Recently I had my best friend John over to discuss his upcoming blog FantasyBookBlogger.com (Yes I know it's shameless plug. lol). So we're sitting in my office, brainstorming ideas about his new site. A little know fact about your fearless work at home leader is that I'm somewhat of a sci-fi/fantasy geek. So needless to say I'm really excited about the prospects of having a good resource to turn to when a new fantasy or scifi book or movie comes out.
As John and I are babbling along, I asked him to look at some articles I was working on for this blog. My buddy John has always been academically inclined. I've known him since the 5th grade and he was one of those students we all hated. You know the kind that didn't need to study but would get A's in every subject. Bastard! lol
In any event, he read my article and gave it two thumbs up. But John being the academic he is, was able to spot many minor grammatical mistakes like a bloodhound that can sniff out a perp. Look, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an English major. Chances are, in the last two paragraphs I've made multiple grammatical mistakes. Hey, I'm really sorry about that and thank you from the bottom of my heart for not holding that against me. For many of you, you are here to learn how to find legitimate work at home jobs and avoid scams. So you're probably giving me a little more leeway than you would if you were visiting another site.
Well my friends there is an opportunity here for you to work at home! We all know that everyone is coming online and nearly 50% of them are launching websites or online businesses. It wouldn't surprise me if your dear grandmother has a website or a MySpace page. With that kind of increase in websites, there is a great opportunity for a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. You can easily make a boat load of money by gently exposing these mistakes to webmasters and online business owners.
So let's examine how you can approach working at home as proofreader, the right way and the wrong way.
The Wrong Way To Work At Home As A Proof-Reader
Upcoming At Home Proof-Reader:
Dear BadlyWrittenAndSpelledSite.com,
I was visiting your homepage and was just wondering if you graduated first grade? Are you an idiot? How can you expect people to take your website seriously if you have all these spelling and grammatical errors? Look, obviously English isn't your first language. Let me help you out by offering my proof reading services. Lord know your "ignt" ass needs it. Let me know what you think before you continue to embarrass yourself in public like that.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Too Blunt For My Own Good
BadlyWrittenAndSpelledSite.com:
Dear I Never Asked You To Email Me Website Visitor,
Yeah, about your email. If you can go ahead and take a hike, that would be great! Umm kay?
BuBye!
The Right Way To Work At Home As A Proofreader.
Upcoming At Home Proof-reader:
Dear BadlyWrittenAndSpelledSite.com,
I was just visiting your homepage and I wanted to say you offer some great information (product, services, etc, you fill in the blank). I was planning to buy (subscribe, etc, take some type of action that the owner would like.) and I happen to notice a few spelling and grammatical errors. Honestly because I think you offer such great product (information, service, etc) I didn't hold it against you. But I'm not sure if others would be as forgiving. I have no idea how much business you may be losing because of it. But look I went ahead and reviewed your homepage for you and identified at least 10 spelling errors and 15 grammatical issues. One I noticed is the use of "than" instead of "then" in the second paragraph.
I imagine you're really busy trying to create the best product and information and that's why these mistakes slipped through the cracks. For $ (fill in your price here) I can send you the rest of the report I compiled. If you like what you see, maybe I can do this ongoing for all your other pages and any new content you write? Let me know what you think. Keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
Enter your name here.
BadlyWrittenAndSpelledSite.com:
First and foremost thanks for the compliments and making me aware of that grammatical issue. I can't believe that slipped passed me. Honestly you're right. I've been so focused on creating the best product that this stuff has been on the back burner. You know what? I'll take you up on your offer on a trial basis. Where can I paypal you the payment for the first report?
Sincerely,
Grateful Site Owner.
Now depending on your approach there is a lot of money to be made here. For those of you with half a brain, I'm sure you'll use the second approach. The great thing about this work at home job is that it can be repeated many times over because there are millions of websites! Imagine how much money can be made doing this? Sure, not everyone may bite. Even when using the right approach you'll run into webmasters that will tell you to piss off. But with the potential of millions of websites as job offers, what do you care if a few reject you? This is really one of those cases where there are plenty more fish in the sea!
8 Sure-Fire Steps To Start A Work From Home Job As A Proof-Reader
I know the smart people reading this article see the potential of this wonderful opportunity but are wondering how can I get started. Don't worry I knew you would ask that so I've pretty much narrowed down the steps and tools you need. Here's what you need to get started.
1. Go to Google.com and do a search for any type of websites you have an interest in. Or just check your favorites folder for sites you visit all the time. Once you've decided on a site, just go and look around. Try to find article pages or places that would be visited a lot.
2. Copy the article or a page. (You may need to do this a few times to find one with mistakes.) If you don't know how to copy and paste, click here.
3. Paste the article or web page in question into Microsoft Word or the Free alternative Star Office Writer which is offered for free in the Google software pack ( ). If you don't have a word processing software be sure to download the Free StarOffice program from our good friends Google using the following link:
4. Run the spell check and grammar check in your word processing software which you should have obtained in step 1 for Free. Count how many misspellings and grammar mistakes are present. Be sure that the mistakes are real and not something that the software just can't figure out. So use common sense.
5. Approach the website in question with the summary of your report and follow the email script or variations of it I listed above. Be sure to give a freebie in terms of a mis-spelling or grammar mistake like I did in the fictitious email above. But the key here is not to give away all of the actual mis-spelling or grammar mistakes. You want to give a summary such as, I found a total of 15 mis-spellings and 30 grammatical issues. The website owner will appreciate the initial freebie you provide them in the initial email and may be more inclined to work with you.
6. Assuming you followed the steps and the website owner found your proposition enticing, You just need to collect payment using something like Paypal.com!
7. Correct the mistakes on your document and use the highlight tool to show the changes you made. Send report to website owner via email.
8. Rinse and repeat. Keep doing this for additional pages or other websites!
Do You Have An Attitude Problem?
Now look, if the steps above don't work for the first couple of sites you contact, Don't go and give up! Don't you dare start whining about how this doesn't work and it's a scam! I know if you're a subscriber to this blog, that's not your style because you're a different type of work at home seeker that won't give up on yourself. But I just needed to throw that out there because there are so many work at home seekers with that type of attitude and trust me when I say it doesn't help put money in your pocket!
The Odds Are…
Let's be completely honest, it's going to take a very long time for the overwhelmed legitimate work at home companies to get back to you or even hire you. So why not take a few minutes out your day to follow the steps above. With millions of websites you have a pretty good chance that someone will take you up on your offer and can finally make some money from home. The more sites you contact on an ongoing basis, the more likely you are to make money! Who knows this may end up being your full time work at home job and it won't cost you a dime!
Take Action Now!
So what are you waiting for? You've been asking me for a legitimate work at home job for weeks now. I just gave you one that is totally free and can be started now. Why are you still reading this and not putting this in action? Go away now! lol
But seriously folks, what do you think of this idea? What are your apprehension, fears, cons, etc? Have any of you already tried this? Inquiring minds want to know.
I don’t think this will work. If people care about having their web content spelled correctly, they’ll do it themselves since it is so easy, rather than pay someone to do it, and if they don’t they won’t pay anyway.
I would absolutely never pay money for a spelling check under any circumstance, and I wouldn’t look too kindly on any e-mail with such an offer, polite or not.
We’re all entitled to our opinions. I think you might be making an over generalization about all website owners.
Either way it doesn’t hurt anyone to give this a shot. The worst that can happen is you get a no by an annoyed website owner like yourself. Lol Best case scenario someone bites and you’re making money. It’s little risk either way.
@Kat:
oops! lol thanks!
Amen to that.
🙂
It took a few months for you to nit pic or is it knit pick someone’s or is it someones grammar and sentence structure. I see you are right on top of things with your timely replies. Again, working for peanuts in the proofreading business is hardly worth it. How is my grammar…? 8 > )
Okay, let’s all stop here. We’re all guilty of acting a bit childish at the moment. So I’ll stop my part of it here. This isn’t what this blog is about.
Sorry Mindy, but since you got on his case I gotta get on yours….
Sorry to be a smarty britches, but I am enjoying the fact that someone who wanted to complain about proofreading not being worth it couldn’t proofread there own words!
THERE should be THEIR….. lol
Damn Kat. You ain’t right. lol
(And yes I know ain’t isn’t a word and I don’t care. lol)
@eddysalomon:
Sorry to be a smarty britches, but I am enjoying the fact that someone who wanted to complain about proofreading not being worth it couldn’t proofread there own words!
“They do simply sentence structure solving and spell check”
“whooping $20.00”
hmmm, I do belive it should be “they do SIMPLE”
“WHOPPING” AND
“web sufers” SURFERS.
Dear Sam,
My proofreading services could potentially help you in providing a much cleaner entry. This in turn would make your argument seem much more worthwhile and intelligent.
lol
Mindy
Hi Ed ,
Any chance of you working or knowing out of experience a good home based -TRANSLATION site you could pass on to us ? I am Franco -Argentine — but i wouldn’t be surprised to speak for quite a few around here that speak fluent spanish .. Thank You .
I appreciate your affiliate work — at least with you one gets substantial useful information ..
Hi,
Try our international page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/international
and our companies page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/companies
Thanks Eddy for the continued good work and helping people in demystify the web of lies and deceit out there with these so called work at home scam artist taking advantage of so many people in their desperate time of need.
You’re welcome Howard.
Thanks for taking time just to post your appreciation.
Hey Eddy.
When I first started looking for work at home jobs, the first opportunities I came across were proofreading jobs. The only problem is I’m only a high school graduate, so I don’t have any prior experience or an English degree to speak of. Yet, I’m one of those people who is bothered by small spelling errors where I notice them, so I think I would be a natural in this field. Tell me, does being a proofreader require a college degree/prior experience, or would I be able take a proofreading job with what little background I have?
Hey Dan,
You couldn’t go after a professional proofreading job without the proper education. But you could try the oversimplified technique I’ve mentioned in the article above to see if some webmaster would use your service. The worst that can happen is that a webmaster says no. And if so there are other work at home opportunities you can participate in like the ones listed in my work at home recommendations page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/recommendations
Or some of the traditional work at home companies:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/companies
So you have options.
Hi SLR,
Thanks for your comments.
I think I’ve already addressed this objection above.
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/2008/02/07/proof-reader-work-at-home-job/#comment-2967
But I’ll say it again.
This article is merely a suggestion as to how go about making money as a proof reader and I’m not suggesting it’s the only way or the exact way someone can go about a proofreading business. I think it’s obvious that most professional proofreaders bring other things to the table that isn’t covered in my article above.
But using the techniques above I still feel confident that some people will have some success. This site is about giving people various options to try.
My hope with this particular opportunity would be that someone would get some initial work. This might then act as a catalyst to have them invest in acquiring further training that a conventional “professional proofreader” might have.
But the techniques described above is just a starting point. It’s not to suggest that’s all that professional proofreaders do. So any professional proofreaders reading this article, please don’t mistake this article as my attempt to belittle your experience to just some software.
The article is just a starting point to get people’s feet wet.
Hopefully I’ve made myself a bit more clear.
Eddy
A nice idea, but running a page through a spell checker and grammar checker isn’t proofreading.
Hi Eddy,
I agree with your comments regarding my comments. In my opinion, It all relates to “time-management.” However, if time-management is not the work-at-home web sufers concern, then making small amounts of money via various avenues is the way to go.
It’s just a matter of what choices a person wants to take when seeking work-at-home projects. Eddy, thanks again for your input.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for your comments Mr rain on everyone’s parade. lol No just kidding. But seriously I hear what you’re saying.
But honestly if you’re home most of your time spending several hours a day (non-paid I might add.) searching job sites and not actually landing jobs or making money, Why not do that in addition to finding sites to proofread? You’re just doubling your chances of making money this way.
I’d prefer spending the time on something that would bring me a stronger possibility of making money even if it’s a small amount it as you’ve argued.
Some money is better than no money in my humble opinion. Every little bit adds up.
I use to do surveys that paid $1 here $2 there. It wasn’t much but I was making some money. I wised up and increased my income by increasing the number of these small odd jobs, then it became worth it.
So everyone needs to start somewhere. People can continue to do what they’re doing now and not making money or you can give something new a try with a greater potential of making money.
In terms of the software, Keep in mind it was merely a suggestion to help the process. People don’t necessarily have to rely on it totally. A combination of your own input and a tool can prove very useful.
But thanks for your input Sam.
That’s what this blog is about. I agree this particular opportunity may not be for everyone but I know for some it may prove very helpful.
And you know me, I’m all about giving everything a shot and not limiting how I can earn income from home.
Eddy
Well, here’s my two cents. The amount of time it takes to acquire proofreading accounts by contacting either website owners or web designers verses the amount of money to be made is not worth the effort.
Case in point… The average fee for proofreading or editing a page, which could be a web page or a students essay, term or special project paper is only $2.00 per page. Do the math… If you proofread 10 pages, you’ll make a whooping $20.00 for your time and effort.
Also, word processing applications such as Microsoft Word are not geared for proofreading. They do simply sentence structure solving and spell check. You will have to purchase a program designed for proofreading and editing and they are not cheap by any means.
Unless you found a niche in the writers marketplace, it simply isn’t worth it – and that’s my two cents worth.
Hi Maria,
Thanks for your comments. I really appreciate it.
I guess I need to add some information about what to charge. lol That’s the second time that question was asked today. I would suggest doing a search in Google
for proofreaders or proofreading services and note what’s being charged. Then base your rates on the average you see.
I hope this helps everyone.
Eddy
Great article and great idea. I enjoy proofreading, so I’m going to give this a go. One question, what is the going rate for this type of service? Or how can I research it? Thanks.:)