Do you sleep well at night? When you finally leave the keyboard, are you doing so with a clear concience that you’ve done the best you could, done right by yourself and done right by others?
It’s a question worth thinking about. In the web world, you’ll face many tough decisions. You’ll be propositioned to work on less-than-ethical projects, and you’ll get potential clients that ask you to chose between doing what you feel is right and taking the money.
Not a comfortable place to be. When work on a project that conflicts with your personal values and beliefs, you may feel upset. You might feel bad at having said yes. You may feel guilty that you could hurt someone else. You might feel an inner resentment or disgust.
You might have to stop the work and tell the client you can’t finish. By that time, though, you’ve put in the hours and done the time – and you’ve lost money.
Why not prepare? Avoid the value-conflict situation by deciding what you want to work on and where your comfort level ends before you find yourself in this position. If you know ahead of time which projects you’ll work on and which you’ll turn down, you can make better decisions for your own best interest.
Here are some questions to consider:
• Are you okay writing about religion, sex, medicine, politics or the military?
• Will you agree to rewrite copyrighted material without the author’s knowledge?
• Do you mind altering credited work knowing it will be republished under another name?
• Do you care about creating duplicate content or writing PLR articles?
• Are you comfortable ghostwriting without credit for authorship?
• Do you mind if someone takes your work and changes it to their tastes?
• Will you discount your rates in exchange for royalties or revenue sharing?
• Are you open to negotiating, bartering or giving volume-based discounts to clients?
• Will you accept to work on projects that force you to write with a biased opinion?
Decide your comfort level in regard to certain topics and subjects matters now, before you have to decide on the fly. Starting to work on a project and realizing halfway through that it conflicts with your values or beliefs isn’t fun, and it puts you in a bad position.
Too, consider the role that money plays. Cash is a powerful motivator to do something you normally wouldn’t. When someone starts waving dollar bills your way, will you bend? You might. It’s easy to say you won’t right now, when you’re not in that position.
But when you’re offered the job, you might find yourself wavering. With your won’t-do policy handy, you’ll be able to run down your list and remind yourself of the reasons you don’t want to take on the project.
How about you? Have you ever been in a tough position like that? What did you do? How did you feel about your choice?
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I know a lot of writers struggle with this, but personally I have never had a problem. I guess I’m pretty open to just about anything and I certainly don’t mind writing on most topics, though there are a very few select ones that I would never touch (such as pro child porn or something). I don’t mind if people use my writing under their name or if they choose to resell my articles, either, though this seems to be an issue for many. In fact, I prefer to keep my name on things taht I have chosen to write about, so it all works out quite well.