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Tag Archives: Transcription

Virtual Assistant or Website Designer? I can help!

07 Jun

If you’re a busy Virtual Assistant (VA) you know that there are some jobs you need to give that personal touch … but others that are more routine and can be outsourced.  If you’re designing websites, often the design and functionality is your forté and you could outsource the copy writing, either because it frees up some of your time, or because it’s not your speciality.

I provide all sorts of services, from copy writing through to copyediting, proofreading, transcription and copy typing.  Here are some ideas for projects I could help you with.

For VAs:

  • I can take routine copy typing or audio typing off your hands
  • I can pick up overflow work when you’re really busy
  • Maybe you prefer not to work weekends but have a valued customer who needs a rush job completing – I work weekends and can let you know availability very quickly
  • I can help you offer services like copy writing or copyediting/proofreading which are outside your usual skillset, allowing you to offer an all-round service to your clients

For website designers:

  • I can write new copy for your clients, based on existing websites and marketing materials or from going through a questionnaire with them
  • I can polish ideas your clients already have into coherent and useful web content
  • I can proofread the final website (including checking links)
  • I can insert keywords into the web content in a natural way to help with the SEO

I don’t need to contact your clients direct; I’m happy to work through you.  And my standard agreement means there’s no worry about me “poaching” your customers – I’m more than happy to work with you long term to satisfy your clients’ needs.  You won’t be employing me, simply outsourcing some of your work; I’ll invoice you an agreed amount per hour and you can invoice your clients whatever you want to!

Talk to me today about outsourcing some of that routine work and getting on with the things that you do best, and that differentiate you from other VAs and web designers.

Have a look at what a copyeditor and proofreader does; see references from my satisfied clients.

Contact me via email or via my contact form.

 
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Posted by on June 7, 2011 in Business, Copyediting, Jobs, Organisation, proofreading, Transcription, Writing

 

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What have I been up to in April?

04 May

Time to update you all on what I’ve been up to in the last month or so!

April has been a time for my lovely regular customers. My physiotherapy clinic from Cirencester, my translator from Finland, my Taiwanese Master’s student, the journalist whose interviews I transcribe and my American PR agency have all sent me various projects this month, including sorting out a set of blog posts and setting up categories and tags for them, copyediting end-of-year reports for various businesses, writing press releases, transcribing an interview with a doyen of folk music, etc.

I’ve also done some individual projects for some students, and some urgent copytyping work for a friend who’s a Virtual Assistant who had too much on her plate one weekend. I do like to be helpful (actually, Bernadette’s organising a get-together for Virtual Assistants on May 18 in Birmingham – let me know if you’d like an invitation).

I’ve also been busy with my Iris Murdoch and Book Groups project – my first two regular groups (as opposed to the pilot group) have just read the book, with several more to come in May and groups signing up all the time (do get in touch if you’re interested in taking part).

Looking forward, I’ve gone more part-time at the Library job from the beginning of May, so I’ll have four days a week that I can devote to Libro projects if I need to. I’m looking forward to having a better work-work-life balance from now on! And I’ll also have room to take on some more clients, regular and one-off.

I’ve got some PhDs on the go, I should be doing some more writing and copyediting for one of my web developer clients, and the student dissertations are likely to start building up. If you know someone whose dissertation is due in May – October and they need it checked over, please do ask them to get in touch with me to book in as soon as possible. And of course, work for my regulars will hopefully continue to pop into the inbox!

 
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Posted by on May 4, 2011 in Business, Jobs, Organisation, What Do I Do?

 

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So what does a proofreader / copyeditor / transcriber / copy writer actually do? (2)

09 Mar

Last month I posted a quick update on what I’d been up to, which seemed to be of interest both to those who know me and wonder what I do on those days when I’m not working at the day job and the evenings I have to rush back to my desk, and those who were keen to know what people in my profession actually do. So I thought I’d make it a semi-regular post, and I’ve done quite a lot of varied work this month…

In the past 4 weeks I have…

Copyedited two essays for a client undertaking a physiotherapy qualification, documents a client was submitting for professional development, 2 essays for my regular Taiwanese client.
Copyedited a newsletter and re-written one e-booklet on osteoporosis/copyedited one on the lower back for my regular physiotherapist client.
Written all of the copy for 2 websites, one for a motivational speaker, the other for a printing and graphic design company.
Re-copyedited a previous client’s PhD on the EU.
Copyedited a PhD thesis on psychology.
Substantively copyedited a science fiction novel.
Copyedited several articles, a longer piece and a company annual report for a new client who is a translator in Finland.
Copyedited and proofread one quarterly and one monthly publication for my regular American Club customer.
Copyedited and proofread a crime novel translated from the Italian.
Transcribed two interviews for my regular music journalist client.
Copyedited a dissertation on art for a Japanese client.

A nice mix of regular customers and new one-offs, and I did a bit of everything (proofreading, copyediting, copy writing and transcribing) which was fun.

Coming up:
Copyediting and proofreading a large American Club website.
Copyediting the next novel in a series.
A couple of PhDs where I’m waiting for the clients to finish working on the text.
More work tidying up translations from Finnish to English.
More work on American club monthly, quarterly and annual publications.
More physiotherapy newsletters and e-booklets.
More Italian crime novels.

For info on how I work with students and ensure they maintain authorship of their work, please see this post. And of course we all know the difference between copyediting and proofreading now, don’t we!

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2011 in Business, Jobs, Organisation, What Do I Do?

 

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So what does a proof-reader / copy-editor / transcriber / copy-writer actually do?

09 Feb

Today I thought I’d share a list of the projects I’ve worked on in the last month or so, to give an idea of what I actually do. Remember that I still work part-time in a library, if this doesn’t seem much; on the other hand, remember that I am always available to chat about booking in your work, and have a flexible schedule, if it seems like a lot!

So, since the beginning of 2011, I have…

Copy-edited a report on someone’s website for a US company.
Proof-read/copy-edited PDF and Word documents for 1 monthly and 1 quarterly issue of a Club magazine, various advertising materials for the Club, and half of their website, for the American PR agency which handles their publications (including a re-write on a particularly troublesome article).
Copy-edited 5 blog posts for one blog.
Copy-edited a PhD thesis on linguistics.
Copy-edited 2 essays for an ongoing client.
Copy-edited a PhD thesis on sports science.
Copy-edited part of a PhD thesis on Nigeria.
Proof-read/copy-edited a short newsletter for a physiotherapist I work for on an ongoing basis, including some re-writing.
Proof-read/copy-edited a tender for a company which writes tenders for other companies (another repeat customer).
Copy-edited a short non-fiction book on Bosnia.
Done some background research for 2 websites for which I’ll be writing the content for the web designer to place in the web pages he’s creating.
Set up working agreements with a printing company (to write content for them) and a virtual secretary (to provide copy-editing services) so that we can get going with projects once they come through.

And coming up, I have these booked in…

Another PhD thesis, psychology this time.
Going over yet another PhD thesis (on the EU) which I’ve already worked on once; the author has passed his viva but had to cut word-count so wants it checked over one last time.
Copy-editing a client’s submission for Chartership to their profession.
A novel.
Monthly newsletters for my physiotherapist client.
Monthly and quarterly newsletters plus the rest of the website for my Club client in the US.
Hopefully some more transcriptions of interviews for my journalist client – while I haven’t done any transcribing for her for a while, I did get to read the results of a few of my transcriptions in the magazine she writes for that I happen to read anyway!

And I think I have a topic for my next blog post… what is the difference between copy-editing and proof-reading?

 
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Posted by on February 9, 2011 in Jobs, Organisation, What Do I Do?, Writing

 

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New services and price offers

20 Oct

I’m now offering transcription services (prices from 75p per audio minute) so you can send me your audio files on .wma or MP3 and I’ll transcribe them onto a Word document for you. Suitable for journalists, researchers with interviews to check through, linguists, etc.

Do contact me to discuss this new services!

 
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Posted by on October 20, 2010 in New skills

 

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