The internet exists for whatever reason you want it to. For me, it is an opportunity to get information for financial independence and security, provided it is legit and devoid of fraudulent means.
Internet Scams and Time Wasters
Internet fraud is the new normal. Scams are the order of the day. Thus, it becomes difficult to try out legit opportunities that come our way due to past experiences with platforms that resulted in a waste of time.
Not every scam involves the loss of money. On a personal level, there's no scam greater than that involving your time and effort. Your mind gets fixated on the possibility of financial freedom via the time spent on doing some tasks, regardless of how small. And the inevitable ensues.
On request for payout, after meeting the almost impossible-to-meet target, it turns out to be another waste of time. Hope dissolves in seconds, and the feeling of powerlessness follows. False hope at its finest.
Legit Platforms Still Exist
Regardless of the unending scams on the internet, legit platforms still exist, one such is the platform where I earned a little over $300 in October, $400+ in November, and blah blah, up to $610.43 in February. With payments received via PayPal.
After unending research in a bid to live a life of working from home and at my own convenience, my research finally paid off. I came across a transcription service that actually pays its freelancers.
It is surprisingly legit compared to the previous ones I've come across, which pay you nothing for your effort but make up excuses to terminate you before meeting the payment threshold.
And for the first time in two years, my service rendered on the internet is not paid via cryptocurrency, but in fiat. After which a certain percentage is passed on to my crypto portfolio, and history happens to the rest of it.
February Earnings
The month of February ended with an earning of $610.43, as stated in the article title. And no, this isn't clickbait. This earning is for a period of 21 days, with an average of $29 earned per day.
I tend to document my earnings on an excel spreadsheet for record purposes. February earnings are as shown below.
The below chart shows my weekly earning from the 29th of January till the 26th of February. While this doesn't reflect all the way through February, this is the last I could screenshot before it got wiped, as it gets updated every week.
While March is still on its ongoing, I've earned already $267.69. Though the earning should be more than it currently is, I showed up for work only once in the last week, hence only an earning of $21.99 was recorded in the week.
I just moved into a new apartment, hence the inevitable break. I must confess, moving into a new apartment is more stressful than I had anticipated.
Earnings from the 26th of February through the 18th of March
Below is a combined earnings report for February and the ongoing month (March).
The First Two Months
The initial months were those of trial and error as is expected when trying out a new platform. Regardless of the uncertainty of events coupled with the learning process, I managed to earn $304.96 in October, in only 15 days.
A slight increase occurred in November. $456.60 was earned in the same 15-day time frame at which $304.96 was earned in October. Which indicates improvement.
The Game Changer of Rev
The above earnings are made from working as a transcriptionist on Rev. Working as a transcriptionist involves listening to audio files and converting the spoken words to text by following a set of guidelines provided by the transcription agency.
The pay for each audio file transcribed depends on the length and difficulty of the audio. For instance, a one-hour length of audio pays between $21 to $30, and could also pay more, depending on the difficulty and the number of speakers. While a 20 to 30-minute audio pays about $9 to $15.
I've seen 30 minutes of audio pay up to $20 and above. It's all about the factors already mentioned above.
I mostly go for one-hour-long audio files, as those pay higher. For instance, my last job last week was a one-hour audio for $42, while I've also done 1 hour and 26 minutes of audio for $44.
A one-hour audio file takes most beginners about 4 to 5 hours to transcribe, but you tend to get faster as you progress. An average of 3 hours and 3o minutes is my personal best without errors.
Earnings are paid weekly, every Monday via PayPal. Thus you don't have to wait for the conventional 30-day period to receive payment for work done.
If you're reading this and thinking of cheating the system via an audio-to-text AI, I'd suggest you deflect from such a train of thought as it wouldn't get you anywhere but destroy your chances of earning on Rev.
Note that each work submitted is graded according to the Rev style guide to ensure consistency and high quality of work. You have to understand and digest the guidelines properly before attempting any job, as you'd be placed on a grading/metric system.
A drop below the minimum grade will result in an unnoticed termination of your transcriber account.
While transcribing, you have to constantly refer back to the guideline for some unclear situations. You must also be good at researching names and word capitalization for effective work to be done.
Refer to the Rev Transcription Style Guide to have a grasp of how much you have to know and understand for a perfect or near-perfect job to be done.
Insights and Conclusion
After about five months of work, I must say that working as a transcriptionist can be quite stressful, but is definitely worth it in my opinion.
It is quite good if you consider it to be a side income and not a major source of income. My opinion is not definitive since it all depends on what part of the world you reside in, and how well or poorly your economy performs against the dollar.
In third world countries where the minimum wage is below 'you know what,' then this would be considered a major source of income, while every other would be a 'side attraction.'
Regardless of your location, having an opportunity to make some extra income on the internet is something we all crave since the conventional 9 to 5 incomes are almost never enough to cater to our unending needs.
As much as internet scams exist, legit platforms exist also. Therefore it will be unwise to readily pass off every opportunity the internet provides as a scam. Such a mentality will only allow opportunities to pass us by while we continue to wallow in financial stagnation and self-pity.
First published on my read.cash blog.