Thursday, March 30, 2023

Proofreading Jobs from Home: 20 Ideas + Income Potential



I have met many writers and published parents who are also passionate about editing and proofreading, so this post is for you! I work primarily on Fiverr.com, and I have received almost 3,000 positive reviews since I started in 2013. 

Benefits for me include:

* Being able to work from home and homeschool! 

* Being able to pick up and travel with my family and make money while we're away from the house. 

* Being my own boss.

* Not working in a cubicle anymore.

If you want to join Fiverr just to check it out and possibly sign up to do your own proofreading jobs from home, please use my referral code!

Here's what I have come up with so you can also enjoy this kind of lifestyle. The first two services I am not familiar with because I just haven't had the time to dive into them. They are reputable sites that ask for a proofreading test or sample, but I hear competition can be fierce, and I'm not about underbidding my services!

1. Scribendi. Must have a degree and three years of experience.

2. Upwork (formerly Odesk)

3. Scripted is a great way to find proofreading work.

4. Hunt down people when you see things written wrong! Is your doctor's website riddled with errors? Offer to proofread it for cheap. Did you get a piece of direct mail that had errors? Figure out who to contact and offer your services.

5. Amazon is always hiring for word-related services! Check out their job listings in Editorial, Writing and Content Management!

6. Gigbucks is most full of micro jobs, which are small jobs which can be completed quickly.

7. PeoplePerHour is another place I signed up at for free but nothing came of it. Some of these sites are flooded so you just have to sign up all over the place and wait and promote your services.

8. Remote.com is a place I tried for a hot second but didn't have the patience to keep at it. (It used to be called Outsource.com so if you are looking for info on it, look for that name). I had to pay for credits so I could bid jobs. I did have plenty of credits in the end and the jobs to bid on were picking up, but the competition was fierce. I did get chosen for one job and it went well and I made back what I spent in credits. I was up for another job but they had a zillion and one requirements instead of just the simple proofing and editing I do and I can't focus on jumping through hoops. I like to fix documents and get out. I don't want to get wrangled into trying to write copy or critique what they've done because those things get touchy and subjective. You might have a better experience. I broke my own rule of paying to get jobs so I could basically get the experience to share here!

9. Fiverr is my go-to place since I signed up in April 2013 and the jobs started flooding in. You can hire me here or just see how I set up my gig. I have a separate post for it because I have so much to say on the topic! I've done many different gigs on Fiverr besides proofreading so poke around to see what else you can offer. Here are some Fiverr tutorials!

And if you head over to The Curious Frugal, she's got 11 more places where you can find work-from-home proofreading jobs!

Let me know how it goes for you!

Income Potential from Proofreading
I have had months where I was able to make close to $2,000 proofreading in a month but I wanted to die from exhaustion and eye strain at the end, only because I have other things going on for income and managing everything gets difficult. I like to have other income streams because proofreading can be feast or famine (usually feast once you get going and get some good reviews and recommendations).

If my kids were in school or older, and if I never wrote books or parenting articles or blogged, I could easily make $5,000 per month just proofreading (minus taxes).

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1 comment:

  1. Thanks! I've been considering something along this line but didn't know how to start.

    ReplyDelete