As professional writers, each one of us must determine what we will and will not write in return for pay. As a freelancer, there are times when I take projects that I don’t particularly want to do in order to pay the bills. But I draw an ethical line at certain tasks, and I’m wondering if other freelancers feel the same.

I won’t write sales copy for scams.

From time to time, I’ve been hired to write sales copy for products or services that turn out to be scams. Through the course of researching the product or service, I’ve turned up results including people complaining to the Better Business Bureau, people alleging that the products have dropped spyware or keyloggers onto their computer, or people complaining about how a product or service is a rip-off. If I uncover anything like this, I cancel the project. I won’t write copy designed to enable people to rip other people off, either outright or via installing malicious software. I personally feel that it’s unethical.

I don’t make false promises in my copy.

Everyone wants their copy to sound the best. People want to differentiate themselves in their niche, and give readers a reason to use their product or services instead of their competitors’. Occasionally, I get a client who wants me to highlight certain features – features that don’t function in the way the copy implies, or features that outright can’t deliver what the copy promises. I draw a line there. I’m adept at spinning copy to make a product or service sound like an ideal solution – but only if it actually works. If it doesn’t do what the seller is trying to promise it does, I won’t say that it does. In other words, I won’t write copy that lies.

I won’t work on projects I find personally offensive.

If I find a project personally offensive, I won’t do it – period. I would never want my writing associated with something that offends me, because writing is personal, and that would be akin to a tacit endorsement. At best, it’s hypocritical, which I strive not to be; at worst, accepting money to write about something personally offensive is an outright moral compromise, and that’s something I’m not willing to do for my job. This especially includes projects that promote hate, elitism, or contempt for one’s fellow man. I just won’t do it.

I won’t write biased reviews for pay.

This one gets tricky, because I started my freelance career writing ‘buying guides,’ which included reviews of certain products. Pretty early on in this project, I ran into a product that I didn’t feel warranted a positive review. I found a better product, and contacted my client to determine whether I could write about that product, instead. I explained the issue, and my client was supportive in my changing the product and writing the review about the better product.

Since that time, I’ve been very careful to avoid taking projects that entail writing a biased review. I’ll write honest reviews for pay – reviews that cover both the positive and negative aspects of a product – but I won’t write reviews that make a product sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread if it’s not, just because someone is paying me.

I don’t take projects I don’t believe in personally.

This is another tricky one. As a freelance writer, I occasionally find myself writing about something that doesn’t particularly matter to me. When I’m indifferent, I try to find an angle that does interest me, just so the copy isn’t bland and dull; as it typically is if a writer doesn’t care about the subject. I’m fortunate in that I enjoy learning about new things, so I can almost always find an angle that interests me in something that I don’t particularly care about otherwise.

But in my mind, that’s different than taking a project in which you outright don’t believe. For example, when I’m sourcing projects, I see a lot of projects in the self-help field, relating to wealth building and a number of other related topics. These are topics in which I actively dis-believe. I personally feel that these topics have no value, so I don’t bother to bid on these projects. My lack of belief would come through in my writing, and I feel it’s unethical to write about something in which I don’t believe; it’s like letting my copy lie for me. This really straddles the line, and I’m not sure many people would consider it actively unethical, but it violates my personal ethics, so I don’t do it.

I’d love to hear from other writers about this. Do you draw ethical lines at certain projects, or do you feel that doing so unnecessarily limits your potential project base? Are there any projects you feel strongly about taking, or not taking? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Every profession and trade works best with specific tools. Chefs need a good set of knives and various kitchen gadgets. Accountants need accounting and bookkeeping software. Every profession or trade has a key set of tools, and working on the Web requires its own set of tools. People who want to advertise or market on the Web need to use the right tools for the job, just like everyone else.

Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing is a very popular online marketing tool. Email marketing works just like traditional mail marketing, except the product is delivered directly to your client’s email inbox. Email marketing can get unwieldy without the right tools. Use an email marketing program, such as Constant Contact, to manage your email marketing campaign. Tools like Constant Contact enable you to create custom, branded templates, create and manage email lists, and track your results to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Web Tracking Tools

In order to effectively judge the success of your online marketing campaigns, you need to utilize Web analytics tools that provide you with detailed results. Google Analytics is one option for measuring your website’s performance, and Google Analytics conveniently integrates with Google AdWords to evaluate the effectiveness of your AdWords campaigns. You can also use third-party tracking tools, such as Mint.

SEO Tools

SEO tools run the gamut from HTML checkers to keyword search tools to spider simulators, and everything in between. For simple SEO, you can use keyword search tools yourself to generate high-converting keywords for your niche. Google AdWords: Keyword Tool is a free tool that can help you select appropriate primary and alternate keywords. If you want a more comprehensive range of SEO tools, SEO Chat has a great selection of SEO tools to cover practically every SEO need. SEO Chat’s tools include SEO calculators, page rank checkers, ROI calculators, and a range of other tools to enable you to tweak every aspect of your site’s SEO.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a fairly new trend, but one that’s growing exponentially. Businesses can utilize existing social media platforms as a valuable advertising and marketing tool. I’m writing a series of articles on effectively utilizing social media marketing, which includes an overview of social media marketing as well as individual articles geared toward how to utilize specific platforms. You can utilize various aggregators and plugins to integrate your social media marketing with existing marketing campaigns and platforms.

Interactive Content Marketing

Interactive content is a way for you to communicate directly with your clients. Interactive content includes things like turning comments into content, as well as things like featuring multimedia content on your website. Video and audio are far more valuable than simple text content, and provide another reason for your readers to visit your website. In online marketing, qualified traffic is the key to conversion, so featuring interactive content on your website gets you one step closer to improving your business.

SEO begins with keywords. Google’s free AdWords: Keyword Tool can help you find the right keywords to drive traffic to your page. By using primary and alternate keywords in the right places in your content, you can capitalize on the searches people conduct on keyword phrases related to your content. Not sure how to use a keyword tool to generate keywords for your SEO? Google’s AdWords: Keyword Tool is simple and easy to use.

Go to Google’s AdWords: Keyword Tool

You don’t have to have an AdWords account to use Google’s keyword tool. Simply go here to access the keyword tool, and you’ll see the form where you have various options to generate keywords.

Generate Keywords from Descriptive Words or Phrases

The default selection on the keyword tool is to generate keywords from descriptive words or phrases. You simply type in the word or phrase; one per line. Use phrases related to your article idea: for example, for a real-estate related article, your keyword search box might include:

• Real estate
• Home buying
• Home sales
• Selling a home
• Buying a home
• Real estate Atlanta, GA
• Home mortgage

Or any other words or phrases related to the content of your page. Then, type the validation characters from the validation image in the designated box, and click the “Get Keyword Ideas” button.

When you click the button, Google’s keyword tool generates a list of keywords related to the terms entered, and a second list of additional terms to consider. The search summary gives you two columns of results; local search volume for the preceding month, and global search volume. You can then choose keywords with a high search volume, niche keywords with a relatively high search volume, or keywords with low advertiser competition, depending on your goal. By using keywords from both the primary keyword list and the alternate keyword list, you can widen your search results and potentially increase the number of people who can easily find your page.

Generate Keywords from Website Content

The second option when using Google’s keyword search tool is to generate keywords from website content. You can enter the URL of an existing website, which the Google keywords tool analyzes and then suggests keywords based on your copy. For example, when I enter my own website URL, I get keyword results related to: copy writing, a copywriter, copywriting, writing, copywriter, copy, writer, freelance, writers, editor, copywriters, and miscellaneous keywords. In theory, I could use these keyword search results to optimize my website for popular keyword searches and thereby increase the number of people who click through to my website.

How to Use SEO-Friendly Keywords on Your Website

Once you have the keywords related to your niche or website, select specific keywords for optimization, depending on your needs. If you simply want to capitalize on popular keyword searches in order to increase the potential of readers finding your website, select the most popular keywords for your SEO. However, keep in mind that these popular keywords are typically highly competitive (as indicated by the advertising competition bar on the page) and your page might come up very low in the results on popular keywords.

More useful is selecting a niche keyword and pairing it with a popular keyword, or optimizing your page to appeal specifically to the niche. If you want conversion, appealing to the appropriate niche is more likely to land you qualified leads. Concentrating on the widest possible search range brings you leads, but they might not necessarily be qualified. The ideal combination for good SEO is to pair a popular keyword search with a niche keyword for optimal results.

Language is imprecise. English is a rather convoluted language, but even with all of the special exceptions and unnecessary words we have, there are still times when language is imprecise. There are concepts that we can’t quite convey with our language. As a writer, and more particularly a wordsmith, I value precision. I prefer to use the right word for the job, instead of a word that’s somewhat close but not quite what I intend. Unfortunately, there are times when there just isn’t the right word to convey a meaning.

This, I think, is why language gets complicated. People want to try to convey a concept that doesn’t quite exist, or there isn’t quite the exact right way to say it, so people coin new terms or create additional meaning for existing words. Language is constantly evolving, and things have been added to the dictionary in my lifetime that appall me (see: ain’t). It’s in the nature of language to evolve, though, and words continue to take on new meanings, and new words are added to the dictionary every year.

TED Talk: The Opportunity of Adversity

In part, this musing on language was inspired by a TED Talk that I watched last night: Aimee Mullins: The Opportunity of Adversity. Ms. Mullins was born without shinbones, and spent her childhood ‘overcoming’ the adversity that condition imposed. In her talk, Aimee discussed the dictionary definition for disabled, and then a modern update to that definition. The definition of disabled itself contained nothing but negative language, and Aimee’s point was that using a term that only contains negative connotations restricts the people you’re labeling with this term. In her case, she was labeled with positive, powerful words as a child, and she was able to work with her adversity to accomplish amazing things as an adult. In large part, because of the words used to describe her; the power of language.

Implications and Connotations: What Language Means

The thoughts from that TED Talk have been percolating in my mind since I watched it, and today I was working on a project and noticed I was having trouble finding the right word for a concept. I was talking about ‘getting a job.’ It occurred to me that “getting a job” doesn’t really mean what people typically accept it to mean. You can’t just go to the grocery store and get a job, like you’d pick up a jar of peanut butter or some dog food. So “get” clearly wasn’t the right word. What, then, was correct?

I tried “find a job,” but that didn’t seem right, either. Finding a job is only part of the battle. Once you find a job, you must catch the attention of the people hiring for the job, and compete against the other applicants to be selected for the job. This usually involves a plethora of steps between finding a job and being hired for a job, so that clearly wasn’t the right phrase, either.

In the end, I concluded that I couldn’t find a phrase that was exactly right for the process of acquiring a job. But if one of your friends walked up to you today and said: “Hey, I just got a new job,” you’d congratulate your friend and understand exactly what he meant, even though “get” isn’t quite the right word.

People Accept the Flaws Inherent in Language

Both from the TED Talk, and from my own musings about the imprecision of language today, I’ve concluded that people simply accept the flaws inherent in language and find ways to work around them. Think about conversations you have with your friends or the people around you. How often do you say exactly what you mean? In most cases, you probably say something close to what you mean; something that is commonly accepted to mean what you trying to convey, but isn’t quite the right way to say it. And people simply accept that as inherent in the language itself, and generally don’t think twice about the fact that they didn’t say what they meant to say, but that they were still able to convey their intended meaning.

Finding the Right Word Removes Imprecision

Language can be imprecise, but finding the right word removes that imprecision. That’s why I sometimes spend chunks of time pondering a single word choice; not because I don’t know how to say something, but because I’m thinking about the best way to say something. In many cases, any word will do. With the right contextual clues, people can figure out what you’re trying to convey even if you didn’t use the best word for the job.

But using the right word or phrase removes the need to rely on contextual clues, and removes imprecision. With the right word, you never have to worry about whether or not people will understand what you’re trying to say. And by using the right word, every time, writing becomes clearer and more precise. Clear, precise writing is a joy to read, and its message is more powerful for readers, so it’s worth spending a little extra time to find the right word.

And if the right word doesn’t exist, blame it on the imprecision of language.

Today it’s time to talk about how to leverage Twitter social networking for your business. This article is Part 3 in a monthly series I’m writing about effectively utilizing social networking for your business. For the previous installments, check out:

How to Leverage Social Networking for Your Business: Part 2 – Facebook

How to Leverage Social Networking for Your Business: Part 1

Since posting Part 1 of this series, where I mentioned that Twitter hasn’t released information about its user base, I’ve found references to indicate that Twitter has grown from 6 million users in February 2009 to over 28 million users in February 2010. This is an unprecedented growth rate, and Twitter is now a prime social networking tool you can use to reach millions of users with a relatively simple, inexpensive marketing campaign.

Why to Pursue Social Networking for Your Business Through Twitter

Twitter provides you an ready-made platform through which to interact with your readers and customers. Twitter is useful from a social networking standpoint in that you can do many of the same things as you can with Facebook, but due to the 140-character limit imposed by Twitter, it’s more appropriate for discussion and interaction. Maintaining a Twitter account gives people a direct way to contact you immediately, instead of having to go to your website and type a lengthy email or go through other contact channels. Twitter also provides a great way for you to update followers and generate traffic to your website.

Grow Customers Virally Through Twitter

One of the biggest benefits of using Twitter is the opportunity to grow customers virally through Twitter. When you post updates to Twitter, your followers can click a simple button to ‘Re-Tweet’ your content. This means they can easily and quickly share your updates with all of their friends, and their friends – on and on. You can easily grow your customer base by dozens, hundreds or thousands of people with a few well-placed Tweets. In fact, if your Tweets get picked up by one of the many celebrities using Twitter, your content could reach over a million people.

Link Your Profile to Your Website

Twitter provides very basic ways of interacting with your readers. On your profile itself, you have your Twitter name, a picture, a link to your website and a 140-character biography. Use your profile to link to your website, because readers won’t be able to find out much about your business from your Twitter profile itself.

Choose a name consistent with your business. For example, in my Facebook article, I did a case study on a local business called Formaggio Kitchen; their Twitter username is Formaggio. Keep your Twitter username relatively short and easy to find. Every time users Re-Tweet your content, your name counts as part of your 140-character limit, so part of your content may get cut off if you have a long username or post at your 140-character limit.

Initiate Discussion

One of the best ways in which Twitter can serve your business is to use Twitter to initiate discussion. You can elicit feedback from your clients via Twitter, or even just chat and trade messages with your clients via Twitter. If you want to widen your metaphorical net, offer a really good promotion or introduce a controversial topic for discussion. This makes people more likely to re-Tweet your content and spread your Twitter ID – and therefore your business – to more friends. At the very least, you can use Twitter to get feedback about your business and services; and at best, you can use Twitter to discuss new potential offerings or item features so you can improve your product or services.

Share Information with Your Followers

Another way to get your name out via Twitter and get people following your posts is to share information with your potential clients via Twitter. Share early updates with your followers, with links to press releases or new product information. Or discuss special offerings, company downtime or anything that is relevant for your readers to know. By sharing valuable information, you’re more likely to induce people to follow you via Twitter, and are more likely to have those people visit your Website when they’re ready to use your services or buy your product. You can also use Twitter to share information about upcoming events and drive traffic to your site.

Manage the Perception of Your Company

Another valuable aspect of using Twitter for your social networking campaign is that it provides you with a ready-made tool to manage the perception of your company. For example, you could use Twitter to respond to customer concerns or feedback. Or you can simply portray a personable, friendly person via your Twitter account – adding an element of humanity to your business.

For example, Southwest Airlines reached out to actor Kevin Smith via Twitter a few weeks ago when he had an unfortunate incident on their flight. Southwest used Twitter to quickly respond to Smith’s concerns, and it gave them the ability to show clients “Look – we responded to this man’s concerns right away.” In that particular case, the Twitter contact didn’t resolve the issue, but it was one outreach tool that the company could utilize to manage perceptions of the company.

Use Special Offers to Gain Followers and Mentions

If you want to build followers on Twitter, you have to give them a reason to mention or re-Tweet your content. One effective way to quickly get the word out about your business is to use special offers to build followers and mentions. Some companies offer giveaways to people who re-Tweet or mention the company name in Twitter posts on a certain day, or during a certain time frame.

For example, one company held a drawing to give away a free Mac laptop to users who mentioned their business name anytime during a specific week. Users could mention the company once per day for a chance to enter the drawing that day. Hundreds of users mentioned the company every single day, which drove more people to research the company and enter the contest; and this company gained thousands of mentions during the course of that week.

Celebrity Twitter Users

Twitter is somewhat unusual in that it has introduced a way for ordinary people to interact with celebrities. Some celebrity Twitter users have over a million followers on Twitter. When a celebrity on Twitter mentions something, potentially over a million people could see that mention. Some celebrity Twitter users have been known to ‘break’ websites by sending too much traffic when they Tweet content. Wil Wheaton, for example, has over 1.5 million followers, and has repeatedly ‘broken’ websites when he has posted links to T-shirts or interesting items he’s found on the Web. Imagine getting 1.5 million people to your website. This is the power that celebrity Twitter users wield.

Conversely, that power can also turn to power to hurt your reputation. Kevin Smith, for example, had around 1.5 million followers when he Tweeted about a negative experience he had with Southwest Airlines. This turned into an ongoing saga that led to news articles and even TV show offers for Smith to talk about his negative experience. And all of this started because Kevin Smith sent out a barrage of negative Tweets about Southwest Airlines when he was in the middle of having a negative experience with them.

Twitter is a Powerful, Free Social Networking Tool

Bottom line: Twitter is a powerful social networking tool that you can use to generate traffic, build followers and manage perceptions of your company. And Twitter is a free tool. You don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for a television ad, or even hundreds of dollars for a print media campaign; all you need is a few minutes each day to create and maintain a company presence on Twitter. Take advantage of this powerful, free social networking tool to market to today’s Twitter audience of roughly 28 million people.

Even the most well-designed website is useless if nobody sees it. To address this issue, a major focus of Web marketing is to bring people to your site. A reader asked me last week for tips on building followers for websites, so I thought I’d post here about some of the most common methods I use to drive traffic for myself and my clients. With the right strategies, you can use these techniques to grow your followers exponentially.

Add Dynamic Content Frequently

People have no reason to return to your website if you don’t add content periodically. Static websites provide information, but they don’t give a reader a reason to keep returning. Therefore, you might lose out on potential clients when readers have forgotten about your website weeks or months after viewing it. By adding dynamic content to your website frequently, you give readers a reason to come back. If readers come back, they’re more likely to think of your website, and utilize your product or services when they need it. Adding dynamic content regularly also enables you to broaden the keyword search terms by which people find your website, thereby expanding your potential audience.

Utilize Social Network Marketing

Social networking is the new buzzword, and it’s here to stay. Savvy companies are beginning to realize that they can leverage social media to spread word about their services or products, and to elicit responses and discussion from customers. This provides companies with an opportunity to reach consumers directly, and to respond to feedback, positive comments and negative criticism. Utilizing social networking enables you to grow your customer base organically through word of mouth and viral marketing with a minimum of effort, and simultaneously gives you an opportunity to influence how clients perceive your company.

Create Guest Blogging Opportunities

One valuable tool that can help you build followers for your website is guest blogging. Guest blogging has a few variations, but the most common technique for guest blogging is to invite someone to write an entry on your blog, and/or offer to write an entry for their blog. In this way, you reach out to the other blogger’s audience by showing them your content and a link to your website, and vice versa. If you trade guest blogging opportunities with a popular blogger, you can grow your audience by hundreds or thousands of people with one well-written post.

Exchange Links with Related Blogs

You can practice a similar strategy to grow your readership in conjunction with guest blogging, or independently: initiate a link exchange with related blogs. This is important: look for related blogs to trade links. By exchanging links with related blogs, you ensure that you have something to offer readers, and you gain a qualified audience that is interested in what you have to say. If you trade links with unrelated blogs, you won’t necessarily have anything to offer readers and your chances to increase conversion are low.

When it comes to establishing related blogs, look for blogs whose readers might be interested in your product or services, but aren’t directly competing. For example, if you have a personal injury law firm, you might want to exchange links with a motorcycle website. Motorcyclists might need your services, and you can provide them with important information about motorcycle injury statistics and how to deal with a motorcycle injury case. You wouldn’t want to exchange links with another personal injury attorney, because there is little value in reaching out to your competitor’s audience via your competitor’s page. (It’s much more useful to reach out to your competitor’s audience in other ways, where you can subtly establish why readers should choose you over competitors.)

Post to Article Directories

Finally, if you want to reach out to a wider audience and build followers for your website, consider reaching out to an audience via a large, well-established website. Article directories are a great way to reach potential clients who wouldn’t find you otherwise. When you post to an article directory, you gain the additional leverage of their weighty SEO. You can then post a resource box with a link back to your website, which is especially effective if you create a call to action in your article.

At the very least, posting to article directories gives you a chance to establish your expertise. At best, someone who is interested in your products or services can learn about what you have to offer and reach out to you directly through your website.