Watch Out! Your Never The Only One With Your Name Online. Take Care Of Your Own Reputation, And Do Not Be Caught Out By Some One Else’s Problems.
I lately had a bit of a nasty surprise when I decided to get a website in my name. With a name as unusual as mine, John Akin, I in error thought that I would Never be able to get the dot com domain name for myself. Envisage my [/spin]astonishment|amazement|shock[/spin] and initial disbelief when I realized that the moniker had been snapped up years ago, and belonged to a John Akin in the good old United States of America who is in business as a lawyer. I additionally unearthed many other John Akins all over the online community, in addition to some blog threads relating to a business which I had left some while before, and which had subsequently had an argument with a group of business associates whom they had had to let go of for alleged gross misconduct.
For sure, the persons slagging off my ex firm had not taken the time or trouble to be sure that they directed their anger at the persons with whom they believed they had an argument. I believe you cannot expect any better from people who cannot live up to their contractual obligations, and then cannot face up to the fact that they are incompetent.
These days with the clout in general, and blogs, forums and social media web sites in particular, it is fairly simple for a bitter or simply malicious customer or a spurned lover to seek retribution on any-one on the web. It doesn’t matter in the slightest how true their complaint may be, indeed, their purpose may be simple blackmail. Nor does it matter whether or not they have made the effort to get the right prey. The kind of people who run these kind of campaigns appear to be social inadequates who find it impossible to settle their differences in a responsible way. It may be that you have had some kind of involvement with the argument being aired in public, but behind your back, or it may be that you have absolutely no connection to the issue or the people ensnared in it, except that you may perhaps share a name with one of them.
For all the above reasons, it’s completely vital that you often check all the most popular search engines for mention of your name. It does not matter whether you’re in business or a profession or not. If you do not keep a close eye on what is being written about your name, you may suddenly find yourself in a position of, say, applying for a new job, only to be informed that you cannot even get an interview, simply because your new potential employers have looked you up, and discovered something which frightens them off. Obviously, in these sorts of situations nobody will tell you what is going on, because they are all either too embarrassed or scared about getting dragged into some dispute. Of course, if you put yourself in the position of a potential employer, can you really say that you would do anything different?
Therefore, keep an eye on your name, even if it is as rare as John Akin. Of course, if you have a very popular name, the chances are that there will be much more potential trouble to watch out for, because you will have lots of namesakes. On the other hand, it is much more difficult for someone to suddenly push their blog, forum or website onto the top pages of the leading search engines, because there are already hundreds, even thousands or possibly millions of pages ahead of them in terms of relevance of content and age, plus all the other criteria which influence a page’s position on the leading search engines.