Name of your website?Southern Cross Editing
Your name?
Anna Ridgway
Your Location (city, etc)
Melbourne
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Southern Cross Editing specialises in professional editing for companies who care about top-quality written communications with their international English-speaking clientèle.
Our services include content and copyediting, proofreading and word reduction.
We also provide specialist English tutoring services.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
In my profession (editing), unless you work in-house with a company, it is difficult to build and maintain a good editing clientele. Fom businesses and government departments to educational institutins, editing underpins all written communication...yet it is curiously unknown and misunderstood. Launching and managing a website is the best way to run and promote my business, expand my clientele and provide employment for my ever-growing team of editors and associate advisors.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my first website two months ago and it was the same as my current website.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
'Southern Cross' is commonly used in the Southern Hemisphere, as it is a beautiful, distinctive constellation that only appears in the South. It also appears on the Australian and NZ flags, and it is commonly used in business names. I also like the sound of it - it flows well and is not too complicated.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Other editing services tend to use puns or 'cute' titles, like 'Writers Reign' or 'Word Nerds'. I wanted my name to sound more professional without being pompous. My business is also one of extremely few genuinely global professional editing services. It was important to reflect my target market with an appropriate name.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I intend to keep it at the moment.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
My success is currently unequal to the investment of time and money. That is what I expect at the moment - I am developing my business.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I am already in the process of changing it - I have bought a new site which will lift the current site from being the best of what currently exists among other editing sites, to being globally on par with other top quality sites used by big companies. I would also put more money and time into changing some of the graphics, but that is a minor consideration. I would pay for someone to do all the site listing for me, to keep my site at the top of search engines. Also, I would buy as many domain names as possible to keep my business at the top of site engines.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes. I am ambitious and hard working, and I already have a team of editors hungry for work. This would not be a problem.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Getting my site to the top of search engines by doing my own free listing work. This will change in the near future, but at the moment I need to keep my site above other absurd sites which keep moving ahead of me.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Generally - finding the clientele that I want. But that is more of a marketing issue which incorporates having a website. For my website, my biggest challenge is writing the content and keeping it of the highest writing calibre, jargon free and not long winded. Site development is really very complex. But I love the challenge. Creating, maintaining and always evolving and developing a website is endlessly fascinating and rewarding.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Getting out there on search engines and promoting my work through listing my sites on other websites.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It is more 'do-able' than I originally expected. But there are so many tools now to help one create and maintain websites. However, the time and the mental intensity involved never cease to surprise me!
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I have run the website (as an extension to an already existing online-based business) for a couple of months. I do not envisage there not being good and steady gains, because I am approaching this work in a professional and methodical way. I am working in a niche market which has the potential to create excellent returns. I have looked carefully at many, many sites, for many, many kinds of businesses. One thing I have noticed is how badly many websites are presented, and this includes in my own profession of editing. They are full of vain self promotion of the business owner, full of long-winded content that is inconsistent, badly organised, poorly conceived and often misspelt. There are so many opportunities to learn what to do, by finding out what NOT to do! If you do your homework correctly, then you will enjoy gains in your traffic, income and popularity to suit you.
What is your website address?
Southern Cross Editing
