I love those earnest proclamations on SEO company websites of, ‘We don’t use any black hat techniques’.
Is it really necessary to use the fact that you are not going to use unethical techniques as a selling point?
But to be honest, I’ve done it myself in the past when I used to try and convince clients to hire my by telling them on my website that I ‘never plagiarize’.
And I’m not alone. A lot of writers nowadays boast about producing content which will ‘pass Copyscape’ or is ‘not copied from anywhere’.
Why?
I suspect it is because clients so often demand such things of their writers. I still chuckle to myself when a client asks me, in all earnestness, whether I will be able to deliver ‘original’ content.
But it’s really nothing to be laughed at. Plagiarism is a serious issue (let’s call it what it is: theft). And to have to confirm to clients that you are not a content thief before they will hire you only goes to show how widespread their fears are that they will end up paying for stolen goods.
It Get’s Worse
But what is even worse is when clients who are otherwise completely opposed to paying for stolen content ask writers to carry out work which is no more than rewritten content.
It used to happen to me all the time.
A client would contact me and ask me to ‘rewrite’ an article they had found online, with the only requirement that it should be ‘unique’ and ‘unrecognizable’ from the original.
Uh … so you want me to rip off someone else’s work?
Now I have never liked openly accusing possible clients of being thieves (when has that ever been a good way to get more work?). But I always pointed out that this is actually, in case they were innocently mistaken, a form of plagiarism which we writers have a moral obligation to avoid.
Sometimes they were shocked and did not even realize their mistake. But more commonly they simply disappeared.
Other Ethical Quandaries
Anyway, this got me to thinking that rewriting articles are not the only jobs which I will turn down due to ethical concerns. In fact, there are a number of clients and jobs which make me feel uneasy:
- Companies operating in areas I am ethically opposed to (pornography, cigarettes, gambling – wow that makes me look really boring!)
- Companies selling miracle cures which are designed to fool the gullible and the vulnerable
- Companies with a reputation so dark you’d be tarnished by the mere association with their name
- Clients who ask you to say things about them and their products which you know are blatantly untrue
- Jobs which are so obviously scams that you wonder why no one else has reported them already
Personally I wouldn’t touch any of these sorts of clients or jobs with a long pole used to push barges.
And yet, although I know that ethics are often subjective (you may be more than happy to work for a cigarette company, for example), it has to be said that some writers are quite willing to take on jobs which the vast majority would consider to be unethical.
So why would they do this? Is it that their morals are so different from my own?
And then I remembered…
Confession Time
The truth is I already know at least a few reasons why writers are more likely to put aside their ethical concerns for a job, because I’ve done it myself in the past.
Remember how I said I didn’t want to work for any gambling companies? Well that was the aim at least. The truth is that I actually did end up working for a gambling client a few months after I started to write full time.
I remember feeling uneasy about it (not that you will as well, but there are probably topics on which you would be uncomfortable writing).
And yet I agreed to do it. Why? I had to ask myself the same question and I came to the conclusion that:
- It was long-term work (it went on for a few months)
- It was well paid
- I needed the money
- I had not yet learned how to turn down a job for ethical reasons
The three first points, I can more or less understand. It is amazing what some people will do when they are hard up. I can remember how hard it was in those early days, when I did not know whether I was going to earn enough to pay the rent and clients kept on telling me my rates were too high. So when a client emerged and told me that he thought my rates were fair and he had ongoing work, I jumped at the chance.
However, it’s the last point which I’m going to focus on here.
Turning Down a Job on Ethical Grounds
The fact is, it took me a while to get the courage to be able to turn down a job because I did not agree with the client’s business or what was being asked. And I’m certain that this has been a problem for other new writers besides myself.
Perhaps that is why some writers, at least those new to writing, are more likely to take on work which involves rewriting or with which they have ethical concerns.
I only say so because this was the case in my experience. Now I am earning a lot more and will not even look twice at a job if I have any ethical objections.
So what’s the solution?
Essentially, I think it comes down to simply learning that saying no to some jobs is not a bad thing. It’s far worse to be disappointed with yourself for doing something against your morals than to miss out on the odd job.
Be strong. Be stronger than I was.
In this career you have no one else to rely on, no one to give you instructions. It’s always up to you, and you have to make the final call.
But of course, that is one of the things which makes this job so great in the first place.
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