If you’ve been reading these guides since they first started, you may have started to identify some of the trends that run through many of the means of creating passive income and side hustles. One is the need for content. That might be in the form of blog posts, ebooks, scripts and more. If you need content, you will probably need a proofreader, at least at first.
Creating compelling content is a skill, and one that can take years to develop. If your talent does not lie in writing quickly and effectively, you may struggle with trying to follow many of our guides on your own. However, for any skill gaps you may have, there are inevitably freelancers available fill them in. And that means there are opportunities for those who do have the skills to make some extra income.
TL;DR
- Free – if you have the necessary skills already, you can get started with no up-front cost
- Laptop business – you require no specialised equipment to get started and run a successful business – just a laptop and an internet connection
- Work from home – proofreading can be a good enough earner that you can work from anywhere
- Side hustle – you will need to work for your money, but it needn’t absorb all of your time
- Potentially repetitive – there is the chance you might get to read some exciting texts, but you may have to read a lot of dull ones, too
- Competitive – there are a lot of other proofreader out there, but it’s still possible to make a good income if you choose your niche carefully
What is Proofreading?
If you’re not a writer or working in the publishing industry in any way, shape or form, the term ‘proofreading’ might be an alien one to you. Put simply, it’s the process of checking the work of the original content creator in order to spot and correct any errors they may not have realised they made, as well as possibly suggesting improvements to make the text easier to read.
The skills required to be a good proofreader include an eye for detail, a solid understanding of the language you are editing in (for the purpose of this guide, we’ll use English as the example, but the same could apply to working in any language) and a general understanding of what does and does not make compelling content. For written formats like books and blog posts, which will inevitably be the bulk of the work you’ll get as a freelance proofreader, this last skill is the easiest to obtain. All you have to do is read plenty of content and just remember what works well and what doesn’t; which texts you couldn’t put down and which would make your eyes glaze over with boredom.
The other skills are harder to develop and are, to a degree, dependent on each other. In order to spot the errors, you need the eye for detail. However, in order to realise that there is an error to spot, you need the language skills.
Being a native speaker is not necessarily an essential requirement since the act of learning English as a second language will often give you a more detailed understanding of the mechanics of the language than you would get just picking it up from those around you. To put it bluntly, there are plenty of native speakers who are dreadful editors and plenty of non-native speakers who can do an excellent job. However, non-native speakers of any language often miss out on the cultural context, idioms and nuances that make a text more engaging. In short, there is no fixed formula that dictates who can and cannot be a good proofreader.
What does the role entail, exactly? Well, you get sent a text and it’s your job to send it back in peak condition. This will generally require you to use the ‘Track Changes’ tool in your chosen word processing software, which will allow the creator to choose which edits they agree with and which they don’t. You may also need to leave comments on the text to explain your thinking or ask the creator questions where you are uncertain of what point they are trying to convey.
Depending on the skill of the writer, the job could require as little as adding a missing comma here or there and fixing the occasional typo. This is the truest definition of proofreader – the one final check before publication, just adding the last bit of shine or buffing out the final errors. On the other hand, the job could require rewriting or removing entire paragraphs to fix clumsy sentence structuring where the text is too unclear to read. This is technically editing rather than proofreading and comes earlier in the publication process.
Isn’t all of this basically exactly what software like Grammarly does for free, though? Well, yes and no. Even Grammarly has the option to send the text to a human proofreader because they accept that their system is far from flawless. No automated grammar checker works perfectly, despite decades of development. The longer you use such software, the more you’ll notice it failing to spot quite blatant errors or getting stuck in logic loops, suggesting a change and then suggesting you change it back in an endless cycle. Problems like this mean that the need for a human eye in the editing process remains, even to this day.
And the earning potential of being a freelance proofreader? It depends on your skill, experience, reputation and, inevitably, your niche. However, annual earnings around $50,000 mark is the average. The top end of the spectrum can be double that, though fewer than 1% of proofreaders will make that much.
How to Start?
Actually starting and running a business as a freelance proofreader is extremely simple – it’s ultimately exactly the same as using any skill as a freelancer. You establish your credentials, promote yourself on freelancing marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork and others, you do the job and you get paid for it. After your first few jobs, you gain more of a reputation and you can build more momentum, getting more and more jobs with higher and higher fees. If you want a few more details on this, you should check out a number of our previous posts, including our review of Fiverr.
That, however, all comes after the important part of the process – developing the skills. For that, you need either a lot of years working in the world of publishing or, if you lack that, a quick yet substantial course. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to have been writing and editing content for the better part of a decade or two, Proofread Anywhere is your friend. Their courses promise to carry you from beginner to business owner in as little as a week, though allowing more time to study the more advanced modules is highly recommended.
There are two courses available from Proofread Anywhere. The first is an introduction to proofreading, including both the theory and the practical applications. It will guide you through the technical terms and details, what you should be looking out for while proofreading, what skills you need to develop and then carries and all of the rest you need to know in order to be a good proofreader. The later modules (of 10 in the course) look at how to make it your business and even how to integrate that business into your life, looking at everything from building a website and marketing yourself to building confidence and organising your time to avoid burning out.
The second course does basically the same, but for transcripts. The teacher and founder of Proofread Anywhere – Caitlin Pyle – started out proofreading court transcripts and this second course is primarily for those that want to follow in her footsteps. It covers similar topics, detailing both the theory and the practical sides of building a business as a transcript proofreader.
Things to consider before starting Proofreading
Proofreading is a job – it takes time and effort to do, so this is absolutely not a passive income stream. What it is, however, is a potential side hustle or even a way to make your income entirely from home. In fact, as the name of the course suggests, you can theoretically proofread anywhere, so long as your chosen location has enough electricity to keep a laptop powered and a stable enough internet connection for you to communicate with clients. The point remains that you will have to work for a living – this is not some kind of ‘get rich quick’ scheme.
Relatedly, the income from proofreading can vary a lot. The more specialised your skills and knowledge, the more you can expect to be able to demand for your services. This is partly why Proofread Anywhere offers the court transcript course – the transcripts will very often be very dull, but the need for precision and professionalism is much higher in this case than, for example, proofreading some new author’s ebook. The stakes are significantly higher, so the pay will be, too. Even with specialised skills, however, it will take time for you to gain enough of a reputation to be able to get high-paying clients. Again, dispel any misconceptions you may have about this being a shortcut to unlimited wealth. It will take time and effort to build your business.
Most importantly, remember that a lot of your work is potentially going to be quite dull. Proofreading is not especially exciting. Yes, you might get the job of reading the latest novel by a bestselling author before everyone else does – that is a possibility, when you get a good enough reputation. Before then, you may have to slog through a lot of very boring books by very bad authors. Similarly with the court transcripts – perhaps one case a year will be something exciting and interesting to read while the other countless cases will likely be mundane traffic violations and petty thefts. And yet, regardless of how exciting the text may or may not be, you will have to read it very closely, perhaps over and over again to make sure you’ve dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ’t’.
Cost to get started as a Proofreader
In theory, the cost of starting out as a freelance proofreader can be zero. However, that is only the case if you already have established skills and possibly even an established reputation in the publishing world. If you’re starting from scratch, the cost of signing up for Proofread Anywhere becomes a factor.
The absolute beginner’s introductory course is free. However, the General Proofreading course costs $497 for lifetime access to the extensive materials. A higher-level membership, with the added bonus of formal certification, costs $597. The transcript proofreading course, being a more specialised skill and therefore having a significantly higher potential to help you to make more money in less time, is more expensive.
