Indexing, proof reading and transcription work advice please

lunarmoon2030

Hellos anyone doing any transcription, proof reading or indexing work ? If so, how did you get started any advice on skills, training courses and best ways to get work would be appreciated please
Thanks
Luna

Dox

Sorry to sound discouraging, but it's hard work, difficult to break into and not well paid. Ignore all the advertisements promising lucrative returns for a short training. Unless you've got existing contacts, you'll struggle to get any work because it's the old chicken and egg: you'll normally only get work if you have experience, and you can't get experience because you can't get work.

Sandtree

Echo the above, finding work that pays a reasonable rate is the biggest challenge. 

Mrs did a one off exercise with subtitles and translation (which is another form of transcribing really)  and got the “going rate” (which is based on the length of the video) which she was ok about but if you looked at the per hour rate it worked out to be it was below NMW.  She did briefly look to see if there were other similar jobs to make something of it but it remained a one off.

There is certainly some kit you can get for transcription work that enables you to control the source material without taking your hands off the keyboard... something not worth getting for a one off. I’d also ask what software can do for you these days and so the job becomes more checking than doing the heavy lifting but all of these things will take time and money to resolve which is pointless if you havent identified your revenue streams.

Marcon

You only have to look at a site such as this to realise there are hundreds of others all seeking clients in this sort of field: https://www.peopleperhour.com/services/proof+reader?ref=search

Ditzy_Mitzy

lunarmoon2030 said:

Hellos anyone doing any transcription, proof reading or indexing work ? If so, how did you get started any advice on skills, training courses and best ways to get work would be appreciated please
Thanks
Luna

Please don't take this personally, as I don't wish to put you off, but the English used in your initial post falls somewhat short of the standards necessary for ordinary business correspondence; let alone those needed for professional proofreading.  There are words missing, along with grammatical and typographical errors.  Don't run before you can walk, especially if English isn't your first language. 
My advice is to try and get good at it: read widely and read well, write freely and start with the basics of spelling and grammar.  Really learn that stuff, don't rely on a computer.  Get a diary and write an entry a day or, failing that, a poem or a description of something interesting you've seen.  Be prepared to criticise yourself, become willing to tear apart every sentence you write to see what's wrong with it and what could be better.  Check everything.  Become technician and artist and then, perhaps, think about analysing others' writings.  There's always linguistics, too, if you really want to get serious.  English is a wonderful language, perhaps the best; certainly the most flexible and versatile and downright useful.  It can be cruel too, with all its idiosyncrasies and pitfalls and blind alleys.  It is more rewarding than it is frustrating, however.  

GHolmesAdmin

I worked as a proofreader once, I can't remember how I slithered into it but I got straight out again.

Brynsam

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

lunarmoon2030 said:

Hellos anyone doing any transcription, proof reading or indexing work ? If so, how did you get started any advice on skills, training courses and best ways to get work would be appreciated please
Thanks
Luna

Please don't take this personally, as I don't wish to put you off, but the English used in your initial post falls somewhat short of the standards necessary for ordinary business correspondence; let alone those needed for professional proofreading.  There are words missing, along with grammatical and typographical errors.  Don't run before you can walk, especially if English isn't your first language. 
My advice is to try and get good at it: read widely and read well, write freely and start with the basics of spelling and grammar.  

Why, when there are plenty of native English speakers already touting for business in these areas? If English isn't OP's first language, then they might do better to offer their services as a proof reader in their own native tongue, where there might be much less competition.