ProofreadingPal

What is ProofreadingPal?

ProofreadingPal enlists freelance editors to provide online proofreading and editing services for clients around the world and around the clock.

How it works

For clients, the site is easy to use. You simply plug in how many words you need read; whether you want two proofreaders or just one; how quickly the job needs to be done and the type of writing it is. The site then comes back with a cost estimate.

For freelance proofreaders, on the other hand, getting a part-time gig here is time consuming, demanding — and, ultimately, poorly paid. Proofreaders need to have a graduate degree and editing experience. You’ll need to upload a resume, cover letter and complete a 90-minute proofreading assessment test.

When you’re done with all of this, there’s a 50-50 chance that the site will tell you that you don’t qualify to be a paid proofreader, but you can be a “trainee.” Trainees are unpaid and they must submit at least 30 edits to be considered for paid positions.

Proofreading Pal Review:

Few proofreading sites ask freelancers for more credentials than ProofreadingPal. ProofreadingPal expects freelancers to have a graduate degree and editing experience. It also lists a litany of style guides you should know well enough to edit via their guidelines, and expects you to have Word and Adobe software.

But this site pays poorly when it pays at all. An anonymous freelancer spelled out ProofreadingPal’s complex pay formula in a Glassdoor review. This worker says that the site compensates editors for the number of words they read, speed and “level.”

Short version: You get paid between 50 cents and $1.50 per 100 words. Given that most proofreading sites expect you to read at least 1,000 words per hour, that works out to an hourly rates ranging from $5 to $15 per hour. Naturally, if you read faster, you earn more.

Trainees

But you might not get paid at all. After taking Proofreading Pal’s 90-minute assessment, many freelancers are told that they don’t qualify for paid positions here. But it offers them the “opportunity” to be unpaid trainees. Unpaid trainees are supposed to provide the site with at least 30 edits before they’ll even be considered for paying positions.

And it gets worse.

Minimum hours

The site apparently either heavily encourages — or mandates (depending who you believe) — that freelancers sign up for “guaranteed availability.” During these shifts, freelancers must be available to take any proofreading project that comes in. If the worker misses their shift, they get “fined” $40. However, they’re not guaranteed pay for these shifts. If there’s no work while you’re on call, you earn nothing.

The company says [in a Glassdoor response] that freelancers are not compelled to take guaranteed shifts. But more than one freelancer mentioned getting fined because they hadn’t been able to meet the required number of “guaranteed availability” hours.

Site’s response

A site spokesman responded on Glassdoor, saying: “We don’t just hand out excellent pay rates to brand new contractors. However pay rates increase 8% to 10% with every level change. And, after a year or two, you could get promoted to 2nd proofreader, which could double your pay.”

In other words, with experience (and your PhD.) you might work your way up to earning $10 to $30 an hour at ProofreadingPal. That doesn’t strike us as graduate-level pay.

Recommendations

In our opinion, you couldn’t find a worse place to work. If you want to sign up with ProofreadingPal anyway, you can find their site here.

Better options

PenguinFreelancers pays its editors between $31 and $36 per hour. Reedsy lets editors set their own rates, but suggests that you set them somewhere between $21 and $45 per hour. You can also set your own proofreading and/or editing rates on Fiverr. With both Reedsy and Fiverr, you also have control over the type of documents you read.

Any of these sites are much better options.

What their users say (from Glassdoor)

“I started working with ProofreadingPal because I wanted to brush up on the inconsistencies among style guides. And for that reason alone, I found the feedback that I received during my first few months of employment to be useful. In addition, payments are made on time (as long as a proofreader has accumulated at least $80 for that month. Otherwise, the pay is rolled over to the next month. The customer service team is courteous, responsive, and as helpful as possible. But we’re working for peanuts.”

“Pay is not amazing unless you work consistently at a high volume. The bonuses make a big difference. Contractors are paid by the word, so the longer it takes to complete a project, the lower the pay. This is a good system. But for projects that are in horrible shape and need significant work, of which there are many, the time spent proofreading is not worth the pay.

“Very competitive – the job board is easily accessible, but new projects do not last long, especially the best ones. Often there is not enough work to go around during slower seasons.”

“Nothing new to see here. A content-mill setup with company trying to pay as little as possible, asking freelancers to commit to availability with no promise of consistent or even intermittent work. You’ll do better cultivating your own clients.”

Guaranteed availability

“Every month, proofreaders are mandated to sign up for “guaranteed availability” slots of 6–12 hours per month. During this time a proofreader must remain online to pick up any work that comes in. There are several problems with this:

• Proofreaders are only compensated for completing the work that comes in, not for remaining online. I have had several shifts during which zero work came in. So I was paid nothing. But I could have been fired if I signed off before the shift concluded.

• You must pick up the work during these shifts regardless of how familiar you are with the subject matter or the style guide utilized in each project that comes in.

• Worst of all, if a proofreader cannot fulfill the minimum monthly hour requirement, the proofreader is fined $40.”

Fines

“They require editors to schedule a certain number of “guaranteed” hours. If you don’t meet the number, they charge you $40. Most projects for new editors are very short and they pay considerably less than standard industry rates to begin with. So it may take a considerable time to earn $40. In addition, they only allow new editors to take 4-hour blocks of time. It’s impossible to meet the requirement, unless you work at 3 am. And that’s not something the average person can do because most people need to sleep. So ProofreadingPal purposely sets up new editors to fail so they can charge them the $40 “fee.” I made about $83 and they stole $40 because I couldn’t meet the time commitment.”

Some positive reviews

“Flexibility, variety, and interesting documents are the norm, and that makes the job interesting. If you have an eye for detail, you’ll enjoy the work. You are free to choose your work–life balance. The pay structure is fair. You have the opportunity to hone your skills in multiple styles, which has helped expand my editing and proofreading scope.”

“They do offer good bonuses if you can manage to get good availability. Work is varied and interesting. But a few people will aggressively take the best projects. You have to be very fast to get work.”

Be realistic

“I’ve been working for ProofreadingPal for seven years. I give it 5 stars because I’m realistic. And there’s no such thing as a “perfect” job. I feel the company is as good as it gets in the Real World. The CEO is a “tough but fair” employer who actually understands that people make mistakes. I’ve done probably a half-dozen really stupid things in the years I’ve worked for ProofreadingPal, including one mistake in the middle of evacuating for a hurricane. And while I was called out, I was also forgiven and allowed to progress through the ranks as I demonstrated I was good at my job.”

“They do have a minimum amount of work you have to do to stay in the pool, but that’s just sensible. They don’t have a maximum cap, though they’ll talk to you if your work suffers.”

“Our workforce is highly competitive, and veterans like me know how to grab the better jobs quickly. Also, most of us have PhDs, masters, or other advanced degrees, which means we’re not just good at grammar, we’re good at concentrating for long stretches, working under deadlines, and so on.

More than reading carefully

We have a lot of people who just sort of drop out when they realize this isn’t just reading things carefully. New people also find it challenging to learn all the styles. We do Chicago, MLA, APA, AP, CSE, Harvard, and all sorts of institution-only stuff. Some people will jump in and take a document in a style they don’t know well enough yet, much to the irritation of the second editor. It’s essential to do one’s homework and to have the actual [style] books, not links to websites.”

From Reddit

The projects don’t pay much for what they want you to do. They’re called “ProofreadingPal,” but the work is closer to line editing in a lot of instances, and you’re not really being compensated accordingly with the amount of work they want you to do. Plus they have these hourly requirements per month–you have to work X number of hours per month (it varies depending on what month it is) that they call “guaranteed availability.” I found their whole process annoying–it’s a glorified job board (and they’ll even charge you a fee if you don’t do enough guaranteed availability hours), and with the number of “proofreaders” they have on staff, it’s next to impossible to get enough work to make it worth your time.

The “training group”

I applied for a job as freelance proofreader with ProofreadingPal. As part of that I completed a 90 minute editing and proofreading assessment.

Now they’ve gotten back to me saying that I didn’t get the job, but they’ve invited me to join their “training group.” After asking for more details they tell me that it’s an “unpaid opportunity” that includes submitting over 30 (!) completed sample and regular projects.

They’re supposedly hiring 5 trainees per month. If I “successfully pass the training group” I will be hired. Naturally, I’m smelling a turd.