With proofreading as a skill, you can start to pay off your loans, save for a holiday, or simply make it easier to pay the bills – the side hustle is an increasingly popular way to earn extra money while holding down a stable job. It’s additional employment and a chance to explore your creativity, plus it means you can finally save for that new car or overseas trip.
A Deeper Look into Side Hustles
From babysitting to dog walking, proofreading to graphic design, home-baked goods to editing, there’s no shortage of side hustles to choose from. It’s all about market demand and willingness to pay, and about finding a side hustle that works for you. A sustainable and well-thought-out side hustle should enhance your life, not just make you more cash. Life is pretty demanding as it is, even without extra work that takes up your free time and creates unnecessary stress. A side hustle should be exciting and satisfying, not keep you up at night, or negatively impact your nine to five job.
And speaking of your nine to five, it’s essential to check with your employer whether you’re allowed to take on a side hustle. Your contract may prevent you from taking a second job or work as a freelancer in a related field. Businesses won’t let sales representatives moonlight for a competitor selling similar products, for example. You don’t want your side hustle costing you your job, so make sure to check.
However, a side hustle may even enhance your position and performance at your day job. A good side hustle develops skills such as marketing, innovation, finance, writing, and planning. These can be put to good use in the workplace, or used as a stepping stone to a new career, especially if you invest in developing your skills.
“Upskilling”, “skills development”, and “reskilling” are buzz words you’ve heard time and again, but they’re more relevant than ever, both in and outside the workplace. In the past, you had to apply or be selected for training programmes at work. Not anymore. These days there are plenty of online courses you can do for an affordable amount, to take control of your own skills development.
Online Proofreading Courses
So, if you’re looking for something which is enjoyable, helps your career, and earns extra money, why not try freelance proofreading? There are loads of reasons why we think it’s the perfect side hustle.
What are the Benefits of Proofreading as a Side Hustle?
You Decide how Many Hours you Want to Work
Proofreading is flexible – you can put in as many hours as you want. The range of proofreading jobs is vast, from long texts (such as textbooks, theses, and novels) to short passages (such as blogs, social media posts, magazine articles, and even CVs). If your time is limited, you’ll probably want to proofread shorter texts that you can complete quickly. But if you have longer chunks of time to spare – like weekends – you could take on bigger projects. Just make sure you meet the deadline. Some proofreading projects require a very quick turnaround, but there are many where you will be given a few weeks. For the proofreading side hustler, it’s paramount to agree on a deadline with your client before you start.
You Decide on What Kinds of Projects you Want to Work
Because a side hustle is meant to be enjoyable, you don’t want to bog yourself down with proofreading texts that don’t interest you, or deadlines that are going to cause additional stress. You can choose projects according to your interests. If you’re a culinary whiz, you can proofread recipes, food blogs, and menus. If you’re a maths boffin, there are textbooks, maths worksheets, and financial documents. If you’re always nose-deep in a book, you can choose novels, graphic novels, or children’s books. Or, if you’re a fan of variety, you could easily find yourself working on an environmental survey one day, and a book of poems the next. As a proofreader, you don’t need a niche or a specialist subject – the content possibilities are endless!
The Start-up Costs are Low and Sometimes Zero
Since proofreaders mainly work online, all you need is a computer, stable internet access, Microsoft Word, and Adobe Acrobat. A printer is a ‘nice to have’ but it’s not a necessity. A worthwhile investment is taking an online proofreading course. Besides teaching you all the essential skills a proofreader needs, a proofreading course will give you confidence to start working in the field. Plus, you get the all-important certificate, giving your prospective client the confidence to hire you as a freelancer.
You can Work Globally
Proofreading is one of the few side hustles where you can cast a wide net. Proofreaders rarely meet clients face to face, meaning they can be from all over the world. The vast majority of proofreaders correct texts electronically and email their work back to their clients – whether they’re in Calcutta, Cape Town, or California.
It Could be the Start of a New Career
What starts as a side hustle doesn’t necessarily end as a side hustle. If you’re enthusiastic, hard-working, dependable, and enjoy what you do, you could proofread full-time. Who knows, your side hustle may just become your main hustle and you will finally be the boss of your own time.
Proofreading will Never be Redundant
This is what we love best about proofreading as a side hustle! All industries produce written documents that need to be proofread.
So, who Should Join the Proofreading Side Hustle?
You have to really love reading if you want to be a proofreader! You also need a solid foundational knowledge of English (or the language you’ll be proofreading) including grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Crucially, you need an eagle eye. Remember that the proofreader is the last person who reads the text before it is published, be it in print or digitally. You need to be detail orientated. Think erroneous double spaces, missing commas, and badly formatted text. You’ll be picking up the things the author, editor, and other readers have missed. It’s a big responsibility, but also immensely satisfying. So, if all this sounds like a good fit, proofreading may be the side hustle for you.
WordWise Online Proofreading Course – The Skilled Proofreader
Our online proofreading course has been specially designed by a group of experienced and passionate proofreaders. This means that we know exactly what it takes to be a skilled proofreader and we help you become just that. The Skilled Proofreader online course is self-paced and flexible, meaning that you won’t have to quit your job to make time to qualify as a proofreader.
If you have any questions about our course, or the benefits of becoming a freelance (or full-time) proofreader, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are happy to answer all the questions you may have.
