Is Scribie legit or a scam? Is it possible to make money
transcribing audio files on Scribie? And more importantly, is it worth working
for Scribie? Let’s find out.
WHAT IS SCRIBIE?
Founded in 2008, Scribie is a legit audio/video transcription service
that hires both beginners and experienced people all around the world to work
as transcriptionists, which later on promoted as reviewers, proofreaders then
QC.
Scribie pays $5 to $25 per audio hour, which means a
six-minute audio file varies from $0.5 to $2.50 depending on the difficulty
level and other criteria. Once your submission is reviewed, your earnings are
credited to your account. You get paid via a verified Paypal account.
Requirements
- Scribie
hires transcriptionists without experience.
- They
hire worldwide but you have to be able to get a verified
Paypal account.
- They
prefer people with fast typing speed.
- The
main qualification is passing their transcription test, which may include
strong accents. To pass the test, you will need a fast typing speed, good
listening and comprehension skills in English, including American,
British, Australian and Indian accented English.
- You
need to use a headset (a foot pedal is not required).
- You
need the latest version
of Firefox, Chrome or Safari web browser.
Overview
- Flexible
hours. There are no obligations, minimum commitments or withdrawal limits.
- You
choose the files to work on when you want to work and can listen to a
sample of the file to check the quality before selecting it.
- You’ll
transcribe short files, 6 minutes or less.
- You
have to complete a 6-minute audio within two hours.
- Most
of their files are telephone calls, interviews and speeches.
- Transcription
files go through a three-step process of raw transcription, review, and
verification.
- They
provide an automated transcript with each file. The automated transcript
is machine generated and the accuracy varies from 60% to 90% depending
upon the audio quality, accents, and other things and has to be corrected
before submitting. This can still save you around 50% of the effort.
Pay
- The
website says that they pay $5 to $25 per audio hour for Raw
Transcription and Review which is $0.5 to $2.00 for a 6 minute file.
- Transcribers
report making $10 per audio hour ($1 per 6 minute audio).
- They
pay a monthly bonus of $5 for every 3 hours completed each month.
- Your
pay doubles when you become a self-reviewer as you will get paid twice for
the same file.
- Reviewers
make the same amount of money per audio minute but it’s less work so you
can make more hourly.
- Proofreading
pays a fixed amount per file depending on the difficulty level, accents, deadline
and various other factors.
- They
pay daily.
- They
have contract positions for proofreading which pays a fixed monthly
salary.
- There
is no minimum withdrawal limit.
- They
review your transcripts within a few days.
MY HONEST SCRIBIE REVIEW
I have been working for Scribie since September 2021, and I think it’s a
really good opportunity for beginners to get the hang of transcribing as a
start to their careers. There are always files available for transcribers,
especially on weekdays.
Choose a file, transcribe it then submit it. It takes around
one business day to review that file. The review varies from poor to excellent,
if your transcription wasn’t accurate then your work will be rejected and you
will not get paid, and that will affect your overall grade.
Also, if you work for a minimum of three hours a month, you
will get a $5 bonus credited to your account. You can withdraw your earnings
whenever you want, but a fee of 2% will be charged. Withdrawals of $30 or
higher are free.
I personally didn’t take working for Scribie seriously because I was just curious about the
legitimacy of it, and if it’s true that you can make money working for these companies
or not.
After working a few hours a week in my free time, I can
confirm that it’s possible and quite easy to make money on Scribie. I even got
promoted as a reviewer which I wasn’t expecting at all.
I only worked on 15 files, four of which were rejected (LOL), but I’m proud of myself nonetheless.
HOW MUCH I EARNED ON SCRIBIE?
As I said before, I didn’t take this seriously, so I
obviously didn’t make that much money. So to keep it short, I earned $11.15 for
both transcription and reviews, $8.60 for transcribing, and $2.55 for
reviewing.
So minus the 2% withdrawal fee, my Paypal balance is $10,93.
In my opinion, it was pretty easy making money on Scribie considering that English is not my first
language, so I’m sure that if you take it seriously, you’ll be able to make
more money than I did.
Now I’m not saying this is a job that’s going to pay your bills or depth or your college tuition, absolutely not, but it sure is an easy side hustle that you could consider for some extra money, and it’s a good place to start off your career as a transcriber.
PROS & CONS OF SCRIBIE
PROS
- Free
to join.
- The
test is quite easy to pass.
- You
can preview files before selecting one to transcribe.
- Variety
of files to choose from which increases earning potential.
- There
are files available the majority of the time.
- You
can retake the test if you fail.
- Getting
promoted to higher levels.
- You
can withdraw your earnings any time you want.
- Work
from anywhere in the world.
Cons
- Your
average grade should not fall below 2.5, otherwise, you will no longer be
able to select files.
- The
pay is low.
- Only
supports Paypal as a payment method.
- There’s
a 2% fee for withdrawals less than $30.
- You
won’t be able to make that much money if you’re a slow typist.
- Your
work will be rejected if it’s not accurate enough, and you won’t make any
money from it no matter how much time you spent transcribing the file.
- Some files are pretty hard to transcribe because of the quality of the audio.
My comments
- Scribie
is one of the easiest places to get accepted – especially if you’re a fast
typist.
- The
pay is one of the lowest. There are other transcription companies that pay
much better — even for newbies.
- It’s a
good place to learn transcription because you can see your work after it has
been reviewed.
- You
can be promoted to reviewer, self-reviewer and proofreader based on
performance. And you can become a reviewer very fast.
- They
often have bad audio quality and interviews with foreign accents.
Transcribing poor audio quality, multiple speakers and accents will take
longer. You can turn down any files you don’t want to transcribe. But
transcribing those is good practice to learn to transcribe audio with
accents and multiple speakers.
- Availability
of work varies. You can choose from many files some days and other days
there won’t be any.
How to get better paying transcription jobs
Taking a specialized transcription course will get you
started right. It will speed up the learning process, help you get
started faster, make you a better transcriptionist and help you get higher-paying jobs.
How to Apply
HOW TO SIGN UP AS A TRANSCRIPTIONIST FOR SCRIBIE?
Scribie is a great opportunity for entry-level
transcriptionists who want to learn and get some experience while making money,
before jumping to bigger companies that require a certain level of experience.
Signing up for Scribie is pretty easy. But before
that, you need to have a good comprehension of English with the ability to apply
context and identify mistakes, a laptop/desktop computer with an internet
connection, a good headphone/headset, and a verified Paypal account.
Here’s a
step-by-step guide to applying as a transcriptionist for Scribie.
1. click here to sign-up as a transcriber.
2. Enter your
information, and make sure to choose “Transcriber” for the account type.
3. Log in to your
verified Paypal account.
4. Scribie will then send you a confirmation e-mail,
which typically takes one day, whether you’re rejected or invited to pass their
transcription test.
5. Before taking the
test, I advise you to read their transcription guidelines which are a set of
rules that you should always follow. Also, Scribie provides you with some audio files to practice
your skills before passing the test.
6. If you pass the
test, Scribie will reward you with $0.5, then you’ll be
certified as a transcriber. You can log in to your account anytime and select
files to work on.
P.S: You have two
hours to submit the audio file which can be extended to three hours.
Get more info at https://scribie.com/freelance-transcription#intro
Also read their FAQ at https://scribie.com/freelance-transcription#faq
CONCLUSION: Scribie Review
We can conclude that Scribie is definitely not a scam but a legitimate
transcription company that hires beginners and professionals worldwide to work
from home and earn some money.
You can start by signing up and reading their transcription
guidelines, then practice a little before taking the test.
Even though the pay is not that high, you can still try it out and make some beer money.
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