It was 8:00 o’clock in the morning as I sat down to transcribe. It was a blistery, cold morning in Phoenix, Arizona (Hah! - More like 116 outside as I write this). With my cup of hot steaming coffee on my one side of my desk and my faithful live, white, feline desk ornament on my other, I prepared for the day.

Now, you have to understand that I was new at this game of transcribing; I’d only been doing it for a short time. My topic was Internet marketing, and it was very interesting. It was all about Pay per Click, and AdWords, and various other Internet-related things; and it was an interview between an interviewer and an Internet Guru.

This is going to be a piece of cake, right? I typed all about interesting Internet gurus, Napoleon Hill, and interesting subjects like Google AdWords, Overture, Google Pay Per Click, e-Books, ClickBank, Yahoo! Search, and a whole lot more. Now, be aware that I was fairly new at transcribing for clients regarding the Internet; so I had to do a lot of research. When I started out, I started with a well-known search engine; but you could choose Google, Yahoo, Ask, or a host of others that are out there. What I didn’t know is that even if you use a reputable search engine, it takes an astute transcriptionist to decipher what search results you should use.

For example, suppose you questioned the spelling of an author’s name. Correctly, you go to the Internet to Google, or Yahoo!, MSN, or whatever you use, and you type in the author’s last name Chialdiani because you were looking up Robert Cialdini because he wrote a well-known book that your client had included on the audio that your client provided you. Aha! You found as the first hit a result that one of the major online bookstores had posted. Now, I chose one that has a huge following on the Internet; they should know the correct spelling, right? Not so fast, Charlie or Jenny, or whoever you are. Take care to take it one step further.

You must actually take it one step further and GO to that bookstore online and find the book. How is the author’s name spelled? Oh, oh. It’s Cialdini. Folks, I’ve got to tell you. Internet clients can be absolutely ruthless when providing feedback to Elance, iFreelance, or Guru, or other freelance sites when a transcriptionist does not get spelling right. Do not be lackadaisical here; this is critical!

Let’s look at another example. Say you want to look up the spelling for the group of people that come from the Philippines. How would you spell Filipino? Be careful here. This could be a trick question. Okay, again, we start out on Google, Web Crawler, Ask, or any other search engine you might use. We type in Philippino because we think that because they are from the Philippines, they are probably called Philippinos, right? Hold on. Who are you going to use as a resource to verify that spelling? In many instances you have more than one spelling for a word, and clients can be very, very temperamental if you choose the wrong spelling. My recommendation is to use reputable references that are well-known and have been around for years.

So what have we learned thus far? Be very choosy when using resources to determine spelling of words. Make sure that sites you use are reputable resources. Your clients do not want to see errors when they receive their transcription. Go the extra mile, be diligent, and be accurate. If you have to use multiple resources to get a consensus, that’s great. That is what you clients want. If you do that, you will go far in establishing a sound transcription business that clients will come to you for services over and over again.

It’s 10:00 o’clock in the morning, and you get a phone call from a client that he needs a new transcription that is an hour long and he needs it tonight. Like any organized virtual assistant, I look at my calendar and see that I don’t have any projects due today. I say okay, sure. But…

There are some important things that need to be done before a transcriptionist agrees to take on a new transcription job for a new client. First of all, I recommend you ask your client if they have listened to all or part of the audio. They all believe they have a good quality tape. If the client says yes and then you listen to it and it’s not, then you have some options that you can follow regarding your price.

If you listen to the audio and the voices are too low, there is a lot of static, there are excessive echoes, etc., this will definitely take you longer to transcribe. Your goal, should you get the opportunity, is to listen to parts of the audio prior to giving a quote, especially since reality is that the audios are not usually as “good” as the client leads you to believe. Unfortunately, we found this out the hard way after losing money and time having to struggle to catch all the words. There were many times that we almost ended up working for free, and that is not what you should have to do.

After much trial and error, we implemented the process of providing a client that had a new transcription with terms of agreement that stipulate, “If the audios are poor quality due to heavy accents, voices too soft to be heard clearly, or slurring of words to the point that there are excessive inaudibles overall per tape, the Buyer will be contacted immediately and asked to try and enhance the quality. If the Buyer is unable to do so, the audio will be returned to the Buyer, and the fee to the Buyer will only be for the completed portion.”

If you are a freelancer and bidding for projects on some of the freelance sites, go ahead and accept the bid. In the acceptance I would recommend you always include terms of agreement along with your acceptance. They will let you know right away if it’s not acceptable. We have not had one client that found that to be unreasonable. If it’s a new client that someone referred to you, we recommend you provide the terms prior to accepting the project.

Now, you do not have to use this exact wording; however, something similar will at least lessen the possibility of your receiving a bad audio. Our goal is to make money. When accepting new transcriptions, set reasonable prices, plan for road blocks, and stop and listen.