Speaker 1: In today's episode, you'll learn about the best transcription services available to you for transcribing your podcast episodes. Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, where you learn the best tips and strategies to launch, grow, and monetize your show. This week's question comes from Nancy.

Speaker 2: Good morning. I have a question for you. We want to start creating transcripts of the podcast and are wondering what's the best software to use. Thanks.

Speaker 1: Thanks for the question, Nancy. Podcast transcripts are a word-for-word manuscript of your podcast. So creating transcripts from episodes of your podcast is a great idea if you're looking to increase your show's discoverability, especially if you're a podcaster who leverages blog posts to accompany your podcast episodes. And transcripts aren't just great for search engine optimization reasons, but they can serve practical use for listeners by offering them the ability to quickly scan the content of your podcast and find the content or topic that's most relevant for them. So in today's episode, you'll learn about three of the best transcription services available to you. The first transcription service we recommend is otter.ai. Otter helps podcasters amplify their message by offering effortless transcription services. It works by allowing you to import existing recordings in a variety of formats like MP3 and WAV. Otter then uses software to convert the audio to text. And before you know it, you can embed that transcript on your episode page. Otter offers a variety of pricing plans for individuals that range from a free basic plan to a pro plan that will run you 8.33 a month. If you host your podcast with Buzzsprout, you can save a few bucks by going to the resources section of your Buzzsprout dashboard and checking out our coupon. Our second recommendation is rev.com. Rev costs a bit more than other transcription services, but it's because your audio is transcribed by a real human being, which makes their transcriptions more accurate. Rev works very similar to otter.ai. You upload files from your computer or simply paste a URL from the web and Rev professionals get to work transcribing your file. Audio transcription for podcasts will run you $1.25 a minute with an average 12-hour turnaround time and guaranteed 99% accuracy on your transcript. Our third recommended transcription service is HappyScribe. HappyScribe is another all-in-one transcription and subtitles platform that leverages state-of-the-art AI with actual language professionals. HappyScribe supports over 60 languages, not just English, and works very similar to the two services mentioned in this video. HappyScribe has two different types of transcription service packages. The first one is software-based and will cost you 20 cents per minute, promising an 85% accuracy rate. The other option is for 100% human-made transcription that will cost you slightly more at just under $2 per minute, but a much higher accuracy rate and longer turnaround time of 24 hours. Both packages include speakers and timestamps. If you don't have the budget for automated services like the ones I just shared, there is a DIY way. I recommend using Google Docs in the built-in voice type feature, which can be found under Tools in the top banner or by pressing Control-Shift-S. This will allow you to write your transcription by voice. You can export the document as a file and use that as the transcription for your episode. But keep in mind, this will require some time and effort to get the words right. Transcribing your podcast might sound like another step to add to your process, but it's important to think about the ways people typically find your podcast. More than likely, it's via word of mouth, social media and online advertising, and other podcast directories, which are all great ways to build your listenership. But transcribing your podcast takes the potential of your podcast showing up in search engines like Google to the next level. Transcription transforms every word you speak in your podcast into digestible and identifiable pieces of information that can easily be cataloged and found by search engines and potential listeners. Think about all the times you've been scrolling social media and how many videos you've watched without the sound on, but you read the captions. Those same captions are generated by some form of transcription service. They get eyeballs and attention on your content, and that's exactly what these transcription services we talked about today can do for you and your podcast. Now that you know what services to use for transcribing your show, make sure to watch this video next, which explains how to maximize the usefulness of your podcast transcripts. Thank you so much for watching, and as always, keep podcasting.