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What is Title Proofing?

What is Title Proofing?

Posted by Liana | June 9, 2009 | Comments (7)

A Demand Studios title determines how content is created, indexed by search engines, and seen by someone reading an article or watching a video on the Internet. Since Demand Studios titles are generated from a variety of sources, including specific content requests made by users on our network of sites, you may see incomplete or poorly worded phrases presented as titles. The role of title proofers and title reviewers is to select those titles that can potentially be made into an article or video, while making sure each one presents a clear directive for writers and filmmakers. Additionally, proofers and reviewers select and approve other related data with every title.

In other words, title proofers are the gate keepers for titles that need a bit of work before writers can well, write them.

Title Proofers assess title quality, then edit the title watching out for grammar, word order, misspellings, punctuation,cosmetic phrasing and capitalization. They then choose the format for the title, select a category (which determines how Demand Studios organizes titles) and match the title for a keyword search term.

Below are a few examples of titles that need title proofing, followed by the end result:


How to Potty Train Irish Setter ‐‐‐> How to Potty Train an Irish Setter


How to Paint a House Video ‐‐‐> How to Paint a House


Is There a Recipe to Make Body Butter? ‐‐‐> Recipe to Make Body Butter


There are also titles that need to be rejected. Titles should always be clean, legal, grammatically sound, practical, sensible and factual. A few titles that had to be rejected:

How to Steal Satellite TV - This is illegal and content we do not want on our sites

Zagat Restaurant Review - Zagat provides Zagat Restaurant Reviews. We don’t replicate others’ content.


Have any specific questions about the title proofing process? Don't hesitate to email us: editorialteam@demandstudios.com

7 Comments

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Jeremy Reed
Jun 12, 12:23 PM

Great insight.

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SusanLS
Jun 28, 2:07 AM

So how do so many bad titles get through? Like the whole recent stream of titles about "hemroids?" Some of the titles that get through are ridiculous or impossible to write in this format ("How to build a hybrid car"). Don't title proofers at least spellcheck or do a tiny bit of research if they don't know what the title is about?

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marcand
Jul 4, 4:29 PM

I've applied to become a title proofer (I'm already a writer). My application has been under review for weeks. How long does it take to get approved or rejected?

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twayneking
Jul 8, 8:50 PM

You know, if someone did a little work on the titles, it would make it a lot easier for the writers to find work here. I waste a lot of time wading through title after title that you absolutely cannot write an article for in this format. In most cases I know what the searcher was probably going for and could write that article, but because the title was wrong, I couldn't write something the searcher could have used. I find myself getting confused by the sheer obliqueness of some of the titles. I'm a researcher by profession. I'm pretty good at finding things, but when a title forces you to do 2 hours worth of research for a $15 article, it's just not worth it. PLEASE. We're begging you. Hire some talent in the title department.

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Maxwell Payne
Jul 13, 7:33 AM

I agree with some other comments here. The title proofers need to consider rejecting titles that are downright impossible. Some are impossible to write to due to the fact that the task in question can't be done (playing ps2 games on a ps1), items needed no longer exist (such as a certain service), bad wording (like how to quiet cpu fan wires?!), and so forth.

Please hire more title proofers!

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kathleen
Jul 18, 8:35 AM

I was wondering about duplicate titles also. I have just submitted an article. When I researched, I found an e-how article, google page 1, with the exact same title.

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ShannP
May 11, 12:49 PM

How can I apply to become a title proofer?