Doing typing to earn extra income

ally_bally_3

Ooh thanks for your advice edible doormouse. I don't need to do audio (not much call for it from my main clients) but think its wise that I have the facilities to do it for my ad-hoc clients and was just about to start investigating some software (my old machine has not had much use in the last few years). I think I will give Express Scribe a go!

The_Edible_Dormouse

Although USB pedals seem to come up as often as hen's teeth on eBay (I'm keen to get a spare, as I'm reliant on it!). If you're handy with the function keys whilst touch typing, you could just about get away with it...

But I can really recommend the software. Nice piece of kit - infinitely better than anything expensive I've ever come across.

studiorex

Another source for work can be found in residential care homes for the elderly. My wife worked at one about 10 years ago and was often asked if she could type out peoples memoirs. She found it fascinating transcribing their stories that it made typing fly by.

sammy452

Excellent thread! I was just wondering if anyone had experience of being a virtual receptionist (taking calls remotely)?

HC_2

ally_bally wrote: »

Another website I have used is peopleperhour.com although the competition on this site is pretty fierce (especially when people from outwith the UK bid against you) but worth a look.

Thanks for this website, ally_bally. I'd never heard of it before. I've now registered and have just bid for a project.

The_Edible_Dormouse

studiorex wrote: »

Another source for work can be found in residential care homes for the elderly. My wife worked at one about 10 years ago and was often asked if she could type out peoples memoirs. She found it fascinating transcribing their stories that it made typing fly by.

I would love to do that. I do a lot of music therapy work with the elderly, and it's the nicest part of my working year. Thanks for the idea!

FlyingDutchman

Very interesting reading! For those that are interested in becoming a virtual assistant, I signed up to this website a few weeks ago - http://virtualassistants.co.uk/ and have had a few offers put my way. There has been nothing I've been interested in yet but hopefully something will come soon! Does anyone else have any more websites that I can sign up to?

The_Edible_Dormouse

I'd just like to add be a little wary of www.getafreelancer.com. I've pitched for two things on there, and been offered work, but then hugely under the stated project budget...both instances reported to the site, but no response.

Somewhere to get ideas for what to source for rather than actually getting work from, perhaps...

MothballsWallet

FlyingDutchman wrote: »

Very interesting reading! For those that are interested in becoming a virtual assistant, I signed up to this website a few weeks ago - http://virtualassistants.co.uk/ and have had a few offers put my way. There has been nothing I've been interested in yet but hopefully something will come soon! Does anyone else have any more websites that I can sign up to?

Just signed up for that, so many thanks for the tip.

I wonder if anything will come through for me. At least then I could work from home...

Back to the typing: I did see a voice recorder that connects to a USB port in a local stationers for about 40 quid a while back; I was thinking that perhaps, if my home-based typing business got better, I could buy a couple of those (searching for the best deals online of course), and be willing to rent them out to clients to record what they wanted typed, say with a 10-15 quid deposit (would want to guarantee getting them back, but without having a very expensive deposit)?

simpywimpy

Fulfillment companies sometimes do outwork which is basically typing in names and addresses that are then put on a disc and taken back to the offices. These are the things that you get on the back of cereal packets etc. Companies of this type are usually listed in the yellow pages.