do a lot of interviews, getting a transcribing machine and using it yourself for the tougher tapes may be the way to go. I've had to laugh at these posts. If I were to pay someone $400 to transcribe a tape, I'd want them to paint my living room at the same time. . . in the nude, of course. |
| Hunten Peck | Posted – 2/23/2004 7:34:24 PM | show profile | email poster something for everyone haljordan3600, transcription is a bear and if you're slow and have other work to do, you're smart to look into getting someone to do it for you. If you Google ''transcription,'' you'll find lots of options. Call around and check prices, turnaround, and what you're actually getting for your money. I can't tell you what you should pay because, unfortunately, it really runs the gamut in this business. Go with your gut feeling after you've talked with someone and figured in what you can afford. Obviously, you can find the service that fits your specific professional and financial needs. A well-established freelance journo or one who works at a pub with a budget for these kinds of things can afford a pro. Others can afford their friend's sister-in-law who's a secretary and moonlights on the side. Others can only afford themselves. I know some recordings don't NEED to be transcribed at all and that you can sometimes just listen to the playback yourself and pluck out what you need using a pen and pad. Word for word, writers are paid a king's ransom compared to what a transcriptionist is paid. And maybe that's the way it should be. But if you consider yourself a professional, and the transcript is going to aid in the construction of your piece and help you to recall important points and potential sound bites, you should consider investing in getting the best transcript possible. Oh, and Uncle Sam approves. |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/23/2004 11:08:48 PM | show profile Well, I don't agree that you need a pro transcribing if you consider yourself a professional. I actually record the interview and have to listen to it again after the transcription. They're my words and I know what I said and will usually recognize any mistakes. When I worked at a magazine an intern did transcription for me once or twice and all I had to do was listen with a pencil and write in the few corrections while I was doublechecking quotes. I'm sure there are many circumstances that require pro transcribing. This ain't one of them. |
| writenow | Posted – 2/24/2004 2:51:54 AM | show profile | email poster The last poster just said ''if you're a pro, get the best transcription possible.'' All that meant was: do what works for you. No one said you MUST get it transcribed professionallly. So if you don't want to hire anyone - don't. No one else needs to convince you to shell out the bucks if you don't want to. But if you need the help, go for it. I've done it many times before, and each time it's helped me get my story up and running quicker than if I'd transcribed it myself. Good luck. |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/24/2004 11:31:44 AM | show profile hate to be contrary but you left out quite a bit of that post and by doing so, I believe you altered the intent. here's what was said. ''if you consider yourself a professional, and the transcript is going to aid in the construction of your piece and help you to recall important points and potential sound bites, you should consider investing in getting the best transcript possible.'' I'm getting a message that if you're a professional and you need a transcript, you should spend the money to get a good one. Which is a message I agree with. However since I'm so involved in the actual creation of the interview from research, to doing the interview, and writing the profile, that I could almost rewrite the thing from memory. All I'm doing is reducing my time on a step that's somewhat repetitive and time consuming in my case. |
| writenow | Posted – 2/24/2004 12:25:38 PM | show profile Wow, you ARE a pain. If you don't want to pay, don't do it! Geez. Stop asking questions if you never want to hear anything different. If you don't want it, don't do it. All people are offering you is advice - not a loaded gun. |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/24/2004 12:45:28 PM | show profile Writenow. That's wonderful advice. Where have I heard it before? Oh yeah in the fourth post on this thread where I say please don't post any further responses because I don't need any further information!!! You're calling me a pain? What a dope. Learn to read first, then you can call me a dope, okey-dokey? |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/24/2004 12:47:57 PM | show profile well, call me a pain, anyway... |
| coronazip | Posted – 2/24/2004 12:55:57 PM | show profile Don't want anymore advice Hal? Well that's just too bad. You'll just have to keep taking advice whether you like it or not. Now shut up and appreciate what we're doing for you... |
| nadavis02 | Posted – 2/24/2004 1:18:09 PM | show profile Transcribe the junk yourself and get a life!! Lol - do it yourself, get a life and move on!! If you were the real deal, you would already have it done!! |
| haljordan3600 | Posted – 2/24/2004 2:22:52 PM | show profile I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hate you all. |
| mikeakagi | Posted – 2/25/2004 10:32:05 AM | show profile test |
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