6 Profitable Online Platforms You Can Make Money Writing Subtitles

If you are looking for a flexible work-from-home job or a way to make some extra money, you can start freelancing writing subtitles. 

Yes, you read that right – ‘writing subtitles!’ and it’s got flexible hours. You get to Pick your own working hours, besides being your own boss, and gaining self-motivating skills as you work from home. And here is the icing they can pay you more than a 9 to 5 if you work hard at it.  

Writing subtitles or captions is one of the best, in-demand, and most fun online jobs. You get to work on classic TV shows, modern movies, educational videos, and many other fun programs.

How does it work? 

Basically, you write down the voice and sounds from a video or a sound file, into text. In other words, you get paid for typing or translating what you hear, you need to have excellent typing and listening skills, that’s when you get a new title – subtitler. 

As a subtitler, your role is to:

• Help people understand what’s said
• Translate content
• Help give meaning that otherwise might be missed

Here is a list of the best places to get subtitles or captioning work-from-home jobs.

But before delving into it, let’s quickly answer some common questions frequently asked by would be subtitlers.

 

1. What is the difference between Captions and Subtitles?

Captions: Are written versions for dialogs in the videos which help you to understand clearly the voice. No language translation is involved.

Subtitles: Are translated versions for the dialogs. For instance, you can watch a French movie that has English subtitles even if you don’t understand French.

How much can I earn?

This is the most common question and the easiest to answer – It depends on the complexity of the projects you choose to work on. On average you can earn $240 monthly – but if you work hard to become one of the top captioners you can earn up to $1600.

On the other hand, subtitlers earn between $1.50-$3.00 per video minute. And the average earnings are $958 per month.

Can anyone become a captioner or subtitle writer?

Yes, any interested individual can apply to be a captioner or subtitler. But you need to be conversant with both the languages and their grammar. That is, the English language and the language in which you are adding subtitles, which can be: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, or Italian.

I highly recommend you to check out this awesome Udemy course from Ali Desoki: Learn All About Creating Subtitles (SRT) and Closed-Captions.

Do I need to have experience?

No, you don’t need to have any previous captioning or subtitling experience, but in this case, you should start with this Udemy course. Here you will learn all there is to know about writing subtitles and captions. Click here to get the course.

Can I work from anywhere in the world?

Yes, you can work from all corners of the world, all you need is a computer and an internet connection.

How Can I Get Paid to Write Subtitles?

There are several ways you can earn money as a subtitler including:

1. Get Paid Writing the Subtitles from Scratch

The most common way is you’re looking at subtitles, and then you have to write these from scratch to help people understand what’s going on in the content.

In general, this also may involve captioning for the deaf, and hard of hearing, but usually, you just write different subtitles of what’s being said.

2. Quality Control

When you run quality control on subtitles, this typically means that you listen to fix any grammatical, proofing, or punctuation errors, and also ensure they synchronize with the content that you’re working on. This is critical especially when translating. 

Capital captions a UK-based company offers this, and they do quality control on both English subtitles and also foreign subtitles.

3. Open Captioning

Closed captioning is when you can turn off the subtitles, but open captioning is when subtitles are permanently visible on TV shows, movies, and online videos.

This is something lots of marketers are using more and more of, because it doesn’t leave anyone out. It is oftentimes called “burning on” subtitles.

4. Subtitle Translation

If you’re bilingual or can speak multiple languages, this is a lucrative market to go into.

To communicate the story effectively, you’ve got  to understand the language you’re subtitling, or else something will get lost in translation.

If you are good at subtitling and translation, Language Line Solutions is a great option.

 

5. Get Paid to Write Subtitles for YouTube Videos

You can also become a YouTube video subtitler, making the videos easy for people to watch who do not want to listen or have hearing problems.

The subtitles are the captions you see at the bottom of the videos.

 

Sites That Will Pay You for Writing Subtitles

 

Now that you know the five main ways you can get paid for writing subtitles Here are 6 websites ready to hire your expertise.

1. Aberdeen

Aberdeen is the best platform is a wonderful platform for anyone starting out as an offline captioner and subtitler.

Here, you get paid to write and edit subtitles as required.

And since it is Christian-based, you need to have a good idea of the terminology used in Christian media besides being good at writing subtitles.

You can make between $12-15 on average as a beginner. Then once you advance you can make up to $75 per hour as a real-time captioner and subtitler.

Visit this link to check out Aberdeen

 

2. AI Media

A second popular company that offers subtitle and captioning services is AI media.

You can make about $42 an hour if you’re doing the jobs more frequently. They also offer remote jobs so you can enjoy the flexibility of working whenever you feel like it.

AI media works with a variety of different industries and companies like Amazon, Mozilla, and Shopify which benefit from their subtitling and closed captioning services.

AI media is primarily available in Australia and the UK, but there are some USA-based job offerings too.

Visit this link to check out AI Media

 

3. Visual Data

Do you want to get recognized by Netflix? Visual Data is probably the best company to work with.

The company has a lot of positions for you to check out, compensation with benefits, and a good environment that encourages collaboration and teamwork.

Besides, they also have a variety of different translation services.

Even though most of it is in-person, they also offer remote jobs for anyone who is interested.

Visit this link to check out Visual Data

 

4. Vitac Captioning

Formerly known as Caption Colorado, Vitac is an exciting subtitle and caption company that you can apply to work for. The company handles a ton of captions, about 600 hours each day.

They do require you to have good typing, accuracy, and knowledge of certain movie and TV captions.

Beginners are paid about $20 an hour, which is a good start and the pay becomes more as you advance.

The jobs on this platform are either directly on-site or remote.

Overall, if you have the technical skill to do this, it’s worth a shot to apply since there is always a chance that you might get hired.

Visit this link to check out Vitac

 

5. SpeechPad

SpeechPad is another remarkable company offering transcription, captioning, and subtitling jobs.

On average you can make about $2.50 per minute, but sometimes it could be more for foreign languages.

They have clients that pay you quickly, but one downside about this is that you have to be ready to work with really strict deadlines, since most clients usually want results within 24 hours or less, so you have to be timely with this.

But, if you’re good at this, there’s nothing to worry about.

Visit this link to check out SpeechPad

 

6. CaptionMax

Finally, there’s CaptionMax, which is a great platform for beginners who want to work from home.

Founded back in 1992, CaptionMax has worked with some major companies, including Sony, NBC, and Warner Bros too!

You can work for CaptionMax and make about $14-$23 an hour as a beginner.

Visit this link to check out CaptionMax

In closing,

Getting paid to write subtitles is not just possible, but is a great way of making some money if you’re good at following what people say and can write it down accurately. 

A word of caution though, it’s a highly competitive field, and as a beginner, you will experience lots of rejection, don’t give up, keep applying, because if you’re good at subtitling somebody is bound to notice and to hire your services.