Another way to make $ with expert knowledge of CSS etc?

Sierra Nomad's picture

He has: 50 posts

Joined: Feb 2005

I was wondering how many people are out there like me: don't have the money to hire someone to create and maintain a site, but don't have the time or desire to learn and stay current on website creation standards.

So here's a potential business opportunity that came to mind: Be a proofreader. Your customers create their own website. It's full of errors and garbage. For a fee you proofread and make corrections.

If it wouldn't take a lot of time for an expert to do, it seems like it could be profitable. The initial time through might cost the customer a significant amount...but any maintanance should be pretty quick, I would think and it seems like a monthly fee could be reasonable.

But then, I don't really know how much time would be involved.

Do you experts think that would work?

Jon Shannon
Sierra Nomad Photography
Yosemite Hiking Guide DVD & Trail Maps

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

That could work, proof reading service usually fall under the writers category, some even have special instructions to make the written work more appealing. Also some want it to target a specific niche. So writing in general including proof reading can be a viable revenue generating scheme...

They have: 23 posts

Joined: Jul 2007

Yes,there some proof reading job in freelance website.
But I think it will not be a big deal.
The web design usually have good skill in css in etc,and it's not easy to convince them that
they need such service.
You maybe can receive some order from webmaster who need to promote their website.
But i think these jobs are little.

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pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

marblehost;221655 wrote: Yes,there some proof reading job in freelance website.
But I think it will not be a big deal.
The web design usually have good skill in css in etc,and it's not easy to convince them that
they need such service.
You maybe can receive some order from webmaster who need to promote their website.
But i think these jobs are little.

What does CSS have to do with proofreading?

Sierra Nomad's picture

He has: 50 posts

Joined: Feb 2005

pr0gr4mm3r;221666 wrote: What does CSS have to do with proofreading?

When checking my site in validator.com I come up with numerous errors. Since I don't know html, css, xhtml (or whatever), etc these errors are like greek to me.

So what I was referring to, was not proofreading readable text, but proofreading text that makes the site look as it does. I thought css is one of those languages, could be that I'm wrong.

Jon Shannon
Sierra Nomad Photography
Yosemite Hiking Guide DVD & Trail Maps

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

That's what I didn't get from the original question.

If we're talking about writing - I definitely think that this is something that needs more attention on a lot of sites. The tough part would be convincing designers that the writing is important and needs attention. I also think that it's tough to separate proofreading from general editing and writing. You can do proofreading alone but it's hard to ignore other problems with writing and just look for errors.

Another area where there would be a big need for something like this is for sites created by people who don't speak Enlglish as a first language. Or any language for that matter...

ticktac's picture

He has: 28 posts

Joined: Jul 2007

Def some work available, wouldn't work well with user generated content, but possibly for a website that depends on visitors to love the content. I think it'd really work out well if there was several errors, a few here and there isn't anything big, search engines like small errors.

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Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Oh, okay. Proofreading wasn't really the right word. Basically you mean fixing sites that others have done poorly. I like the idea. I would have fun with that myself. Although I would have a big problem with sticking to just the code and not trying to fix all the other things wrong with the site.

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