One of the best ways for beginners to earn money working from home is working on proofreading. As a proofreader, all you need to do is check on someone’s spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.
But, if English is not your native language, you can still do this job! There is an awesome free tool that can help you out, called Grammarly. Just install it onto your browser and Grammarly will check to see if a piece of writing could use any kind of improvement.
However, Grammarly is not perfect, so it’s best to make sure that you do your best to check for errors as much as you can. If you’d like to learn the basics of proofreading, check out this free 5-day course, Proofreading 101, where you get proofreading lessons sent straight to your email inbox.
Ready to get started? I’m going to share with you seven websites where you can get a job as a proofreader and earn some income from home.
First, I’ll go through two websites where you can provide professional proofreading and make good money. Then I’ll show you five websites where you won’t need any degree to start earning. But with all of these websites, you won’t need any proofreading experience!
So, with that being said, here we go.
1. Scribendi (Degree Required)
Scribendi is an online editing company that has been around since 1997.
On Scribendi, you will get to proofread a variety of science, tech, and medical documents written by ESL people (people who have English as their second language). In order to proofread for Scribendi, you will need to hold a bachelor’s degree, but if you have a degree higher than that, that’s even better.
You will also need to be very knowledgeable in one of the professional style guides like the APA and the Chicago Manual Style. You’re also going to have to type fast, as you need to proofread at a speed of at least 1,000 words per hour. Now, if you’re a good typist, that speed should be fairly easy to achieve.
You can learn more about this proofreading opportunity here. If you’re interested, simply send a resume and a cover letter to Scribendi via email.
2. CactusGlobal.com (Degree Required)
Another place you can use your degree to start proofreading and earning online is Cactus Global, which is ranked among the top 100 work-from-home companies by Forbes. This company has a proofreading position, which they call the “Freelance Specialist Editor.”
To apply for this position, you will need at least a bachelor’s degree, or even better, a master’s or a PhD, in any of the fields of healthcare, life sciences, medicine, and surgery. You will also need professional English editing skills.
With this job, all you’ll be doing is editing texts so that they are in proper English, formally and clearly written, and in accordance with specific style guidelines.
Visit Cactus Global to learn more or to apply for this job.
3. ProofreadingServices.com
What’s cool about this website is that they don’t ask too much from you in order to start making money proofreading. The way that this website uses to determine if you are a good fit for them is through a 20-minute preliminary test, which is made up of spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation questions.
If you complete the test and later contact you about the job, you can earn a really good pay of between $20 and $45 per hour, all from the comfort of your home.
Now I attempted to take their test at least three times, and I never received a follow-up email on landing a job with them. So, don’t hold your breath if they never get back to you, but then again, it never hurts to try! Check out their proofreading job page here.
And, if you can’t land a job, they do have a link on their jobs page to a free e-book that can show you their recommendations for proofreading jobs.
4. Gramlee
Gramlee is another good editing company where you can make money being a proofreader for them. Just like ProofreadingServices.com, this website has a simple application process, but instead of a test, you fill out an employment application. Simply answer a few questions for them and they will decide if you happen to be a good fit.
To learn more about Gramlee or to get started with their proofreader application, visit the Gramlee jobs page here.
5. Polished Paper
This website offers a proofreading opportunity, but they are looking for “exceptional editors”, so make sure you know your proofreading stuff and have at least some knowledge on one of the style guidelines like the APA.
If you think you have what it takes, simply sign up for an account and upload your resume. You will eventually be presented with a 35-question preliminary test. After you complete the test, Polished Paper will review your work and hopefully reach back out to you if they decide to give you the job.
To get started applying, head over to Polished Paper’s editor application here.
6. Writer’s Relief
Writer’s Relief is a place where writers can write and submit their articles onto the website, similar to sites like Hubpages and Medium.com. Writer’s Relief apparently has a team of editors and proofreaders that improve the quality of the articles that writers submit before they publish them on the website.
Unfortunately, there’s no information on what you’re expected to do as a proofreader for Writer’s Relief. The only thing you can do is fill out their proofreader application form here, submit it, and they should eventually let you know if you happen to be a good fit for them or not.
7. R3ciprocity
This website made it to the bottom of the list because it’s just strange. R3ciprocity is really an exchange where people submit work for proofreading to you using credits. You can then use the credits you earn to have your work proofread or you can redeem them for cash, which is how you would technically be earning money on R3ciprocity.
Because of this exchange concept, you really don’t get paid much for every document you proofread. But if you do enough work for the day, the credits can add up and you could end up redeeming cash before the end of the day.
Basically, you won’t get paid as much as the other websites I showed you. However, if you don’t mind making this small income for doing relatively easy work, this is a website that can definitely work for you. The best part is, you don’t need to apply or submit a resume to start. Anyone can do it as long as you can do it right because your proofreading work will be reviewed.
Sign up for R3ciprocity for free here.
Bonus Websites
So that’s all for my best proofreading websites for beginners. However, I do have some extra websites you might want to check out.
One way you can get started making money proofreading people’s work is by becoming a freelancer. All you need to do is let people know you can proofread work, provide a sample of your work, and wait for customers to buy your proofreading service.
I have provided a list of the best websites to earn money as a freelancer that can proofread other people’s work. So, if you’d like a few more website ideas, be sure to check out those sites.
Final Words
So that will do it. I hope you got some ideas on how to get started making money by proofreading other people’s work.
As you can probably tell, there aren’t many jobs that offer proofreading and, even if they do, they don’t have very good pay. Instead of editing written work, you could earn more writing your own work.
You can learn how to make great money writing by going over my article on the best ways to make money writing articles online. You can even write a book that you can sell on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) or put together a course for free using one of these online course platforms.
Again, I hope this helped you out in finding a good proofreading job. If you’d like to polish your proofreading skills before you get started, here are two great free tools that I recommended earlier:
- Grammarly: a browser plugin that can analyze your typing and show you any proofreading errors you make
- Proofreading 101: a five-day email course that shows you everything you need to know to become a great proofreader