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How to make money proofreading

 

How to make money proofreading?

 

  • What is a proofreader?
  • Are proofreaders in demand? Who hires them?
  • What skills should aspiring proofreaders have?
  • Who isn’t a good fit for proofreading?
  • Do proofreaders need a degree or other qualifications?
  • How much money do proofreaders make?
  • How can a complete beginner become a proofreader?
  • And more.

So there’s your answer.

If you ever thought of making money with proofreading here’s your guide on how to do that successfully.

Here’s more about Caitlin Pyle and Proofread Anywhere

What is a Proofreader?

Proofreader’s job is important as he she lays the final eyes on a work before being published. So its their job to make everything up to order.

What Does a Proofreader Do, Exactly?

A proof reader not only looks at spelling mistakes but they also look for grammar issues, they look at the way sentences flow, formatting fixes and other similar things.

Proofreading vs. Editing: What’s the Difference?

The proofreader’s job comes after the editor. The editor ensures the the work is logically correct but the editor makes sure there are no glaring mistakes around the work.

Editors look at grammar and punctuation and planning the whole work. Proofreaders tend to clean the whole thing up.

That means just a SINGLE client could potentially provide you with a nice source of consistent income as a freelance proofreader.

Oh, and if you think grammar and spell-check tools are gobbling up all of the proofreading work from REAL proofreaders, read on:

How Human Proofreaders Differ From Spellcheck

Tools like Grammarly have always attempted at replacing human proofreaders but they can’t come close.

Grammarly is great for highlighting obvious mistakes. But its never more than a glorified spell check. Context flies right above them.

Tools can introduce errors into your writing if you’re not sure how to use grammar and punctuation.

The Skills Every Proofreader Needs to Be Successful

Proofreading isn’t something you can work on with no experience. It requires a certain degree of prowess to master what goes into correcting mistakes and provide a good reading experience to the end reader.

You also need to love to read.

Hard Proofreading Skills

Enjoying reading isn’t the sole criteria to determine how proficient you are going to be as a proofreader. But, that’s a start.

The most important thing when it comes to enjoying success with proofreading is keeping an eye out for grammar, punctuation and typos. That means you need to read carefully. I have this instinct. But with practice you become way better at it.

Soft Proofreading Skills

It isn’t really all about spotting mistakes. The better thing is to understand what clients want best.

These soft skills will help you upsell and charge more than what peers do.

Attention to detail is one of the first crucial things necessary in the busines. Read quickly but don’t skim.

As such its generally hard work and it needs to meet professional standards.

You can spend spare time proofreading because its generally a time consuming ask and you can definitely do some of it on the side.

IT doesn’t matter what you plan. It depends on how flexible you are to do the work.

Proofreading also involves deadlines and that means you need to be able to stick to a schedule.

How Much Do Proofreaders Make?

Now that’s an interesting question.

What’s the salary of a proofreader.

A general proofreader can make anything depending on the time he she chooses to devote to it.

Proofreading can be a good side hustle.

ZipRecruiter’s data reveals that on an average proofreaders make over $45852 a year and some proofreaders earn more than $75000 a year.

The numbers above may not always reflect an accurate picture of reality. These stats are based on average estimates.

As a proofreader you can also directly approach bloggers and authors and they may also send referrals over to you making the income much larger. Referrals and other clients land on their own when you gain experience and relevant skills.

Proofreading as a career can throw the spotlight on you.

However proofreading without training can land you in some trouble.

You might harbor myths around proofreading and not know how and where to get clients.

  • If you don’t understand clients and make mistakes you lose the client forever and you lose the chance of being in his network too.

No course is going to make you succeed at what you are doing that mostly depends on your gumption, hard work and wit. That’s how you find success.

If you learn the course you’re going to find some measure of success with the course. You learn the fundamentals around a said course but you need to put in enough work.

Work consistently and practice and then you won’t waste time and get something out of it.

The proofread anywhere course helps you proofread online content, resumes and other articles. 8 models pack 40 lessons with 10 of them on grammar and punctuation There are worksheets and essays you can and should practice.

  • The ignite plus is another training level where you get more value. There’s an exam. When you pass you can get a certification of participation too.

Start making money with proofreading

All it takes is the right approach and attitude towards proofreading. Once you do that you can land the right jobs and start making the right amount of money as well.

You need a PC, you need internet, you need time and some research materials to get started.

Here’s the guide to get started.

Step 1. Learn the Art

To master proofreading you need to have training that develops patience and an eye for errors. You need to reallylearn how to start proofreading first.

The proofread anywhere is a great course to do that right.

The basics are taugh in the course and it will also tell you if the approach is right and if you’re good to become a proofreader.

Do not take action on steps 2-5 below without taking training first.

Again you don’t need clients who go mad at you seeing the poor quality of work you display.You don’t need to be an untrained proofreader.You also need to know how to land clients. This experience can spruce your profile but a bad experience with the client can mean that the reputation you built up gets damaged.

In the next step you need to up your skillset. Proofreading doesn’t end with training. It begins there.

The standard for proofreading changes and that means you need to always reskill yourself to stay on top of the game.

To be really skilled that could mean tons of practice.

Also read several books, articles magazines and other things to bloom your passion and get things working in your favor.

The ideal approach is to: Search for mistakes like your life depends on it.

Keep in mind – this practice can also help you potentially land clients. If you’re reading an article from your favorite blogger and you notice some errors, kindly reach out and let them know.

Don’t advertise your services right away though.

Just show them the errors you found, and try to get a friendly conversation going. If they ask what you do, then you can mention your proofreading services.

Making friends and networking can be one of the best ways to get your foot in the door and land clients.

You may want to proofread professionally. But, at the start you maywant to start serving your friends first. You may want to proofread essays and articles for them first and once you have done that successfully you can gallop ahead. You can do this is as a favoror in exchange for some money.

LEARN DIFFERENT STYLE GUIDES

AP style is one of the most common proofreading styles found. You need to access and be familiar with different styles to incorporate an element of freshness into your content. Style guidelines let the writing come out consistently smooth. And the content feels great to read from start to end.

The rules are generally around citations, paragraph spacing, use of fonts and so on.

AP style, AMErican psychological association style, Modern language association style and so on are some common one.s

READ GRAMMAR BOOKS

Grammar is your best friend if you want to proofread. To spot errors and do a good job at that you must be particularly adept at grammar.

There are also proofreading tests. These tests show you where you stand with respect to others and which of your skills need improvement.

When you go over mistakes find out what’s wrong and make a mental note of the same so you don’t miss out on things.

When getting paid or not, just use the opportunity to learn and get better and improve yourselves.

Do free or discounted work for some big clients and use their testimonials to spruce up your own profile.

Step 3. Start Looking for Paid Proofreading Work

In the next step, once you have had gained some experience proofreading and working your way up it’s time to take things up a notch by scouting for professional paid opportunities.

Freelancing is a fantastic way to make great money proofreading. With freelancing you can command the rates you want. In addition you work your own hours, deciding when you want to work. You set the hours and the freedom to work when its convenient.

However its not so easy when getting startrted. Because finding clients is easier said than done.

You can register on sites Like Fiverr or Upwork and start getting a steady stream of work once you have landed a couple of gigs.

  • In addition you can also land referrals through friends and family members.
  • Cold emailing/calling –Bloggers and content creators and authors generally need the proofread work because they want to be told of their mistakes and correct their work.
  • So that’s a great niche to offer work. There are also Facebook groups where you can land clients because there are tons of author groups with people looking for some to proofread.

WORK FOR PROOFREADING COMPANIES A AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR

You can also become an independent contractor and work for certain companies. If you don’t want clients on your own and apply to these sites you can find companies willing to rope you in, teach some ropes and also find a steady fodder of opportunities.

  • With this the payment may not be a lot. 
  • You can set a schedule and work a certain period on schedule.
  • In addition to this you can hire proofreaders who you can work with on a consistent basis and score work on a weekly basis.

Step 4. Niche Down

The greatest way to make more money proofreading is by specializing in a particular kind of services. There are tons of them. And its better you stick with one, prove your expertise. That way you establish credibility as someone known for a particular niche.

Niching down gets you more money as you  become a proofreader of demand.\

For  instance you can choose to work with recipe bloggers or with books or something like that.

Offer more and more services

In addition to all the above, as you start working more and more you will find the business running smoothly. At this point, you may want to offer additional services or upsells to make even more money.

When you land clients and have more time you can offer kindle book formatting. That’s something I usually get request for and all you need to do is download the free kindle ebook reader and edit the books there to make it in the .kdp format along with some formatting skills. You can expand withinthe cope of your niche. You can offer logo design services too.

It’s pretty easy to offer upsells to your clients. They are in need of the service and once you do, its easy to add more and more services.

  • Translation
  • Developmental editing
  • Line editing
  • Copy editing
  • Transcription
  • Writing
  • Copywriting

You can also offer services at the agency level. When you have more and more clients instead of turning down the depth and breadth of work you’re getting, hire others and train them to start an agency and offer work at the agency level.

  • Make sure that the freelancers you find deliver high quality work. yOU may need to test them out before giving them client work.
  • Read backwards – To ensureyou’re not missing anything read sentences backward. This takes the obvious out of the way and the brain doesn’t skip onsetences and its harder to miss mistakes in this manner.
  • Read the last sentence, second last and all the way to first.
  • Squinting your eyes at the laptop all day long is hard. That’s why printing it out can help you spot errors quicker.
  • When writing or proofreading reading out the text aloud is one of the surest ways to spot mistakes. You should also need to practice and check client docs and others.

Final Thoughts

The business of proofreading will continue as long as there are writers and authors. More and more content is getting produced everyday and that content needs you/, There are several different industries that need proofreaders and you can help them

IF you definitely enjoy reading proofreading is something you will enjoy. Take part in the training and make money.

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