Online Transcription Service Providers Are In High Demand

Gone are the days of the Dictaphone and the secretary writing furiously in shorthand while her boss talks. Transcribing audio to paper is still a much-needed service in a number of industries. However, today, over half of transcription services in North America take place via the Internet rather than in the boss's office. This means that online transcription service providers are in great demand.

Transcription service providers (or transcriptionists) listen to audio recordings and transcribe the words on the recording to paper (or computer file). In order to be able to do this type of work, you must:

* Have a computer with Internet access. Clients deliver their audio files to the transcriptionist via email.

* Have software capable of playing audio files on your computer. This kind of software is readily available and inexpensive. Many home computers come with audio-player software already installed. Check your computer's owner's manual if you are unsure.

* Have excellent listening skills. You'll have to be able to listen carefully to hours of audio recordings without missing anything.

* Have good typing skills (80-95 words per minute). The faster you can type, the more money you can make.

* Be able to work with precision and attention to detail. Official transcriptions must be completely accurate. That is, they must contain every single word on the audio file.

Many different kinds of industries rely on online transcription service providers to transcribe various audio recordings to paper (or computer file). The sectors that most commonly rely on these services are medical (doctors), dental (dentists) and educational (teachers, professors) professionals.

These professionals often do a lot of talking with clients, students, patients and other professionals and must have paper records of these conversations, lectures, orders, etc for their official records. Rather than employ someone in-house to do transcription work (which is often not cost-efficient), many turn to online transcription services.

Online transcription service providers usually charge fees based upon either number of transcribed pages or number of words. Transcriptionists can usually make between 15 and 25 dollars per hour for quality, accurate work.

If you think you possess the qualities mentioned, you can probably start a successful online transcription service from your home. You may want to think about what type of transcribing you'd like to do: medical, dental, educational or other. Many online transcription services cater to one particular sector. Others do all kinds of transcription work.

In addition to the qualifications already discussed, it's important that you familiarize yourself with medical and dental terminology if you plan on working with these industries. Medical and dental terminology isn't in most people's everyday vocabulary. However, these kinds of words will pop up all the time in transcription work, and clients who hire online transcription service providers expect 100 percent accuracy. Get a medical/dental dictionary and study it, especially when you run across a term that you aren't familiar with. If you happen to know a doctor/dentist you feel comfortable approaching for help now and then this can increase your efficiency tremendously.

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Source: http://www.goarticles.com/