Freelance Tips: How to Blog for Your Proofreading Website

Having a blog on your freelance website can be a great marketing strategy. As a proofreader, you can use a blog to connect with potential clients, strengthen your brand, and cost-effectively promote yourself as a freelancer. Maintaining a blog for your proofreading business might sound time-consuming and complicated, but the following tips will make it easier:

1. Create a blog post schedule so you can plan posts in advance and give yourself time to edit them.
2. Write posts that answer any questions and solve potential problems that clients might have.
3. Use your posts as a way to show off your proofreading expertise and thus build trust with potential clients.
4. Use best practices for online copywriting to make the posts easy to read and share with an online audience.
5. Remember to include keywords and check back on how your blog is performing to see if there are any ways you can improve.

Read on to find out about these tips in more detail.

1. Plan Your Posts in Advance

Many things can get in the way of getting a blog started on your proofreading website (e.g., not having the time in an already busy work week). That’s why planning your blog posts and writing them in advance can save you time and avoid stress in busier times. Make sure you:

• Have a content plan. This allows you to plan and prepare your posts in advance. You should aim to set aside a specific amount of time each week to write and schedule posts, as well as giving yourself enough time to edit and proofread them.
• Post regularly. Although 2–4 posts per week will give you the best results, most content marketing experts advise that posting once a week is a more easily achievable minimum.
• Be consistent. Once you’ve decided how often to post, stick to it! Search engines like new content as long as it’s posted consistently. Blogging eight times in one month and then not posting anything for three months won’t work as a marketing strategy. Plus, if you have a quieter work week and want to get ahead with writing posts, you don’t have to share them immediately. You’ll thank yourself for having plenty of posts scheduled in advance when things get busy again.

And to get even more site visitors, don’t forget to share your blog posts on social media.

2. Provide Problem-Solving Content

Not knowing what to write about can be another obstacle for blogging. Here are some questions you could ask yourself to help you come up with blog topics:

• What do your clients want to know? They will be writers and content creators, whether that is in publishing, academia, or business writing. Think about what they may want insight on.
• What questions are your clients actually asking? If there are any questions clients have asked you before, you can write posts answering them. On that note, you could also use your website, email, or social media to invite people to ask more questions and generate even more post ideas.
• What are writers asking about online? Research writers’ groups on social media and forums (e.g., Reddit, Quora) to find out what information people are looking for. Being involved in these groups also creates an opportunity to share your blog posts and gain readers.

As an expert proofreader, there are a lot of topical questions you should be able to answer!

3. Show Off Your Expertise

Besides answering questions, having a blog is also a great place to show off your proofreading and grammar expertise. If there’s a niche you specialize in, create content around that. For example:

• If you’re a business proofreader, you could write posts about phrases and expressions that are misused most often in business documents.
• For academic clients, you could provide advice about any style guides, document types (e.g., LaTeX), or referencing styles that you specialize in.

Your blog can also expand on your service descriptions (e.g., What Is Line Editing?) or use client testimonials to document a case study (i.e., writing about a successful project to showcase your working process in detail).

4. Write for Online Readers

Although a blog is a great marketing tool, don’t forget that you’re writing for people. Your audience should find your content helpful, enjoyable, and easy to read online.

When writing online content, remember that:

• Posts around 500 words are most effective in keeping readers engaged (but don’t rule out writing a longer post if the topic requires it!).
• Your post’s structure (e.g., subheadings, bullet points) should make your blog content easy to skim-read.
• Readers should be able to share your posts easily. Set up social media sharing and create human-friendly hyperlinks (e.g., www.bloggybloggerson.com/posts/why-you-should-blog rather than www.bloggybloggerson.com/2938/v300%lajhfhi900.html).
• Your post titles should be clear and engaging, and include relevant keywords.
• Include useful links within your posts to improve your SEO score. Link to related pages from your own site, plus some external sites (as long as they’re not your competitors!).

And finally: feel free to add some personality to it! It’s your blog, and it should sound like you.

5. Don’t Forget About Keywords and Performance

If you want potential clients to find your website, remember to use SEO strategies in your blog. These can include: 

• Finding keywords and phrases that people use to search for your services. You can use a free tool like Keyword Sheeter or, alternatively, use paid ones like Google Adwords Keyword Tool. The keyphrases, once you’ve identified them, could inform the topics you write about. 
• Measuring your blog’s performance with web stat tools like Google Analytics (or there may be a tool built into your website host). This will tell you which of your blog posts are more popular, how long people stay on your blog, and how they find your posts (e.g., via search engines or social media).

With all that information, you can identify which posts perform best, try out different techniques, and improve your upcoming posts. 

Becoming A Proofreader

If you fancy becoming a freelance proofreader, you’ll first need the skills! And the best way to learn them is with our Becoming A Proofreader course. Find out more by signing up for a free trial today.

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