Are you considering a career in online proofreading?
In today’s digital age, the demand for skilled proofreaders is on the rise, offering lucrative opportunities for those with an eye for detail and a passion for language.
Whether you’re looking to work from home, supplement your income, or want to start a new career path, online proofreading can be a rewarding endeavor.
Let’s dive into the world of online proofreading jobs, exploring the skills needed, potential income, and how to get started.
What Is Proofreading?
Proofreading is the final process of carefully reviewing a written copy and fixing grammatical and spelling mistakes. Ideally, you’re the last person to reread the manuscript, article, or blog post, ensuring it’s crisp before publishing. It also includes fact-checking to ensure that the information in the document is accurate.
Conversely, editors handle the content structure, scope, clarity, tone, typos, and grammar errors. While an editor and a proofreader have similar roles, the latter tackles the last bit of the job—this makes proofreading an easy side hustle to start.
Who hires proofreaders? As a proofreader, you’ll have a ton of niches—content type and industry-wise— to consider. You can proofread academic documents, web content, books, magazines, newspapers, court documents, or manuals. You can also specialize in industries like health, law, finance, technology, or pharmaceuticals.
The exciting thing about proofreading is you can work 100% remotely and handle it during your free time.
Understanding The Difference Between Proofreading And Editing
Before diving into the details of online proofreading jobs, it’s essential to clarify the distinction between proofreading and editing. While both roles involve improving the quality of written content, they focus on different aspects.
- Proofreading is the final step in the writing process, ensuring that a document is free from grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and typos. A proofreader meticulously reviews the text for accuracy and consistency, making minor corrections as needed.
- Editing, on the other hand, involves a deeper analysis of the content, including its structure, clarity, tone, and overall coherence. Editors may suggest revisions, reorganize content, and refine the writing style to enhance its impact.
How Much Do Online Proofreaders Make?
Online proofreading can be lucrative but vary drastically depending on your expertise and niche. The Bureau of Labor Statistics averages the annual proofreader’s income to be $43,940. You can earn anywhere between $29,120 and $62,260. The hourly rate for a proofreader ranges from $14 to $29.93.
Some proofreading niches pay more than others, which can determine your ballpark rate as an online proofreader. For instance, proofreading accounting, tax, professional, and technical documents can pay $29 per hour, while proofreading for newspapers pays $17 per hour. Remember, nothing is set to stone, and you charge for your services how you deem fit. You can price your proofreading services per word, project, or hour.
How Do I Become An Online Proofreader?
While proofreading is an easy side hustle to start, it can be tricky to figure out your successful path. The first step to becoming an online proofreader is to create a reading culture. Proofreading involves a ton of reading, and it pays if you love reading and learning—more often than not, you’ll have to read a document several times to catch the tiniest mistakes. As an avid reader, you can handle even the topics that don’t interest you.
Once you create a reading culture, it is important to understand your duties as a proofreader. Your job as an online proofreader is to ensure that your client’s document is crisp, direct to the point, and has zero spelling and grammar mistakes. Furthermore, some projects require you to be more than just a grammar nerd; you need to know how to fix the style, and errors, ensure proper word usage, and fact-check the document details.
As a beginner proofreader, you can take proofreading courses to improve your skills and give you a competitive advantage. It can also help you get up to date on the new style guides like the APA, MLA, Chicago, and AP. Find a proofreading course that offers comprehensive and authentic tips to succeed as an online proofreader.
Is There Any Free Proofreading Course Available?
Proofread Anywhere is our top choice for the best proofreading course. This course provides actionable tips on starting online proofreading, getting online proofreading jobs, and overall copyediting skills.
Whether you want to learn general or transcription proofreading, Proofread Anywhere covers everything you need to know before launching your business.
Proofread Anywhere offers both paid and free courses. It offers an introductory free workshop on its course named General Proofreading. This workshop is like a window into the entire Proofread Anywhere course that fits you or not.
Further, they also have a course called Transcript Proofreading. They offer a 7-day free intro e-course to let you know what the course Transcript Proofreading holds and if you are ready for the same or not.
You also get a course discount on the General Proofreading course after you attend the free workshop. You can get a discount of $100 at checkout after the workshop.
Further, you get lifetime access to the course after you decide to buy them. There are extra additions to lessons in the General Proofreading and regular courses. Aren’t all these benefits some real extra?
In the General Proofreading course, you can choose between Ignite or Ignite plus options. The cost differs by a few dollars but Ignite Plus will get you a certificate of completion among other benefits.
Have you got the necessary proofreading skills? Market your services to get on your potential client’s radar. But first, you need to decide on your proofreading niche.
Do you want to proofread web content, blogs, essays, fiction, non-fiction books, technical documents, or resumes? Choosing an area of specialty narrows your client search and portrays you as a specialist worth their salt.
Effective marketing is key to a successful online proofreading business. Create a website to upload your portfolio and skills and boost credibility. You can use many platforms to find clients, like LinkedIn, social media, and job boards.
How Do I Start Proofreading With No Experience?
Are you wondering how you can start proofreading with no experience? One of the most straightforward ways to find online proofreading jobs is to use marketplaces.
Below are the best places to get your first online proofreading job. These sites offer a hassle-free way to get paid to proofread without experience.
Fiverr
Trustpilot Rating: 3.5
Fiverr works like Upwork; the only difference is that you don’t send proposals. To be a proofreader on Fiverr, you must create your profile and gig offers. You price your offer and optimize it for SEO on Fiverr. A potential client will go through your offer, and if impressed, they’ll hire you.
Using Fiverr is relatively straightforward since you don’t need to send several bids. Once you create a gig, clients can find you through search. However, you must be slightly more aggressive to get your feet wet on this platform. Market your proofreading services on social media. Fiverr services start at $5, but you can sell for more.
Flex Jobs
Trustpilot Rating: 4.5
Flex Jobs is another excellent platform to get legit online proofreading jobs. Unlike Upwork and Fiver, Flexjobs is a subscription-based website that links you up with companies needing proofreaders. FlexJobs will do the heavy work, marketing, attracting, and vetting legitimate clients and companies ready to hire you for a small fee.
Furthermore, you’ll enjoy resources like Q&A sessions, job fairs, webinars, skill tests, and articles. As the name suggests, FlexJobs focuses on remote and flexible jobs you can handle at home or during your part-time hours. Join Flex for only $9.95—sometimes they have discounts for new memberships.
Scribe Media
Trustpilot Rating: 4.4
Scribe Media is one of the top publishing companies working with authors. This is your opportunity if your area of specialty is proofreading books. They have full-time and part-time remote proofreading jobs as long as you reside in one of the states. Sign up for the Scribe Media newsletter to get job alerts.
CACTUS
Trustpilot Rating: 4.1
CACTUS is a technology company serving industries like academia and life sciences. If you enjoy proofreading journals, research papers, medical device manuals, and other academic papers. This proofreading job site can be your perfect shot if you enjoy reading technical documents. Moreover, you can access tons of free tutorials, articles, and tips from other proofreaders.
Scribendi
Trustpilot Rating: 4.4
With over two decades in business, Scribendi is another top choice for proofreading jobs. They offer editing services to businesses, authors, ESL writers, and students. Whether you’re looking to edit academic work, books, business documents, or essays, Scribending offers in-house and freelance proofreading jobs. Email the hiring team at Scribendi for more information.
Upwork
Trustpilot Rating: 2.9
Upwork is one of the leading and most legit marketplaces for online proofreading jobs. It is free and a no-brainer to join this marketplace. Upwork boasts of having over 145k employers hiring freelancers—30% of these clients are Fortune 100 companies. Once you signup, you can complete your profile, stating your skills and experiences. Upwork will award you with free Connects you can use to send proposals, aka job applications, to potential clients.
You can earn $20/hr as a beginner proofreader on Upwork. Intermediates and experienced proofreaders’ rate is $30/hr and $60/hr, respectively.
Indeed
Trustpilot Rating: 3.4
If you’ve searched for a job online, you know that Indeed is one of the biggest free job boards. It features job categories from thousands of industries, and you can expect to find high-paying proofreading jobs.
A proofreader on Indeed can snag jobs paying between $21 and $29 per hour. You must create an Indeed account and update your resume to apply for jobs. Indeed provides free tools and proficiency tests you can take to improve your chances of getting a job.
Media Bistro
Trustpilot Rating: 3.2
Media Bistro works with some of the biggest media and publishing companies, and you can find high-paying proofreading gigs. It is the best job site if you like working on media, marketing, and publishing content. What I like about this proofreading job board is you can narrow your search by location and sign up for email notifications on new jobs. It is a free job board, so you don’t have to pay even a cent to apply for jobs.
Scribbr
Trustpilot Rating: 4.6
Scribbr is an award-winning proofreading and editing company serving academia. It is the best company for proofreaders with experience editing dissertations, essays, thesis, personal statements, and academic papers.
Scribbr pays between $20 to $30 per hour, depending on the assignment and the urgency. Furthermore, they offer editing courses to help you hone your proofreading skills. Are you multilingual? Scribbr offers opportunities to proofread documents written in French, German, and Dutch.
Proofreading Pal
Trustpilot Rating: 4.5
Do you have experience with writing styles like APA, AP, MLA, CMS, or CSE? Proofreading Pal is looking for you to proofread academic documents. You can proofread student documents, thesis, dissertation, books, essays, resumes, and much more. A typical Proofreading Pal earns between $500 to $3,000 per month.
Exploring Editing Jobs Opportunities
If you’re looking to venture into editing as a freelancer or a professional seeking additional projects, there are numerous platforms available to connect you with potential clients.
Editing jobs encompass a wide range of tasks, including proofreading, copyediting, content editing, and more. Let’s delve deeper into reputable platforms that offer editing job opportunities:-
Freelancer.com
Trustpilot Rating: 4.5
Freelancer.com is a leading freelance marketplace that caters to a diverse range of skills and services, including editing and proofreading. With a stellar Trustpilot rating of 4.5 stars, Freelancer.com has gained the trust of freelancers and clients alike, making it a reliable platform for securing editing jobs.
Upon joining Freelancer.com, you can create a detailed profile highlighting your editing expertise, experience, and qualifications. The platform offers a user-friendly interface where you can browse through various editing projects posted by clients from around the world.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced editor, Freelancer.com provides opportunities to bid on projects, collaborate with clients, and build a strong portfolio.
Gramlee.com
Trustpilot Rating: 4.1
Gramlee.com specializes in editing and proofreading services, offering a platform dedicated to enhancing written content for clients.
With a commendable Trustpilot rating of 4.1 stars, Gramlee.com has established itself as a reputable source for editing jobs and professional editing services.
Gramlee.com caters to various editing needs, including academic papers, business documents, blog posts, and more. As an editor on Gramlee.com, you can access a range of projects that align with your skills and interests.
The platform provides tools and resources to streamline the editing process, ensuring high-quality deliverables for clients. Additionally, Gramlee.com offers competitive rates and opportunities for editors to showcase their proficiency in editing.
Conclusion
With companies, authors, academicians, content creators, marketers, and other entities valuing effective communication, it is safe to say there’s an in-demand for proofreaders.
Plus, proofreading can be an easy skill to master, and you can find location-independent jobs.
Are you interested in learning more about online copyediting and writing jobs?
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