I haven’t bothered much with Twitter (not linking on purpose — it’s very sick) lately because it’s in a deep funk. Today, you couldn’t page through conversations, see “Twitter exceeded” messages, or have the annoying bird greeting you with another “It’s down” message.

Many of us have submitted suggestion after suggestion (and plenty of obvious ones at that) to Twitter and never see them become reality. MarketingProfs has a lively discussion about the downtime as do many other bloggers.

But the folks behind Twitter do care. Don’t believe me?

• They’re listening according to Get Satisfaction.
• Twitterblog also tries to interact and inform.
• Twitter status page provides… well, the status… but it does require Twitter to be up.

In today’s competitive world, some would argue that a competitor should and could take away Twitter’s audience. It’s a free service — does it have the right to ask this much of us? After all, this is what happens when it ails:

• New Tweeters get tired of trying to see what the big deal is.
• Current Tweeters give up on posting meaningful messages knowing no one might see it.
• Current Tweeters stop posting waiting for the problems to pass… only to find they don’t return as they move on to other things.

Mack Collier ends the MarketingProfs asking, “Twitter users, what say you? Would you feel better about the constant problems if Twitter was active in the space and giving us feedback and support? Or should we all shut up and take it, since it’s a free service?”

I know I’d feel better about Twitter if they had taken our suggestions seriously back before it started having problems.

Just tried Pownce and it’s doesn’t grab me like Twitter does — let me know if you have an ID so I can hear you talk — it’s too quiet. Find it more work to use. I guess there’s just no place like Twitter and we’ll just have to be patient and seek out each other through our blogs.

For freelancers and solopreneurs, making a mistake on a task compares to a corporate employee receiving bad performance review. Facing mistakes — no matter how small — as a freelancer comes harder than those made as a corporate employee — and I’ve worked on the other side. The other side includes working for the U.S. government for three years and for corporations for all but the last 2 1/2 years.

Maybe it’s my perfectionist (not as bad as it used to be, however — busier personal and professional lives will do that) nature coupled with wanting to provide the best services for clients. But freelancers know clients can drop a contractor in a jiff and over the smaller things while a company has to jump through more hoops to fire an employee over bigger issues. Corporate employees also usually receive a warning, counseling, regular reviews, or whatever the company’s policies dictate.

We (especially me) have to remember we’re human not machines. We tire, we forget, we slip, we fall. I believe that how a person handles the mistake speaks louder than the mistake.

1. Apologize: I avoid making excuses. They don’t mean a thing. The mistake happened. Apologize. Move on and work so it doesn’t happen again.
2. Rectify the situation: Get a refund, fix the error for no extra charge, add a discount on the invoice.
3. Go the extra mile next time.
4. Request feedback: After I’ve worked with a new client for a reasonable time, I request a check up. I care about providing high quality services and improving.

Here are two cases where I blundered and how I handled them.

The case of the complicated PR service
I submitted a press release for a client through a service. I had done it before without a problem. The client e-mailed me and asked why I added an extra, which added charges. What extra charges??

In reviewing the receipt, I saw what happened and it was an honest mistake because of the way the site sets up its form. OK, this sounds like I’m blaming the form, but it’s confusing and I thought I filled it out correctly. Anyway, the site makes it hard to tell what you’re getting and doesn’t bother providing a page with the totals before confirming the order. Had I seen the extra charge, I would’ve looked closer and fixed it before confirming.

Rather than pouting and praying the client doesn’t drop me, I contacted the site’s representative and had the extra charges removed. I also asked for documentation that wasn’t available online. Now when I use the site, I remember the experience (and feel my heart thump a few extra beats during the tricky process) to avoid extra charges.

The case of the forgotten information
A client asked me to contact editors and provided specific details for one editor. I didn’t start with that editor, so by the time I e-mailed the editor… I forgot about the special instructions. Eep!

E-mailing the editor again was out of the question as I didn’t want to turn off the editor from contacting him more times than necessary. Since I couldn’t rectify the situation the way I would’ve liked, I included a discount on my invoice to that client and apologized without making excuses.

Got a story of dealing with a mistake? We’d like to hear it — remember, you don’t have to use your real name.

Three Things Your Customers Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask offers excellent advice to help you improve your business and relationship with your clients. Here are the three things from the Freelance Folder entry and I add a fourth because it ensures your business receives effective testimonials:

1. Why Do You Enjoy Being My Customer?
2. What Else Do You Wish My Business Did?
3. Who Should You Tell About My Business?
4. What has my services helped you achieve through [service provided]?

Item #3 feels awkward. It comes across more like a statement — “Go tell others about my business.” I suggest replacing “should” with “would” and see what happens. Maybe they will provide contacts or it’ll compel them to tell others on their own.

Lifehack had me thinking about handling criticism. As a one-person business with no manager to meet with me to discuss performance goals and progress, I must rely on my clients for feedback. They’re essentially my managers.

On occasion, I e-mail a client requesting feedback. I explain that I want to serve him or her better in future assignments and the only way I can do that is ask for feedback. Even though I asked for feedback, I gulp when I see an e-mail from that person. Something about human nature forces us to feel jittery about feedback though we tell ourselves that we’re always growing and improving. Feedback in e-mail — which takes away some of that personal touch — doesn’t soften the message.

AbsoluteWrite’s article lists one thing that works for me: “Not everyone will like your writing/work.” This is no different than putting out one food dish for everyone to try. How likely will everyone like the dish? We have our likes and dislikes, so there will always be someone out there who doesn’t like the work we do simply because they have a distaste for it.

Example. I attended a fantastic week-long management class where at the end of the class, we sent evaluation forms to people we’ve worked with. Nine out of the ten responses came with positive feedback. That one negative had opposite scores and comments. Despite nine good ones, that one hurt. I hadn’t yet learned that not everyone will like my work. The negative feedback turned into a learning experience as I worked on the areas needing improvement.

We have an interesting dialogue happening that started with Diana’s Describe Your Ideal Job entry, which addresses how to answer such a question in a job interview. Stu Kopelman responded with logical points believe there is an “ideal job.” How many times have you been asked, “What is your dream job?”

Even if you document a dream job on paper, will you be happy every day in that job? Unlikely. Heck, you could work in your dream job for two different companies and end up being happy in one and miserable in the other. It’s not just the responsibilities and the day to day activities that identify a job as enjoyable or miserable. It’s also the environment, mentality, morale, and management styles.

When all the factors are positive (job role, management, environment, and so on), there will be days when you’re frustrated or angry. The happiest marriages and parents who love their kids all face bad days. Everything in life has a “bad” to it. But does that mean it’s not your dream spouse, dream family, or dream job? Not at all. It’s like your body — it’s going to have its bad days no matter how good you take care of it.

Now that I am full-time with meryl.net, I’m loving the job and experience. I’ve had a few down times, but they don’t last long and I handle them well because I love the overall work I’m doing. I just read a commentary from Robert Ringer in Early to Rise, it’s not about the negative situation, but how you handle it. Here’s an example Ringer used:

“…tabloid headlines were screaming that New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza was gay. Piazza did only one interview, and said to the interviewer in a calm, straightforward manner, ‘I’m not gay.’ No anger, no hysteria, no scowl. As a result, the story died in a matter of days.”

It’s like “fighting fire with fire” or “adding fuel to the fire.” If Piazza had come back in defensive mode with all sorts of rantings and ravings, you can bet the tabloids would’ve run with it for a little longer. If Clinton had simply apologize for his “relations with that woman” instead of denied it, perhaps it would’ve quickly died away.

I’ve gone to talking about the ideal job to handling negative situations. We encounter criticism no matter how good we are. I remember the first time I was slaughtered in my blog, I was in shock. Not mad, but in shock that someone thought this of me. But then I stepped back and reminded myself that we all have one critic in our life no matter who we are. Accepting it rather than fighting it is a lot easier on the soul.

Some book reviewers say that when they don’t like a book, they simply don’t review it. I’d love to take the easy way out, but when I think about it from a reader’s perspective… I want to know when a book sucks. I recently had to give low ratings to a book. I posted it on Amazon and no where else. More people find the book on Amazon than on my site or other places where I post reviews.

For one book, I contacted the author and explained why I couldn’t give it good reviews. I didn’t write about it since I believed my association with an organization would bias my review more than usual. The author understood my views and let me know he plans to modify future editions based on some of the things I mentioned, but not the key areas. So it’s unlikely I’ll review the second edition.

From the minute you decide to be a writer, you can count on negative feedback, or at least, areas needing improvement. A couple of people might tell you I take feedback personally, but that’s not the case. Some folks don’t know how to provide feedback and make it sound personal rather than an honest criticism for improving the content.

When I edit, I try to keep in mind what it’s like to be the author receiving the feedback and word it in a way that helps rather than hurt. Some people nitpick because they refuse to allow any content go through the process error-free. Nitpickers also do this because it affirms they know everything.

Working with someone for the first time makes the process harder. That person doesn’t know how well (or not) you take feedback. Some tiptoe around it, provide straightforward comments, or slam it.

Writing easily challenges a person’s confidence. One minute, articles get raves and the next, no one accepts it. My self-confidence has been all over the place, but I think we all go through it no matter our career of choice.