Starting with Castingwords on MTurk

After much debate and research, I finally accepted and completed my first HIT with Castingwords on MTurk. Whew! 

I had downloaded the Express Scribe software, but was having tons of trouble figuring out how to actually download the MP3 file to work on it. I finally figured out to right click the link, click "Save As," saved it to My Documents, and then I could easily load it into the Express Scribe software to transcribe it. Originally, when I clicked the link, it would open in a separate page in QuickTime, and it would not have been easy to transcribe it that way!

It was relatively painless once I figured that part out! I did a transcription that was a little over two and a half minutes, and it did take me a while to do it. Most of the transcription work on Castingwords is in small snippets like that, so I purposely found a short one to get my feet wet. 

The transcription software has hot keys to make it easier to transcribe, and once I get a real feel for it I feel I can zip through this work MUCH faster than I did today. I do like the whole idea of Castingwords, and I already love MTurk! I think once I learn the ropes a little more I'll be ready to dig into the bigger, and much better paying, jobs Castingwords has to offer. Who knows? It might even lead to bigger and better stay at home mom work!

All in all, I'd say my first experience with Castingwords was a good one. It took about 45 minutes, but again, I was checking and rechecking the style guide to ensure my first submission was excellent quality. 

I'm definitely a fan of the Express Scribe software. You can slow down the speed of playback, which made it incredibly easy to understand when the speaker was talking too fast, or to decipher hard to understand words. I only marked one place with a question mark, I could figure out the rest.

I will keep updating my experiences with Castingwords. This is a great opportunity for stay at home moms to earn a little extra money. Anybody can sign up and give it a shot!