PSA: Enrollment is open through Monday for a special cohort of Learn to Tech Edit Crochet and Learn to Tech Edit Knitting. Click through, sign up, and be ready to take on clients by Dec 1.
Hello Reader,
I got a great question in my inbox this week:
"I am on Facebook and Instagram and have been for many years but I hate what I see on social media nowadays and avoid posting on there. I'm assuming you will need some sort of presence on there to advertise yourself and your work?"
(I dug around on my computer for an answer to this and found a blog post draft I wrote last year. I think I may have answered one of you already with this. So you all get a copy today!)
The quick answer is no, you don't need socials, you do need to do what is right for you. If social media is not good for you (and it isn't for many of us), then do something else. Spend your time and energy to promote yourself in other ways instead of doom-scrolling and wondering if you got likes. It absolutely is possible to be a successful tech editor and not be on social media. I think it may become the norm soon.
Keep in mind that the road to hiring a tech editor can be super cumbersome for a designer.
They need to trust you and have proof that you are going to do what you say. It's hard to hand over your fiber art and the thing that has keep you busy for months to someone who might rip it up with red ink. The trust a designer has for you comes from other people’s references but also how you present yourself and your skills online. Some thoughts/ideas for how to do that off socials:
When you get clients, refine/ramp up your referral system. Most of us established editors who have been doing this for more than a year get close to 100% of our new clients from referrals. Make it easy for people to talk about your work to their friends and fellow designers. Give a discount if people refer you.
Build up your testimonial page—get one from every single client. I can't emphasize the power of this kind of "social proof" enough. Anybody can put up a service page and say they do the work, but if your clients praise you, that is powerful. Ask after every edit: What did I do well? Do I need to do something differently? Can I use your thoughts on my website? the social proof would fill a page. I know I stop scrolling halfway through all those five star cards on people's sites, thinking, okay people love her work.
Audit your customer path and your onboarding. When I do this for colleagues, usually I find many points of friction that make it hard (or impossible) for a potential client to contact the editor. Make it reallllly simple for them to talk to you about their projects—a one-click contact form above the fold on your home page, with lots of direct links in other places you are. Have friends and family test your path and refresh it regularly because things break.
Advertise on Ravelry (if it matches your values). It’s cheap and that’s where the designers are to sell their patterns. Super easy optics, and you can choose what pages the ad lands on.
Create content that will directly help your future clients and talk about tech editing everywhere, all the time. Get interviewed by past clients on their channels, submit to magazines and other publications (Purl is looking for articles!) . Show what you know and let your fun, smart person shine through.
Answer questions. Right now, the online landscape has changed completely. No more SEO or keywords. People are asking questions, but into search engines and AI LLMs. So find those questions (there's apps for that) and answer them on your website in different places, especially on the pages that get the most traffic. This will possibly place you in that AI box at the top over time.
Go to fiber fests, yarn shops, stitch meet-ups, guilds and hand out info and business cards. Talk to yarnies and designers and find out what they are struggling with (take notes and then create content to help!). Get that 10 second elevator speech down, because people are going to ask what is a tech editor?. People are more likely to trust someone they have met in person than someone they come across on the internet anyway. Nothing like shaking hands over yarn or sheep.
Learn, learn, learn. When you are aren’t editing or marketing, go deep in that next technical thing you want to master. And then talk about it everywhere (blogs are great for this), especially what the hiccups are for designers using that technique in their work. YouTube is a great platform for this and it allows shorts.
Diversify. Many of us do other kinds of work to use the other side of our brain when we poop out on editing for the day. I teach knitting classes, some people do admin and KAL mod work, some do graphic design and illustration. This actually allows me to be creative in a way that isn't editing and opens doors for broader and less specialized projects. I just wrote up a pattern for a yarn shop friend who wanted to reproduce a handknit from the 80s.
Lastly, look to other parts of our industry and other industries that use editors and get certified in software, AI, and other cross pollination that would help you land a permanent job with a larger company. Hone your LinkedIn and keep connected and apply to jobs that come up in yarn companies, yarn suppliers, and publishers. Subscribe to the Craft Industry Alliance's newsletter--and you can post your availability there!
Hope this helps and gives you some ideas.
And speaking of off socials, I hosted Kenniqua Lewter yesterday in the Community and she showed us an incredible customer management system using spreadsheets and Airtable. Replay is up in the Community. If you are not a member, join today for $47/month or $450/year and get access to 46 on-demand workshops on every topic to support your business.
Happy editing this week, friends.
Sarah
p.s. I sent an email to all the alumni of all the TE Hub courses. The links went dead in it, but now they are aaallliiiive 🧟♂️ lol. Please email me if you have questions about the info or if you purchased a course from the Hub sometime over the last 8 years and didn't get an email from me.