Professional Word Crafters - Protect Yourself!
Words matter. They change minds, induce feelings, create and alter situations and results. The real ability of a copywriter is to create a magical world which will take the reader to a new state of being. However, some results don’t magically appear. A beautifully designed and worded website might not increase sales. SEO may leave it in the wastelands of page two of Google or beyond. Someone might think they recognise their own work and want to protect it, or, worse, earn from yours. Professional writers, SEO experts, website creators and freelancers have a Duty Of Care. It imposes a responsibility to do a good job – which might be measured against results rather than ethereal beauty. Should results not be forthcoming, a client may believe they have grounds to claim against you, particularly if they’ve paid well for your professional services and expertise. Even if they don’t have a strong case against you, they can still claim. And they can use a solicitor to frame it for them. Defending yourself might be time consuming, stressful and may not go well. Getting advice from a solicitor may be an expensive alternative. Even if the claim against you is wrong headed, it could cost too much cash, time, and emotion. What can you do to manage the risk of a claim for a start? SET REALISTIC PROJECT GOALS Get buy in from your client to ensure you both know timelines and milestones. Have a commonality of view on the end result. What does the client expect it to look like? The client may well come back during the process because they have a brainwave, or see something they like. Make sure you keep records of discussions and asked for changes. Be clear about how long things will take, if costs will change, what the results of alterations might be. Ensure the client is told and understands. The client should sign off your work. Sometime they will have a team of ad checkers to ensure your work is compliant to that industry and company policy. Sometimes they themselves will do it. This can help stop their complaints – but if they are sued for breaches of copywrite law, the misuse of intellectual property or base plagiarism, rest assured they will seek to pass responsibility back to the creator. Use a contract, or at least a set of Terms and Conditions. These can protect you in the event of a dispute, as the client has buy in to the project, and shows they are aware of what working with you entails. All these can help mitigate the risk. But if things get out of control, a good Professional Indemnity policy can protect you from expense, stress and a lot of time wastage. Feel free to Message me to start a confidential chat.
