jon145447f88916

Every time I finish writing a blog post or newsletter, my brain hurts. (Maybe you can relate.) There’s just so much that goes into the act of writing: Brainstorming a topic Creating an outline Staring into the abyss, waiting for inspiration to come while dealing with feelings of inadequacy and overwhelm Using Grammarly I think […]

There are no two ways about it: marketing is hard. (And anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.) But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn how to at least make it a little easier. That’s the premise of my podcast conversation with Dave Polykoff, the cofounder and CEO of Zenpost, a

We live in an attention economy. The onslaught of attacks on our ability to focus is never-ending: Notifications Advertisements Infinite social scrolling This reality makes carving out time and space for deep thought difficult, but it is critical if we want to create meaningful work and live a more fulfilled life. This was the backdrop

Imagine you’re a real estate magnate in your city, and you’ve just purchased a high-end hotel in the heart of downtown. This place is decked out. It has an Art Deco-themed lobby, crystal chandeliers, and fine art adorning the walls in every suite—the envy of every other lodging place in the city. One day you

You are the key differentiator for your business—but are you telling your story in a way that converts your audience into clients? That question was the motivation behind my interview with Danny Brassell, PhD, on my show, the Content Creators Unite! podcast. Also known as “Jim Carrey with a PhD,” Danny is a communication expert

This is an excerpt from my book, A Proofreader’s Guide to Business Writing. You can learn more and order a copy here. The last thing I want to share with you before we get into the nitty-gritty of proofreading is the power of process. If you’re already a super-powered businessperson, it’s likely you already know

The following is an excerpt from my book, A Proofreader’s Guide to Business Writing. You can learn more and order a copy here. I occasionally get a note from a client that reads something like this: “Hey, do you have time to look over this for me? If not, no worries—I can just run it

SEO—the very acronym might cause you to shudder. Search engine optimization can seem overwhelming, with so many technical details in need of attention: What if I mess up my schema? What about so-called “helpful content updates?” How do I know what to write to get the algorithm to notice me? But SEO doesn’t have to

The following is an excerpt from my new book, A Proofreader’s Guide to Business Writing. You can pick up a copy here. There are many areas in life where it’s good enough to be “good enough.” For example, it makes no sense to agonize over a casual text to a friend to ensure there are

How many times have you published a blog post, written a newsletter, or sent an important email…only to find errors and mistakes after the fact? Probably more times than you care to admit. The best solution is to hire a professional editor (like me) who has the knowledge and skills to ensure everything you write

  I’m using AI less than ever now. When AI first came out, it was going to change everything. It was going to write novels at a pace of a thousand a day. It was going to render blogs and traditional SEO obsolete. It was going to put every writer out of work within a

Blogging isn’t dead, but what if yours is on life support? Maybe you’ve poured your heart into writing blog content that shows who you are and what value you bring to the world, but you’re just not getting the responses and interactions you were hoping for. Beefing up your existing blog posts is a great

To paraphrase The Simpsons newscaster Kent Brockman, “I, for one, welcome our AI overlords.” It certainly seems like artificial intelligence has taken over, after all. Its binary fingers are everywhere: But just because a tool is ubiquitous, it doesn’t mean it should be. The $64,000 question we’re all grappling with is, “Where does it make

“If your blog isn’t SEO optimized, you’re wasting your time.” -random SEO expert (probably) I’ve heard this message a ton over the years, as I’m sure you have too. No offense to random SEO articles, but I disagree. Blogs Aren’t Just About SEO Anymore Now, all things being equal, is an SEO-optimized blog better than

Marketing is hard—all the time. Between picking platforms, understanding concepts like ROI and CTR, and just having the time to write or post regularly, it’s difficult to feel like you’re winning at the marketing game. That’s why I wanted to debut my new podcast, Content Creators Unite!, by interviewing one of the top fractional CMOs

In January 2021, during the height of COVID, I lost my job. I was yet another casualty of the massive worldwide shutdowns that crippled the global economy. At that point, I had a decision to make. Should I continue my 15-year career in quality management—a field I had burnt out on years ago but paid

Let’s face it—hiring contractors can be expensive. The typical proofreading and editing rate is between $20 and $40 per hour. This amount is nothing to sneeze at, and if you have a lot of content, it can add up quickly. There are a number of reasons why it makes sense to work with a quality

I promise the goal of this post isn’t to give you nightmares about Senior English. But the truth is, clarity and conciseness matter—and not just in high school term papers. In fact, as a business owner, developing clear and concise written copy about your company, products, and services is critical to establishing yourself online and

Hiring a professional proofreader to review your content is the only way to ensure that it is 100 percent error free. But I get it—sometimes that is just not practical. Perhaps you need to turn in a report or publish a blog post today, and there is no time to send it off to someone

It’s time to get serious about your online content. You’ve done the marketing research, learned about and incorporated SEO best practices, and defined your voice and target audience. You’ve crafted the message you want to tell the world, and now it’s time for the last puzzle piece: hiring a proofreader to review your work. But

English is the lingua franca when it comes to global ecommerce. It’s also the most spoken language on the planet, with over 1.5 billion speakers worldwide. As an ESL (English as a second language) writer, it can make sense to hire a copy editor to review your English-language content before publication. But is investing in

Sometimes in life, it’s good enough to be “good enough”—just not when it comes to your business’s online presence. In other words, it makes no sense to agonize over a casual text to a friend to ensure there are absolutely no errors or typos before you hit send. But the quality of your website content

If you’re selling online, your written content will make or break you. You can have the greatest product or service imaginable, but if you don’t have the right tools in place to advertise your business and gain potential customers’ trust, you will have a tough time landing sales. Your website copy and other internet content

Have you ever wondered what exactly a proofreader does? Sure, they find all of the mistakes in a document, but how do they do it? Alternatively, perhaps you or a colleague have a document that needs a review right now, and there’s no time or budget to hire a proofreader to look at it. Or

Your company’s online reputation is built on the quality of your written content. If you have sloppy, mistake-filled, or even just hard-to-read blog posts or email blasts, your potential customers will associate the poor quality of your writing with a poor-quality product or service. That’s not good for your bottom line! So how can you

Writing well is hard. It’s a difficult endeavor to take an idea in your mind and translate it into words on a page. Poorly worded content on your website could send potential customers running to your competitors—even if your service or product is light years ahead of theirs. It’s more difficult still to arrange those

My college roommate wrote papers in the worst possible way. He would sit down the night before a paper was due, log into his computer, and pull an all-nighter, usually turning the finished product in within minutes of its due date. Every. Single. Time. When you’re a 20-year-old college student, you can pull off that

So you’ve written some content for publication. It could be website copy, the script for a Facebook ad, or a blog post. And to your eyes, it looks pretty good. You’ve mentioned all the things you wanted to cover, it seems to flow reasonably well, and you even ran it through Grammarly to find all

At first glance, hiring a content editor for your project might seem simple. You just need to find someone with a good grasp of spelling and grammar—how hard could it be? You could hire the first eagle-eyed language nut you run across, but if you go this route there’s no guarantee you’ll find a competent

Does this problem sound familiar? You have a draft blog post for your business that needs to be published. You have the basic idea of what you want to say, but you’re not entirely sure how polished and professional it is. You think it would be nice to have a second set of eyes review

What’s the number one factor to consider when it comes to SEO for your blog? Hint: It’s not backlinks, social media posts, or your schema (although all of these are still super important!). The answer is quality content. Simply put, your website content can make or break your online reputation. For example, imagine you are

Want to know the foundation of good SEO? Here’s a hint: It’s not your backlink strategy, social media shares, or viral videos. Give up? It’s quality content. That means good writing is critical to any business. Whether you’re trying to sell a product, get customers for your brand, or establish yourself as an expert, quality

I’m taking a break from my normal grammar-related content to share a bit of my story. This is how I became a freelance proofreader and editor. I hope it inspires and motivates you. -Jon COVID screwed up my life—in a good way. In January 2021, I was a quality manager, 15 years into my career.

Everything is getting more expensive, and everyone is being squeezed tighter than ever—including small businesses. So it only makes sense that as a business owner, you get the highest ROI (return on investment) possible for any expense. You can realize a healthy proofreading ROI by hiring a quality freelancer. Given the tough state of affairs

If you write on a computer, you’re probably using Grammarly to edit your work. It’s a great tool—and one I suggest you use—but it’s a mistake to think it can do everything a human content editor can do. It absolutely can’t. Here’s why. Grammarly Can’t Find Everything Grammarly is an impressive software tool. One could

Vendors, shipping costs, insurance, taxes—the last thing you need in your business is another expense. And when times get tough, it’s easy to cut outsourced services and rely on cheaper in-house or automated solutions. But SEO content editing for your blog or website should never be on the chopping block. Here’s why. Why Editors Bring