A complete beginner’s guide on how to get paid to type.
If you're looking for a way to make some money online, then there is no better option than typing. There is huge demand for typists worldwide, meaning it is fairly easy for even a total beginner to find entry level work.
It’s something that even the busiest of people can fit in around their schedule, typists have great flexibility, being able to choose when and how much they work.
It’s also something that requires very little equipment or investment.
With a little knowledge and skill, you can create a decent income for yourself, read on to discover exactly how it’s done.
Who Can Get Paid To Type?
Typing is something that is open to most people. That said, there are a few things to consider. Some companies only offer work to people in specific locations, often the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
Don’t worry if you're not resident in one of those nations, there are still opportunities for you to capitalize on.
You just need to check out the terms and conditions of the companies you apply to. In this article, we will outline the location requirements so you only pursue the work which is suited and open to you.
Some companies only work with experienced typists, while other are happy to take on newbies.
It’s also worth noting that if you work with a company that takes on entry level typists, you can expect to earn a fair bit less than you would if you work with more selective companies.
What Equipment Do I Need To Get Paid To Type?
Equipment requirements vary from company to company. Although most require you to have things you will probably already own.
Equipment you will need to have to get paid to type includes:
- A computer or laptop, having a bigger screen (like a wide monitor for a computer) is preferable, but not essential.
- A reliable internet connection (there's not much you can do online without Wi-Fi!), but as you’re already reading this article it is safe to assume you’ve got this covered.
- Headphones, it’s pretty hard to be a typist without headphones (especially for transcription work).
- A foot pedal, this is the only piece of specialist equipment that some typists use. It’s not essential for all gigs, but for some it will be. Don’t buy one unless you are certain you are going to need it.
- A mechanical keyboard, this isn’t essential, of course you can just use the standard keyboard on your laptop, but if you're going to spend many hours tapping away, you might find a mechanical keyboard a lot more comfortable and generally easier to use.
- For some jobs, you will need to have particular software to process data.
- It is commonplace for typists to need to have Microsoft Word.
Make sure your fully committed to typing before you buy any equipment. You’re doing it to make money, not spend it!
Is It Worthwhile Typing For Money?
So, should you bother with typing as a means to make some money?
The simple answer is yes.
The real question is, are you the right fit?
Generally, to make it as a typist, you need to already have a few solid skills. Most notably English, you need to have great spelling and grammar abilities.
You also need to be tech savvy and understand how to use different websites and software.
Another important skill that will help you as a typist is your typing speed and accuracy.
The faster you put letters on the screen, the more money you earn per hour, but there's no point typing super-fast if you're not accurate.
If you're interested in finding out how fast of a typist you are then check out this site and test your speed and skills.
How Much Money Can You Make Typing?
Earnings vary for typists. Variables include experience and skills. For example, if you have a medical or legal background, then you stand to earn higher rates. If you’re bilingual, then you are able to earn more too.
Of course, the speed you type at will impact your hourly rate and the firms you work for, as some offer more money than others.
That said, the average annual wage of a typist, according to Zippia is $31,263. The highest earners report making $37,000 and the lowest earners make $26,000 per year.
Companies all pay their workers in different ways. Some will pay you per project, or per keystroke, or per audio minute or per audio hour. Some will pay you an hourly wage regardless of output.
What Skills Should A Typist Have?
Skill requirements vary from role to role, but generally it’s important to be a fast and accurate typist, have strong interpersonal skills (this will help you when you have to work in a team or communicate with seniors), have decent computer skills and strong general writing abilities.
Generally, typing jobs are not suited to those with hearing impairments because they often involve listening to audio files, but some options in this article would be suitable to those with such impairments.
What Typing Work Can You Be Paid For?
There's some variation in the type of work you can do as a typist. You can pick whatever suits your experience the most.
Popular typing gigs include:
- Transcription
- Captioning and subtitles
- CAPTCHAS
- Translating
- Data entry (data entry is a broad topic, but common work includes copying handwritten documents into typed documents and entering information into a database etc.
No matter the name of the position, they all have fairly similar duties, you will be accurately typing data from one medium to another.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Typing For Money?
Like anything in this life, there are positives and negatives to typing for money. Let's explore them in some more detail.
Pros:
- For the most part, typists are able to work entirely from home/remotely. Which is a great fit for parents, students and people who live in areas with decreased job opportunities or work availability.
- You don’t need to buy lots of special equipment. Making it a great side hustle for those with little money to invest.
- You don’t need special skills, or a college degree to get started. You can get experience in an entry level position and grow your knowledge fairly quickly.
- It’s flexible, often you can choose when, where and how much you work.
Cons:
- It’s not the right fit for everyone. If you struggle with reading or writing, then it is unlikely to be a good fit for you (although you might have some success with micro tasks).
- It’s not passive, unlike investments and other side hustles. Typing requires the old-fashioned trade between money and time. The less time you put in, the less you are able to earn.
- It won’t make you a millionaire. Typing can be a great way to make some extra cash or even pay the bills, but it won't make you rich.
10 Of The Best Typing For Cash Gigs In 2022
These are some of the greatest typing gigs you can wish for. They are all 100% legit, so you don’t need to worry about any being scams. Read through them and determine which one or ones are best suited to you and apply!
1. Aberdeen
What typing work does Aberdeen offer?
Aberdeen offers a variety of transcription jobs. At the time of writing, they are hiring new transcriptionists to work as real time captioners. This means you will be adding subtitles to live television.
They offer work every day (if you want it), typically starting at 4pm until 2am, so this a great gig for a night owl!
Who is eligible to work for Aberdeen?
Aberdeen hires captioners worldwide, but they are quite strict about the people they take on and have a lot of requirements and expectations. This is because of the nature of the work; they need to make sure that you are fully capable and equipped to deal with live television and the responsibility and pressure associated with captioning accurately at those speeds.
To work with Aberdeen, you must meet the following requirements:
- You should have experience and/or training in transcription or captioning.
- You should have a writing speed of 180 to 220 WPM (words per minute), this is fast!
- You should have two computers (one back up computer if your first one fails for some reason).
- You should have back up internet, for example, you should have normal home internet and then a wireless router in case one fails.
- You should have three phone lines; one can be a mobile/cell phone.
They also expect all captioners to be on time all the time, open to feedback and responsible.
If you are interested in applying to Aberdeen, then you will need a fresh and up-to-date version of your C.V to support your application.
How much does Aberdeen pay?
Aberdeen asks a lot from their typists, but they reward them fairly for this. They pay particularly high rates.
They pay around $1.50 per audio minute.
2. Babbletype
What typing work does Babbletype offer?
Babbletype, unlike Aberdeen, is better suited to entry level typists, although they welcome all levels of experience. They are looking for transcriptionists and translators to join their team.
They describe themselves as team orientated, with a big focus on strong working relationships between workers. They are dedicated to supporting and educating their handpicked translators and transcriptionists.
They work exclusively in the qualitative market research industry.
Who is eligible to work for Babbletype?
Although Babbletype take on entry-level workers, they by no means want to work with people who are incapable of delivering high-quality work. That’s why they say they are not suited to everyone.
They want their workers to be both knowledgeable and accurate. They prefer to work with people they describe as ‘lifetime students’ these people are curious, always reading and asking questions about the world around them.
If you’re a habitual writer or reader, then Babbletype might be perfect for you, even if you have no transcription experience.
To work for Babbletype they require you to commit to transcribing a minimum of 1 audio hour four times each week.
But Babbletype would like transcriptionists to be available to work between 15 and 20 hours per week (four hours per day, four days per week), they want you to be available all year round and available for at least an hour or two between 9 and 3 EST. They are only interested in long-term workers (one year minimum).
Babbletype work with people globally! So, if you're not in the US, don’t worry.
If you think you could be a good fit for Babbletype, then click here for the application. You will need to do a test and assessment and also an interview before you get accepted.
How much does Babbletype Pay?
Babbletype pay around $0.40 per audio minute.
3. Amazon Mechanical Turk
Everyone's heard of Amazon by now, but have you heard of Amazon Mechanical Turks? If not, don’t worry, you'll learn all about it now.
What typing work does Amazon Mechanical Turk offer?
Amazon Mechanical Turk (commonly known as mTurk) is a really EASY way to pick up typing gigs.
MTurk is an online marketplace for virtual task completion.
They have literally thousands of jobs; they call these jobs ‘human intelligence tasks', which is abbreviated to HITs.
These HITs are really small tasks (mostly) and the work that you will actually be doing is super varied, anything from transcription to data entry, but essentially, they are all typing jobs in some form or another.
HITs are made by requesters.
Who is eligible to work for Amazon Mechanical Turk?
Getting accepted to type for mTurk is easy, making it the ideal place for a newbie to get their feet wet. All you have to do is provide some basic information and Amazon will get back to you within 3 days and let you know if you have been accepted or not.
Anyone, from any nation is able to apply and potentially get accepted into this marketplace.
You will also need an Amazon account to get work on HITs and to get paid too.
How much does Amazon Mechanical Turk pay?
Each hit has its own unique price, starting at $0.1. Bear in mind, these tasks are often super brief and really easy too.
Earnings with mTurks can often be very low, many users report making about $2 per hour. According to a study from Cornell University that looked at thousands of mTurk worker with millions of completed HITs between them, only about 4% made over $7.25 per hour.
If you want to try to decent money with this site, then you need to stick to the higher paying HITs, ideally ones which pay over $0.50 and which can be completed in under 5 minutes.
In the first 10 days after being accepted by Amazon Mechanical Turks, you are only able to perform 100 HITs per day, but after this probation period you are able to do 3800 per day.
One negative for international people is you can only get paid into a U.S bank account. Some non-US citizens are able to get US bank accounts, so if you are able to do that, then that’s great. Otherwise, all your earnings are credited to your Amazon account in Amazon gift cards which you can use buying products on Amazon.
4. Kolotibablo
Kolotibablo is an easy site to join. Will it be a good fit for you?
What typing work does Kolotibablo offer?
Kolotibaloo wants its typists to work on CAPTCHA. What is CAPTCHA, you ask? It’s a simple test or task which has been created in order to determine that an internet user is a human being and not a bot.
Normally, there will be some letters on the screen in slightly unusual fonts and at strange angles. It’s your job to accurately write out these letters on your screen and pass the test.
CAPTCHA work is some of the easiest typing work available on the internet. So, if you're looking for something really simple, then this could be ideal for you.
Who is eligible to work for Kolotibablo?
Kolotibablo doesn’t discriminate against anyone because of their geographic location. People work for them from all over the world.
How much does Kolotibablo pay?
For 1000 CAPTCHAS you are typically given about $1. People are able to earn about $200 per month with Kolotibablo.
If you want to check out other sites similar to Kolotibablo, then try Captcha Typers or Mega Typers
5. Rev
Rev is a versatile site with multiple ways to make money. You will require significantly more skills and ability to work for Rev than you would doing CAPTCHA work.
What typing work does Rev offer?
Rev offers three ways to make money: typing, transcription, captioning and subtitles. If you speak a second language, this could be a great place for you to work.
Who is eligible to work for Rev?
Rev accepts workers from Australia, Canada, India, the US (Not California), Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
You need to be resident in one of these countries and need to have a valid I.D issued by one of these governments.
If you speak a second language and are applying for subtitle work, then they will consider people from other nations too.
How much does Rev pay?
Pay varies for Rev. The average Rev worker makes about $245 per month, but the top earners make $1495. You can get paid via PayPal and they pay weekly.
These sites are all fairly similar to Rev:
All these sites have similar working principles to Rev. Be sure to check out their requirements before you apply to avoid wasting your time.
There are hundreds of transcription sites all over the internet, if you fail to get accepted to one of them, just try another.
6.Squadhelp
Squadhelp is a super simple way for a creative person to make some money online.
What typing work does Squadhelp offer?
Squadhelp are all about naming brands and writing taglines. If you're a first-rate wordsmith capable of coming up with short and descriptive name that companies can use for their brands, then you could be a great fit here.
If you opt to give Squadhelp a go, then you will be competing with others to name companies.
It works like this:
- A company asks Squadhelp to find them a suitable name or tagline for their brand or business.
- The Squadhelp community all join in a contest, each person putting forward their own suggestions.
- The company chooses their favorite name and pays the person who presented it.
If you have an artistic flair, then you can also work on logo and general design contests.
Who is eligible to work for Squadhelp?
Luckily Squadhelp accepts people worldwide to work for them. If you are a US citizen, you will need to fill out a W9 form for tax purposes and if you are from anywhere else in the world, then you will be required to fill out a W8-BEN form (again this is for tax purposes).
How much does Squadhelp pay?
If you are able to win a contest, then you are rewarded nicely for it. Rewards start at about $100 and go up to over $300, in some cases a lot more.
Although the pay here is super good, you have to consider the fact that you are in no way guaranteed the money, you only get paid if you win and it can be quite competitive.
If you are lucky enough to be selected as a winner, then you will be paid via PayPal.
7. SpeakWrite
SpeakWrite have a great reputation and they pay well too.
What typing work does SpeakWrite offer?
SpeakWrite are a transcription company. If you work with them, you will be listening to audio files from various industries, including police departments, law offices and protective services.
It will be your responsibility to accurately transcribe the audio file into typed text.
Who is eligible to type for SpeakWrite?
SpeakWrite only accepts typists from the US and Canada, but this excludes California.
You must also be able to type 60 words per minute and do this with an accuracy rate above 90%.
You must also have a high level of English, including a strong understanding of grammar.
If you have a legal background, this is a plus, but if you don’t, then you will need at least one year's experience in general transcription.
You will need to have a foot pedal and Microsoft Word (downloaded version, not the browser version).
How much does SpeakWrite pay?
SpeakWrite offer above the market average pay. The average workers earn $450 while the top typists make $3400 plus other bonuses and rewards.
8.Hollywood Transcriptions
Fancy working on the next blockbuster movie? If you're crazy about movies, this could be the perfect role for you.
What typing work does Hollywood Transcriptions offer?
Hollywood Transcriptions work with the film industry to provide subtitles and captions.
They are well known and have a solid reputation for being highly professional and great to work for.
Who is eligible to type for Hollywood Transcriptions?
To work with this company, you must meet these requirements:
- Live in the US
- Type a minimum of 65 words per minute accurately
- Own a digital foot pedal
- Be fluent in English
- Be computer literate
How much does Hollywood Transcriptions pay?
Unfortunately, unlike many other sites, Hollywood Transcriptions do not inform us of exactly what they pay. That said, testimonials from current and former typists indicate that you are able to make around $500 per month with them.
9. Microworkers
Microworkers is an ideal place for entry level typists to start making easy money.
What typing work does Microworkers offer?
The clues in the name with Microworkers, they offer small tasks which can quickly be completed. Tasks vary from gig to gig, but often involve some form of data entry or transcription.
Most tasks take a few minutes to complete. People from multiple industries offer work here. It could be work for a physical business anywhere in the world or perhaps a blog.
Who is eligible to work for Microworkers?
Anyone can work for Microworkers regardless of your country of residence.
Another great thing about Microworkers is you do not need any specific equipment or software. Except of course internet and a computer or laptop.
You will need to pass Know Your Customer (KYC) registration, which requires you having a valid photo I.D.
You will also need to c
How much does Microworkers pay?
Microworkers pay workers via Transpay, Skrill, Dwolla and PayPal. Payments are all issued in USD and made twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Minimum pay-out is $10.
In this Reddit thread users are talking about making about $5 to $7 per hour with Microworkers.
10. Clickworker
Clickworker is a safe and legit site similar to Microworkers. It’s an ideal place for newbies and entry level people to start finding gigs.
What typing work does Clickworker offer?
Clickworker offers a really broad range of work.
Work includes:
- Data entry
- Proofreading
- Online research
- Mystery photography
- Categorization
- Surveys
- Data processing
- Studies
- Text creation
Just like Microworkers, Clickworkers is all about doing lots of small tasks one after the other. Each one pays you a small amount of money, but the goal is to do lots of tasks so that amount grows.
One of the best things about Clickworker is they also have an app, meaning you can make some quick money whilst you are out of the house. The app is available on both Android and Apple
When you join Clickworker you are able to access a secondary marketplace called UHRS which is a bonus.
Who is eligible to work for Clickworker?
If you want to join Clickworker you need to be over the age of 18.
According to Clickworker they offer work to most nations.
No special equipment is required.
How much does Clickworker pay?
There's no minimum amount of work required for Clickworker so you can work as little or as much as you want. The more time you put in, the more you will earn.
With time, your reputation will improve (if you perform well) and more work will open up to you.
Although there's massive variation in potential earnings here, this Clickworker reports earning between $8 and $11 per hour
While others report earning as much as $20 per hour.
They pay via PayPal, Payooner and SEPA payments.
Sometimes Clickworker has an abundance of work available and other times it has less, that’s why it wouldn’t be smart to rely on Clickworker to pay all your bills.
Final Thoughts
There's definitely money to be made typing, the amount you can make varies depending on your ability and experience.
If you put some time and effort into educating yourself and expanding your skills, then your earning potential will drastically increase.
If you're completely new to the niche and have no experience, then stick with the micro tasks and build on it from there or consider taking an online training course.
Good luck making money typing!