8 Ways to Get the Best Freelance Transcription Jobs

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As a freelance transcriptionist, the more contracts you have under your belt, the choosier you can be about the types of assignments you work on – and the more you can earn. Here are eight ways to land more freelance transcription jobs so you’ll always have more than enough work.

1. Broaden your job search

Google is a wonderful tool for finding freelance transcription work, but it’s just one source among many. Here are a few less obvious places to look for new contracts:

Telecommuting job databases. While many work-from-home job databases are low quality or spammy, there are a couple of established companies in this space that are known to curate high-quality job leads.

My favorite of these is FlexJobs, which lists jobs from top-rated employers the likes of Apple, Salesforce, and Capital One. They have a whole category dedicated to transcription jobs, in addition to their virtual assistant, writing, and proofreading job categories.

Unlike some sites, which force you to pay a fee just to see the listings, it’s free to view all the job listings on FlexJobs. For $14.95 a month (or $49.95 for an annual subscription), you get access to apply to all your favorite jobs. Browse transcription jobs on FlexJobs here.

Freelance marketplaces. Platforms like Upwork and Freelancer connect clients with qualified freelancers. As a freelancer on these platforms, you can search for job postings that match your skills and submit a proposal.

Upwork in particular regularly lists new transcription jobs, as well as many translation jobs. Although some clients on these sites are notorious for offering ridiculously low rates, high-quality opportunities do pop up on occasion.

LinkedIn job search. In my experience, LinkedIn offers more remote job listings than most job search engines. You can also use LinkedIn’s search feature to browse the profiles of transcription companies or other transcriptionists. (Many LinkedIn users list their past and current employers on their profile.)

With LinkedIn’s free job alerts feature, you can get notifications about new jobs that meet your preferences. So go set one up today!

Remote work job boards. Again, many job boards out there are low quality or spammy, but there are a few good ones. One such board I know of is Remote.co, which is totally free for job seekers to use. Employers pay a fee to post their job ad – a good sign that they’re committed to hiring right away.

Remote.co usually has at least a few active transcription and virtual assistant job postings. Job leads are taken down as soon as the position is filled, so set yourself a reminder to check back at least every few weeks for the greatest chance of success.

2. Work on your proofreading skills

I know, I know – punctuation isn’t a sexy topic. And yes, I’ve written about this plenty of times elsewhere on my blog. But believe me when I say the biggest favor you can do for yourself as a freelance transcriptionist is to improve your grammar and punctuation skills.

Many people make the wrong assumption that transcription is just a typing job and that anyone can do it. In fact, many transcriptionists even think this way – to their detriment!

You might be able to get away with poor punctuation at lower-paying companies, but the companies that care about quality hire transcriptionists who demonstrate an above-average knowledge of English grammar and mechanics. (And these employers know they have to pay higher rates to retain the most qualified freelancers.)

By developing your proofreading skills, you’ll score higher on transcription tests. You’ll also be equipped to write a winning cover letter. Years of transcription experience only count for so much: If your resume boasts years of transcription experience and “attention to detail” but contains errors and inconsistencies, employers will rightly assume you’ll put the same amount of care into your transcripts.

Many – if not most – of the cover letters and resumes I see have careless typos, style consistency issues, and blatantly incorrect punctuation, so you can really set yourself apart as a transcriptionist by doing your homework in this area.

Bottom line? Brush up on your grammar and punctuation. It will help you close more (and higher-paying) freelance transcription contracts. Period.

The following books are concise primers on grammar and punctuation that I own and recommend:

3. Learn a niche kind of freelance transcription

Many transcription companies provide legal and law enforcement transcription in addition to general transcription services, and they prefer to hire people who have experience transcribing both general and legal subject matter. Therefore, you can open a lot of doors by learning legal transcription.

I am a student of Janet Shaughnessy’s legal transcription training program, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to do legal transcription. Janet has a popular general transcription course as well, but if your budget is tight and you’re agonizing over which of the two courses to take, then I would suggest taking the legal transcription course. That way, you can learn a specialized type of transcription and open more doors for yourself while also picking up many of the skills that you’ll use as a general transcriptionist.

Note: Janet’s training program is based on the U.S. legal system. I’m Canadian, but I enrolled because many freelance legal transcription jobs are based in the U.S., and the fundamentals of legal transcription aren’t much different between the two countries.

Another specialized area of freelance transcription worth looking into is production transcription and captioning. Production transcription companies work with clients in the entertainment industry, producing “as-broadcast scripts” – a fancy name for transcripts that contain timecodes, scene headings, descriptions of actions, and so on.

Many smaller transcription agencies specialize in this area, and some of them are open to hiring and training transcriptionists with no experience in production transcription. If you can get on board with one or two of these beginner-friendly companies, you can pitch your experience to other production transcription agencies and become a specialist in this area. Because production transcription is so niche, there are fewer applicants vying for these jobs.

4. Be more specific in online searches

When you’re looking for new contracts, you can find lists of transcription companies simply by searching for “freelance transcription jobs.” The downside is that these lists tend to include the same big transcription companies everyone already knows about, so the competition is fiercer (and the pay usually lower).

There are many smaller transcription agencies who are always looking for qualified freelancers, many of them higher-paying – the trouble is, they don’t often turn up at the top of the search results!

By being more specific in your Google searches, you can uncover these hidden gems. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Use location-specific keywords – for example, “transcription company chicago”
  • Use industry-specific keywords – for example, “production transcription company”
  • Use random, “wildcard” keywords – for example, “accurate transcription captioning services”
  • Use a combination of the above – for example, “accurate production transcription services chicago

5. Apply to small transcription companies in your area

If you spend any time perusing work-from-home blogs, you may have noticed the same two or three transcription companies mentioned again and again (hint: they hire freelance transcriptionists from anywhere in the world and pay less than 50 cents per audio minute). Maybe you’ve wondered if these are the only transcription opportunities out there.

But in fact, there are hundreds of smaller general and legal transcription agencies across the United States and Canada, some of them paying $1 per audio minute and up. Because these small businesses work mostly with local clients, they prefer to hire transcriptionists who are familiar with local culture, geography, names, events, and social issues. Therefore, applying to companies based in your city or state can give you an advantage. To find these companies, use a simple Google search – for example:

  • “legal transcription service” + state
  • “transcription company” + city

6. Network with experienced freelance transcriptionists

Other transcriptionists can refer you to their employers, send you overflow work, or share tips about freelance transcription job openings with you.

The Transcription Essentials forum is one of the most established transcription communities online. Because the forum features employers that pay $1 per audio minute and up, it’s a good resource for higher-paying transcription jobs. The forum is free, but you have to register to view and contribute to the forum threads.

There are also many Facebook groups for transcriptionists and virtual assistants where members share tips and job resources. However, don’t just sign up to a bunch of groups and spam them begging for work – that’s a good way to annoy everyone and get banned. Start with one or two active groups, and make sure to read the community rules and lurk for a bit to get to know the group culture. Then focus on building relationships with other members of the group.

7. Keep your search for freelance transcription jobs active year-round

Professional transcriptionists often start their careers with lower-paying contracts and work their way up. The best way to ensure that you keep advancing in your freelance transcription career is to keep your job search active, even when you already have one or two contracts under your belt.

Landing new freelance contracts is a numbers game. You might send in an application to a company you really want to work with and then not hear back because it’s the wrong timing. So keep applying to a few new places each week or month, and cycle back every few months to check in with the companies you don’t hear from. In this way, you can phase out your lower-paying contracts over time, or else use them as backup gigs.

8. Read my transcription blog

I’ve spent many hours researching and compiling freelance transcription job opportunities, and I publish all of this info for free on my work-from-home blog, so have a look around my Transcription category.

To save you some time, here are links to some of my top posts about freelance transcription jobs:

If you’re relatively new to transcription, you’ll also be interested in this detailed post about how to become a transcriptionist. And if you’re just beginning to explore legitimate work-from-home opportunities, you might check out this list of some of the top part-time online jobs available today.

Finally, remember that landing more high-quality freelance contracts is just one of multiple ways to increase your earnings as a professional transcriptionist. Here are two other ways you can boost your earnings:

  • Learn to transcribe faster. This doesn’t necessarily mean learning to type faster (although that certainly won’t hurt!). It could also mean learning to use the technology at your disposal, such as word expander software, advanced features in Microsoft Word, and even voice recognition software. For example, I started using Dragon to re-dictate my transcripts early on in my transcription career because of hand and wrist pain, and I love it so much that I would never think of going back to the old way of typing.
  • Get private clients. This is the single best way to increase your freelance transcription earnings. I typically earn $30-40 an hour transcribing for my clients, which is pretty standard. I don’t work on audio that’s so low quality that it’s practically un-transcribable. I’m currently putting together some resources on working with private clients, so stay tuned.

By applying the above tips, you can keep the freelance transcription assignments coming in from all directions so you never have to rely too heavily on one client.

Now go ye forth and get yourself some freelance transcription jobs!

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