Do The Projects You Work On Let You Sleep At Night?

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?