Speechpad Review – Legit Work at Home Transcription Jobs

Hi, thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you found my Speechpad Review.

If you're looking for a job you can do from home and earn some extra money in your spare time, you're not alone. Whether you need money, or you're just trying to supplement an at-home lifestyle, companies like Speechpad can help.  

Or at least they say they can help…

Speechpad hires freelancers mainly for transcription work, and as an independent contractor you can transcribe audio and video for clients worldwide. 

Not all transcriptions companies are created equal though. 

In this review, I'll go over who Speechpad is, what they do, how they work and help you decide if they're right for you. And of course, when it comes to making money from home, the obvious question is whether they're legit or a scam.  

So I'll talk about that too. 

Speechpad is a great place to get started in transcription and get transcription jobs from home for beginners – no experience required. You can practice transcribing and find out if transcription work is a good fit for you.

It is one of the better transcription companies to get transcription jobs for beginners – no experience required.

Speechpad provides a wide variety of transcription work, including video transcription, SEO and insurance transcription. Some transcripts must be slightly edited while others are verbatim transcription.

Speechpad also recruits captioners for video captioning.

Here is some information to help you decide if Speechpad is the right transcription company for you to get started in transcription work from home.

This is the company’s description of the work:

“You’ll need to listen to audio files or watch videos, and type out whatever is spoken.

In the process, you’ll do minor editing such as ignoring filler words such as: um, uh, er, ah, like, okay, I mean, and you know. This is called “clean copy” transcription, and it applies to most of our jobs. Some jobs require “verbatim” transcription, which requires you to type out every verbal utterance, including filler words, stutters, etc. Beginners usually start with clean copy transcription.”

Qualification Requirements to Get Transcription Jobs From Home

• No experience needed but you need to pass a transcription test. You’ll know immediately if you passed the tests or not and you can retake a test if you didn’t pass it. 
• They employ transcribers in English-speaking countries only and the majority of their transcribers are located in the US.
• You must be fluent in English.
• You must have a typing speed of at least 40 words per minute.
• You must have solid grammar and punctuation skills.
• You need to understand various accents and dialects.
• You must be detail oriented and comfortable searching the web to find the correct spelling of proper nouns and technical terms.
• You have to sign a confidentiality agreement.

• You can choose to use their web-based transcription software which is user-friendly or use your choice of transcription software (for example the free ExpressScribe). You should expect that it takes 2-4 times the length of the file to complete transcribing it (depending on your speed and difficulty of the file).
• They recommend (but don’t require) using a headphone and foot pedal.

Recent pay info from the company

• All jobs are priced per audio minute. The pay depends on priority, audio quality, language and more. Rush jobs pay more.
• Transcription jobs pay from $0.25/min (or $15 per audio hour) for entry-level work to $1.00/min for work that requires more experience.
• Captioning jobs pay between $.30/min and $1.00/min.
• You can get gradually promoted to doing rush jobs and spot check jobs if you’re providing quality transcripts.
• Review jobs range from $0.20/min for entry-level work, up to $1.00/min for premium captions review. Review jobs are made available for workers who have consistently produced high-quality transcripts and/or captions.
• How much you earn per hour depends on how fast you are able to transcribe. An experienced transcriptionist could typically finish 15 to 20 audio minutes per hour. An experienced reviewer should be able to finish 40 minutes of review work per hour.
• You can get promoted to be a reviewer if you have transcribed 1000 audio minutes and have a 96 or higher score.

What workers mentioned about the pay from Speechpad

• Workers mention that many transcription jobs range from $0.25 per audio minute up to $0.75 which is much more than some similar sites pay.
• They pay twice a week through Paypal and they always pay on time.

There are plenty of opportunities to advance to higher paying jobs within Speechpad.

If you provide quality work you may get approved for additional qualifications quickly. If you get good ratings and have transcribed enough minutes with them, you will become eligible to do rush jobs (pays $0.40+/minute), spot check jobs (pays $0.75/minute) and work as a reviewer.

Other transcription jobs with Speechpad include insurance transcription (this pays more than general transcription), Spanish transcription, translation jobs and video captioning jobs (you’ll need to pass another test).

The key to move up is by delivering accurate transcripts within the allowed time, following the style guide, and paying attention to grammar.

My Review of Speechpad Transcription Jobs from home for beginners

People transcribing for Speechpad report being happy working for this company and say that this company is much better than other similar transcription companies that accept beginners.

• Speechpad is the best transcription company for poeple who want transcription jobs from home with no transcription experience.
• The pay is better than similar companies and the audio is typically good quality.
• This is a great place to learn and gain experience in transcription. If you familiarize yourself with their style guides and pay attention to grammar, you shouldn’t have a problem.
• The style guide and guidelines are clear, detailed and well organized. You always want to make sure that you follow the company’s style guide and guidelines.
• Their support team is friendly and helpful and answers questions quickly.
• You can see the corrections the reviewer made so you can learn from your mistakes and avoid them in the future. Checking those corrections is a great way to learn and improve your transcription skills.
• You may receive additional qualifications sooner than you think.
• They have a steady amount of quality work after you are approved for more than the basic qualifications. Less jobs are available when getting started with the basic qualifications as you’ll have more competition and you have to grab the available jobs quickly.
• Tip: If you have previous transcription experience, One worker suggested that you can request temporary qualifications to prove your skills and move up faster if you have previous transcription experience.
• They have a wide variety of jobs from short audio under 8 minutes to longer audio.
• Work is available 24/7. You work only when you want to and only on the jobs you want to work on.
• You can preview a short part of the audio before accepting the job and return it for any reason.
• When you accept a file, you need to transcribe it within their required time and many beginners are locked out because they don’t get the job done within the required turnaround time.
• As with any of these type of sites, some people complain about the corrections and scores done by the reviewers. But there are few complaints about this company and you can quickly resolve issues.
• You can apply and get work directly with the company and they also list hits (jobs) on MTurk. People report that it’s better to work through the Speechpad website. The website is faster and easy to navigation. The approval is faster and you can EDIT AND RETURN a transcript for a higher rating / acceptance when normally on MTurk you’d just be rejected point blank.

How to apply for transcription jobs from home with Speechpad

Visit their web site at https://www.speechpad.com get more information on how to apply with Speechpad as a transcriptionist.

The sign-up process is simple and fast.

Get more info at https://www.speechpad.com/faq and scroll down to “Becoming a Transcriber.”

Check their application page to find out if they accept new workers at this time. If they’re not, you should fill in their form to get notified when they’re accepting new worker applications at https://www.speechpad.com/worker/apply.

Register at https://www.speechpad.com/worker/register

How to get better paying transcription jobs

Speechpad pays more than other sites that recruit beginners but the pay is still low. But don’t get discouraged.

There are well-paying transcription jobs out there once you have some experience.

Your speed, accuracy and proficiency will affect how much you can make per hour as a transcriptionist. After getting some experience and improving your transcription skills, you will be able get much better paying transcription jobs.

After working for companies like Speechpad, you’ll want to apply for better paying transcription jobs. And even better, when you’re feeling more confident about your skills, you can double your pay by getting your own clients and not paying a cut to transcription companies.

There is a lot to know about transcription. You need to know about the different types of transcripts (e.g. verbatim vs edited transcripts), how to indicate multiple speakers, inaudibles, timestamp, grammar, punctuation and more.

You don’t need a college degree or a certificate to become a general transcriptionist but I highly recommend taking a specialized training course. Taking a good transcription course will help you increase your skills, your confidence and your transcription pay. It will speed up the learning process and help you:

• become more confident in your transcription skills
• grow your transcription career
• and increase your income faster.

I highly recommend the transcription course by Janet Shaughnessy, General Transcription: Theory and Practice™ by Janet Shaughnessy. This course will give you the knowledge and skills you’ll need to find high paying transcription jobs. You’ll learn to use transcription software, transcription conventions, timestamps and more. And the course comes with plenty of practice files.