At this point, you’re done with all the tweaking, compiling and rewriting of the various pieces of your package. Now your next step is to proof and polish each piece.
You can approach this task in a few different ways, including:
1. Do it yourself.
2. Outsource it – you can find a proofreader by searching Google or using a site like upwork.com.
3. Asking a competent friend to do it for you.
For the purposes of this lesson, we’ll assume that you intend to do the proofing and polishing yourself. Check out the following tips and questions to ask yourself…
Set It Aside
If you added a significant amount of new content to the PLR content, then set the whole thing aside for a few days. Doing so lets you look at the pieces with fresh eyes, which makes it easier for you to catch your errors.
Once you start proofing, you can take these steps:
· Pay particular attention to the new pieces. You probably already caught any typos when you were assembling the PLR pieces. While you should still proof the PLR text to catch errors the vendor made, your focus will likely be on the new content you created.
· Use a tool. You can use your word processor’s built in spell check and grammar check, as well as third-party tools like Grammarly.com.
· Read it out loud. This not only slows you down (which helps you catch errors), it makes it obvious when you need to smooth out a hard-to-read sentence.
Next question…
Is the content accurate?
To answer this, you’ll need to do some fact-checking. If your content lists any sort of percentages, statistics, study results, numbers or other facts, you’ll want to double check that these facts are indeed correct. Be sure to use two reputable sources when fact checking.
Is the content valuable?
As you read the content, ask yourself these questions:
· Does the content speak to the level of the audience?
· Is there any unnecessary content that should be cut?
· Is there any part of the content that needs more explanation/details?
· Would the content benefit from having more tips?
· Would the content be more valuable with more examples?
· Would the content benefit from graphics (such as an infographic or illustration)?
· In what other ways could I make this content more valuable to the reader?
Next…
Is the content engaging?
The next thing to look at is whether the content is well-written and engages the reader. Ask yourself:
· Does the content share any relevant, rapport-building stories?
· Is the content well-written?
· Is the content written using a conversational (friendly) tone?
· Does the content include any humor? (Use sparingly and be sure you understand your audience before you do so.)
And finally…
Is the content formatted for easy readability?
Your content needs to be formatted in a way that it looks like it’s easy to read, otherwise people won’t read it. Ask yourself:
· Have paragraph lists been broken into bulleted lists?
· Is there plenty of white space?
· Do graphics break up the text?
· Does the content include short sentences and short paragraphs?
· Does the content include headlines, bolding, italics and similar styling choices to make it easy to skim?
Now it’s your turn…
TODAY’S TASK: Your task today is to proof and polish your content using the tips and questions above. If you’re able to have someone else lay a fresh set of eyes on, that’s even better.