Professional Editors: Anyone Using?

[MJM]

I'm exploring the idea of hiring a professional editor to pour through our content both new and old, debating the cost vs value a bit - we normally do it ourselves, but I think there is quite a bit of room for improvement.

Especially interested in how difficult it might be to find editors capable of editing great content within our industry. If anyone here has any experiences or insights to share I'd be grateful in engaging.

Do you use or have you used a professional editor to give "second looks" to content your writers produce?

[themilann]

Hi Mike,

I myself am looking to find a good, reliable and high-quality editor, but I don't know where to look.

By the way, we’ve recently shared a questionnaire with our clients asking them to provide feedback on our services and their overall impression of our work and business.

Most of the feedback was positive, but we think there’s room for improvement, particularly in terms of language, the industry and the like.

That being said, I was wondering if there’s a possibility to find some high-quality training courses for my team when it comes to research, actual writing, editing and content writing overall.

Of course, I would be ready to pay for the training.

If someone can refer someone else or navigate me to the right place, feel free to do so.

Thanks

[gil.langelaan]

We have never hired the editors separately but I worked with Content Managers with SEO knowledge and with brilliant English who was responsible for proofreading, editing the content and posting it to the website too. It worked very well.

[chaumi]

It was maybe a little surprising to see the opening question here, and while I can't answer it fully in the way that you are seeking, Mike, I'll offer some thoughts which may or may not help.

So the first thing I'm thinking is 'why?' (and this of course ties in with 'debating the cost vs value a bit')...and also partly explains the mild surprise.

So (and I didn't really need to do this, seen the pages before of course)....but to confirm for the sake of this exercise.....jumping around I guess 15-20 pages across the 3 sites in sig.....they're high quality, well written, engaging, and informative (appreciate you’re not looking for a ‘review’ here, but bear with me....the point is, if I was a US gambler and didn't know there was competition that had material on a par, I'd have been thinking 'jackpot, everything I need to know is here, no need to search further').

So I'm reading and thinking, well if someone comes in to 'edit' this, they're going to think they entered editor heaven. I found pretty much zero evidence of inaccuracies (though I guess some maybe could be found somewhere with a deeper read and some cross checking), one typo (I'll pm it). It’s fairly easy 'editing' something which is high quality to start, or at least it definitely would be for anyone who understands the presentation requirements (user/SEO/search engine), and the intricacies of all the different aspects of gambling and how you might present a structure that covers them intelligently and accurately (again, both from a Joe Public viewpoint and a search engine one...and in a way that meets both needs to the optimal levels).


All of which leads to what I think is really the question you might be asking....

What do I really want from an editor in the team?

"Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organisation, and many other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate and complete piece of work"

But you already know how to do all that. You've proved it (and you have names like Steve R on the team, right. Not to mention your own experience/skills/knowledge and maybe that of other team members unknown). Clearly the ‘editing’ you’ve done ‘in team’ is/has been high quality.

I’ll rule out the possibility that what you’re looking for is someone to take the writing up a level (as in enhance the complexity/write as if writing for a much ‘higher’ level of reader).

So that means what you really need (ideally) is an editor/writer/additional team member who has a deep understanding of SEO (on page primarily, off page appreciatively – because the two are linked in various ways, no pun intended), has a strong enough understanding of virtually every aspect of gambling (no one knows everything, but the person at the right experience level will know how to overcome any limitations), can structure/decide if content in front of them is appropriately written, can look at a piece of content/page and can know or work out what’s missing, knows – or can work out - how to bring what’s missing into the structure, sees the different ways to do that and their potential benefits or drawbacks, can ‘see’ where that content fits into a wider site or topic structure, has an eye on what's happening elsewhere both now and coming up, etc etc etc

I could be wrong, but taking all that into account, it would seem unlikely that person could be found just by looking at ‘professional writers/editors’. Although I’m sure there may be one or two that could add benefit in some ways, possibly as an adjunct to the core team where the team feeds in the precise gambling-related info, the team shares the SEO effort, and the editor uses editorial experience to direct/control/suggest. Finding them would, I heavily suspect, be a considerable challenge.

Finding a 'professional gambling/SEO skilled editor would be a considerable considerable (considerable) challenge.

And now to the cost/benefits. We know (and I'm sure your own experience has confirmed it)...making a few corrections and maybe some additions on a page won't necessarily result in improved ranking. Well at least not at the level the sites are already competing at. It takes a much more rounded/widespread/cumulative effort to improve at/to the levels (I think) you're aiming at and are currently working at. All of that together can/will likely take months to show real worthwhile results...or indeed prove that the idea you had doesn't work or hasn't had the desired level of result.

For these reasons, setting some sort of expectation for the benefits is difficult. The results are intangible until they're tangible (either higher rankings and/or keyword impressions and/or increased income, likely all three).


Themilann Some of this might help you. As in the case of Mike's sites though, it's really interesting to note the obvious desire to improve...even though (from the material I've seen to date) you and your team are already providing high quality content.

Although you're coming at this from a slightly different direction as a service provider, your end goals would be similar in any ideal scenario. Of course you have some subtly different considerations. Whereas Mike's target will be to rank higher/get more traffic/increase impressions (and hence increase financial returns), yours are essentially to meet Customer expectations at a level commensurate with the price that's being charged.

Over-delivery is acceptable, and may be desirable, but only at a level that's going to be sustainable for the business or the fallout is that both the business and Customers may ultimately suffer. Of course delivering on the content that gets all the desired results (meets the need/expectation, and ranks/improves impressions/results in increased income) would appear to be a win/win for everyone. Though I think resourcing to achieve that at a sustainable cost is the big trick in this case.

I have an idea about training and will pm (only because really it doesn't tie in with the OP and maybe would be better on its own thread).


Don't get me wrong on any of this. There are definitely areas where an 'editor' addition to the teams (both) will be able to show positive results. I can see them, I expect you both know what they are, or at least have an idea what they are, though I also suspect a good 'editor' will surprise you too.

I think what I'm concluding is that the choice of that person would likely be a critical decision (or at a minimum one that you could back out of without too much trouble), as would be laying out/being sure of the expectations from the outset, as would be the acceptance from the start that tangible results may be difficult to quantify.

[CatalinAMG]

This was an older idea of mine back when I first began writing for various casino affiliates. I noticed there was a lack of workforce in the proofreading/creativity field but not because there weren't talented writers out there, they were just not familiar with casino lingo and the technical stuff behind how certain slot machines trigger various features and so on. Big brands (casino or affiliates) are working with in-house writers but I am sure there are plenty of customers out there looking for such services. I'm curious about the average fees a supplier would charge its customers; It seems worthy to dip the toes into this niche at a first glance.

[chaumi]

PS couple of edits after some ongoing thinking (don't seem to be able to add to the original now)....

"as would be the acceptance from the start that tangible results may be difficult to quantify.:

An interesting dynamic here is that actually results might be easier to quantify in themilann's case....because there is more chance of precise feedback from real Customers who may notice a change/improvement.

For Mike's sites...it depends on a robot's interpretation and how the interaction with that robot was performed...and that robot can also be influenced (mainly positively but potentially negatively) by various other external influences. And the robot can be flaky!


And also......

"performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate and complete piece of work"

Worth noting with this that 'piece of work' could in theory be referring to a specific piece of work (ie a page and its intent/structure, the content under a heading, a passage, an introduction, a summary, FAQs, etc etc)...or actually to a whole collective piece of work (ie a site/at a collective site level)...or even of course at varying points in the middle (eg the structure around a specific topic, either as a page or collection of pages).

[themilann]

Yes, I understand I should be looking for the most cost-effective solution, but I'm not sure which one it is already.

I'm not sure if I should train my already existing editor team and make them proficient and experienced enough, or I should find a completely new person who's going to act as an editor-in-chief?

[Juan Roman]

The way we do it in our content writing agency is we usually have three different sets of eyes on all the content we produce for our clients. The writer, content manager/editor and the person uploading the articles to the sites. This ensures we can always deliver great product.

Hiring professional editors is not yet a viable solution for us as most iGaming affiliates don't want to pay much for great content, as they often don't understand how much work most articles involve. They are used to ordering content from cheap freelancers, but you get what you pay for.

There are obviously those who understand the value of high-quality content and they are usually those we do business with. The price per word we charge is calculated based on the time used by the author for research and writing the article, then the time the content manager spends on proofreading and communication, and the time spend by the person uploading the content and taking care of images (obviously optional).

I can understand how MJM wants to deliver absolutely top content to the readers targeting such a competitive market, but I'm not sure if a professional editor would bring extra value to his sites, i.e. be a cost-effective solution.