Typing and Transcription Services by Virtuadmin are undertaken by manual typing processes. No automatic speech recognition software or AI programs are used in the conversion of recorded speech to text or in the process of uneditable documents such as scanned documents and PDFs copy-typed into Word.
Virtu@dmin
Digital Audio Transcription & Typing Services
Small Businesses Outsource Typing & Transcription
Professional and affordable typing and transcription services in the Midlands, UK. Over 20 years of typing and transcribing experience to assist businesses, individuals and entrepreneurs in growing their business successfully.
The Value of Typing & Transcription Services
10 Valuable Comma Prompts To Quickly Improve Your Writing
A presentation of 10 Comma rules and examples to help you improve your content writing.
20 Call-To-Action Phrases
Conversion optimization has always been a hot topic in internet marketing. To be honest, all of us already know the best call to action phrases or marketing techniques out there! Yet, here you are, reading through this post in hopes of improving your conversion rates.
What are you missing? There may be a lot of ways to improve your conversion rates, but we cannot stress it enough; targeted call to action phrases work, and it has been proven.
A Professional Transcriber’s Software: What You Need To Know
It is often a misconception that transcription software used by professional transcribers automatically converts the speech into text. This is not the case, transcribers listen to the dialogue and manually type what they hear into an electronic text document.
Podcast Packages: The Affordable Way To Get More Listeners
Are you are in business? Considering starting a podcast? Or, do you have an established podcast show? This post is how to attract more listeners with a podcast package (show notes).
The cost-effective way is to get a ‘podcast package’ produced by an experienced service like Virtuadmin. Virtuadmin learned that transcription vendors do not offer a bespoke service for podcasters.
‘How to Grow Your Podcast Audience with Transcription Services’ written by Virtuadmin. Upwork published this article on their blog. Our client emailed asking for details of the podcast package that we describe in the article. We have been working together ever since.
Let us begin with a clear explanation of what a podcast is. A podcast defined by ‘Wikipedia’ is:
A podcast or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download in order to listen to.
There many types of podcasts. Music, chat, an interview, or one person speaking about advice or guidance in a specific niche, to name a few. Podcasts are a versatile media that you can listen to. You can download and listen to a podcast whilst driving, jogging in the park, walking the dog, working out at the gym. These are a few examples of how easy it is to listen and retain information. Much higher than watching a video, for example.
Whatever type of podcast your produce, or considering, you need a podcast package. Also known as ‘show notes’, they consist of a few different elements. There are two advantages to having show notes with your podcast.
1) It has more accessibility for the dear and hard-of-hearing communities.
2) The extra text from the digital document SEO crawlers ranks your podcast higher in results.
A digital text file of your episodes immediately opens up your podcast to a new audience. They could be deaf, hard-of-hearing or have auditory processing issues. They are able to take part in the ever-growing popularity of podcasts. This helps them with a transcript they can read.
SEO Benefits of a transcript
Now, are you thinking how does a transcript help with Search Engine Optimisation? I will explain this and make it easy to understand. SEO crawler bots whichever search engine is your preferred choice. Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, DuckDuckGo to mention a few of the popular search engines. They all have bots, spiders, crawlers, to index pages of websites, text posts, and so on. They index audio and video content by title and meta description to enable them to show up for a specific query.
They cannot view or see videos and they cannot hear or listen to the speech spoken in audio, they can only read the text. This is why the title and meta descriptions are so important for indexing and SEO purposes. They inform the SEO bots crawling websites and indexing them what the content of your audio is about. In general, the more text available for SEO bots (also known as spiders, crawlers, robots) to read, the more they understand and index it. That is a lot more indexing, and the outcome is higher SEO results.
Search engines are, for the most part, entities that rely on automated software agents called spiders, crawlers, robots and bots. Click To Tweet
The benefit of a transcript is that it adds so much more text about your spoken audio content. For example, a transcript of a 30-minute podcast that we did recently amounted to 6,227 words. That includes the subheadings; it is 6,227 extra words that crawler bots can analyse and index, because of the transcript.
The text document is full of keyword-rich keywords. If it is only you speaking, or you have participants in the podcast. For example, during an interview with an expert. That is what we do for one of our clients, exactly that. We transcribe business podcast interviews with consultants and experts; we produce the show notes.
Another consideration here is that we are all different. Some people prefer to read content and not listen and vice versa. So you could offer the transcript as an incentive for listeners to subscribe to your podcast. Offer them the opportunity to download the full transcript for free.
By downloading the podcast episode’s transcript, then you can read the time-stamped highlights. Listeners can locate the particular chapter in the podcast that interests them. This is an incentive to draw listeners in. They don’t need to listen in full if they are short of time, but also reading can be so much quicker.
Benefits of a podcast transcription
- You can outsource the transcription process for a budget that you can afford. A freelance transcriptionist could have experience in producing show notes, or similar. Try using networks such as People Per Hour or, if you have the time, send out some emails for a quote and turnaround time.
- Non-native English speakers that have knowledge of the English Language. For them, it would assist in their improvement of English as a second or third language.
- Your listeners have the option to download the transcript and print it out if they wish to make notes. They do not have to play and replay the audio for a particular point that interested them.
Facts and Statistics of Podcasting
The statistics of how many podcasts shows there are is growing. Podcast Insights from their data that currently there are 630,000 podcast shows with the UK. Almost 6 million adult listeners and the US has 73 million that listen to a podcast at least once a month. UK podcast listeners per week have almost doubled in five years – from 3.2m (7% of adults aged 15+) in 2013 to 5.9m (11%) in 2018. The various way you can consume a podcast helps. Mobile phone, tablet, laptop, mp3 player, car cd player. These are all viable means of consuming podcast content, even at leisure.
How can podcast show notes benefit you?
How a Podcast Package Helps Your Listeners
An introduction to your podcast show gives your listeners information about the content. This gives them the choice of whether this episode is one they want to listen to, or not. The same for your hosting site, giving a description shows a snippet of what the show is about. Subheadings with time-stamps underneath your introduction. Your listeners can fast-forward to a particular part in the audio. This is convenient and saves them a lot of time.
Podcasts are a great way to consume and keep information, whether it is for business or pleasure. Walking in the park with the dog, working out at the gym, cooking in your kitchen, driving. A podcast is a much easier way of listening to content. Having a podcast package, this makes your podcast easier to access. It also saves your audience time if they do not want to listen to the whole episode.
The Future of Podcasting
The future of podcasting looks bright, it is on the increase in the UK. A post from September 2018 by ofcom.org (UK) shows the increase in listening from a range of sources including Rajar, ACast and TouchPoints to investigate the rise in podcast listening. Here is what they found:
The United States has also experienced an increase of podcast listener activity and Podcast Insights published these statistics:
If you host a regular podcast show and would like to try my service before hiring me on a regular basis directly, hire me on the freelance website People Per Hour first. Although you do pay a little bit more (because of fees that we freelancers have to pay) you do get to see the quality of my work.
By ordering our service, exclusively on People Per Hour to transcribe your podcast and produce your ‘podcast package’ (show notes) you see the quality of my work while being assured that by funding Escrow through the platform, that you will get the project completed and to your satisfaction. You do not release any funds until you are happy with what has been produced for you. Working with People Per Hour for the last five years, it has worked very well for us and has gained us a few regular clients through their network.
The downside to that is they charge the freelancer 20% of the cost you pay to the freelancer, and therefore by hiring our professional transcription service through the website, you are paying a little bit more.
You can get in touch with us directly, however, transcription fill in the form below and we will be straight back with answers to any questions you have. We do and have worked very successfully with contractors of our services directly, paying us via Paypal with an invoice that we produce for you. fill is by negotiation as to the frequency of invoicing and payment, but we are flexible in our terms.
So, just fill out of the form below, and we will be back to you very shortly. We do various types of transcription projects, not just podcast transcription. Interview transcription is a popular requirement and also medical transcription. Having previously worked as a medical secretary and also through medical transcription work from home more recently.
Sources: https://bellocollective.com/the-podcasters-guide-to-transcribing-audio-2121f9e7992f
http://bit.ly/2EWn9zB
http://bit.ly/2EW5rfG
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2018/uk-podcast-listening-booms
https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/
Audio Transcription
Audio Transcription FAQ's
What is audio transcription?
Transcribing audio is the skill and art of listening to and converting recorded speech from either audio or video into a digital text document that you can read, print, or add to a video.
To increase the accuracy and speed of the speech-to-text process from recorded speech, a transcriber uses a foot pedal. See the picture to the left of the exact foot pedal used by Virtuadmin for audio transcription projects.
How long does audio transcription take?
There are many factors to take into consideration when determining how long the audio transcription takes. First and foremost the following factors need to be taken into consideration:
- What is the audio quality like?
- Is there any background noise? It could have been recorded in a public place (not recommended) is there static in the recording?
- How many speakers are in the audio?
- Do the speaker/s have an accent?
- Is the transcription to be intelligent verbatim (um's, ah's and repetitive words or sayings like, 'you know' and 'sort of' or strict verbatim, where these are left in the transcript, every little detail is transcribed).
All of these elements need to be taken into consideration when trying to estimate the length of time for a professional transcriber with a touch typing speed of 80 words per minute to turn our recorded speech into text.
How is audio transcription charged?
In the United Kingdom, audio transcription is charged by the audio minute, and not the time it takes to convert recorded speech into text. It takes approximately 4-6 hours for a professional transcriber to manually listen and type ONE HOUR of recorded audio.
For our audio transcription service at Virtuadmin our rate starts at 60p per audio minute for a clear single-speaker audio.
If you have any other questions regarding audio transcription, please do not hesitate to email me at hello@virtuadmin.uk and I would be happy to answer any further questions.
What you need to be a successful work from home transcriber
The Best Free Logo Maker For Your New Business or Start-Up
When you have found the template you want to use click on it and start editing. You will have a pop-up screen asking you for your business name and your business slogan, both of these are optional. I did type in the text and it helped a lot when starting to 'get a feel' for how it worked.
∗Tip: If you cannot find what you want in either the icon, text, shape or background elements go back to the icon tab and type it into the search box. It will find you loads of results, trust me!
Design Tabs
These are your four design tabs for each of the design process of your new logo, Icon, Text, Shape, Background. You have the icon tab, where you can search for anything that you may not be able to find. When you are new to the site you don't necessarily know where to look to find something specific.
Within these tabs that are more options and features that I am now going to go through for you, hopefully making the design process that little bit easier for the first few times you use it.
Icon
Here it will store all the things you've searched for previously in the templates library in the form of text bubbles. You can click on them if that is the object you want or perform a search. Whatever effect or shape you are looking for, enter it into the search box and it will find you lots of objects to choose from.
Shape Tab
In the shape section of the design tabs, there are a further seven sub-sections that nicely categorise things to make designing that little bit quicker.
These sub-sections are again, nicely categorised for easy searching of what you are looking for. They are self-explanatory of their element contents, but still nicely grouped to make things quicker and easier to find.
Background
Most other logo-creator websites offer either a transparent background or solid fill. With DesignEvo gradients are available to you too. What is great about it is that you can create your own custom colour for the start of the gradient and the depth of it to its fullest. You can pick which side it falls on, right, bottom, left, right, it's your choice. To add a custom colour just click the '+' symbol in the either of the solid fill or gradient background and there you will have a colour palette to choose from.
Pricing Plans
DesignEvo is focused on providing an affordable logo-creation service. You have a choice of three price plans, Free, Basic and Plus (Premium). Of course, as with most websites where you are using their templates and software, you are restricted within the free plan. Having said that, looking at the pricing of DesignEvo I think you will agree, it can be affordable for even the smallest of budgets, if not now, in the future.
Even with the free plan, it's a great deal, you get the quality with JPG and PNG file formats, and can edit and re-download but you are restricted on how many times you can do this.
With their paid plans, it is not per month it is a one-off payment. So you get the best of everything for a one-off fee, no recurring payments or forgetting to the cancel the subscription after a free trial, this is DesignEvo designed for the smallest of budgets, whilst retaining quality and professionalism of their graphics, all at a great price of free or a maximum expenditure of $40 (approx. £30) for a lifetime of designing and downloading professionally created logos and graphics.
Conclusion
From the minute that I discovered DesignEvo a couple a few days ago, I knew that I just had to share this great new feature and write a post about it. I think it offers such a great service and opportunity for those that don't have the biggest of budgets for something that is required in order to succeed.
You don't need to download any software, you use it in your browser. It is very quick when searching for icons or effects, and has little outlines that are visible when your cursor hovers over an object you've placed in your graphic. Whilst this object is selected, if you have re-sized it, clicking on a different object it will change within that selected re-sized area and stay that size too!
When aligning objects up it has the useful alignment and gridlines, so nothing is out of alignment. (unless you want it to be!)
All-in-all this is a brilliant free logo creation website that offers affordable logo designing for your business, start-up or you just need a professional logo for a new brand or re-branding. It is very easy and intuitive to use, easy to set-up and get started. When you've finished your logo it is really quick to download your professionally designed logo, directly into your downloads folder.
One last thing, the screenshots you see throughout this post you see me designing a 'Virtuadmin' logo and this is the finished logo, what do you think?
What is audio transcription? [Video]
How to Avoid Becoming a Money Mule
Common Fraud Threats And How to Avoid Them
This is so true…
14 Tools to Help Bloggers Create Graphics
This post has not been written by the team at Virtu@dmin. Virtu@dmin have been given permission to publish this post by the Community Manager at blogging.com.
It is no secret that the attention span of your typical reader is getting shorter and shorter.
However, content marketing is king, and if one of the methods you use to provide information to users is the humble blog, how do you keep your users’ attention on your post?
The short answer: create visual interest.
It can be difficult to produce sufficient content to power your posts. Not only do you have to come up with the clever, creative ideas, but you also have to put in the work to bring your vision to reality.
While we can do only a bit to help you with the idea generation process, there are many tools that can help you create eye-catching visuals.
In this article, we will cover some of the apps and tools that we think you will find helpful for creating powerful visuals that will have your visitors coming back for more.
Infographics & Data Visualizations
Infographics are a great way to combine written content with visual graphics in a linear, guided format. This is especially true if your writing contains a lot of statistics and other facts.
Such content could be difficult to read when written in paragraph form, but when you convert it to an infographic, it is easier for your visitors to read and digest.
Furthermore, infographics are a great way to marry text and visuals in an interesting, non-linear way.
Make no mistake, however: infographics are hard to create. In addition to the writing and the image creation (both of which are difficult tasks in and of themselves), you now have to consider the layout of your information.
If you are interested in creating infographics, there are many tools out there that can help you. The following are some good options to get you started.
Easel.ly
Easelly is a tool for “creating and sharing visual ideas.” What makes this product stand out from its peers are the templates you can use to create your own infographics.
As we stated above, one of the reasons infographics are difficult to do is that they require a good grasp of design and layout principles. With Easelly, you can minimize the amount of work you have to do in this area and simply focus on the content itself. You just pick a template and populate the predetermined spots with your images and written text.
Easelly offers free templates that you can use, but if you do not see anything that would fit your needs, you can upgrade to gain access to the premium templates.
Infogram
Another option for creating data-driven visuals is Infogram. In addition to infographics, Infogram allows you to create things like:
- Reports
- Charts
- Dashboards
- Maps
- Social Media Visuals
To create infographics in Infogram, you can use the included drag-and-drop editor. There are templates that you can use, but you have the flexibility to change as much (or as little) as you would like. If you do not have enough content to populate your infographics, your Infogram subscription includes access to a large library of stock images and icons.
When you are done, you have many different options for exporting your work:
- Sharing to your favourite cloud services
- Integrating with the APIs of your choice
- Downloading your files in PNG, GIF, JPEG, HTML, or PDF format
Generally speaking, we think that Infogram has a steeper learning curve that Easelly, but if you are looking for something that offers infinite flexibility and powerful functionality, you cannot go wrong with Infogram. It may take some time for you to get up to speed with Infogram, but once you do, you will be able to create pretty much anything you would like.
Piktochart
Finally, we wanted to mention Piktochart, which we see as a middle ground between Easelly and Infogram. Piktochart’s feature set is closer to Infogram’s, but it is easier to use a la Easelly.
If you are interested in creating more than just infographics, but you find the learning curve of Infogram too steep, try Piktochart.
Photo Collages
We mentioned above some options for creating photo collages that revolve around Instagram, but what if you want a stand-alone option or one that is not affiliated with Facebook/Instagram?
PicMonkey
First up is PicMonkey, which is a great option that allows you to do things like:
- Edit and touch-up your photos
- Design images, such as cover art
- Create collages
PicMonkey also comes with a robust community and in-depth documentation, so if you are new to working with images, there are lots of helpful resources available to you. You could go through a tutorial or see what others have done to get inspiration for your next project.
If you are working in multiple environments, PicMonkey offers solutions for desktop/laptop computers and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
Pic Stitch
If PicMonkey is not the option for you, check out Pic Stitch (which is available for iOS and Android users).
Pic Stitch is more limited feature-wise than PicMonkey, but the upside to this is that there are fewer options to bog you down.
Pic Stitch offers (in addition to the basic photo editing tools you would expect):
- Photo filters
- Collage creation functionality
- Integrations with many other apps and services so you can move your content around with ease
- The ability to edit one or many pictures simultaneously
Quotable Images
Remember, images do not have to be pictures — if you have written content that you want to be emphasized, you can easily turn your quotations into images.
Quozio
If you are looking for something that is supremely easy to use and comes with no hassle, check out Quozio.
You simply provide your quote and its attribution, and Quozio will take care of the rest. The background is not fancy, but it is still an image that you can use on your website.
Recite
Recite is another web-based tool that lets you turn your quotations into images. It is a step above Quozio in that you have to choose a background image in addition to providing your quotation.
When you are done, you can choose to:
- Post to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, or StumbleUpon
- Download your image
- Copy and save the link to the image you have just created
- Email your image to the address(es) you provide
Video Production
People love videos; if there is anything people love more than pictures, it is videos.
However, creating videos, especially those that run a bit longer, can be difficult. Luckily, there are many tools out there that can be used to help you create and edit your video files.
RenderForest
When it comes to video creation, RenderForest is one of the most popular tools around. It is a flexible, full-featured, cloud-based tool that allows you to create videos both short and long (in addition to other visuals, such as infographics and presentations).
The biggest perk to using RenderForest is the templates — while you are ultimately responsible for providing content, you can use the templates to help guide you in creating your videos. Furthermore, RenderForest comes with stock slides and the like to help you fill in gaps (such as during transition periods).
Ripl
For a light-weight alternative to RenderForest, consider Ripl.
Ripl is an app for iOS and Android devices used for creating videos specifically for social media (though there is nothing stopping you from also using this content on your blogs or websites). Ripl’s product is aimed at small business owners, but we think that more than just business people will find Ripl useful.
Rather than having you film your videos, you provide a series of pictures, which Ripl then stitches together to create a video. The entire creation process takes places in three steps:
- Add photos and text to include in your final product
- Choose a design for your video and customize the style
- Write a caption, add hashtags, and share your video
Currently, you can export your Ripl creations to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you need your content elsewhere, many tools, apps, and services offer support for YouTube videos.
Lumen5
We mentioned above that you can turn text into images, but you might also consider turning text into videos. One easy way to do this is with Lumen5.
What’s really cool about Lumen5 is the automation feature — you provide a blog post or an RSS feed, and the Lumen5 AI system helps you:
- Summarize your content
- Match each scene with related videos, photos, and music
If you do not have enough content as is, your subscription gets you access to Lumen5’s media, which contains millions of free-to-use media files.
The Instagram Family
If you have not been living under a rock, you know that Instagram is a popular Facebook-owned app that allows its users to share pictures and videos (either publicly or privately to a list of pre-approved viewers).
In addition to being useful as a stand-alone tool, Instagram allows you to do a lot of cool things to your photos and videos, and with the appropriate social media integrations, you can use the content you create on Instagram elsewhere.
There are many features built into the Instagram app itself, including its famous filters, but to help you create even more cool content, the company has released three stand-alone apps you might find useful:
- Boomerang
- Hyperlapse
- Layout
Used correctly, these apps help you create content that offers a user experience more engaging than a single, still photo.
Boomerang
Boomerang lets you take photos that are then consolidated into a short, one-second-long video that plays in a back-and-forth loop. (Available in the Apple iStore and Google Play)
Hyperlapse
Hyperlapse allows you to create shots that track the subject and are then used to create time-lapse videos. (Available in iOS only.)
Layout
The Instagram app allows you to post multiple pictures as a single post, but if you want multiple pictures to display on the same image, you can use Layout to create a photo collage. (Available in iOS only.)
Other Apps of Interest
These apps do not fall into any of the above categories, but we think you will find them useful when it comes to creating an engaging piece.
BIGVU
Are you tired of memorizing lines or doing retakes because you’ve stumbled over something you were planning to say? BIGVU’s Teleprompter feature means that you can turn your smartphone into a tiny teleprompter for easy video making. Simply look at the camera on your phone and read the lines that scroll up on your screen for a natural-looking reading of your script!
BIGVU also comes with editing features that allow you to change the background or add captions.
Captiona
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but getting great photos is only part of the battle — you will need a great caption to provide context and clarity to your images.
A caption-less visual is a lost opportunity to hook your readers further.
However, writing captivating captions for your pictures and videos can be exhausting (have we mentioned how difficult it can be to be witty and clever all the time?), so you might consider going to Captiona for help.
Captiona is a search engine for social media captions. You can enter keywords relevant to your photo or video, such as “studying,” “on vacation,” or “family,” and Captiona returns with options you can either use as-is or modify to fit your needs better.
If you see something you do not want to use now (but could find useful later), you can swipe left on the caption to save it for later use.
Summary
Creating posts with visual impact — whether via images, videos, or something in between — is essential when it comes to capturing and keeping your visitors’ attention on your content.
Creating such content, however, is not easy, so in this article, we have rounded up a set of apps, tools, and solutions you can use to make your content creation processes faster and easier. Have a favourite tool or app we’re missing from this list? Leave a comment and let us know.
How to stay safe on freelance jobs websites in 2018
Whether you are sending a proposal or quote to a freelance job/task that meets your expert skills, or you’ve received a direct message from a person or business in relation to your skills and a possible long-term job opportunity, here are some tips, from experience, on how to stay safe and be sure that the job is actually genuine and not a scam in 2018 and beyond.
PeoplePerHour, the online freelance market, reckons self-employment in the UK and the US is currently growing at an average rate of more than 3 per cent. Based on official labour market statistics, PeoplePerHour predicts self-employment will grow at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent over the next five years in the UK and at 3.2 per cent in the US.
Work from home
One of the things that is making freelancing more popular and attractive to people is the ease of doing it, possibly from home like so many do as self-employed remote workers/freelancers/entrepreneurs. If you have an internet connection, familiar with the internet and a computer, there’ll always be something you can do online for money.
But for some people becoming self-employed is scary, especially if you are quitting your regular job to freelance. Maybe you had a temporary position or you’ve been made redundant and need to find a new regular income, as soon as possible, but freelancing is growing rapidly.
Freelancing
The decline in jobs opportunities in the marketplace, with proper part or full-time contracts and not 0-Hour contracts popular here in the UK, people are having to resort to freelancing to a certain extent.
Having now been freelancing as Virtuadmin for nearly 5 years now, there are some things, as I said, from experience that I would like to share with you and help you to stay safe when freelancing, offering your skills and services through freelancing websites.
There are many jobs sites out there online today, where you can offer your skills and expertise at a fraction of the cost of your competitors, to businesses or those requiring that skill as a one-off. This again is due to the advancement of the internet; the ease of connectivity to the internet from within your own home enables you to network, chatting with people about what it is you do. Then gain contracts, either short or long-term and build up your online reputation.
Freelancing Tips to Stay Safe
Here are some tips to protect yourself, and to be sure that the job is genuine and that you are going to get paid for your professional services.
- If you are messaged directly on a freelance platform from someone, for example claiming that you have been selected, after an in-depth profile review, for a live chat on any platform. This is another bit of experience gained this year by Virtuadmin. Approached on the Truelancer freelance jobs website, we were told exactly that. Our profile had been researched and approved for an interview and therefore Live Chat on Google Hangouts. You can read more about this in the post “Are Freelancers the new prey for money laundering scammers?”
- Any job description or task that has the job description posted as an attachment, rather than the description in the ‘Description’ or ‘Job description’ portion of the freelance vacancy, then this looks suspicious. Why? Well, if the job is genuine, why put it as an attachment, such as a PDF document for you to read what the job entails?
- Check out the buyer profile of your service. Have they completed projects on this particular freelancer site before? Is their feedback good from previous sellers that this buyer has worked with? This is another way to check that it isn’t just a fleeting scam by someone, that they and the job vacancy is genuine.
- Make sure that the platform you are work through enables the job funds to be paid for in advance, and then held securely until you and your client are both happy with the job provided to them and therefore your funds are released to your, within of course their terms and conditions. Had a job in our early freelancing days when someone needed a video transcription urgently. It had a strong accent but needed it to be done ASAP. Eager to earn good feedback we got on with the transcription, only to find the website in question, didn’t require the buyer of your service to pay for the task in advance. Therefore, he got a completely free transcription and the freelance website concerned did not intervene between buyer and us as the freelancers because they claimed the same as they cannot make a freelancer do a job they don’t want to do but thought they could or didn’t want to do, they can’t make a buyer pay for a job, even though I could prove that Virtuadmin had completed the work.
- If approached by someone to guest post on your website or blog, check them or their organisation they represent. Although this isn’t directly connected to using freelance job websites, as a freelancer you may have set-up a website or blog to get your services known in your particular niche area of expertise.
Why check them out? I had an instance a while back, where I received an email asking to put a personalised guest blog post around our niche on our website, virtuadmin.uk and in return could we link to them as the authours, obviously referencing them and therefore creating a backlink. I initially agreed, then after receiving the article, a few more emails back and forth and then just before I hit publish I researched them. They were only our biggest competitor in the virtual assistant/transcription outsourcing world. I have gone into more depth about this in a post back in May 2017, which you can read it here “Guest Posting and Link Building: My Warning“.
We are sharing these tips with you our fellow freelancers so that you do get paid for your hard work, and that you do not get scammed, or fall for jobs that seem entirely genuine, even as an attachment to a job. These tips are for you to take onboard, bear in mind, not just for 2018, but beyond and for always whilst you have a freelance career, whatever service you provide virtually, through freelance jobs websites.