If you’re able to type quickly and accurately, a career in transcription might be a smart choice.
But don’t make the mistake of applying to transcription jobs without proper training. There’s a lot more to becoming a transcriptionist than just typing fast!
If you’re keen to land some of the better-paying transcription gigs and truly turn this into a successful money-maker for your family, there’s a course you can take that will teach you everything you need to know to become a great transcriptionist in as little as 2-4 months.
It’s called Transcribe Anywhere. And it works. I’ll break down my experience of their course in this Transcribe Anywhere review.
I completed Transcribe Anywhere a couple years ago, and since finishing the course, I’ve developed a successful home business as a transcriptionist. In fact, I earned back the cost of the course within two months of starting my first transcription job, and I’ve been able to find work with ease thanks to the skills I developed through the course.
When you apply for transcription jobs, most companies require you to take a test of your ability to accurately type a short audio file. It’s unlikely you’ll pass — and certainly makes it more challenging to move up to higher paying jobs — without training.
How to become a transcriptionist with Transcribe Anywhere
Transcribe Anywhere helps aspiring transcriptionists build successful businesses with affordable, all-inclusive education and lifetime support.
The company offers two different courses: General Transcription and Legal Transcription. Before you enroll, I recommend participating in a free introduction course to learn more about whether transcription is right for you, and what both courses provide.
The Course creator, Janet Shaughnessy, knows her stuff. She’s run a transcription business for more than 10 years and is familiar with all the ins and outs of the business. In addition to the online course, she’s readily available via email or the student Facebook group to answer questions and give feedback.
Transcribe Anywhere: Course details
The training you’ll get in the Transcribe Anywhere course is comprehensive! It includes:
- Foundational lessons, including punctuation practice and review of equipment and software required for transcription.
- Over 60 practice files to transcribe as well as answer keys to check your work. You’ll get to practice the full gamut of what a transcriptionist experiences in the real world, including challenging audio quality, accented speakers, and multi-speaker focus groups. The legal course includes templates of legal forms and documents, a guide to legal terminology, and ten levels of practice dictations.
- A transcription style guide, downloadable templates and printable cheat sheets.
- Business-building modules to help you jumpstart your career, including information on networking online, setting up a website, and where to look for work as a subcontractor. There’s also a lot of helpful information about how to set your rates and how taxes work when you’re self-employed.
- Lifetime support, including full access to the course, helpful Facebook groups both for students and graduates, and email availability from the course administrators.
Transcribe Anywhere also offers a “100% thorough” guarantee. They’re confident you’ll have everything you need to succeed, but if you feel there’s anything missing, they’ll add it into the course so you have it as part of your lifetime access. Pretty cool!
How much do transcriptionists make?
Although the Transcribe Anywhere courses provide you with all the skills you need to become an independent transcriptionist, they do not provide you with work afterward.
It’s up to you to do the work of finding clients or companies to work with.
To set you on the right path, the course provides a lot of helpful information to find work successfully. They also make it clear up front that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme or an employment-matching service.
Transcribe Anywhere reports that the average median annual income for $45,000 for a general transcriptionist and $60,000 for a legal transcriptionist.
Your income will depend on whether you’re doing this full-time or as a side hustle, and whether you subcontract for a company or find your own clients. My own part-time income started at about $500 a month and has grown to around $2,000 a month.
As with most classes or courses, its aim is to provide you with skills so that you can go out and find the work you’ve trained for. After completing the course, I’ve been able to pass the transcription tests companies require for employment without much difficulty because the practice dictations in the course really do prepare you for real-life work.
How much does Transcribe Anywhere cost?
So what’s the cost for the course? The entry course is free. The General Transcription course is $597, and the Legal Transcription course is $697.
Both options have payment plans available, so you can pay for the first couple of modules and complete them before paying for the entire course.
Although the course is advertised as self-paced, it’s a little bit more complicated than that.
Once you purchase the full course, you do have lifetime access to it and can take as long as you want to do each module. However, if you opt for the pay-as-you-go option, you only have 30 days to complete the first section and 60 days to complete the second section. That’s one place I noticed room for improvement; since the second section contains all of the practice dictations, it would be nice to have more time to truly do it at your own pace.
Is Transcribe Anywhere legit?
Some writers might ask, wait, is Transcribe Anywhere legit?
My answer: Yes, definitely.
And the course stays up-to-date! I completed the course two years ago, and the creator has updated it since then to make sure all the information is current and relevant.
Bottom line of this Transcribe Anywhere review: In the time since I’ve taken the course, I’ve been able to grow a successful business as a freelance transcriptionist, using the knowledge, tools and skills I developed in the Transcribe Anywhere course.
If you want to become a transcriptionist, Transcribe Anywhere is an excellent place to start. Check out their free mini-course first!
This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!
Photo via BONNINSTUDIO / Shutterstock