Project #2: Text-to-text transcription

2005-07-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

Here is actually a project I submitted a bid to. Rather than simply send them a generic reply to indicate my interest, I followed Guru's more formal approach, by sending them a proposal to make my application stand out.

The company is located in Tokyo, Japan, and the work will be completed through online correspondence. Since this is a basic transcription job, there were only 2 days left in the listing, and over 80 applicants, I decided to take this job on myself. Had it been a lengthier, more involved type of position, I would have certainly considered a team member with voice recognition software for the transcription, another for graphic design, and still another to proofread if I had to add any embellishments to the text.

The following are notes I took regarding what resources I should look for in the future for this kind of work, the actual job offer (details removed, again, pending a full understanding of Guru.com's copywrite rights), and my proposal:

TO RESEARCH:
* Find a free, online, voice-to-text dicta converter to speed up the time for future projects such as this. Eg: Google's Blogger.com is current working on such a feature for their Audioblogger application.

Their project:

General Information

Project Title: Marketing handbook write-up
Project ID: ******
Expiration Date: July 15, 2005
Time Remaining: 2 days (out of 30 total days)
Applicants: 84 More info
Bidding Type: Public-Open to Vendors and Freelancers
Project Awarded: No More info
Employer Statistics

Feedback Rating: Not Rated
SafePay Payments: $700.00
Invoices Paid: 2
Invoices Outstanding: 0
Pay Time Lag: 7 day(s) average
Employer Location: ******
(Employer's location may be different than the project's Specified Location.)
Payment Information

Project Budget: Not Sure/Confidential
1099 Tax Service: No
Qualifications and Experience Required

Primary Skill: Word Processing
Secondary Skills: Secretarial Support, Transcription
Location Requirements

Must Work on Premises? No
Files / Description / Questions

Description: We need to transcribe and slightly modify about 45 pages of text from a handbook on marketing theory that is not available to us in digital format. We will fax or email scanned documents to you with hand notations. You will re-type into a Word document. Text includes some tables. Spellcheck and proofreading to be included in your bid. Headers and other notations need to be professionally presented. Need turnaround within 10 days of start.

My Proposal/Bid:

Dear Sir/Madam:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my proposal for your marketing handbook write-up.

The project description and its required aptitudes are quite in line with what I've done for most of my career. As you will note from my resume, I am bilingual in English and French. My post-graduate and work experience include being a contributor and editor for my university newspaper. I later started this aspect of my career in news dissemination and media monitoring, where I was responsible for proofreading, fact checking, formatting and issuing press releases.

Further, I am a Business Marketing college graduate, and have also extended this field into Internet Marketing, where I am applying a slew of its principles into my personal online projects, such as my web site and various blogs.

Should I be chosen for this project, I would initially like to obtain an e-mailed scan the penned-up copy. If possible, I would also like an overview of the material's topic as a guideline. Finally, I would like a clear outline of any other specific preferences your may have in the preparation of the transcription that might not have been included in the project description, via e-mail.

Given your 10-DAY timeframe for the approximate 45 pages, I estimate a time of 7 days for the first transcription, leaving the final 3 days for proofreading and formatting the final copy. My fee will depend on the quality of the scanned/faxed copy. I will charge 2.0 CENTS PER WORD US to transcribe the copy if it has extensive penned-in editing, or 23 CENTS PER LINE to transcribe a cleaner, less-penned-in copy.

I propose that we utilize Guru.com's Escrow and Dispute Resolution service to protect our mutual investment of time and money.

I look forward to speaking or corresponding with you about this project, and I hope you will favorably consider all of the above when making your decision.

Sincerely,

[my name]
[my number]
[my email]

Project #1: SEO for an entertainment goods company

2005-07-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

I figured I'd break the ice here by posting an online invitation I have received through Guru.com from a company in New Jersey. Basically, the firm wants to increase traffic to its site via search engine optimization.

The challenge here is multi-fold. First, as we all are well aware of now, content is king when attracting traffic to web sites and pages -- and this company, being primarily a web-store, has no content besides a simple multi-page listing of the products, ordering information, and contact/history details. Search engine optimation can only do so much without a reason for visitors to be 'sticky' to the site. How many online stores selling video games and periphery ARE there (and that's not even including the giant Amazon.com?)

My ideal skills match for this job would be someone who is knowledgeable/experienced in SEO, someone who is adept at web page/graphic design, a content viruoso and even those with related products/services who can see a joint venture fit with this company. The project's been open for 24 days ... and counting.

From now on, I will not post the above preamble for new projects -- I only did this now to give an actual example of a project, and the thought processes that are involved in it. So, anybody who wants to pitch in their 2 cents, come on in!

My project detail was sent to me like this:

PROJECT DETAILS

General Information
------------------------------
---Project Title: Advertisting/Marketing
---Project ID: *****

Payment Information
------------------------------
---Project Budget: Between $500 and $1,000
---Hourly Pay Rate: Not listed

Qualifications and Experience Required
------------------------------
---Category: Website Design / Website Marketing
---Primary Skill: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
---Secondary Skills: Internet Marketing
---Industry Experience: Media, Advertising, Publishing, Entertainment
---Additional Skills Required: E-commerce

Location Requirements
------------------------------
---Must Work on Premises? No

Description
------------------------------
We are looking for an experienced advertising/marketing company to develop and initiate an advertising/marketing campaign that can broaden traffic and evidently, orders.

The website is ***********

We would definently like SEO in this campaign. We would like to run the campaign for 1-2 months and we will then work out payment plans acoordingly for the future.

If you have any questions please free to contact me. [----]

P.S. I've left specifics off of this, while I look into Guru.com's content copywriting rules for posting job descriptions off their site. But rest assured, this job DOES exist ... and is still pending ...

Net Projects

Project #2: Text-to-text transcription

Project #1: SEO for an entertainment goods company