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If you’re a freelancer, you probably have a website. And if you advertise with Find a Proofreader, you may wish to link your website to your Find a Proofreader listing. For instance,  you may want to forward your site visitors to your  listing so that they can read your positive customer reviews. Or you might want to encourage your existing customers to write a positive review for your business.  Of course, you may just like the look of our shiny buttons! Whatever the reason, it’s very easy to add a Find a Proofreader button to your site. Read on to find out exactly how!

At present there are four buttons for you to choose from. Each one is coloured differently and has a different call to action on. Once you’ve decided which button best suits the look of your website, just copy and paste the code into your site or blog.

Please note: To make the button link directly from your website to your Find a Proofreader page, you’ll need to insert your listing URL in place of the bold text.  If you encounter any technical issues, let us know and we’ll endeavour to help!

For the above badge, add this code to your site: 

<a href=”INSERT YOUR LISTING URL” title=”Click to rate my service on Find a Proofreader” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://findaproofreader.com/Rate-my-service.png” alt=”Link to Find a Proofreader” border=”0″ width=”250″ height=”55″></a>

To see our other badges, click on the Link to Us tab in the navigation bar,  or click here. Alternatively, if you would prefer to link to us with a text link, you can insert this code on your site instead (remember to insert the full URL of your listing where instructed):

<a href=”INSERT YOUR LISTING URL/” title=”Link to Find a Proofreader” target=”_blank”>Check out my listing on the Find a Proofreader directory</a>

The link should look like this on your website:

Check out my listing on the Find a Proofreader directory

These buttons are proving to be a real hit and many of our advertisers have already adopted them. Don’t be left behind – follow the instructions above and add your button today!

Welcome to our new feature! Every month we’ll be asking one of our advertisers a few questions about themselves and their business. First to sit in the FaP hot seat is Alan O’Brien of AOB Proofreading.

Hi Alan! First of all, tell us about your journey to becoming a freelancer. 

In 2005 I read an advert for a proofreader. Up until then it hadn’t occurred to me that this could be done for a living! I found out more about what proofreading was, and started on the Publishing Training Centre’s excellent distance learning course, later that year. And I’ve never looked back really. Finally a job I enjoy doing!

What do you enjoy most about running your own business? 

Jobs I receive vary hugely in subject matter, even from clients who are similar, e.g. students with academic assignments. The variety makes it exciting because now and then you read fascinating material.

Have you got any advice for aspiring freelancers? 

Getting a website is a must, and shows you are serious about what you do. If you can specialise in certain areas, e.g. you’re a proofreader or copy-editor and you have a physics background, then you are likely to have a niche in which to operate. From that you can target specific clients who will value your subject knowledge above competitors who don’t have your specialist subject knowledge.

What are the downsides to working for yourself, if any, and how do you overcome them? 

There is that perceived lack of predictability regarding regular or sufficient income, which is a constant dynamic even for many established freelancers. But more and more in these austere times, ‘normal’ jobs, i.e. those where you’re on the payroll, are being made redundant. So, for me, that advantage of a 9–5 payrolled office job providing a safe, guaranteed income is now somewhat of an illusion.

How do you go about promoting your business/finding clients? 

I email specific publishers who produce the subject matter that I am experienced in. I also have listings in paid and free directories and websites.

What is your most treasured work-related possession? 

My Mountain Dew energy drink  :-)

What do you enjoy reading when you’re not working with words? 

Sitcom scripts (I have written a few myself); Liverpool Echo; books on the paranormal/unexplained, and spirituality; Facebook.

What’s your favourite book? 

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

What’s the funniest typo you have corrected? 

Pubic sector, when it should have been public sector. I like situations like this where you’re one letter from disaster ;-)

What qualities would you say are required when proofreading? 

Attention to detail is an obvious answer, but I’ve learned you really must be attentive in a methodical way! With medium to long jobs I will often need to write a list of tasks separate from regular proofreading that need to be done, e.g. checking the headings, cross-references and contents’ correlation with the contents page. Good time management is key to charging the right amount for your services.

Alan O’Brien is a freelance proofreader based in Liverpool, UK. He runs AOB Proofreading, a proofreading business for publishers, businesses and individuals. 

It has been a fantastic year for Find a Proofreader. We bought the site in April and redesigned and relaunched it in May, and since then over 100 advertisers have joined us from all over the world. That’s a 300% increase in advertisers, so we’re very pleased. We’ve also had 17 articles submitted to our new Articles page which has added value to the site and given people yet another reason to visit!

To celebrate a successful year and to end 2012 with a bang, we have decided to offer a special discount to new advertisers over the Christmas period. Anyone who joins between now and January 1st 2013 (midday UK time) will get a 25% discount on their listing! That means that a standard listing under any of our categories (Proofreaders/Editors, Copywriters, Indexers etc) will cost just £15 instead of £20!

If you’d like your listing to really stand out, you can take advantage of our specially discounted Category Featured listing. These have been temporarily reduced from £45 a year to £35 – a snip when you consider all the extra visits your profile will attract!

We look forward to adding lots of new proofreaders, editors, copywriters and other freelancers to the site soon! We’d like to also take this opportunity to thank all our existing advertisers for their support this year. Roll on 2013!