We live our lives in a state of unawareness, for the most part. Sometimes I get the feeling that many of us wouldn’t know if disaster was around the corner if there was a big red sign painted on that corner with the words “You’re about to be struck by an 18 wheeler” scribbled all over it. When you hit the Internet running, and start your own home business, you are putting yourself out there for people to take shots at. Do you know what they’re saying? Do you even know if it’s good or bad? If not, you might want to keep reading.

Everything you say and do online is a matter of public record, whether it’s a web site you put up or a forum post that you made. And if you’re not careful, some of what you say and do can come back to bite you. And the worst part is, you may not even know that it’s happened. There are many sites online that cater to exposing “scams” or just plain causing trouble. Hatred is all over the place. You’d be surprised what some folks have to say about me. It’s not pretty.

Okay, so how do you find this stuff out? Well, it’s not that hard. Yes, it does take some leg work, but it can be done. What you need to do is head on over to Google and type in your name in quotes. Now, if you have an uncommon name like mine, you’ll have it much easier. There aren’t many Steven Wagenheims in the world. Actually, there is only one other that I know of in the central US somewhere. Anyway, make a note of how many sites come up with your name.

Then, what you want to do is tack on some search terms to the end of your name using a plus sign. Use things like “scam”, “crook”, “con artist” and so on. Think of the worst names that anybody could possibly call you and type in those descriptions. See how many sites come up and then go to a few of them. You want to see what people are actually saying. From there, you have two choices. You can write to the ISP and threaten to sue them for defamation of character, if it’s really bad, or do nothing. That’s up to you. But at least by going through this process, you know what you’re up against.

It’s a nasty world out there. And because of that, it’s important to know what’s going on in it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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