Medical transcription is a health career focusing on transcribing or transliterating recorded dictations. Dictations may come from a physician or from any healthcare professional.
In most cases, doctors prefer those transcriptions that are stored electronically such as those saved in the computer’s hard disk. Doctors prefer “soft copy” because it is more accessible for them to check.
A medical transcriptionist is a person whose task is to document what is said (if he is there in the room) or what is heard (if he’s listening to audio tapes). Medical transcribers are the gadgets or devices used while conducting medical transcription.
If you are planning to be a medical transcriptionist, you must be aware of correct spellings, correct medical terminologies, document editing, and most importantly, medical rules and procedures. You must have a background of the subject matter for you to write about it.
Medical transcriptions also serve as medical records. These medical evidences also serve as medical bills indicating the compensations or benefits of the patient.
There are no formal educational courses for medical transcriptionists. Yes, an “education” is obtained but these trainings or diploma programs can be done in a shorter period compared to a college education.
Some countries offer a set minimum requirement of 6 months to a maximum two years-in-depth training for those who are interested to become medical transcriptionists.
The skills required from professional medical transcriptionists are: 1.) expertise on what he or she does, 2.) accurate documenting skills, 3.) fluent writing technique, and above all, 4.) the ability to write or type fast just in case the material is to be obtained from listening.
Most transcriptionists are those who are interested about medicine. Some are even working students. They are medical transcriptionists by day and medical students by night. It is like hitting two birds with one stone.
If you’re curious what the workplace is like, medical transcriptionists are usually based in health care type settings like hospitals, clinics, physician’s offices, nursing homes, public health agencies, or home health care agencies.
Obtaining certification for becoming a medical transciptionist is optional. However, it is highly recommended for the sake of credibility. Transcriptionists who pass the national exam given by the American Association for Medical Transcription or the AAMT earn the title Certified Medical Transcriptionists.
Every three years, CMTs must attain continuing education credits in order to be recertified.
According to the US Department of Labor, the average salary for transcriptionists is around $25,000.
One can start looking for medical transcriptionist job leads through job boards, online forums, and work-at-home blogs that post these telecommute job openings every now and then. Aside from learning a bunch of information from the basics to updates about the MT industry, job openings are posted on online medical transcription forums such as MTStars.com, MTetc.net, MTjobs.com, etc. You can even try to send cover letters to MT companies since the boom of this industry made transcriptionists ever in-demand.
Internet marketing is the endorsement of products through the Internet. You can either sell tangible products or infoproducts such as e-books, reports, and software. It can be a lucrative work-from-home business depending on your effort and resourcefulness.
By practice, most Internet marketers have successfully learned direct sales strategy as their approach in selling their products. As an Internet marketer, you must realize there are gazillions of competitions out there.
However, many Internet marketers are now becoming more adept in other ways of selling their products. Learn these other methods, mostly indirect, that allow Internet marketers to generate sales:
This method can be accomplished in various approaches. There are Internet marketers that create lead capture pages through AdWords or pay-per-click and directly sell the products that they are affiliates of through that lead capture page alone. With e-mail marketing, either you buy an e-mail list from a very trusted source (be very careful or you’ll be accused of spamming), hire an e-mail marketing company to help you, or generate your own opt-in email lists through your blog or website. Newsletters are then sent that contain links to products that the Internet marketer sells.
To get started with e-mail marketing, there are two basic routes you can take – to hire a service provider or to do the e-mail marketing ala DIY. Of course, a good budget will be required to be able to carry out the paid mode. Well-known email marketing companies include IDG Communications, Murgent, Datran Media, World Data and Xactmail.
If you would like to do it all by yourself (which includes information on how to obtain e-mail addresses, how to grow your list, how to make sure your e-mail list is targeted, how to write a persuasive newsletter, etc.), it would be wise to use free e-mail marketing tools such as zookoda.com and feedblitz.com. These will help you get the feel of e-mail marketing and will make you ready in no time to use more sophisticated e-mail marketing software if the need arises. For more advanced information about the e-mail marketing industry, join the e-mail marketing conferences held by MarketingSherpa.com,
one of the prominent marketing research companies.
Many Internet marketers work on their own sites or hire help to set up their websites that include their products. A cart for online shoppers is also an important part of this site to facilitate shopping. Oftentimes, credit card payment is allowed with these e-commerce sites to further augment good online shopping experience.
To create an e-commerce site, basic knowledge of HTML or web development is required. One can start with using e-commerce site starter kits such as those provided by ASP.net. But if you can’t create your own e-commerce site, freelance sites such as Elance.com and Scriptlance.com can help in looking for an expert that will make your dream e-commerce site come true. Just note all your project expectations and wait for all those bidders to come pouring in. After putting up your e-commerce site with all your products displayed, the next step is getting traffic to your site. A wide variety of traffic generation methods can be explored, such as search engine optimization, blogging, forums, and PPC or paid-per-click campaigns.
Search engine optimization, or the use of techniques to make a website gain good search engine placement for good traffic, will deliver well if started during the creation process of the e-commerce site. A website’s layout, page-per-page, can help in complementing a site’s future search engine visibility. A good navigation area, which helps a site in maximizing its usability, is an example of a search engine optimization move. A less-cluttered layout while allowing potential customers to find products easily can benefit a webmaster’s SEO efforts, too. All processes that make an e-commerce site easy to navigate and help find whatever the user is looking for, is good. After dealing with on-site optimization aspect, off-site optimization requires considerable attention, too. Link development for the site requires an adept knowledge in how you ask for link exchanges from relevant and more established sites. Further link building techniques include submitting the site’s profile to relevant directories.
Blogging about the products or information related to the products or services the e-commerce site offers is another way to make it take off. A blog provides fresh content that the potential buyers from the e-commerce site can make use of. Also, the blog can serve as a way for products to get reviewed.
Forums can be useful too if you have a product that requires support; it also helps build a community that will eventually support your e-commerce site.
Paid-per-click campaigns such as Google Adwords and MSN AdCenter can be helpful to e-commerce site owners who have the budget and would like a wider reach of the market. For Google Adwords (http://www.google.com/adwords), you just have to sign up, check the competition, and see the ongoing rates for the ads you would like to be launched. If your budget permits, get the highest bid for the keywords you would want your e-commerce site to show ads for.
One of the growing trends in Internet marketing is selling infoproducts in the form of software for generating or facilitating various online tasks or tutorials, especially video tutorials. E-books are a hit in this field too. Pay and download is what makes marketing these products an easy task.
If you have the skills and time to create your own products, you can save money by doing it yourself rather than hiring developers for software and ghostwriters for e-books and reports. However, you can’t just get an application developed or an e-book written without any research. You have to make sure there is a market for that product or it is very in-demand. If you can, run an extensive market analysis research first. You don’t want to waste time on a good-for-nothing product that will of course, never sell.
You may find out about what topics are in demand through this site: http://inventory.overture.com.
Many people recommend outsourcing the product creation work. If you have the money and you will be hiring people, you can either look for competent ones who are usually easy to search through keying in “software developer” or “e-book ghostwriter”. Constant communication between you and your contract worker will help ensure that you will get the best out of your arrangement.
When the product gets done, marketing it well should be your next focus. The Internet marketing part of this report should help you on this endeavor. Making sure that the benefits are tangible and not just exaggerations is a great way to make your sales letter work. A well-written press release is useful, too, in making other sites or blogs give attention to your product. You should provide quality customer service either through e-mail or phone. You can also offer upgrades that will make sure that you keep on earning from your previous customers.
There are dozens upon dozens of ways Internet marketers can generate income. The secret to excel in this industry is to have genuine interest and be updated with the trends, especially on the needs of people who are Internet-savvy or are relying on the Internet in doing their routine tasks. Creativity and some other computer skills won’t hurt, too, if you are gearing towards a successful home business as an Internet marketer.
Another work-from-home business that you can try is the eBay buy and sell business. You just have to offer the right products and possess some e-Bay-selling skills to succeed in this business.
In order for you to buy or sell on eBay, you must be registered. It’s so easy, so quick – and best of all, it’s free! When you’re a registered eBay user, you can shop on eBay and become part of the world’s largest online community of buyers and sellers.
Upon registering, you would be asked for your basic contact information. This is the first step to building a trusting relationship with eBay and the other users on the site.
You will be asked for your email because buyers and sellers communicate through this medium. Enter a valid email account – one that you usually check.
You will be asked to create a user ID. This ID will serve as your identity on the site. Choose one that can easily relate to the products that you are selling on eBay, that is, if you registered to make your own eBay business.
If you’re buying on eBay, there are two modes of purchases available. You can either go for the “Auctions style format” or the “buy it now which is fixed price format.”
Auctions are very simple and it’s really fun to participate in. The highest bidder of the item wins. If you are not a buyer, here’s one tip that will make you want to still bid: bidding on weird items, usually the useless ones or those without value is one way that companies market their businesses. Since that item will gain lots of eyeballs, the brave companies will surely enjoy the attention.
If you are planning to sell on eBay, do your homework first. Research on similar products being sold on the site. Learn to appraise your own products for better negotiations. You should also know how to properly label your items to increase sales. Really descriptive and often searched for keywords related to the product you are selling should be included to get the right people who are dying to buy your products. The title will serve as the headliner of your product.
After pondering on these matters, that’s when you list your item. You have to fill up a Sell Your Item form.
If a buyer is interested, you will be informed via email. The communication between you and your customer is being done online.
Doing business on eBay is not daunting. All you need is the right products to sell, a computer, an email address, some capital, research and determination to succeed.
A virtual assistant, or what is simply called as VA, is an independent contractor who provides administrative, technical, or creative assistance to the company’s clients. Most of the time, they provide their services to other entrepreneurs like lawyers and realtors.
Virtual assistants often work from their own home office. That is why they are deemed as virtual. Worldwide, there is an estimated 5000 to 8000 virtual assistants. As the Internet industry grows, the need for virtual assistants increase. And as many online entrepreneurs start a-popping, virtual assistants become more in-demand as ever.
The common mode of data delivery and communication with virtual assistants includes the use Internet, File Transfer Protocol or FTP and fax machine. Email, cellular phones, and telephones also helps VA’s in establishing communication links with their clients. Chat rooms, videoconference rooms, and emails are just a few of the many communication media that the Internet can offer.
Before setting up a home office to become a virtual assistant, contemplate on the following bits of advice to gain a sturdy ground on the requirements of working as a virtual assistant. These are referenced from Elite Office Support’s founder.
Since working as a virtual assistant is about providing support to clients, a secretarial background and customer service support experience can help immensely in this field.
If you don’t have a blog, you might be hibernating too long. A blog or web log, used to be referred to as online journal, has become one of the most loved online media with which people with same interests commune. It is said to be a place where people spill all their angst and other worldly thoughts.
Professional bloggers are those who post on blog sites either owned by a network or individuals. Professional bloggers earn a profit just by writing posts for these sites based on the posting interval issued by the blog site owner.
Problogging or professional blogging is simply getting paid to blog. If you are an individual problogger, you are basically a blogger who earns from your own blogs that you have set up yourself. So, how does a blog generate income? Here are various ways:
If a blog is slapped with ads from ad networks, you can definitely assume that the blog owner is trying to earn from his blog. One of the most popular ad networks that many probloggers sign up for is Google AdSense (http://www.google.com/adsense). This is a contextual advertising network that displays ads depending on the content of a blog or website. Other ad networks are Chitika, YPN, Text-Link-Ads, Performancing, Adbrite and more. It is usually advised for bloggers to use a combination of these online ad networks to get the most out of a blog’s earning potential. However, each of these networks Terms of Agreement and Service should be consulted first before using any of them as any violation might cause headaches. Payment methods of each ad network vary. It would be worthwhile to study data related to CPC (cost-per-click), CPM (cost-per-thousand-impression), and CPA (cost-per-action).
Similar to putting ads, affiliate programs require bloggers to include links, specifically known as referral links, on a blog’s content to earn from this blog. To earn well from this method, you must have a good traffic flow or a high number of targeted visitors to convert. Conversion is the process that transforms traffic to customers if your goal is to earn. This also goes true for the ad networks. The more targeted and the more traffic your blog receives, the better chances of profiting.
Blogs with considerable traffic may benefit well from sponsors. This is just like running online ads, usually in the form of banners. These sponsors are also regularly mentioned in blog posts, usually every week. Blogs with technology and business theme often get sponsors; but with the success of many niche blogs, a wider variety of blog themes is starting to attract more sponsorship attention.
Another professional blogging stint is through writing for blog networks that are either focused on just one niche or have a wide array of topics. Some of the most prominent blog networks include b5media, Creative Weblogging, Weblogs Inc., and Know More Media. The life of a professional blogger is more than just putting words on a page. You have to be very passionate about the topic you are blogging about. Applying for the blog topic is the usual drill on getting into a blog network.
Sending sample posts that are related to the blog topic you are applying for is also a common practice among blogger headhunters. However, it is not usually required to be an experienced blogger to get hired as a blogger for blog networks. Comfort in using the computer and Internet will do.
Some people get book writing offers because of their blog’s success. So, you don’t just have to think about the direct money-making potentials of professional blogging. It can increase a person’s credibility and open doors for better opportunities.
A blogger researches and scours the subject delegated to him on the web and from news sources. He takes notes of all information and summarizes it on his blog post, and infuses his own opinions. Just like any profession, bloggers must establish themselves as experts.
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