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Sorry for the delay. I didn’t get an email notification that you had asked this question.
I love that you state your specialism up front and have your discovery call button above the fold.
Great job on using customer-first language. The copy is great.
The free sample edit and free discovery call link to the same thing. I wondered if they were different or the same. The way they are presented sounds like they’re different things: request a call if you’re unsure if you want to proceed, get a free sample if you’re ready for a quote. If they’re meant to be different, link to different forms and make it every clear. If they’re meant to be the same, use the same language on the button.
Your process is clear and well structured. You may want to add in the process during or after editing? What do they do once they get it? Make change … etc. Do you see it again after they make changes or would they need to pay for a new round?
On book coaching page, give the quote some context. I was unsure why that quote from you was there. I thought it was going to be a testimonial. Put the white box “Do you have a book outline…” higher up so it starts above the fold. I’d also put the details of the package higher up. If you have more than one testimonial, add it in.
Add testimonials to your other service pages.
I love how your text has space to breathe and follows a natural flow. Great conversational tone
Love the simplicity of the design.
Because you have quite neutral subdued branding colors, you may consider printing them on a color other than white. Or you can bring in one accent color to your branding colors.
I used to just have my two purples for my branding colors, then a marketer brought in a blue for me as an accent color, so I could have some pop on my social media posts. Just got website redesigned and web developer brought in a yellow accent color.
Your website has just the brown (the developmental editor color on your card). But not the silverish color of your name and the artwork, so may consider bringing that color in on your website.
For the pop of color, you can use the color palette generator sites mentioned in the branding lesson. Put in the hex codes of the two colors you currently use on your card and then find an accent color that will work with them.
The accent color could be background of the floral artwork: either the artwork is colored in that color, or there is a swatch of color behind it.
The design itself is great. But a pop of color will help it stand out among other cards.
I love the gold ink splotch and the simplicity of the logo. You may look into the all caps font in the tagline; it is a bit hard to read. You may consider keeping your name Steph B. Editing in all caps, but use a font that includes lowercase letters in the tagline: Helping you present your best writing to the world.
Thank you for sharing. I have heard good things about Wix.
Is that the cost for your domain PLUS the ability to use Wix, and Wix hosts it for you, right? If so, that is probably comparable.
I use WordPress, which is free, but I do pay for my domain (Go Daddy) and for my hosting provider (NameHero).
Stephanie, so sorry for the late reply. I have to look into why I’m not getting notified when people post on the forum.
I would use steph@stehb-editing.com
Many people do this, as it is common for editors to use their name in their domain since their name is their business name. It’s completely fine to have your name@domain that also has your domain.
But you can just do Steph instead of Stephb if you wanted to mix it up a little.
LOVE the last paragraph of your opening section. So poetic and so you!
Great job on starting off with customer-first language.
Services and Rates heading should be over the list of the services and rates. Currently it is isn’t, so the list of services are missing a heading. I would make that heading much bigger and center it, so it is clear that they are now reading about your services and rates.
The content that is currently under the services and rates is visually smashed to the side and not standing out.
OPTION 1: It could go in a contact section. Have one side be the paragraphs you have right now, and the other side be the contact form. Or instead of putting them side by side, you can put them one on top, then the next one. But group both in the contact me section.
OPTION 2: OR alternatively, keep some of it in the services section but not smashed to the side and instead at the bottom of the rates and services section, have your first two paragraphs with links to the contact me section. And your last paragraph in the contact section.
Your about me is amazing! I love it. Your personality really shines through.
On your portfolio, I wouldn’t have your testimonials in such a narrow column. Make them stand out more by either having a carousel where they click next or putting them in a colored box that extends across the inner space (so the entire projects and testimonials section currently).
And then as a personal preference, I would love to see a categories menu or a search bar for your blog. Once you get a lot, it can be hard to scroll through all them to find relevant ones, so category menu can help.
Great job!
Jodi,
On your home page, you have done an excellent job of establish branding with the words you use and you’ve started with customer first language. To improve the home page, tweak the order of your second paragraph so their pain point comes first. So instead of “I’m a fiction editor an mentor … round out your characters, deepen you plot…” it could be, “It’s hard to see where your plot holes are, where your characters are a bit shallow, etc. because you know how to fill in the gap, so let me help you improve your plot and characterization while also ensuring your theme comes through on every page.” That isn’t the exact wording I am suggesting you use; just an example of the pain point coming first.
Do the same with “as an author” and “as an editor” sentences.
Great about me page, services, and contact.
With your blog, if you can, I would add a categories list (so they can find blogs that are filed under a certain category) or a search bar. If you plan on blogging more, it will be hard for users to find what they want if you have a lot of blogs just listed.
Jen, I am so sorry. I was never alerted that you posted this. Apparently, I don’t get notified when a student creates their own discussion post. I only get notified when they respond to one of the discussion topics I set up. I need to look into how to fix this because I would have answered back in May had I seen this.
RATES:
Keep in mind that my per-word rate is not a flat per-word rate; it is based on the individual needs of that manuscript. So instead of saying I charge $0.02 per word for copyediting, I post a range $0.016 to $0.027, for example. Then I give them their quote based on what I want to make hourly and how long I estimate it will take me.
I do a per-word rate for a lot of reasons. I added a new lesson to this course soon after getting feedback from all my beta testers. Check out the “setting and raising rates” lesson. It will explain the pros of charging per word.
OHTER QUESTIONS:
I’d say only about 40% or so give me a reason, but I think that’s more than I would get if I didn’t ask.
I don’t mention the other services in the quote email. The only one I mention is that I can book their proofreader for them, using one of my vetted proofreaders.
I have a next steps email that I send out a few days after I start the editing that explains all the various required and optional steps after editing. And in that email, I tell them I can write or edit their author bio and book description. Then I list recommended outsourcers for all the other various required and optional steps.
I haven’t considered mentoring everything I offer outside of actual editing in the quote email. It might be a good idea, but my quote email is already fairly long. I may do a bulleted list to sum up these things. Good idea!
Britney, I am so sorry. I was never alerted that you had made a post. I need to look into that because I should be notified via email. I think it may have been because you created the post, and so I haven’t yet “subscribed.” I am automatically subscribed to all posts I create, but not to ones others create. So I definitely need to figure out what I can do about that, so I don’t miss future posts.
My feedback
I love the categories and the description on each one. SO welcoming and inviting. Your wording is PERFECT!
Personally I would scale it back, as it does seem like a lot. But you can keep all the same questions and scale back just by making more of them checkboxes they can easily click on, as opposed to short answer.
Introduce Yourself section:
I am not sure why you would need to know where to find them online. If I were hiring an editor, I would be confused, maybe turned off, by that question.
Type of project section:
Change the questions that have options to checkboxes so they can select their answer (this saves them from having to type it in, making it less daunting to answer all the questions). Type of project, list the options to select, with a line for other; same with program; brand style guide or template can have yes or no otpions.
Should the first option in project status be complete, but not yet SELF-edited? The option of complete and has been professionally edited is redundant to your question of if it has been edited in the next section. I would delete that option here and leave the question of if it has been edited in the next section.
Working Together section:
what does project mean to you could have checkboxes with the ability to select multiple ones, and an other line that they could fill in.
What type of editing are you looking for should have options because they might not know what you mean. You should list the ones you offer: developmental, copyediting, line editing, proofreading, manuscript evaluation, and add an “I’m not sure” option.
Have you worked on another editor should ask them what typeof editing was already done. Yes, I worked with a developmental editor. Yes, I worked with a copyeditor. No, etc.
Reflection:
So great that you offer a discovery call!
It is always surprising to see the time spent working. Those few minutes of checking Facebook or reading an article really add up. But it is good to remember we aren’t machines. 😀
Yes, I certainly have more heightened focus days, and then days I spent too much time on distractions.
I didn’t know you could use Toggl for tracking metrics. Did you perhaps mean to post this in the project and time tracking software forum?
I am glad you learned more about its useful features. I love the ability to tag time so that it is categorized by billable and then all my various admin categories.
I have heard of QuickBooks, and I am positive Americans use it. It is a very popular tool, and I am not sure why I forgot about it when making this course. I will add it to the list.
Thanks!
You aren’t struggling as much as you think you are. You have got some solid content here. I have viewed a LOT of editors’ websites, and many of their content is lackluster and does nothing to sell them.
Yours is excellent. It is customer-first language, well-written, follows best marking practices, and is clear and helpful. You have a unique niche, so that is awesome.
Branding feedback:
As I am sure you know, your content is missing the fact that your ideal client is a woman and that you cater to holistic health and wellness or intentional living-type businesses.On your home page, you can add something like this (this is extremely rough, but just an idea) after the “what I can do for you” section:
As a holistic and naturally-minded mama, I am especially passionate about helping female business owners in the holistic health and wellness and intentional living niches. I would love to be a part of helping you reach more customers, so you can improve their life.
Then you could opt to have TWO service pages: one for any business owner and one for those who operate a holistic health and wellness or intentional living business.
On the one for your ideal client, before you list the services, you can speak directly to their needs. Something like, I applaud you for stepping up to help so many women improve their lives, and if you’re also a mom, I know how overwhelming it can be to do it all. Let me help your content shine, …. (list a few unique ways your editing will help them).
Home Page Feedback:
When you first launch your website, you may just want to create a quick one-page one just to get something up an running. In that case, you will have everything temporarily on the home page.
But when you get your full website, I suggest only having the green content on the home page. Explain your editing process on another page.
On the home page, I would let the “what I can do for you” section be the problems you solve, which is what you currently have. Then on the service pages, you can have the actual things you do.
The line “we tend to proofread our own creative work with our heart rather than an editor’s eye” can be moved to the service pages .
Editing process feedback (not content feedback so much as editing best practices feedback):
Based on the notes you have on the editing process, it seems you are offering every type of editing. That is completely fine; however, I do not suggest you proofread the same manuscript you edited. That is considered a big no-no in the professional editing world. The proofreader should always be a different set of eyes. So you can offer all service types, but then make it clear if they hire you for the editing, then they will need a different proofreader, and if they hire you for proofreading, then they will have first needed their manuscript professionally edited by someone else.
Service page feedback:
I love the light, medium, heavy format and the descriptions underneath them are great. I will say that I would be careful about how you describe your three passes in the developmental editing package. The way it is currently worded, it sounds like it is not just developmental editing, but a package of ALL three types: developmental in the first pass, copy edit in the second pass, and proofread in the third pass. So based on this, it reads like you don’t offer developmental editing as a stand-alone service. It is just part of a package deal, which is fine, but then I would clarify that. I have found, and most editors will agree, that developmental editing takes two passes. You can’t fully reorganize content, delete redundancies, and recommend areas they need to expand on the content until you have edited the whole thing. You can certainly make developmental changes along the way in the first pass, but will need to make more in the second pass. So with developmental editing, I wouldn’t send it to the author until you have finished two passes.
1st pass: developmental edit
2nd pass: additional developmental edits with copyediting
Send to author
3rd pass: clean-up pass (don’t call it proofreading because as I said the proofreader should be a different person, but it is just additional copyediting).In your description of developmental editing, you have wordiness and weak sentence style, but those are the same as conciseness and sentence structure in copyediting, so you can just say, this heavy edit involves everything in the copyediting service PLUS then describe developmental editing.
Unless the developmental editing package does NOT include grammar, punctuation, and such and is just stylistic type copyediting and then developmental editing.
In that case, you can keep the description as is, and then describe the passes this way:1st pass: deep dive edits
2nd pass: additional deep dive edits
send to author
3rd pass: stylistic line edits
