My Review of Rev.com and How You Can Earn Money from Home

My husband is a full-time preacher in Wisconsin. Half of our support comes from the wonderful congregation where he ministers, and the other half comes from outside support and secular jobs. Joshua drives a school bus during the week, and in between that he picks up any odd job he finds. Money is always tight, but any time we find ourselves short on funds, God provides exactly what we need.

We had four medical emergencies this year (thankfully none of them ended up being too serious), and for the first time we actually found ourselves in debt for more than just the house. In an effort to get back on top of our finances, we’ve been on the lookout for jobs Josh can work from home that won’t take too much time away from his ministry or from our family – something flexible that doesn’t require a degree (neither of us have one).

A friend recently told me about www.rev.com, a freelance company that hires you to transcribe audio clips. We applied and started working for them last week. So far, it’s been working out pretty well! It’s frustrating work at times, but it’s legitimate pay and you are free to put in as many or as few hours as you want.

To apply, go to https://www.rev.com/freelancers/transcription and sign up. You will then be asked to take a grammar test and a transcription test. The grammar test is super simple. I’m no master of the English language. Punctuation and modifiers and all… I never paid much attention to the rules. But the test they give you is really simple and you should pass with no problem. The audio test was pretty easy overall, but there are some parts that are hard to understand. We actually did have to retake the tests because we failed that part the first time. If you fail the tests, you can reapply in 45 days.

How do you get started?

Once you are accepted, you are given several training clips to transcribe. These are short clips (usually 3-5 minutes) that focus on different aspects of transcribing such as how to label speakers, what to do with poor audio quality, and shortcuts you can take while typing. Most of these were clear and easy to transcribe, but the difficulty increases the further you get into the training. Those clips are graded, and you are paid regardless of the grade you receive.

At this point you are considered a “Rookie.” After the training videos, you are given a selection of shorter clips to practice your new skills. You still receive grades and feedback on these clips, but these are the real jobs.

Once you complete 60 minutes of transcription you then become a “Revver.” As a Revver you have access to better-paying jobs and the ability to claim jobs of any length. You’ll continue to receive grades and feedback on your work.

After completing 1200 transcription minutes (and a couple of other requirements), you can become a “Revver+” As a Revver+ you gain early access to newly posted jobs and the opportunity to become a grader. You still have to maintain accuracy metrics or you will drop back down to Revver status. If your metrics drop too low you will be “fired” and your account will be closed.

How much does it pay?

As a Rookie I think we made like $0.30 per audio minute transcribed. It doesn't take long to become a Revver, at which point the pay rate increases 25% and you can make up to $1/minute. That is paid based on the audio length, though, not the actual time you put into transcribing. A minute of audio may take ten minutes to actually transcribe depending on audio quality, the speaker’s accent, etc. Sometimes you have to rewind and listen several times before you can catch what is being said, and that decreases your time/profit ratio.

The pay is not fantastic. How much you can make very much depends on your skill level and the quality of the projects you accept. But it’s flexible work, and it’s something. Most of the audio we’ve accepted so far pays about $0.60/minute. The higher paid jobs are claimed very quickly and so far we’ve rarely been able to grab anything over $0.80/minute. Receiving payment is painless. We are paid via PayPal every Monday like clockwork.

I average about 20 minutes of work for every 5 minutes of audio, or about $8-10 an hour. I type fast, but Joshua hears the audio better than I do, so when he’s not here I have to rewind a lot which makes the work painfully slow.

How does it work?

You are given a list of potential jobs to choose from. You get details on each clip like how much it pays, how soon it is due, how many speakers are involved, etc. You can preview before you claim to make sure it’s something you want to accept. You also have one hour after accepting the job to unclaim and pass it on to someone else without it counting against you.

Reasons you might unclaim the job include poor audio quality, not enough time to finish before the deadline, technical difficulties, or any other personal reasons. We’ve accepted several jobs that we’ve had to unclaim because the audio started out fine but got too hard to understand in the middle, or because the content became objectionable.

No special equipment is required, but headphones are highly recommended. All you really need is your computer and internet access. Then you just start listening to the audio clips and type what you hear. Some projects ask for verbatim transcriptions where you have to include everything exactly as you hear it (ex: [Laughter], “Um, uh, ah…”), but most let you omit filler words and interjections such as “Yeah.”

I will say that most of the audio is hard to understand. Some is impossible. The good projects are claimed very quickly, so we’ve learned to preview about five seconds of audio and then claim it before someone else does. Then, once it’s “ours” we listen to more and unclaim if it’s not something we can complete.

Is it worth it?

That depends on how much you enjoy the work and how desperate you are for income, haha. Personally, I love typing and have always enjoyed transcribing audio, so I find it relaxing. Joshua, on the other hand, gets a headache from it. I do it for fun in my free time; he does it to provide for us.

Together we made $61.46 in our training week for transcribing 141 minutes of audio. Our second week was much more profitable, earning us $127.87 for 178 audio minutes. I really don't know how much time we put into it because it varies so much every day, but I'd say probably an average of 2 hours a day. It does go faster as we get better, and it’s something we can both do as we have time. 

I like that I can get up early before the kids are awake, work on a 20 minute audio clip, and make $10-$15. Joshua usually works on his projects after the kids go to bed. On the more difficult audio, we listen together to help each other figure out what is being said, which we’ve enjoyed. It kind of makes it a game that way – a competition to see who can figure it out first, haha.

It can be very frustrating at times. It can take a while to find a clip you can understand, and sometimes a project you think is great will end up being a dud. You’ll be going along fine and then the audio will suddenly get super fuzzy for no apparent reason. Or, you’ll invest a lot of time and get halfway through the transcription only for the speaker to start throwing in curses that force you to unclaim the project. That’s maddening. You do get to learn about some pretty interesting (if random) topics, though!

Overall, I think Rev is going to work out well for us. When we decided to start looking for work-from-home jobs we knew we would need internet, which is adding $45 a month to our already strained budget. We’re committed to doing enough Rev projects to at least make the internet pay for itself, and it looks like that’s not going to be a problem at all. What we make on top of that will most likely go toward things that aren't in our regular budget like eye exams and ambulance rides.

So far Rev has been a real blessing and we are thankful to Shawna for sharing the info with us! Maybe it's something that will work for you, too!

Have you worked with Rev? What's been your experience?