How To Start An Online Editing Business (10 Steps)

The love for editing is quite a surprising thing as it is not only hectic but because there are few people who find editing to be very satisfying or rewarding. Editing is definitely one of the hardest jobs and you need to be meticulous regarding the language in order to find out all the spelling mistakes, poor punctuations, or bad grammar, or the glitches that are there in photographs.

It is important to know that editing is not only limited to writing but editing professional pictures is also a big thing currently. Starting an online editing business is undoubtedly one of the best businesses that you can opt for.

One can nowadays know that there is a lot of growth in the writing industry and tons of write-ups are getting uploaded every day. Therefore, nobody wants a bad write-up on their website and that is where the job of the editor comes.

Editing can completely change an original piece and that is the reason why editors get good pay. Therefore, if you want to turn your side income or freelancing into a business then you can definitely opt for an online editing business.

There are certain things that should be considered before you are opting for this profession. Consider the following tips to get a better insight into editing businesses online.

In This Article

Steps To Start Editing Business Online

Step:1 Decide the Kind of Editing that You Want to Do

There are many editors that offer various kinds of services that include copy editing, developmental, or proofreading.

On the other hand, a few editors decide to offer a single service only. It is important that you decide on the kind of editing service that you want to provide to your clients.

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Step:2 Knowing Your Field of Expertise

Never boast that you can edit anything and everything to the promising or the potential clients because it is a sign that you are an amateur. Someone who is in this field and is professional will know their strength and the field of expertise. The editing jobs, which are done as freelancing, will vary greatly.

The spectrum of editing is vast so you must know where you stand. Some editors will edit everything by taking up the work from the client; they will assign work to the creative professional as well as do the shepherding of the entire project until it is completed.

On the other hand, some editors’ job will be to proofread the finished product and look for the improper formatting or stray commas.

The subject and the task, which you can do properly, should be known by you for focusing properly. You can do some promotional event and give brochures, business cards or provide an advertisement in the website and highlight the parts or the area of interest in which you can provide expertise work and tell about your experience.

Once you are successful in making a good impression among your first few clients then you will be getting more additional work through reference or from the existing clients.

#Bonus Tip: Create a digital version of your Sample Works and make a brochure of your skill. You can make a responsive design for the Editing service and keep sharing your Works.

Step:3 Setting a Budget

Starting an editing business requires a good deal of money. This is because you have to purchase your own software for editing, irrespective of the niche that you are selecting.

Furthermore, you also have to bear the expense of hiring a website designer, hiring a few employees, and marketing your business.

When you set a budget, you will spend within the budget only. Without a budget, there are chances that you will spend more money than expected.

#Bonus Tip: Write a Perfect journey of your business. Your Introduction Speech matters a lot for your Editing Service. You can get leverage through event.

Step:4 Picking the Proper equipment

Depending on the kind of editing services that you offer, you will have to pick the right equipment. Your client will definitely look into the equipment, to understand that if their editing job will be done in the correct manner or not.

Let’s say they will look whether you have a proper computer, scanner, printer or if you are using any software to perform the grammar check. Then they will see if you have a proper subscription on several language editing websites.

Having an internet service of high speed is a necessity and you have to be super responsive when it comes to receiving or sending of files.

The clients will tell you about the software, which is needed for getting the job done. Editing jobs mainly include Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop, and many more.

#Bonus Tip: Start testing Email Campaign. For that Create multiple approaches, and split test your mailings to measure impact.

Step:5 Creating a Business Name

You have to decide on a unique name for your business because this is going to be your identity. Ensure that the name itself determines the kind of business that you are into.

Do not just end up giving an abrupt name, or your target clients will not understand what all your business is about.

No one has the time to contact you personally and ask you regarding the kind of business that you own, rather they try to understand it from the name of your business.

#Bonus Tip: First you need to Start a Personal blog. Write blog posts on a regular basis. You can also share the same on different Social Media Accounts.

Step:6 Creating a Website

After you have decided on the name of your business, you have to create a business website. You can hire a website designer, if you have enough budget, to make your website inviting for the clients.

A dull website is not capable of attracting clients, but a bright and interesting one will definitely bring in more clients to your business.

On your website, mention the type of service that you are providing along with the tools that you use for the purpose of editing so that the clients can understand that you have enough knowledge in your field.

#Bonus Tip: Does your small business website still look like it’s from 1990? Try to Update and Optimize your Site for better human touch and Search Engine Crawl.

Step:7 Provide Reference material

When you will ask a client to opt for your service, make sure you have all the reference materials with you. No one is going to provide you work just because you claim to be the best in that field.

Make sure you are providing them with the samples so that they can check your potential and determine whether you will be appropriate for handling their task.

So, after the completion of every task make sure you are adding it to your reference material so that your clients can get proper insight on what you do and what is your field of expertise.

#Bonus Tip: Be Alert on the LinkedIn. The More Alert means more works. More and MOre people are searching for skilled freelancers on the Linkedin

Step:8 Setting the rates

Setting the rate of your services is a tricky thing because you cannot charge more because it will drive away all your potential clients.

By charging too little you won’t be able to continue your online business. So analyze the project’s nature and the difficulty level and then decide the rates.

All the editors charge their client by looking into the job or the hour, pages, and the number of words. The region will also affect the rates and if you have a lot of competition, then you definitely need to provide a cost-effective solution to your clients.

Otherwise, there will be a plethora of online editors who are there to replace you anytime.

#Bonus Tip: You can Offer a free download E Book or free gift to make people willing to add their email address to your list.

Step:9 Finding out clients

This is probably the hardest part if you are starting your own editing business but when the business is online, it gets trickier. When you take the help of the internet or online marketing, it is quite easy to get your potential clients.

At the same time, the online field is very competitive and there are several editors who are in the line, so competing among them is a hard thing.

So staying transparent with all your work and rates are very important. So, you will have to prepare some written communication as well as look at the mailing, websites for newsletters of several local businesses and check if they are looking for any editing help.

If you see that any website or document is having boring language, confusing layout, sloppy organization or poor grammar, then they definitely need an editor. Connect to those websites and send them a proposal through email.

#Bonus Tip: You can use the Fivestar Plugins. FiveStars is a cool tool that businesses can use to reward their most frequent customers.

Step:10 Deciding Where You Want to Offer Services

You have the entire freedom of deciding if you want to serve local clients, national clients or spread your business overseas. On basis of the places where you are offering your services, you can decide the rate.

#Bonus Tip: Share interesting infographics related your Work. Infographics are insanely powerful and interesting marketing tools.

Step: 11 Marketing Your Services

It is obvious that when you are starting your business, you will not have a huge budget. Furthermore, it will be difficult to spend a huge amount of money on advertising services. The best thing to do is opt for social media marketing.

Optimize all your social media pages and reach out to your target clients. With time, when your business starts growing and you are making enough money, you can opt for professional advertising services.

If you can successfully build a professional editing business, then you need to prepare a good website so that all your potential clients can easily be redirected to links that will provide more information about your services.

Make sure you have social media accounts and try to promote your business as much as you can because nowadays with the presence of social media pages, it is quite easy to contact clients and offer your services.

#Bonus Tip: If you find the Email Marketing Works then add a Perfect your email signature. You can also add audio, video and social sharing functionality to your emails.