In an earlier post, “Hiring a New Transcriptionist 101″, I talked about the fact that you get what you pay for when it comes to transcription.
If you are looking for a top-notch transcriptionist to capture the essence of your teleseminar, webinar or online interview, you will need to consider the value of what a professional transcriptionist does:
- They research unfamiliar terms on the internet
- They listen again and again if what you have said is inaudible or simply doesn’t make sense in terms of your overall context
- They will do their best to maintain your style of speaking, but at the same time, they will do their best to make you and your guests sound intelligent and knowledgeable. This may sometimes involve correcting one’s grammar in subtle ways.
When I first started transcribing a few years ago, my mentor was Susie Ward of The Admin Source . Susie was a harsh mistress in that I would send her my completed transcripts and she would send them back to me with her proofread versions. Her devotion to excellence was always apparent which is why she is so successful today. She never waivered in her standards and she whipped me into shape in no time. While I don’t offer the high degree of editing and polishing that The Admin Source provides, I have everything to thank Susie for in terms of my own success today.
If all you are willing to pay to someone is $5 or $6.25 per hour (I recently saw an ad for a transcript of over 80 audio minutes where the total payment offered was $25 for the entire 80 minutes) then you will truly get what you pay for. Considering that it takes approximately three to four hours for even the best transcriptionist to transcribe one hour of audio, that person would be making $5 per hour for five hours of their time. If they could transcribe 80 minutes of audio in four hours, they would be paid $6.25 per hour.
You may save money in the short term, but I also invite you to consider the final product. How much of your own valuable time will it take you to proofread and amend your raw transcript to ensure that it is ready to publish?
Just something to think about.
