Use your speedy typing skills as a freelance transcriber

Are you a fast and accurate typist?  You could do well working as a freelance transcriptionist.  Although a certification or educational background in transcription could give you an advantage, in many cases it’s not necessary.  As long as you can provide proof that you can get the job done in a speedy and accurate manner, there will be an office out there that wants your service.

Those who work as professionals in industries like medical, legal, financial, executives, and translation often need patient or client information transferred to physical copy, usually from listening to audio recordings.   Administrative staff is relied upon to perform this task, but can be time consuming, taking away valuable time that can be well spent on increasing business.

Medical transcribing is the most popular and translating seems to be the highest paid.

Transcription can include any audio that’s needing typed into a document. Typical projects in this category include focus groups, seminars, workshops, conferences, training sessions and conference calls. Transcription might also include medical dictations from doctors or radiologists, or dictations of business documents.  In the medical field, it’s a necessity to be familiar with CPT codes and medical terminology.  If you’re bilingual, there’s projects in need for translators.  Whatever the project, an expert transcriptionist is necessary to complete the task quickly and accurately.

Outsourcing this task is preferred by most offices since it’s cheaper than having an in-house transcriber on staff (and working as a transcription staff member means dealing with line quotas, maybe around 175 lines per hour minimum!).  Many offices in the US use freelance service and may even hire an overseas transcriber since they’re per-line rate could be about 70% cheaper than an American based freelancer.  The risk with the cheaper service from other countries is finding someone who provides quality transcriptions with fast turnaround time.

What’s the Billing Fee?

Usually medical transcriptionists charge per line basis. Though some medical transcriptionists charge per page, per audio hour or by character, charging per line is usual, this is good for doctors as well as the transcriptionists.

For beginners, it simplifies the things and they can get paid for how many lines they type. Usually the medical transcription rates can start from 6 cents per line to 10 cents per line. Some medical transcriptionists charge per hour and they get from $10/hr to $40/hr based on their accuracy and years of experience.

Advice from eHow.com –

Accutran Global is a medical, legal and financial transcribing company that hires contractors. Contractors are not required to have a transcription background, but must have computer and average typing skills. Applicants must fill out a questionnaire and take a computer skill test. Application is long, thus you should allow your self plenty of time to work through the paperwork. Resumes are not required.