If you are looking to make money online, transcription jobs can be a great way to do so.
Any strong typer can get started in transcription work, and the job often allows you to work from home and set your own schedule.
In this article, we’ll look at transcription and how Babbletype fits into the market.
We’ll talk about the process of working for Babbletype and then look at some Babbletype reviews from current and former employees.
Finally, we’ll answer the question: Is Babbletype a scam?
By the end of the article you should have a good sense for transcription work, Babbletype, and whether it’s a company you’d want to work for.
What Is Babbletype?
Transcription is the art of turning audio recordings into clean, typed out copy that represents everything that was said.
It’s vitally important for the work of journalists, lawyers, doctors, accountants, and anyone who needs to have an accurate record of exactly what was spoken over audio.
Babbletype is a transcription company focused on the market research industry — they built a reputation for offering more specialized services than general transcription companies like TranscribeMe.
They specialize in taking audio recordings of focus groups and providing clear, clean transcripts of what was said.
The CEO of Babbletype is John Feldcamp, who has spent decades working in the digital content production world.
He founded Babbletype with the goal of creating a focused service for marketers who need clean transcription as well as translation services.
Babbletype says it hires all transcribers in-house and never subcontracts out like other companies.
Babbletype also offers translation services, taking rough audio of foreign language speakers and delivering clean English-language transcripts.
For translation services, Babbletype charges $3.75 per audio minute for a three-day turnaround and the delivery of an English-language translation for audio in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Other languages will run you $4.75 a minute and may take a little longer.
Working for Babbletype
Babbletype are proofreaders as well as typists and transcriptionists.
Offering proofreading services — a trusted editor who goes over a transcript to find errors, clear up context, etc. — is a major way Babbletype sets itself apart from competitors.
Babbletype also prefers transcriptionists who are based in the United States, as a major part of their pitch is that they do not outsource the work to transcriptionists overseas.
While remote proofreading jobs come about infrequently, Babbletype is almost always looking for new transcriptionists and translators.
They are primarily looking for translators who speak one of the 10 most spoken languages on Earth — Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish — but also disclose your specializations in other languages, as they might offer occasional jobs in that language.
To apply, Babbletype asks that you first watch an informational video about joining the team and their expectations regarding working for them.
The film is a bit of a doozy — over 30 minutes long — but Babbletype does this to clarify they seek committed transcriptionists.
They also ask you to take a short test after the movie.
Watching the movie and passing the quiz is your way to show you’re committed to the job.
Once you begin work, Babbletype has a daily, editable document which allows transcribers to see open jobs and grab them.
The process can be daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s about checking in often to see open jobs and grabbing the ones you want.
These jobs will have audio length, due date, and some other information so you know exactly what you’re signing up for.
Getting Paid
Babbletype pays by the audio minute, not the work minute, so whether you take 10 minutes or an hour to transcribe three minutes of audio, you’re paid the same.
This is industry standard for transcription companies and data entry jobs and it encourages you to be quick to make the work worthwhile.
That’s also why we recommend investing in solid tools for digital freelancers before you launch a transcribing career or side hustle.
Good, comfortable headphones are key.
It’s also great to have a foot pedal, which hooks up to your computer and allows you to pause, rewind, and play audio without taking your fingers off the keys.
Babbletype transcriptionists are labeled as independent contractors, meaning they won’t withhold taxes from your paycheck.
Rather, you’ll need to budget for annual taxes yourself.
Transcriptionists are paid weekly via PayPal.
Before you sign up, you will need to create a PayPal account so you can get paid.
Babbletype Reviews
Reviews for Babbletype on the anonymous employer review website Glassdoor are mixed.
However, the pros and cons seem consistent.
One pro a current employee brought up in a Babbletype review was that you get to work from home and set your own schedule.
For people with difficulty leaving the house ( high on our list of jobs for introverts), this can be a great positive.
For others who need flexibility with the schedule due to health issues or other demands, the job is very convenient.
Current and former employees of Babbletype also said the pay was consistently delivered on time via PayPal.
Many complaints about Babbletype centered around the spreadsheet they use to assign jobs.
Many complained that it was a bit confusing at first, and that when many people tried to grab jobs simultaneously, it could get bogged down.
There were also complaints about transcribers trying to steal jobs after they’d already been claimed.
The other major complaint was regarding the proofreading process.
Transcribers who want to work quickly sometimes dislike being graded by a proofreader, who can demand work be redone if they think a transcription is unusable.
Some transcribers argue that files with poor quality audio make it nearly impossible to transcribe accurately, and they believe the proofreading process is too rigid.
Is Babbletype a Scam?
If you do a quick Google search, you’ll see that many transcription services get accused of not being “legit.”
From our research, this often has to do with how people’s expectations differ from the reality of transcription work.
Transcription jobs are attractive because they don’t require much specialized training.
If you have a laptop and can type, there are many places that will give you a chance as a transcriptionist.
Combine that with the fact that many of these jobs allow you to work from home, and set your own hours, and it’s unsurprising that many people would want to at least try transcription work.
But transcription work is inconsistent, as there aren’t always jobs to bid on.
Because of this, it’s hard to make it work as a full-time job.
Even when you do get work, the pay is based on the audio minute, not the time it takes you to do the work.
Slow typers or people struggling to hear poor audio may feel that they receive low pay when it takes a long time to transcribe a short audio clip.
Make Money With Babbletype
People looking for work-from-home jobs should absolutely look into transcription work.
While it can be onerous at times, you can set your own schedule, work remotely, and make consistent money that comes every week.
If you have an interest in marketing or are just looking for any gig transcribing, Babbletype is a decent option to check out.
They’re focused on market research, meaning the jobs are consistent in content, and you can learn a lot about the market research field.
They let you set your own hours, receive weekly pay via Paypal, and if you have translating skills, you can earn extra money.
By reading this article, you should have a good sense of Babbletype and what it takes to work for them.
Bon chance!
I worked for them, and I would recommend against it. The pay is considerably lower than other transcribing jobs, and they don’t raise the pay for more difficult assignments, like very heavily accented audio that is difficult to understand. Also, their proofreaders do not consistently flag the same kinds of errors. Some of them seem to be trying to find a quota of errors (the company pays less for an assignment with lots of errors), and they often tag things as being wrong that aren’t like saying you’ve misheard something, when you had it down correctly. I had that happen frequently. At best, they just aren’t listening closely when proofing, at worst they are actively trying to pay you less. Hard to tell which. The issues with this company don’t stop there, but suffice it to say, it is not a decent income source for the time you have to spend. I’m not the fastest typist, but im not slow either, and I barely made enough for groceries.