Why am I paid for updating Wikipedia for my customers

People are often surprised when they hear that I edit Wikipedia for money.

Why are your customers paying you for Wikipedia updates even if they could do it themselves?

Well maybe the reasons are the same that makes you use the services of a dentist, a lawyer, a builder, a graphic artist or a hairdresser: a professional's job is different from an amateur's job, things are done faster, the end result looks better and the things are done properly at once. There are no "bombs" left under the surface that you might be afraid to detonate later.

Most of the Wikipedia readers are unaware of the practices involved in content production. Topics must be relevant, things must be presented in a neutral and reliable way using good sources, and copyrights must not be infringed. And you must declare the updates you are doing related to your own work (or e.g. people near you) as any kind of advertising is forbidden.

And while anyone can update Wikipedia, new users are inherently suspicious and their updates are monitored with particular care. For example, in English Wikipedia, new Wikipedians cannot create new articles, but the articles they create have to go through a special approval process, which can take months.

And since new users are not yet familiar with Wikipedia's policies, their creations are likely to get rejected.

And if a new user does not give up right away, but tries, tries and tries and makes different kinds of mistakes, the end result may be as drastic that the subject of the article is locked so that only the administrators can write about it! There are quite a few admins on Wikipedia and the likelihood that one of them is interested about the same subject than you is low.

I am not an admin user but I do have a long history of publishing new articles in English Wikipedia so I can skip the draft process.

So seek the help of a professional sooner rather than later!

If I need to start a project by explaining the mistakes made by previous editors it is not a good starting point for me either. And sometimes, when the mess has already been a big one, I've refused to even try as I have a reputation I need to maintain. A paid editor cannot make big mistakes, otherwise his or hers career is over. Mine has lasted for more than a decade now and I'm not willing to stop!

I've done over 12,200 edits on Wikimedia projects, mainly on Finnish Wikipedia but also on English Wikipedia. If you'd like to ask my opinion about your project, do not hesitate to contact me!