Creating high-quality images for online promotion can be tricky if you’re not a design guru and don’t have access to expensive, top-notch software. I’d played around with Word, Publisher and PowerPoint because they’re already on my desktop, but the output was okayish at best. Then I found Canva and was converted.

Still, I wasn’t getting the best out of this excellent tool, mainly because I’m a fiction proofreader and copyeditor, not a designer.

Andrew and Pete to the rescue … I did exactly what they told me to do. And it worked! I was really chuffed with my first attempt – a really high-quality image that I’ll use as a booklet pic for my April article on client loss and emergency marketing. I reckon it’s my best pic ever and it gave me confidence. So then I updated my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook banners using the same method. And I've also played around with the idea in this blog post. Sky's the limit, I reckon! I recommend you have a go.

​​Get it here: How to Create Social Media Graphics ​(video and blog)​

If, like me, you’re committed to creating blogs posts with substance (no soundbites and clickbait for us!) then you, too, might end up with a lot of text.

The audience for The Proofreader’s Parlour expects that substantive content, but could I make it more interesting without compromising on tone and detail?

Andrew and Pete's post made me think about not only how I might use images more creatively (see 1 above) but also how I might complement, rather than change, what I’m already doing with multimedia. I’ve still some way to go before I make full use of their advice but I’ve started (see 1 above) and plan to develop this aspect so that I can make much more of my content accessible to multiple readers with multiple preferences.

What really grabbed me is the concept of taking the key points of a written message and delivering them in alternative formats. Many of us aren’t new to embedding templates, screencasts and instructional videos into our blog posts, but Andrew and Pete have inspired me to expand the ways in which my readers can access the core textual content in my blogs, too.

If you have substantive text-based posts that your visitors return to often and your editorial blog’s heavy with content, some inconvenient trawling might be required by your readers to locate that information. Repurposing sections of the material in, say, booklet form turns a post into a tool, because the valuable stuff you’ve created can be downloaded onto your readers’ chosen devices and accessed at their convenience.
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​​Get it here: How to Write Better-Looking Blog Posts (blog, video and booklet)

​I overhauled my home page after reading this post.

• I updated my Weebly theme (it didn’t cost me anything but time) to a cleaner, more modern design that I felt better represented my business (while retaining my branded colourway).
• I added call-to-action buttons right at the top to help my visitors better understand what I want them to do (what the duo call Most Wanted Action).
• And, to increase engagement with my primary target audience of independent authors, I gave my mission statement the prominence it deserves. Previously it had been buried elsewhere on my site.

The post includes a free booklet, Home Page Chemistry: A Checklist for Getting Your Visitors to Fall in Love with Your Business (it's a great example of these two content marketers practising what they preach).

​​Get it here: Home Page Design | Making Your Home Page a Knockout (blog, video and checklist)

... So those are my top tips to introduce you to the world of Andrew and Pete. I love their full-on and fun style of sharing their wisdom. It’s engaging and inspiring.

The biggest pull, though, is their handholding approach. They assume no prior knowledge, so even if you’re a newbie marketer you, too, can follow their step-by-step guidance.

I hope you’ll find ways to incorporate their advice into your own marketing journey. If you’re nervous about business promotion, just remember that you don’t have to do everything in the zany way they do it! Take the core learning points and decide how you might use them in a way that feels comfortable for you, works with your brand, reflects your business goals, and engages with your clients.

There’s plenty more on offer via the Andrew and Pete website. And you can find them on Twitter at @AndrewAndPete.

Enjoy!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

Today's article is all about optimizing your editorial business website so that it works for clients using different device types.

My website is the single biggest driver of my proofreading and copyediting work. It’s therefore essential that it shows potential clients my best face.

​I’ve spent years tinkering – tweaking current content, adding new information and removing text and images that have outgrown their usefulness.

Weebly, like many web-hosting services, allows me to optimize my website for mobile devices.* ​

​It takes my chosen desktop theme and adapts the design for optimal viewing on a smaller device such as a tablet or mobile phone. This function has been available for several years. I can’t remember when I became aware of it, but I figured it made sense to switch it on because I couldn't imagine anyone with a smart phone having the patience to navigate through my content if it wasn’t mobile friendly. I congratulated myself on being so forward-thinking, and carried on as normal.

Note: If you're unsure whether your website is mobile friendly, it's easy to find out. My colleague Averill Buchanan alerted me to Google's Mobile-Friendly Test site.

Is it pretty, or pretty awful?
Most website-hosting services help non-designers like me to make our websites look pretty. They give us dividers, shaded boxes, spacers, columns, textboxes and image placers to enable us to put our content exactly where we want it. The result is that on the desktop version, at least, everything looks just so.

You might be the kind of person who likes to keep things simple – you might have opted for minimal text on your site, and the text you have placed might not be broken into separate textbox elements. To date, I’ve not been this kind of person. I’ve overly complicated things, and, I might add, it hasn’t done me any favours. Here’s just one example.
​
This is the contact information on my site:

Now, back in 2011, when I first typed this information into my contact page, I didn’t like the vertical alignment of the information after the colons. Weebly doesn’t allow tabbing, so I created two textboxes (below, outlined in red) and placed them next to each other in two columns.

Okay, so it was never going to win a design award, but I’d achieved my goal. However, there was a problem – it looked perfect in the desktop view, but the mobile layout was a disaster:

This wasn’t Weebly’s fault, it was mine. Weebly’s mobile optimization tool was working perfectly logically – finding content in a single textbox and ensuring that said content remained unbroken.

The solution was simple – I had to restore my original layout, putting all the text back into a single box – but the impact was huge.
​
It did mean sacrificing the alignment issue that I’d had a bee in my bonnet about, but it was worth it. Now my mobile display looks like this (on iPhone 6):

It’s not perfect (there are unsightly end-of-line breaks on smaller mobile screens), but it’s a far more sensible and logical design for my mobile visitors. I’ll shortly be making decisions about how to reword this information so that I can remove the unwanted wordbreaks – it needs some care because I don’t want to compromise the design of the desktop view.

What devices are my visitors using?
The crux of the matter here is that I want to put myself in my customers’ shoes. I need to bear in mind the following:

• Different customers will use a variety of different devices to access my content. For example, not all customers have a smart phone; and even if they do have one, they might prefer to access web content on a larger screen.
• One customer might use multiple devices to access the same content. For example, I tend to access web content using my tablet at home during the evening, my phone when I’m out and about, and my desktop during working hours.

A webpage that looks perfect on a mobile might be less pleasing to the eye on a desktop screen, and vice versa.

I’m under no illusion that I can optimize my design for every potential client all of the time. But paying attention to the mobile display has been a learning experience for me.

​I’ve discovered that I’ve not been showing my best face, and that’s simply not an option in the current market. I know this because my data tells me so.

Looking at the data
Honestly, I’ve only recently started looking at data about which devices my visitors are using. The following was taken from one of the analytics programs I use, StatCounter.

​The above image shows two days’ worth of data (8–10 October 2016). A whopping 30% of my visitors used mobile phones and tablets to access my content.

Some tablet screens are big enough to make browsing my website in desktop view perfectly palatable, so some of the visitors using these devices may not be looking at a mobile view.

Here’s the thing, though – I don’t know which view they’re seeing and it’s not under my control. It’s therefore important that I do what I can to put my best face forward, just in case.

​Even one lost customer who searched and found me via their mobile, and then dismissed my services because my content was illogically presented, is something I want to avoid.

The view from an expert
My friend Andy McNair, who’s forgotten more about website analytics than I’ll ever know, pointed out that two days’ worth of data could be horribly skewed by a range of factors. He prompted me to dig a little deeper using my Google Analytics historical data.

Says Andy in relation to industry at large:

I followed Andy’s advice and compared data in four quarters (August–October) from 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

• The percentage of mobile-user visitors has more than doubled. In 2013 it was 1 in 10. In 2016 it's 1 in 5.
• Tablet use has remained relatively static.
• The desktop view still easily dominates.

This rather basic analysis supports Andy’s industry view and has encouraged me to continue to work on my mobile optimization to ensure that it’s user-friendly, while respecting the fact that desktop visitors are still the most important group. Therefore, mobile responsiveness mustn't come at the expense of the desktop-user experience.

When thinking like a editor isn’t enough
This exercise has shown me how, until recently, my website design was dominated by two modes of thinking:

1. I think like a desktop user, as I’ve primarily used a desktop or tablet to view content, and I’ve accessed that content in desktop view.
2. I tend to consider the design of a webpage from a human visual point of view, rather than from the point of view of an automated tool. I’ve failed to consider the logic of automation – for example, what is the widget looking for when it ‘decides’ to move several horizontally displayed elements into a vertical layout?

I now know that I need to think less like an editor and more like a designer and a potential client when I’m building webpages.

Taking the long view
Keeping an eye on user behaviour is a work in progress, but I'm on the case. Four years ago, mobile usage mattered less. Now, to me, it matters twice as much (though the desktop-user group is still by far the most important). 

So, take a look at your analytics to assess what devices your visitors are using.

If mobile has become more important and your website host allows you to easily optimize your design for mobile devices, without compromising your core visitor group, do use the function. But check that the results are showing your best face. 

​A few small tweaks could make a very big difference.

​More importantly, they could turn a closed page into a closed deal.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

In Part 1, I looked at the benefits of contact forms, and provided a case study based on my own recent data.

In Part 2, I consider the challenges of contact forms.

​Why is it that they sometimes fail to engage potential clients, and what can we do to prevent this?

​Too many hoops
As I mentioned in Part 1, relying solely on a contact form is not advisable. Your contact form is likely to deliver messages to your email inbox via both your internet service provider and your website host. If something goes awry on your host’s server, there will be a delivery delay.

In addition, if you tweak the CSS code of your website, this could inadvertently affect your contact form. I was in just such an embarrassing position a few years ago. For a month, none of the messages from my old contact form were being delivered. I had no idea that anything was wrong because I was fully booked up with publisher work. Then, during a coffee break, I pondered the fact that it had been a while since anyone had used the form, which seemed strange. I took the time to send a few test messages, and discovered there was a problem with delivery. I’d tweaked my CSS code and it had caused a snag in the original template. This put me off incorporating a contact form on my website for several years.

The lesson is this – if you do have a contact form on your website, check your dashboard regularly, just to make sure that delivery to your email inbox is working as it should be.

Marvin Russell (‘5 Reasons Your Visitors Don’t Fill Out Your Contact Form’, mysiteauditor.com, 2013) and Jane and Scot Noel (‘Make Your Contact Form a Success’) identify several additional problems with contact forms that could put off potential clients.

Form-filling fatigue​
Some clients don’t like filling them out. According to Noel and Noel, ‘While there is no perfect rule for every form, short is best, and ask for as little personal information as possible, just enough to get back in touch with them. After all, if they make contact and you start a conversation, you can find out everything you need in a more personal way later.’

Customers don’t like being asked for information that isn’t necessarily relevant (such as phone numbers), nor having to take the time to provide it. Consider asking only for information that’s absolutely necessary at this stage of the process – that way your client won’t feel as though you’re fishing for marketing information. It’s clear that the form is all about them.

Do, however, read the comments in Part 1. They demonstrate that one size doesn't fit all. What works for you may not work for me. Katherine Trail asks for more information on her contact forms than I do, but she offers a more complex and specialized service. John Espirian points out the value of using simple-to-use protection mechanisms to minimize intrusion from spam bots. Ultimately, we want to create balanced contact forms that support our business goals and engage our potential clients.

Unappealing wording
Consider the confirmation message and the submission button.
Test different wording on the submission button, for example, try changing ‘Submit’ to ‘Send email’, ‘Email [Name]’ or ‘Send your message’.

Also test more friendly confirmation messages such as ‘Thanks for contacting me about your proofreading project. I’ll be in touch shortly!’. Noel and Noel call this ‘leverag[ing] your “thank you”’ so that it acknowledges that your potential client has taken the time and made the effort to enquire about your service.

There aren’t enough forms
Don’t necessarily limit the contact form to one page. I have one on my Contact page, my Get a Quote page, and my Proofreading Bundles page. Each has a different name. That means that when I visit my website dashboard I can see which forms are most popular. Currently, it’s pretty much even. Again, this is something to test. Russell has incorporated multiple contact forms on his site ‘for years and found that very often our visitors will fill out a contact form because it’s right in front of their face’.

No call to action
Noel and Noel also argue that, all too often, people fail to tell their potential customers to use the form: ‘If you don’t ask your web visitors to do something, don’t expect them to do it.’

Privacy concerns
Finally, some potential customers might worry that the information you capture via the contact form will be used for marketing purposes. Noel and Noel recommend explicitly stating your privacy policy so that you make it clear that all the information provided is relevant. Harking back to the ‘too long’ issue above, keep your contact forms concise and consider adding a message below each one along the lines of ‘I respect your privacy. The information you’ve provided will be used solely by me to reply to your query’.

Test it!
If you’re not sure whether the contact form is the right way to go for you and your customers, the easiest way to find out is to test it.

• Add the contact form(s) to your website – make a note of the date on which this happens.
• Keep your current methods of contact – email, phone number, Skype, etc. – on the contact page, so that your potential clients have a choice.
• Every time someone contacts you, make a note (perhaps in a spreadsheet) of which method was used and the client type (e.g. colleague enquiry via email, student thesis enquiry via contact form, indie author via text message, etc.).
• After six months, review your data. Who is contacting you, and how are they doing it?
• If your contact form is redundant, consider removing it (though see the cautionary note below). If some clients are using it, then keep it.
• Try simple A/B testing – for example, test different calls to action, CAPTCHA mechanisms for spam protection, thank-you messages, submission-button messages and forms on different pages. Track the results to see if you can determine that certain messages are more effective.

Caution: it’s all about the client
Even if your data tells you that, during the test period, your potential clients did not use one particular method of contacting you (e.g. the contact form or your phone number), this only tells you what happened in the past. It doesn’t tell you anything about how a new lead might prefer to contact you in the future.
​
For that reason, I’d recommend removing particular contact tools with caution. It’s better to offer a range of tools that will cover all your clients’ preferences, rather than losing a great lead because you didn’t make it as easy as possible for your customer to get in touch with you in the way they wanted to.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

So, a potential client has found you. They’ve looked over your website and like what they see – enough, anyway, to think about getting in touch.

​How will you enable them to make contact with you? Email, phone, text message, contact form?

Deciding what to offer is perhaps not as simple as it first seems.

It’s not just the ‘what’, but the potential consequences of that ‘what’ that need to be considered. If you offer a telephone number, will it increase the number of calls from people who are trying to sell you something, rather than trying to buy your service? If you offer a contact form, will delivery of your messages be impacted by a rare problem with your website host’s server?

It’s also about the ‘how’. If you publish a telephone number, will it be a landline or a mobile? If you use a contact form, what wording will you use?

All these issues need to be considered so that the ways in which you are contactable maximize your engagement with those you want to communicate with (potential clients) and minimize engagement with those who are possibly wasting your time (sellers of unwanted SEO services, double-glazing, solar panels … the list goes on).

John Espirian took a good look at telephone contact in his recent article on the Espirian blog ‘Call me – maybe’ (2016). Here, I’m going to consider the contact form.

I believe that having a contact form on my website is essential, though I think it should be only one of several options. Here in Part 1, I explain the benefits of the contact form and I provide a brief case study featuring data that I’ve collected over the past few months. In Part 2, I’ll consider some of the challenges that contact forms can present.

Customer choice
I know how my current clients want to contact me precisely because these are not new business relationships. All my regular publisher clients and independent authors hold my email address on file, and most use this method to get in touch. Because we’ve worked together before, all the parameters of our business together are, for the most part, well understood – from pricing to working hours, from editorial-service provision to the quality of writing. Additionally, they’ve learned that I check my emails regularly, and respond in a timely manner. They trust email to deliver their request directly to me.

For potential clients, the situation is different. Many of them are speculating, getting quotations from a number of different proofreaders. They’re sometimes getting in touch on the hop and on the fly. That means that being able to send a text message might be more convenient than sending an email. Some may not speak English as well as they write it. That means that sending an email or filling out a contact form may be more appealing than having a conversation on the phone.

We don’t know our potential clients’ preferences precisely because we don’t yet know our potential clients. The contact form is all about choice. To exclude it without testing it is to make assumptions about what those potential clients want that we have no business making.

Privacy and spam reduction
Some people like to include a contact form on their website because it provides a method of getting in touch that enables them to avoid displaying their email address. This is thought to reduce spamming.

Whether or not this is true is debatable. Some argue that spammers are far too sophisticated these days to be foiled by a contact form (see ‘Should I Display an Email Address on My Site or Use a Contact Form?’, Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com, 2014).

Nevertheless, the decision to not include a direct email address – for the purpose of protecting the editorial freelancer’s privacy and reducing exposure to spam – is not about the customer. Rather, it becomes a freelancer-centric decision. Do think carefully about whether you want your contactability to be about you or the client.

Many clients prefer them
This is the biggest issue for me. Putting concerns about email spamming and privacy aside, my potential clients seem to prefer the contact form over the other methods on offer.
​
Several months ago, I began to test a ballpark quick-quotation service. At that point in time, the customer had the following options for getting in touch with me:

• mobile phone: call or text to request a within-1-hour ballpark quick-quote
• direct email: to request a within-24-hours ballpark or confirmed quote

There was no contact form.

The idea behind both the ballpark quote and the quick-quote service was to increase customer engagement. During the first two months (December/January) I was pleased to see that the text service appeared to be grabbing clients’ attention.
​
Then, two months ago, I added a contact form. This is where it became interesting. The lie of the land shifted. People started using the contact form instead, even though I was explicit about the fact that I couldn’t guarantee a within-1-hour response unless they used the text option.

What does this data tell me? It is just a snapshot over six months, but, nevertheless, several points can be made:

• All of the contact options I offered during any of the three periods were used by clients. That makes me reluctant to remove any of them. The customer gets what the customer wants.
• The totals are not as exciting as they at first seem, and I’m reluctant to extrapolate anything from them because I haven’t kept data from previous months when I was only offering direct email and a phone number for calls.
• I also expect there to be seasonal issues at play. In particular, months 3/4 fell over the holiday period. Those who celebrate particular festivals around this time (e.g. Christmas) may well have felt that they had more important things than proofreading to spend their money on.
• Regardless of seasonal issues and totals, the data for months 5/6 is, I think, striking. Most of my potential clients chose to use a contact form over direct email. This is interesting because the contact form still works via my email system. However, in reality, it’s not quite as safe in terms of delivery. With email, there is only one hoop for the message to jump through – the internet service provider (in my case, BT); with the contact form, the message has to jump through another hoop first – the website host (in my case, Weebly). If Weebly is down, but BT is up, the message still won’t be delivered. Nevertheless, it would seem that this isn’t the client’s perception.
• The desire for a quick-quote is not as strong as I thought it might be. Most of my clients, even if they want a ballpark price, still prefer to use a contact form, and are prepared to wait longer than an hour for it.

I’m going to continue to monitor my potential clients’ preferences for contacting me over the forthcoming months, tracking the data to build up a deeper picture. I want to see whether the preference for the contact form continues, or whether it’s a blip.

​I will, however, need to bear in mind recent changes I’ve made to my website as these could skew the totals still further. For example, I recently (in April 2016) introduced a dedicated page for student proofreading (a service I’d taken the decision not to offer in previous years). Nevertheless, even if the ‘how many’ data is skewed, the ‘which method’ data will still be valid.

In Part 2, I consider some of the challenges of contact forms. Why don’t they always work, and what can we do to ameliorate the problems?

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

My latest contribution to "The Proofreader's Corner" column of Rich Adin's An American Editor blog is now available.

This time around I take a look at the benefits to be had by creating an online portfolio of editorial projects. Below is a summary of the key points, but you can read the article in full here: The Proofreader’s Corner: The Power of the Portfolio.

• If you don’t yet have an online portfolio, get cracking and build one!
• Tell the client what you have done as well as what you can do.
• Focus on practice, not just promise.
• Think of your portfolio in terms of what it tells the people you want to hire you – your target customers – rather than your friends and colleagues.
• Don’t over-fret about clutter – it’s about the quality of the information, and what it tells the client about your proven ability to solve their problems.
• Consider the information you incorporate into your portfolio in terms of key word searches – that is, how it might help clients to find you.
• Use navigation tools (including embedded code) to help your customer move around a busy portfolio web page.
• Track page views to your site and test different portfolio styles to see what format you’re most comfortable with in terms of making yourself interesting to a customer.
• Use your portfolio to put the value you offer ahead of the fee you charge.
• Be creative if your portfolio is still in the early-growth stage.

About Louise Harnby
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader, the curator of The Proofreader's Parlour, and the author of Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers and Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP). Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, follow her on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or find her on LinkedIn.

I feel almost cheeky lecturing professional proofreaders and editors on how to write. I don’t quite have the attention to detail that most professional proofreaders have as their stock in trade, and I often hire a proofreader to go over my articles and blog entries to ensure there are no schoolboy errors or any of my grammatical eccentricities.

However, there is an art to writing for the internet and social media that is distinct from traditional copywriting skills, and I’d like to share with you some of my insights on how to get copy just right for the web.

1. Always consider the online platform your copy will be posted onto.
Writers and proofreaders have to be conscious of where their copy will be posted online, as this will determine the format of the text.

As we will see, all the social networks have their own structures and formats that need to be heeded, and a writer or a proofreader needs to be mindful of the tone and the intended readership of the online copy, just as they would if it were intended for offline publication.

A lengthy social media post should have a different structure and feel to a blog entry and, if the social media post relates to content posted elsewhere online, thought should be given about how the two relate to each other.

2. Think about how the text will look on the screen and of what possible sizes that screen could be
Writing for the printed page involves an entirely different sensibility to the one you would use when writing for the computer screen. This is because the way the human eye scans a computer screen is different from how it would read a page in a book or a magazine.

The main thing to appreciate is that people are put off when confronted by a web page with a lot of dense text, mainly comprising lengthy paragraphs. While the text may be entirely acceptable and grammatically correct in itself, it may not be the best way of presenting that information to those who just happen to be browsing the web.

A good example of this is companies who simply transpose their hard-copy marketing material to a website without any alterations or editing. What works as a four-page brochure will not work as a singular web page, a series of web pages or as social media posts; it has to be adapted to the electronic medium.

Whether you are posting to a blog or to a social network, try to ensure that your paragraphs are never longer than three sentences and review how much space they take up on the screen prior to publication. While it can be painful to take apart a beautifully constructed block of text, it may actually be worth it if you want someone to stay on your web page and read the whole piece.

When confronted with a block of text, many who are surfing the web will just click away on the basis that it will require too much effort to get the desired information from your piece. People are more impatient and demanding when it comes to retrieving information online than they are when it comes to reading a brochure, book or journal.

An extension of this is that many people now read the internet on the move via tablets or mobile phones, where the screens are even smaller. The optimization of a website for such devices is the responsibility of the web host but, when either writing or proofing copy for the web, be conscious of how the site onto which it will be posted will be presenting the text to those viewing it via mobile devices.

3. Bear in mind Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when writing or proofing copy for the web
One of the more opaque and mysterious aspects of online marketing is a technique known as Search Engine Optimization (or SEO, for short). As the phrase suggests, these are series of web publishing activities that a webmaster has to undertake to ensure that their web pages appear high up in Search Engine Results Pages (or SERPs).

Despite the predominance of social media and mobile applications to view content online, the search engine remains the first port of call for many when it comes to finding relevant content on the internet, so the importance of SEO discipline when writing online copy should not be underestimated.

While a lot of SEO revolves around the technical aspects of how a website is both built and promoted online, an equally large part focuses on the copy of web pages themselves. Forever a moving target for the most part (as search engine companies get wise to cynical marketing techniques used to manipulate SERPS), a true constant in SEO is the repetitive use of certain keywords within the body text and headings of the copy intended for the web.

At the point of being commissioned to either draft or proofread copy for the web, you should ask the webmaster or commissioning editor what keywords he or she would like to see featured in the copy (for SEO purposes) and then carry out your work accordingly. If you have been asked to upload copy directly to a website, there are usually ‘plugins’ available for most content managements systems that can analyse your copy from a SEO perspective (Yoast for WordPress is a popular one, for example).

SEO does not extend just to web pages and the traditional search engine. Most of the major social networks feature a search engine of some description, and keywords can play their part in the shortest of posts, maybe even in conjunction with using a hashtag (see below).

However, you can easily take SEO too far. I have seen and read countless examples of web pages that have distorted intelligibility due to the feverish repetition of keywords and phrases. This, of course, is self-defeating as although you may have made your web page appear in the top ten of Google Search results, all you have done is dragged your potential audience to a bad piece of incoherent, blatant marketing.

A balance has to be struck between producing good copy for content marketing purposes and ensuring that copy serves an SEO purpose. My own personal judgement always falls on the side of superior copy over SEO needs, but I don’t discount SEO entirely and have used the aforementioned Yoast to optimize most of my copy for search engines.

4. Posts to social networks or websites should be appropriately formatted and use all available functionality of the social network or website in question
Each social network and website has its own unique method of use and particular focus or demographic, so be very conscious of that when either creating or reviewing online content.

With copy intended for websites, you can summarize information or redirect readers to more substantial content elsewhere via hyperlinks. Whether you are creating copy for a website or have been asked to proof it, I would argue it is always best to either generate or ask for a draft of the copy that has the hyperlinks contained within it. That way, any editor can see how you have verified the claims that the copy is making and/or whether you are redirecting a reader to an appropriate source.

Having links to external websites in web copy is another SEO technique, but arguably they also inherently add value for the reader. By providing links, you are providing and endorsing other sources of information; it is the online variant of citing sources for claims or information.

Links shouldn’t only be about pointing people away from the website you are writing or proofing for; they should also be used to point to relevant and associated information already published on the website in question. This too can give you more leeway when adapting copy for the web; maybe a print article is best served by being by split into two separate articles hosted on the same site, for example.

Away from traditional websites and blog sites, the various social networks have their own idiosyncrasies that have to be respected and fully exploited. For example, there’s an art to writing an effective post (‘tweet’) on Twitter, which I have blogged about extensively elsewhere.

The key thing about social media posts is knowing when and how to tag other users and organizations. By doing so, you are alerting those people and institutions that you are talking about them (obviously only do so if you are doing so positively!) so that they can engage and share your social media posts with their own followers or connections on the network in question. All social networks have a way of tagging other users, and I am happy to advise on how to do so if you cannot find the information elsewhere online.

One ubiquitous component of writing a social media post is the use of hashtags. Hashtags are a way of connecting your posts online into a wider conversation that’s taking place on the network you’re posting to. I have written extensively on how to use hashtags elsewhere so I won’t repeat myself here, but I would urge you to put any latent snobbery aside about using them, and also for you to use them sensibly and sparingly once you do so.  

5. Always add an implicit or clear Call To Action (CTA)
Whether you are writing or proofing a tweet of only 140 characters or a 3,000-word blog entry, the copy must have a clear purpose for existing online. In other words, upon reading your online post, what do you expect the reader to do in response?

This is particularly important if you’re writing or proofing online copy that is intended for sales or marketing purposes, and these instructions or directions within the text are known as a Call To Action (CTA). CTAs give the reader a clear steer on what you expect them to do having read your online post, whether that be clicking on a link, signing up to a newsletter or buying a product or service.

However, CTAs are not just about sales or promotion; any good writer wants people to respond to their copy in some form or another, and in an online context that response is easier to encourage. For example, you may want people to comment on what you have written, so make sure that the text makes that explicit; don’t just have a series of empty fields at the bottom of an article waiting to be filled in, as they won’t be. You have to be explicit about it.

Alternatively, you may want people to share your article. Show me a writer openly publishing content online who doesn’t want a wider audience, and I will give you £1,000! Social media sites and well-designed websites all make sharing articles online via our own networks incredibly easy to do, but (again) it has been repeatedly shown that posts that ask for people to share them get shared more often than those that don’t.

You don’t want to go overboard with Calls To Action (I personally find them irritating on occasion), but don’t go without them either. Online marketing and online publishing revolve around engagement, and you certainly want to invite it when and where appropriate.

7. Have you written and proofread all the text required for an online post?
When publishing online, more text is required than just for the main article. Text is needed for the meta-description (the descriptive sentence you see under links in search engine results), browser headings and captions for any illustrations or tables used.

All of this is really within the purview of the webmaster or the web editor (as, again, most of this is modified for SEO) but if you have an article going out with your name on it or if you have been paid to proof a particular piece, you want to ensure that all of your good work has not been undermined by either sloppy supportive text or cack-handed third-party editing.

Summary
Writing for the web is different from writing for the page, with new technologies creating new idioms at an overwhelming rate. However, as long as you are suitably streetwise to technical considerations and any new online vernacular, you should easily be able to continue to utilize your writing and proofreading skills without too much compromise or trouble.

Although much-maligned by social media marketers, in the main Google’s own social network – Google+ – is in fact a very powerful tool to promote your own brand and authority if used correctly. Google+'s strength comes from its integration with other Google products such as Google Search, and this is where Google Authorship can help authors, journalists and other individuals make their mark on the web.

In layperson’s terms, Google Authorship couples content hosted on the internet with its actual author. This connection is then displayed within Google Search results in the form of an image and byline next to the relevant search result. For example:

The byline links back to the author’s profile on Google+ so that people interested in the article can find out more about the person cited. 

In addition, the byline displays the number of Google+ "Circles" that author has been added to. In brief, Google+ Circles is analogous to Connections on LinkedIn, Friends on Facebook or Followers on Twitter; it demonstrates the following that the author has on Google+ itself. The more Circles an author has been added to on Google+, the more influential or trusted as a source they may appear to be, or be judged to be.

The benefits of Google Authorship
There are numerous benefits to embracing Google Authorship, not all of which are immediately apparent. Here are just some of them:

• Having your next image next to a search result increases the chances of people clicking through to your content

• It helps brand your content across multiple websites within Google Search

• It highlights your presence on Google+

• Google+ Profiles can highlight your other work

• Google+ Profiles can highlight your presence on other social networks

• It could possibly help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your websites

• It can quickly demonstrate your authority and influence at a glance within Google Search Results
  

• It ties in with your Google+ activity as well

How to implement your own Google Authorship
Even though Google has attempted a degree of automation with Google Authorship, it is a feature you really have to take manual ownership of if you want it work correctly with your online content. To activate it, take the following steps:

• Sign up with Google+

• Populate your Google+ Profile

• Indicate in your Google+ Profile which websites you currently contribute to, and to which websites you have contributed to in the past

• Insert HTML code in your online web articles and websites

• List all your articles in your Google+ profile

Drawbacks with Google Authorship
In itself, I can’t think of there being too many drawbacks to activating Google Authorship, although, like all things, it is far from perfect. Here are some things to bear in mind once you have decided to implement Google Authorship for yourself:

• The benefits only apply to Google users

• Articles can wrongly be attributed

• You are occasionally reliant on others to make it work

• Only individuals, and not companies or organizations, can benefit from Google Authorship

• It requires your ongoing support of your presence on Google+

Summary
On balance, I would argue that the Google Authorship is worth investing your time and energy with, particularly if you are looking to build up a personal brand or if your company or organization is built around a set of strong, identifiable individuals.

As I have already argued, Google is and will remain the biggest player in the internet search for the foreseeable future, and it is therefore foolish to dismiss any of Google’s products out of hand, especially if you are looking to curate a coherent, professional internet presence.

Google Authorship is therefore a vital tool for authors and content writers looking to establish their authority in the internet age.

About Nick Lewis
Nick is a communications professional with over 15 years’ experience of working in both the private and public sector. As Nick Lewis Communications, he’s now using his wealth of knowledge to help small businesses and organizations adapt to the modern online age. A graduate from the University of Wales Swansea, he worked in various marketing roles prior to launching Nick Lewis Communications in 2012. Nick can be found on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.

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My latest article on "The Proofreader's Corner" column of Rich Adin's An American Editor blog is now available. 

Most of us have editorial specialisms that mean not every customer is the best fit for the services we offer. Providing customers with guidelines that enable them to carry out their own initial assessment is a great first step. But what happens if they don't read this information? As I say in the article, "What I place on my website and what my customer chooses to read might well be two entirely different things."

A useful second step to consider is adding a targeted call to action that nudges the customer in the right direction just before they hit the contact button.

You can read the article here: The proofreader’s corner: A call to action – nudging the customer to work out whether the fit is right

About Louise Harnby
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and the curator of The Proofreader's Parlour. She is the author of Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers and Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, follow her on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or find her on LinkedIn. 

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One of the most popular articles on The Proofreader’s Parlour is a guest post contributed by my colleague Shani D’Cruze [find her on LinkedIn) in 2012: “Can you proofread my thesis by tomorrow?” – Editorial Freelancing in the Student Market.

It’s not just popular; it’s also professional – its content addresses an important issue that many editorial freelancers wonder about (the ethical issues of working with students); and it’s well researched and cites its sources to professional academic standards.

Shani’s a scholar as well as an editor, and it shows in the way she presents her ideas and in the way she backs up those ideas by linking to evidence from other sources. Whether every reader will agree with her is not the point. The point is that her article has rigour.

Just how original are we, really?
How many of us have ever had a truly independent thought or idea that no one else has considered?

We’re social creatures. Our ideas and opinions are always shaped by those with whom we work, live, socialize, learn from, and engage with face to face and online. Whatever we think, say, write, blog about – it’s all moulded by our interaction with other people.

For example, I’ve considered the issue of editorial rates here on the Proofreader’s Parlour. But Rich Adin, Erin Brenner, Melanie Thompson and Adrienne Montgomery are just a few examples of colleagues who have rich and valuable material in print and online to help editorial freelancers think about the money questions.

If I want to improve the quality and integrity of my articles on editorial pricing, it makes sense to ensure I refer my readers to these or other appropriate resources when I’m blogging. Why? Corina Koch MacLeod of Beyond Paper Editing explains:

Trust, credibility, manners – three great reasons to cite others. And what’s to lose? There’s no disadvantage to offering readers access to other resources that can help them to see the bigger picture. There’s no disadvantage to demonstrating an awareness that ours isn’t the only voice. 

Why we sometimes drop the ball
I know why I’ve not been as diligent with sourcing other views on a topic I’m discussing (it’s not an excuse but an explanation) – blogging is something that I do in my spare time, squashed hastily into the small space left over once I’ve attended to work and family commitments.

It’s much the same for many of my editorial colleagues who blog. Writing regular content, and maintaining the passion for doing so, means blogging is often a fast-and-loose process (unlike writing a book, for example) – we get an idea and try to take it from brain to blog when we find that spare half hour. 

There’s a sense of informality to it, of sharing a stream of consciousness. For me, that’s the danger point – I’m so busy trying to get the ideas out that I know there have been times when I’ve not just stopped, stepped back and considered waiting for yet another spare half hour in a few days’ time to help me go that extra mile and research what else our community is saying that’s relevant to the readers of my article. 

But there's another issue – and for me it's a much trickier one to come to terms with. I recently published an article that was inspired by two authors – one with whom I agreed and one whom I felt had given bad advice.

I chose to cite and link to the author with whom I had sympathy and omit any mention of the author whose advice had irritated me. I simply kept the point general. My justification at the time was that I didn't want to drive traffic towards information that I thought was poor.

But in doing so, I took the choice away from my readers. I didn't trust them to come to their own conclusions. A few weeks ago I was convinced I'd made a good decision. Lately I've been questioning that decision. I've realized that I don't always write my blog articles in the same way I write my books.

And that's got me thinking ... did my decision mean I sacrificed trust, credibility and manners in order to control my blog, my space, for my ideas? Have I compromised respect for my readers and their ability to judge for themselves?

Sticky questions.

When one has put a lot of effort into building a vibrant blog, the idea of giving attributed, linked space to those with whom we disagree can be testing.

Balancing the feeling that we reserve the right to publish and cite what we like with a readiness to trust our readers' ability to make their own decisions is so very hard! But academics do this every time they write a book or a journal article.

For me, that's something worth paying attention to.

Doing better 
Have my past blog articles been as rigorous as they could be in terms of citing other relevant sources, other voices? Sometimes? Often? Nearly always? I’m not sure of the answer to that.

Certainly the I case cited above has given me food for thought. What I am sure of is that I want to do better. I know I can do better. Just making a commitment to stopping, stepping back each time and thinking about what else is out there that’s relevant to what I’m saying means it should be better. As will having the courage to give linked/cited space to viewpoints with which I disagree. 

One thing's for sure – when we commit to rigour, we take an important step towards substantively improving the quality of what we do. Given that most bloggers are passionate about their blogging, embracing rigour is a no-brainer.

Yes, blogging is fast and loose. Yes, it’s informal. Yes, there’s bound to be an overlap of ideas. Yes, there's bound to be a difference of ideas. But don't I owe it to my colleagues and readers to ensure that I cover the bases? Don't we all as soon as we decide to carve out a space for ourselves in the blogosphere?

If you’re thinking of setting up a blog as part of your editorial business communication strategy, you might like to take a look at Corey Eridon’s useful guidelines on internet etiquette and attribution (How Not to Steal People's Content on the Web, 2012), including citing blog articles, social media content, guest and ghost writers, and images – all the recommendations are sensible and digestible. 

Eridon emphasises that sharing is good for business, but attribution is key: "Share content; share links; share ideas; share data; you name it. In fact, the inbound marketers who love to share usually see fantastic results because of it! ... You're supposed to share content, but you're also supposed to give credit where credit is due" (ibid.).

A commitment to a more rigorous search for alternative viewpoints, and the appropriate attribution, takes more time and effort, but actually not that much more when one’s dealing with 1500 words of copy. Academics are required to carry out these searches (and attribute accordingly) as standard. Many of us in the editorial community are paid to check that they are doing it well. 

With that in mind, should editor/proofreader bloggers aspire to the same standards as a matter of course?

Should we, in a bid to give space to alternative viewpoints, always seek to include links to others' relevant content, and are we obliged to do so even when we don't agree with the author's line?

​Or is the blogosphere a space that should embrace more flexibility, where the blogger reserves the right to control their space more tightly? More sticky questions, no doubt with sticky answers!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

Blogging, if you have the time and energy to commit to it, can be an excellent way of adding value to your business. You can share ideas and information in a space that you control, and you can create a focus and a mission of your own choosing, depending on what your interests are. Perhaps you want to focus on editing advice for independent writers; or maybe you’re interested in the small-business ownership element of your editorial career (like I am); one of my colleagues creates content geared towards academics working within the sphere of journals publishing; another focuses on developmental/structural editorial work; and yet another focuses on how to get the best from online media.

And yes, if done regularly and with fresh content that is relevant to your niche community, there can be terrific SEO benefits that will enhance your search rankings and increase the number and types of opportunities that come your way.

Given that some new entrants to the field may be considering exploring the world of editorial blogging, I thought I’d take a quick look at some of the joys and challenges that the blogger can be confronted with.

• One of the best things about hosting a vibrant blog is that lots of people want to write for you and comment on the published articles. Given that most of us who blog do so because we want to create a space for the sharing of ideas, it’s wonderful when we see our effort (and regular blogging does take a lot of effort) rewarded by lots of interest in the form of discussion and traffic.
  
• One of the most challenging things about hosting a vibrant blog is that lots of people want to jump on the back of the site’s rich SEO and post a load of nonsense in the comments section or submit articles with links that are designed to drive traffic to inappropriate external websites.

I recently took the step of adding guidelines for submission of articles, comments and advertising requests because I felt it had become necessary to be absolutely clear about what I consider to be the good, the bad and the ugly elements of the business blogging experience.

The good …
The good makes up the largest chunk of the blogging experience for most of us. Those who want to contribute, either by writing guest articles or by commenting on existing posts, understand our blogs’ mission statements and primary audiences. They may be colleagues who do what we do (in my case that means they are fellow editorial freelancers) or they may work in a field that complements our own (for example, editorial software developers, publishers, editorial project management agencies, or authors).

I’m all for organic two-way linking between websites that complement each other. If a fellow proofreader writes for me, I expect them to include a link to their business website in their bio. If an independent author submits a post that informs others like me what it’s like to work with editorial professionals, of course they can link to their author website so that they can improve their own SEO and promote their works. If a project management agency or publisher creates a piece that discusses the world of working with words from their side of the fence, I want them to include a link to their business website. All these links are good for the host, for the contributor and for the reader. The links are relevant, and the content that embeds them provides new information for the blog’s primary audience.

However, things start to go bad when the drive for SEO overshadows the quality of the content.

The bad …
The bane of most bloggers’ lives is the spammy commenter. Here’s a sample of some of the nonsense I’ve had to delete from my blog recently:

• Comment on an article about PDF Editing – links to a Swedish stove website: “Thanks career coach describing this issue very well,many of my questions also resolved after reading this,you describe career advancement very well.Thanks for all this great info you posted here.”
• Comment on an article about marketing and testing – links to a Greek roof rafters website: “So much so that you made me want to learn more about it. Your blog is my stepping stone, my friend. Thanks for the heads up on this subject.”
• Comment on an article about getting work with publishers – links to an American site selling vacuum cleaners: “Good blog post !!i am vary glad to read this blog !!!Much thanks to you such a great amount of for your answer, Louise. I trust you didn't think I was being opposing in my remark - I do tend to address what I am completing, as I am new to owning a business, if not to the work I do! What I intended to say is that I thought the articles were extraordinary (both of them!) since they did make me take a stage back and think. I understand you were discussing individuals who are right at the start of the methodology, however I think its truly paramount for every last one of us to arrange, research and do preparing so we keep away from those awful astonishes you discussed!”

Utter drivel. Delete, delete, delete.

The ugly …
The higher one’s blog ranks in the search engine results, the more likely one is to be approached by individuals, agencies and organizations who are NOT interested in submitting high-quality, relevant content to your blog that expands your readers’ knowledge base, and engages with and contributes to the ideas and resources that you’re committed to exploring. The aim is purely to grab a piece of your SEO by using your blog as a way to embed links and drive traffic to an external website. In these cases, the external linked-to websites will not be relevant to your blog’s mission or primary audience, though the authors will provide content that pretends to be. 

An example: quite often I’m approached by student essay-writing services. The author will offer an article of 500 or so words that’s not particularly original in its approach, probably not directly relevant to my primary audience, but contains some relevant key words (proofreading, editing, etc.). The link in the bio will be to a service for students that helps them walk their way through an expensive college career without having to actually do any of the required writing or research.

University policies on the hiring of external editorial services differ markedly. Some don’t even accept external proofreading. Copy-editing is usually not allowed. Getting someone to write your essay for you is cheating. And the consequences can be serious – suspension or expulsion from the institution, and a fail awarded. What’s more, the editorial freelancer is considered to have colluded.*

Those of us who run editorial businesses cannot be seen to be offering such services; but nor can we be seen to endorse them by driving traffic their way.

Summing up …
If you’re considering setting up an editorially focused blog, and are excited about the idea of sharing ideas, tools and resources in a space of your own design – either as part of your marketing strategy or because you love to communicate online, or both – do take care with both the commenting and the contribution elements. While most of those who engage with your blog will be genuine (and will deserve that SEO-rich link you allow them to embed in your site), there will be those who are looking to exploit your space as a nothing more than a traffic driver.

Always check links in comments and articles – are you happy with the content on the sites they take you to? Does linking to a particular site reflect well on you and your business? Is the content on that site relevant to your blog’s mission and primary audience? If you’re not completely happy then delete the comment or decline the guest article. It’s better to have low number of high-quality comments and guest articles than a spam-riddled site that links to businesses that bring yours into disrepute.

* For more information about issues related to providing editorial services for students, readers might like to take a look at what some of my colleagues have written about the issue:

• “Can you proofread my thesis by tomorrow?” – Editorial Freelancing in the Student Market (D'Cruze 2012)
  
• Student proofreading ethics (Haigh 2011)
• The ethics of proofreading for students – an update (Haigh 2013)
  
• Choosing a proofreader – student edition (Broomfield 2013)
  
• Editing research theses (guidelines from Australia's IPEd)
• And my colleague Corina Koch MacLeod (Beyond Paper Editing) pointed me in the direction of the EAC's Guidelines for Ethical Editing of Theses/Dissertations 

About Louise Harnby
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and the curator of The Proofreader's Parlour. She is the author of Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers and Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, follow her on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or find her on LinkedIn. 

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My colleague Arlene Prunkl, owner of PenUltimate Editorial Services, posted a shocking but important article on her blog about how the carefully crafted text on her website was stolen by several freelance editors who were too lazy to write their own copy.

The article, entitled Caveat editor: beware the e-plagiarist, is available in full over at her website, and I'd recommend reading it in full. Arlene gave me permission to feature a link to her important post here on the Parlour. 

In the article she explains how her online content was stolen; she also provides some excellent advice on how to monitor and tackle the problem.

If you're uneasy about my use of the word "stolen" I'll not apologize. While some view copying as a form of flattery, that's a poor excuse. At the very least it's lazy. At the very worst it's a deliberate attempt to jump on the back of someone else's hard work and success and pass those things off as one's own. Copying web content isn't like admiring our best friend's shirt and deciding we'll get one too. It's like going into their house without permission, taking that shirt out of their wardrobe, putting it on and claiming we bought it first!

While freelance editors' and proofreaders' websites invariably address many overlapping issues in terms of service provision, there are thousands of ways to write that material in an original way. That plagiarism is quite a rare occurrence in the international editorial freelancing community is a testament to that fact. So when it does happen, it can't be tolerated, even if the perpetrator claims it was an "accident". It's incumbent on each of us, as professional business owners, to respect our colleagues (and the law) by seeking permission and citing appropriately when we use another person's words.

I'd like to thank Arlene for highlighting this important issue and for offering solutions that ensure we can all strive for good, and legal, business practice. 

About Louise Harnby
Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and the curator of The Proofreader's Parlour. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, follow her on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or find her on LinkedIn.

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As a follow-up to my recent post on Enhancing the "added-value" in your editorial marketing strategy with video, I thought I’d share my progress so far.

In that post I mentioned that I’d like to try screencasting to demonstrate the installation instructions for my PDF proofreading stamps.

Screencasting, for those not in the know, is the process of capturing exactly what you’re doing on your computer screen, and it’s often combined with an audio feed. It’s a brilliant and (sometimes) inexpensive way to demonstrate detailed instructions that don’t always translate well using only the written word.

I was fortunate that some of my more experienced colleagues, John Espirian, Nick Jones and Adrienne Montgomerie in particular, had lots of useful advice to share, and while I ended up going down a slightly different route in terms of software (by necessity), their guidance set me on the right road and clarified the process for me.

For my first screencasting project, I decided to experiment with the instructions that I'd prepared for automatic installation into PDF-XChange. The written instructions have tripped up some new users and I was convinced that a video demo of me installing the stamps might solve the problem. After all, over the past two years I've taken several calls from struggling colleagues and when I've talked them through the installation on the phone, they've succeeded where they’d previously failed. If my voice guiding them could solve the problem, a combined video feed should be even more effective.

The kit
Since the kit was being used for an activity that wouldn't actually generate any income for me, I needed to be careful about what I spent. I wanted quality but  felt it would be foolhardy to invest in expensive commercial equipment and software at this stage.

After some investigation I settled for a Logitech headset that cost me £25. It includes a set of comfortable earphones and a mic attached to the headband that clips down into recording position. They are widely available – I picked up mine from a local supermarket.

I then downloaded Microsoft’s Expression Encoder 4. This probably isn’t the most sophisticated screencasting software on the market, but I found it user-friendly and excellent for the purposes of making a simple video tutorial. And it’s completely free, though you are limited to making videos of no longer than 15 minutes. But honestly – who wants to listen to me rambling on for any longer than that?!

Creating the screencast
After about ten passes, I came up with something that I was happy to post online. It's here if you want to take a look (or if you're struggling to install my proofreading stamps), and I think the video demonstration is a good complement to the written instructions. It's not perfect, but Adrienne Montgomerie assures me that in this kind of situation, where we're communicating with colleagues and want that personal touch, perfection isn't always necessary. As always, we need to consider who our audience is, what their expectations are, and the impact our message will have on our business. If I was creating a promotional video to advertise my business or a testimonial video to complement the written endorsements on my website (as outlined by Nick Jones on his Full Media blog), perfection would be at the top of my list.

Encoding and uploading my screencast to YouTube proved easier than expected. Not surprisingly, I found a video created by TheBenVidz on YouTube that showed me exactly how to do this with Expression Encoder 4. Then I used Weebly's free YouTube plug-in to embed the video on my website, added the necessary link, and the job was done. 

I'm off now to plan my Oscar-acceptance speech ... 

I'd like to thank my partner [sniffs], by daughter [sobs], my best mate [hysterical howls] and all my colleagues in the editorial freelancing industry [completely breaks downs]. It's been emotional ...

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In the past 18 months, a number of people have asked me how I went about getting those images of book stacks on my website. Did I hire a graphic artist? Did I take the photos myself and upload them? Or did I fork out for some horrendously expensive piece of software? None of these, actually. I did use software but it wasn't expensive: Box Shot 3D costs $49 and is available for Windows or Mac.

The following is a sample of some of the projects styles I've set up, but there you can tweak to suit your own needs. Book jackets aren't the only option - there are also presets for business cards; software boxes; reports and binders; phones, tablets, and other devices; brochures; and even cans and bottles. As well as choosing which types of image you want to include, you can tinker with the perspective, and with shadow, lighting and reflection.

I've used the images I've created not only on my website but also on brochures and other marketing material.

As with any new piece of kit, it does take a little time to get used to making the software work for you, and I did find it a little fiddly to use at first. My perseverance paid off, though, and the images are very high quality. All in all, this is an inexpensive tool that delivers excellent results.

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Once again, I've been thinking back to my in-house publishing days, this time in relation to the advertising we did on behalf of our books and journals. Selling anything, editorial skills or otherwise, in a limited space can be quite a challenge. 

Advertising in specialist directories is something most of us do in addition to having a website. Even if you struggle to promote yourself succinctly, you can use the limited space wisely by following three basic steps.

These steps can be applied to any promotional profile you’re building but they’re particularly appropriate when dealing with searchable databases. Most national professional editorial societies have searchable membership databases; the SfEP, EAC, EFA, the regional chapters of IPEd, BELS, and SENSE are just a few examples. Then there are freelancing and business directories like Find a Proofreader, FreeIndex, Yell and People Per Hour.

Whether you've paid for your listing or it's free, it makes sense to maximize your chances of being found and selected. Otherwise, what's the point in having it?

Back in my publishing days, our marketing director would always encourage us to approach our promotion plans with joined-up thinking: first comes the hook, then the pitch, and finally the call to action. All three are connected, and by thinking about them as joined it becomes easier to see what needs to be included and why. In relation to how we manage our directory listings, the hook, pitch and call to action could work as follows:

Step 1. The hook: This is what enables clients to find your listing in the first instance. You may be one of hundreds, or even thousands, of colleagues who are listed in the directory. The types of clients you want to attract need to be able to find you. Using the most appropriate key words is the first thing you need to crack. These could refer to the service(s) you provide and the subject areas or genres you specialize in: “proofreader”, “crime”, “erotica”, “sociology”, “law”, “politics”, “speculative fiction”, “race/ethnicity”, "theses" and “science fiction” are some of mine. Yours will be specific to you.

Niche key words can be effective because they can narrow down client searches; broad key words are important because they make sure you’re in the mix for the searcher who isn't too specific. I would advise a mixture of the two, as long as each key word reflects your skill set.

And in discussion about this blog post on Facebook, one of my colleagues, editor Adrienne Montgomerie, reminded me how important it is to use key words that make sense to your client. Says Adrienne:

Step 2. The pitch: If the hook leads the client to your listing, then the pitch keeps them on your page. Since you have limited space it’s worth focusing on what your biggest selling points are. In addition to one or two sentences summarizing your business (e.g. “I specialize in proofreading academic and professional books in the social sciences and humanities, as well as fiction and creative non-fiction.”), you could add a short list outlining the things that you think will most impress the client:

• truncated testimonials from several satisfied clients
  
• a list of clients for whom you've worked
  
• highlights from your portfolio
  
• number of jobs you’ve completed
  
• length of service

Your list might look different; the point is to make sure that you highlight the things about yourself that will make you look fabulous.

Step 3. The call to action: Having led the client to your page and impressed them with your pitch, you should now make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step. If you think your directory listing is so impressive that you can nail the job there and then, add in a call to action under your pitch inviting the client to contact you. If you want to drive them to your website because you think the information there will close the deal, add in a few words inviting them to do just that (e.g. “Visit my website for more testimonials and a full portfolio of works.”).

Even if your website link and contact details are listed elsewhere on your page, writing a few words that encourages a particular step is still an example of best practice; it invites the client to engage with you. In the world of sales and marketing, this is nuts-and-bolts stuff, so why not apply it in the world of editorial freelancing, too?

Thinking about presentation 

• Order:  Keep your pitch and call to action “above the fold”. I realize that most web users are perfectly used to scrolling to find the information they want. However, clients looking for a service provider in a directory are often pushed for time and are looking at multiple entries. It makes sense to hit them with your pitch in a way that requires nothing from them – they land on your page and the information you want to sell is right in front of them. 
• Highlighting: Directory listings are often restrictive in terms of design. You may have to follow a formula. If you can, use bold to highlight key words or phrases, colour to set off headings, and bullet lists to express key selling points. 
• Keep it short: This is something I've really struggled with but all the online and print material I've ever read about advertising and direct marketing insists that you keep things short and snappy. Ensuring your personality is injected into the listing is a tough call when space is limited. This is why a call to action that moves a client to your website can be effective, because that’s where you have the space to really shine.
• Space it out: Again, the general advice from online and print marketing specialists is to not be afraid of white space. Text that is broken down into lists and short, line-spaced paragraphs is easier on the eye.

Testing (again)
Another good piece of advice that professional marketeers like to reinforce is that of testing. If your directory entries aren't driving in the quantity or type of client you'd hoped for, try playing around with different hooks, pitches and calls to action. Different sets of key words might be more effective; perhaps your call to action could be more prominent; or you could reconsider your pitch to make it more salesy, more academic, more publisher-focused, or more self-publisher-centric.

Thinking about this has made me realise that I have some tweaking of my own to do in order to perfect the message I communicate in my preferred advertising channels. 

If you have any tips about effective advertising, please do leave a comment. It's one of the most difficult nuts to crack, so the more knowledge the better. 

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The best piece of professional advice I've had in 2013 is from my colleague Katharine O'Moore-Klopf in her recent blog entry The 1.5-Hour Daily Social Media Schedule, where she advocates regular link checking.

Katharine's advice to do this regularly is crucial if you have a website that has many links embedded – a blog or a resource centre, perhaps. Not keeping on top of link integrity can mean things get out of hand. The Proofreader's Parlour is a case in point. It's been live for a year and I've not run link-checking software on it. The result is that there are a staggering 239 broken links on the site.

This free online link checker will do the job: BrokenLinkCheck. Below is a summary of this tool's key features but there's a super article on the site that's worth a read, too.

Summary of features (as quoted on the BrokenLinkCheck website):

• Can scan an unlimited number of web-pages: the free version has a 3000-page limit; however, there are no limits on the number of hyperlinks within those webpages
  
• Validates both internal and external URLs
  
• Shows location of problematic links in your HTML code
  
• For bad URLs, reports HTTP response codes: 404 etc.
  
• Can run on Mac OS X, iPad, Linux, UNIX, and Windows

I have my work cut out for me. I plan to mend 10 links a day until the Parlour is in perfect shape again. Then I'll run the checker once a week to prevent future overload. Don't make the same mistake I did!

A potential client's ability to put a name and a face to an editorial freelancer can determine whether they ask you to quote for a job or click the “close” button on your website tab ...

A businesswoman recently contacted me about the possibility of editing her MSc personal statement. I always ask people how they found me and, if they select me to work for them, why they chose me. Her answer was illuminating, though probably not surprising – she’d spent nearly two hours searching on Google. (1) She was looking for an individual freelancer, not a company that would contract out the work to an unnamed individual. (2) She wanted to see a picture of the person she was going to be dealing with, rather than a stock image that looked as if it had been cut and pasted from a magazine. (3) She wanted to see an appealing and professional website that told her about the freelancer’s experience and that reflected their personality. (4) And she wanted someone “genuine”. She told me she’d spent a lot of time working on the draft of her statement, and it was important to her that it communicated her story. It might determine whether her application is successful – she wanted someone who’d made her feel that they understood what she was trying to achieve and why it was important. I got the job based on meeting the above criteria, and she paid me the SfEP's suggested rate.

There’s nothing wrong with not using your real name in the title of your business. Indeed, it could be detrimental if you have a particularly common name. I do use my name in my business title but I have an uncommon surname so it’s unlikely that I’ll be confused with any other editorial freelancer in the UK. Do, however, tell your customers who’s involved in the organization. Let’s say your company name is Anyold Proofreading Services. You’re the only employee on the books but you’re still a real person. Make sure your bio is easy to find on your website and that it tells your potential customers who you are, where you’re based and that you’re there to help them. If there are several people in the business, do the same thing – bios for all so the client can see the real people behind the business name. Be professional by all means, but be approachable, too. Publishers, independent authors, students and business people are putting their trust in you, and only you, when they hand over their project for revision and it can be anxiety-inducing for them. If they feel you’re on their side before they've even contacted you, you’re more likely to be an attractive prospect to them.

For some editorial freelancers, the idea of putting one’s face on the internet is ghastly. If that's how you feel, do it anyway. It makes you real to people. Anyone can copy a royalty-free image from the web and put it on their site, but there’s only one you. “I don’t have any nice photos of myself,” you say. Nor did I, so I asked a friend who’s rather clever with a camera to help me out. You don’t need a masterpiece – a simple head-and-shoulders shot will do. Put a smile on your face and look at the camera. You want to appear professional but approachable. If the person with the camera is as good a friend as they claim, they’ll keep on snapping until you get something that that you’re happy with. After you have your pic you can use it on your website, your Facebook page, your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, and any other online directories or webspaces that you participate in. Consider it another part of your branding strategy – when the same picture is always attached to your business title, people will come to recognize your face in the same way they recognize your business name.

If you’re building your editorial freelance business and you haven’t got your website sorted, make it a priority. Like your mug shot, it doesn't have to be fancy. A simple website that clearly reflects who you are, what services you offer, and the experience you have will suffice. My colleague Daniel Heuman has written some excellent articles about building an online presence using a simple website, so, if you’re still nervous, take a look at what he and others have to say about getting webbed up: Roundup: Websites for Editorial Freelancers – Why? How? What?.

If your business isn't on the web you’re missing a trick because many of your competitors are online. That means that when potential clients start googling for editorial freelancers, they’re going to find your colleagues but they won’t find you. And remember to ensure that the information you include is friendly, professional and responsive to the needs of your client (and don’t forget the face-on guidance). The excellent Freelance Folder blog recently posted some advice that I'd highly recommend to newbies considering how to pitch their online communications: When New Freelancers Pitch Prospects: 7 Things to Never Say. 

If building a full website still feels like just a step too far, try about.me – you can create a simple but attractive one-page site that includes the basics. It’s completely free and very easy to set up. For more information and a link to the site, take a look a my post: Link of the Week: build a webpage with about.me.

If a potential client asks you to submit a quotation by email, it stands to reason that you need to communicate your understanding of the kind of project they’re asking you to work on and what they want from you – this is in addition to the information they've asked you to submit (price, relevant experience, CV, time frame, etc.). Working on a personal statement is not the same as proofreading a local history book, or copy-editing a scientific journal article, or providing structural editing for a début novel, or drafting a CV, or checking a website. Take the time to explain what might be entailed so that the client understands what they are getting for their money and why you are charging a flat fee in one case, a per-word fee in another, or an hourly rate elsewhere. The client will appreciate it and it demonstrates that you know what they are trying to achieve, what the project requires, and what some of the issues might be. Moreover, it shows that you've taken the time to consider the work and indicates the level of care they can expect to receive if you secure the job. Open, friendly and professional communication is just another way of marketing yourself. 

* * * 
Go on! Call your camera-happy friend over. Use your name and use your face. And get a website – if you can’t see yourself online, no one else can either.

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This roundup features links related to the subject of online editorial portfolios/résumés. The articles featured cover why, how and what to include:

• Eight Reasons to Place Your Résumé Online (Proofreader’s Parlour)
• How To: Keep Your Portfolio NDA Compliant (Copyediting) 
  
• Link of the Week: Box (Proofreader’s Parlour)
• Link of the Week: build a webpage with about.me (Proofreader’s Parlour)
  
• Online Portfolios for Editors, Part 1 (Copyediting) 
• Online Portfolios for Editors, Part 2: Clean Capture (Copyediting) 
• Online Portfolios for Editors, Part 3: A Venue (Copyediting)
• Online Portfolios for Editors, Part 4: Enhanced Graphics with ThingLink (Copyediting)
• Online Portfolios for Editors, Part 5: Your Portfolio on LinkedIn (Copyediting)
• Online Portfolios for Editors, Part 6: Unify Your Online Presence (Copyediting)
  
• Prepare Your Resume for Email and Online Posting (Riley Guide)
  
• Selling Yourself – Adding an Editorial Portfolio to Your Website (Find a Proofreader)

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Hat tip to my colleagues Averill Buchanan and Wendy Toole for alerting me to about.me. 
This is a sharp little platform that enables you to create a 1-page website in minutes.

If you already have a website then this is just another tool with which to advertise yourself online. If, however, you've not got round to building a website and are a little nervous about taking the plunge, or you're pushed for time, then about.me may be just the ticket. There's enough room to include the key selling points of your business, your social media links and a background image for extra interest. You can play around with the colour scheme and font styles, too, in order to get the look you want.

The screenshot below shows how I designed mine. I decided to include a couple of testimonials, a short summary of my proofreading services and skills, social media buttons, and some key links. I used the same colour-way that I've adopted for my Twitter, Facebook and website profiles. Averill has a fabulous background picture of one of her "business" bookshelves and Wendy has opted for a really attractive nature theme and also embedded favicons next to her core links. 

It takes only minutes to input the basics using the toolboxes, so if you're a little nervous with technology there's no need for concern. It's simpler than setting up a Facebook or LinkedIn profile in my opinion - easy to navigate and edit, and no intrusive adverts or messaging that I can see so far.

In my latest guest article, this time for Find a Proofreader, I discuss how placing a portfolio of completed works on your website can show potential clients that you're a good fit for them. The article offers my thoughts on how you might structure the information and provides some links to the websites of several editorial freelancers who are doing this in different ways. 

To read the article in full, visit the Find a Proofreader website.

StatCounter is a free website traffic analysis program that allows you to monitor page hits, visitor counts, most popular pages, referral pages, visitor paths, duration of visits, geographical statistics, exit links, downloads, and so on.

Unlike some free packages, StatCounter's code is invisible. The stats provided are time-limited in the free version (though you can download logs if you want to keep the history).

I prefer StatCounter for daily use because the data is very readable and I don't always need to access in-depth analyses that cover long periods of time. When I do require this information, or additional metrics such as bounce rates, I turn to Google Analytics.

If you want a statistics tracking program that's simple to install and easy to read, I'd recommend giving this a try.

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Editing Digital Products is a fabulous London-based 1-day training course run by the Publishing Training Centre (PTC). I'm attended recently and highly recommend it.

I'd originally intended to mention this in my Link of the Week feature, but on reflection I felt it merited a more detailed, stand-alone review. This is because on the 4-hour journey home I had time to think about all that I’d learned and consider how I might apply it to my day-to-day freelance proofreading business.

What’s in it for the freelance proofreader?
First of all, Editing Digital Products is not designed to teach the skills of onscreen editing (or proofreading).

Thus, if like me you spend much of your day working with (a) printed material, (b) onscreen content that will be printed further down the line, or (c) onscreen material that will be handled as if it was print (covering letters that will be emailed, for example), then the relevance of this course may not be immediately obvious.

Bear with me, however, because I've come to the conclusion that aside from the excellent foundational training I did to learn the method and practice of proofreading (Basic Proofreading my Distance Learning, also from the PTC), Editing Digital Products might well be the most important chunk of learning I've carried out in my freelance career.

High praise, you might think, but here’s the reasoning.

Future-proofing your editorial business
The world of publishing is changing. It’s highly likely that proofreaders (and editors) who work within mainstream publishing will come across an increasing number of opportunities to do what they do but within a digital setting. I’m not just talking about proofreading PDFs or editing Word documents; I’m talking about being asked to engage with specifically online material that works in a different way to traditional print media – interactive learning and entertainment resources that incorporate links, animation, games, click-and-drop functionality, and so on. You’re probably already using these types of resources on the various gadgets you have at home, such as your phone, your tablet, your PC, your e-reader.

If you want to be able to show publishers that you’re not afraid of engaging with digital material over a number of platforms, you need to be able to “think” in a digital way – to understand what it means to publish digitally and to manage, or operate within, digital workflows. And that’s what Sarah Sodhi, the course tutor, will help you to do. 

If you like to sit quietly on your backside and let the tutor do all the work, then this course won't be for you. Sarah's style is very much one of interaction, encouraging students to work together in groups and in whole-class exercises that require them to engage and think creatively about:

• what digital workflows look like
• the opportunities/benefits and disruptions/challenges of digitization
• new technologies and platforms
• digital language and systems
• the role of the editor/proofreader within digital processes
• project management in a digital environment
• print and digital content – differences and similarities
• and a whole lot more besides.

So, it’s about expanding your understanding of a changing publishing environment and guiding you towards an enhanced skillset that will be attractive to publishers working with digital products.

Adding value to the service you offer outside the traditional publishing environment
One of the services I offer to independent non-publisher clients is that of “proofreading your website”. This service has, until now, focused on making sure all the spelling, grammar and punctuation is in order, and ensuring any links are intact. But now that I've learned about “thinking” digitally, I can offer a more tiered service to clients. 

Creating a website is easier and cheaper than ever, and many local, small businesses are taking advantage of self-build functionality in order to enhance their online profile. 

Editing Digital Products made me think about layout, about the words in which links are embedded, about the depth of a website’s click-throughs, and about the structure of digital content.

“Proofreading” a website means something different to me now than it did before. I can offer a two-tier service to these smaller, independent clients – yes, I’ll polish the text but I can go further if they want me to by offering to review the website as a digital entity and how it works for their visitors – usability. I can also engage with the meta tags at a basic level to ensure that they’re taking advantage of the SEO options available to them – searchability.

Enhancing my own digital presence
Editing Digital Products has helped me to think about how best to present the digital product that’s closest to me – my own business. If I can add value to a small business in Norwich, I can apply the same usability and searchability to my own website and my blog.

​Starting at your own front door is the best way to put new-found skills into practice. I’m scheduling time to review my own metadata, the way in which I embed links on my website and my blog, and the way I structure the information that I offer to my website's visitors. 
​

What next?
​As is often the case, the very best training doesn't just fill knowledge gaps – it opens one's eyes to new ones.

Certainly I think there’s much, much more I can learn about mark-up languages, digital platforms, digital content management software, and SEO. It isn't that I was ignorant about these issues before; rather, my application was often accidental and ad hoc. It lacked strategic direction. 

​No training course can provide all the answers but it can put you on the right path. Editing Digital Products gave me that much-need focus – I can see how pre-existing skills, newly acquired knowledge and future training can be applied strategically to my ongoing business planning and service provision in a digital environment.

​Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

Jump-to coding is handy for when you have a webpage with a lot of information on it and you want your readers to be able to jump to key headings with ease.

An example is my academic proofreading portfolio page. While I’ve taken care to ensure all the information on my homepage is above the fold, the academic portfolio page is a different story. It lists all the academic projects I’ve worked on to date. I want to be able to show potential clients the breadth of my experience, but there are nearly 200 book titles on display. That’s a lot of text to take in – and it’s likely to bore readers to tears unless I help them to navigate the page with ease. That’s why I've used the jump-to html code.

Jump-to code is really easy to incorporate even if you’ve no experience of coding. To see how it works in real time, click on the picture below.

Most of the popular DIY website builders such as WordPress and Weebly include html boxes that you can write your code in. Here’s the code you’ll need if you want to incorporate jump-to instructions:

Simplified example 
You have three headed areas on a page you want your readers to be able to jump to: Training, Qualifications, and Recent Clients.

Here is the code you could place in your html box at the top of your page:

Jump to <a href="#train">Training</a> ● <a href="#quals">Qualifications</a> ● <a href="#rc">Recent Clients</a>

This would appear as:

Jump to Training ● Qualifications ● Recent Clients

If you don’t want to use the words “Jump to” you can change them to whatever you want. The same applies to the bullet points. For example, you could use the following code instead:

For more information click on the following: <a href="#train">Training</a> | <a href="#quals">Qualifications</a> | <a href="#rc">Recent Clients</a>.

This would appear as:

For more information click on the following: Training | Qualifications | Recent Clients.

Now place the following code in an html box just above the section of the page with training information:

<a name="train"></a>

Then you would place the remaining two html boxes (with the amended code) just above their respective sections:

<a name="quals"></a>
<a name="rc"></a>

In the above example "#quals" could be rendered in any way you wish ("#q", "#qualifications", "#qu") as long as you ensure the abbreviated version in the above-heading code is the same (<a name="q"></a>, <a name="qualifications"></a> ,<a name="qu"></a>).

Some of you may have websites that allow you to do this automatically, without going through the rigmarole of coding yourself. However, if you do have to embed your own code then I hope the above example demonstrates that you don't need to be an html whizz to get the desired results.

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A note from Louise: “[U]se the power of targeted email and website domain naming to make your customers choose you first,” is the advice from Paul Icke, editorial colleague, SfEP member, and my favourite technical guru. 

Here are some super marketing ideas from Paul to get you thinking. Paul has deliberately chosen to leave the technical aspects for another day. However, if you have any questions you can either use the comments section or contact Paul direct at blog_feedback@pjicke.com. See what he’s done with his email address? Read on to find out why …

Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me. Really? Picture this: You are project managing for a University Press on a prestige series of international law titles. It’s Friday afternoon before a Bank Holiday weekend. Your lead proofreader has just called in and is now indisposed for the foreseeable future and the first title is about to come back from typesetting. You still have a mountain of work to clear off your desk before you go home and so, seasoned professional that you are, you turn to the SfEP online directory for a replacement. Despite a fairly specialized keyword search list, you get three good hits. All three give return email addresses: 

        Kaz.Dave@theVonTrappFamily.whizzmail.com
        sally@knownonions.com
        PoliticsAndLaw@ProProofReading.co.uk*

There is a four-figure budget for each title with guaranteed repeat work but the clock is ticking. Which of the three do you feel like trying first?

* * *

Your directory entry, business card or advert is the key you hope will unlock income, and I hope that you will find some inspiration here to use the power of targeted email and website domain naming to make your customers choose you first.  

I came into editing and proofreading along a non-publishing trajectory. I had a long career in IT and founded a successful consultancy in Marketing and Service Delivery before changing tack to deal with a family crisis, so I am older; I do gravitas, and I want you to feel that I am dedicated to doing your work and that your proofs will not come back covered in ketchup and crayon drawings.

Having rubbed shoulders on IT projects with consulting heavyweights such as Logica and PwC, I know what makes them tick, and having "Big_Daddy56@hotmail.com" on your business card just doesn’t cut the mustard. In fact, many large organizations have deployed intelligent firewalls that will assign a high percentage probability to emails emanating from popular domains such as "gmail" or "hotmail" as potential spam, so your winning tender submission might not even get through to your customer contact.

The domain name, the bit after the "@" or the "www", says more about you than you think. When we want to buy on the internet, we look for clues in the domain names of unfamiliar companies – I visit www.nakedwines.com for claret, not car insurance. It has taken eye-watering marketing budgets for Apple and Orange to re-define those words in the popular consciousness as entities other than fruit, money I will assume you don’t have, so the message is clear – choose an email address/domain name combination that tells your target customer exactly what you want them to know.

As freelancers we are selling services to human beings who are buying, and there is a considerable body of work dealing with how we make decisions when we buy. I am very interested in the role of the unconscious mind in these decisions (I have an "ology", as Maureen Lipman would say). Three things stand out from this work for me:

1. Thinking requires effort and energy, so keep things simple for your potential customer and don’t make them work hard to choose you – they have pressures of their own and will want a quick and easy solution.
2. We are instinctively risk averse and will gravitate towards things we know, so use words that describe your service exactly. Clever domain names can convey intelligence and creativity, but do use the "alias", the bit before the "@", to provide the precise detail; your name is actually unimportant at this stage, and not supplying one will also remove the risk of any form of unconscious (or conscious) discrimination. 
   
   Tip: Why use only one address in your marketing? As you will see later, email domains allow
   multiple aliases, so if you offer multiple specialisms, give each one an address, i.e.:
   
   PoliticsAndLaw@ProProofReading.co.uk*
   FrenchAndItalian@ProProofReading.co.uk*
   Medical@ProProofReading.co.uk*
   
   This way you can turn yourself into a small army of top-flight academics.
   
   Other tip: Email addresses are case insensitive, so note the use of printed capitals to separate words and add emphasis.
   
   And still another tip: Show your top-paying clients how much you love them and give them their own contact address, such as "OUP_PRIORITY@ProProofReading.co.uk".* That way their mail will stand out from adverts for cheap Viagra and you can use your email software’s filter tools to make your inbox light up like Christmas when your work comes in.
   
   
3. Although we like to think we are rational and objective, our first impressions and experiences often override objectivity. Your very first contact with an enquiring customer will probably influence your entire relationship with them.

Domain names are as cheap as chips and even easier to acquire. There are rules on domain name registration, but suffice to say a ".co.uk" suffix (or a ".com" for you Walter Mitty types out there, like me, or if you have global clientele; ".eu" works well within Europe, too) will suit a UK-based freelancer working with UK organizations and cost as little as £4.99 a year. The choice of suffix really boils down to where you operate, so an overseas reader of this blog would register a domain in their home country, i.e. ".fr" for France, ".de" in Germany, etc.

You get your domain name through an easily found registrar. For reasons I can’t remember, I am with a registrar called FreeParking, with whom I am unconnected and I use them here simply as illustration.

Try out some domain names you like, bearing in mind what I have said above. You can type them into the box at the top of the FreeParking page and see if they are available. If so, you will simply need to pay and register your domain(s) under your sole trader, company or partnership name as owner of the domain(s) you buy.

There is a dizzying array of things you can do with your new domain and I don’t want to veer into the technical at this stage, so do explore; I will gladly answer any questions you may have. Basically, my registrar will host web pages for me. I can then have a free mail account with storage and 11 aliases (different bits before the "@") or I can have up to ten free aliases on the domain name that forward mail to any other email address(es) of mine. I can transfer-in domains I already own from somewhere else or I can forward traffic to them – the list of possibilities is as large as your imagination.

You can be up and running with a new marketing identity in minutes and for less than a fiver. Have several. Re-invent yourself periodically if things slow down, you feel stale or if you acquire new skills, interests or qualifications.

Practical tip: Create a totally different email alias, or even a different domain, to use for non-work activities such as social networking and internet shopping. When this address inevitably attracts too many phishing scams or Facebook exhortations, just delete the alias and make a new one. This will avoid risk to your client addresses.

I believe that a well thought-out email and domain name strategy makes you look smart and professional, so just remember to say what you do on the tin.

* "ProProofReading.co.uk" was available at time of writing and could be yours for £4.99 per year. 

If you would like to know more about unconscious purchasing influences, a fascinating place to start is Philip Graves’ book, Consumerology: The Market Research Myth, the Truth about Consumer Behaviour and the Psychology of Shopping, Nicholas Brealey Publishing (London, 2010).

For background reading on domain naming, visit InterNIC or the UK’s central registry at Nominet.

Copyright Paul Icke 2012

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The following is a link to 23 search engine optimization tips provided by Weebly. You don't need to be a Weebly user to make use of all of them – most are generic. Furthermore, each of the tips is easy to apply without any specialist knowledge: Weebly SEO Tips for Higher and Focussed Traffic for Your Website.

Favicon is the abbreviated form of “favourites icon” and it’s that small symbol that appears on a tab next to the title of the webpage.

​Look up at the tab at the top of your screen for this page and you’ll see the red square with a white “LH” in it next to the page title. That’s my favicon.

Why do you need one?
A favicon enables your readers to recognize your website easily in their lists of bookmarks, RSS feeds and open tabs. Your favicon consolidates your brand. Let’s say you have a website/blog in one of the popular self-build websites like WordPress or Weebly.

Let’s say 50 of your colleagues do, too. If all of you have the WordPress/Weebly favicon, your entry in a list of bookmarks isn’t going to stand out. Perhaps a potential client has opened the websites of 20 proofreaders so that they can evaluate each one. Your favicon will enable the client to navigate back to your page easily.

​How do you make one?
Favicons are usually 16 x 16 pixels in size. You can either resize a stock image, draw your own (using Word, Publisher, Quark, etc.), adapt your existing business logo, or pay someone else to design one on your behalf.

Due to the small size of the favicon, it’s recommended that you keep the image simple and sharp so that it can be rendered clearly once uploaded. If you want to draw a really simple one by simply filling in pixels try Favicon Icon Drawing Program Online Free (it's very basic). If you want to experiment with different colours, search online for "hex colour numbers" and pick your shades.

Once you have your image you should resize it according to your website provider’s instructions. I used Canva (since Weebly needs a PNG) to create my image; an alternative, if you need a .ico file, is Favicon Generator.

My colleague John Espirian kindly posted a comment with links to some favicon generation sites that he's used for years, so consider making these your first stop: Favicon.cc and Dynamic Drive.

How our editorial colleagues are using favicons ...
​Take a look at some of our colleagues’ favicons in the screenshot below. Then visit their websites to see how these images match the colour schemes, logos and font styles on their websites.

Louise Harnby | Proofreader ● Espirian Technical Writing Services ●  KOK Edit ● Enigma Editorial.

I hope you found this article useful. Feel free to post any questions or comments below!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.