Websites, some are truly awful!

[LaineyW]

I'm thinking of going into website checking, if there is such a thing. Can't believe how bad some websites are, just in terms of spelling, grammar and typos rather than the whole design thing. I guess most one-man and one-woman businesses might think it would cost the earth to have their sites professionally checked, but if I could get the pricing right I think there'd be potential in it.

The trouble is, I don't know how much people would be prepared to pay me if I decided to do this? Presumably per web page, or per word, but how much do you think people would pay?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

You are right in that there is a need for the service, its basically proof-reading.

I am not sure how proof-readers charge, but I guess its either an hourly rate or a scale of fees based on the number of words/pages you check.

What are your credentials for the work? Do you think you can persuade people to buy the service?

Well, I do already proofread but largely for one client who publishes books. I'm paid their page rate as most of the books are in a series and are all roughly the same length. Websites seem to vary hugely in the number of pages, amount of content on each page etc.

I'm thinking that probably I'd have to charge per word.

I thought of it when I was starting to faff around with my own basic website (still in its infancy and a long way off going live!). There are so many easy-to-use free templates out there that anyone can create a website within a few hours and get it up and live, but often the content is somewhat dubious in terms of the standard of English.

Next problem is how to advertise the service and who to target first...!

I can't stand bad websites, it's a real bugbear.

However, speaking as a one-woman business myself, having written and designed my own website using a template, if I were to pay someone to check it only (rather than creating it for me) I would like them to check text, visuals, links, the whole caboodle, rather than just proof reading the text.

Could you do that possibly?

Good idea flowerybeanbag, I sort of thought that's what I'd do (I'm amazed how many graphics don't load, and how many links appear to go nowhere). Maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy old woman!

Fantastic idea.

I think you'd need to get the website stats eg pages/pics/links/forms/email forms etc, plus word count. Work out how long each will take you and use an hourly rate, then work back from there. In terms of small businesses you could charge them a monthly fee over the first year.

I think if you are setting up and don't have funds, you need to be more professional at the beginning as you can lose heart quickly with a bad response to your site. Also newbies tend to change and edit their site lots at the beginning and I think that is where the problems are. Lots of quick unthought through changes in response to search engines etc can lead to choppy text!

There are automated services that check spelling such as Spellr and there are link checkers too.

Before investing time and money into this idea check out the internet and search for services you are thinking of providing, to compare your proposed services with the digital services already available.