Imagine one Sunday morning, as you have your coffee, you go online and see your name attached to words like "liar" and "scammer," or more specifically, you see your company's name sullied. Your life's work and one of the things you're most proud of unjustly defaced on a public forum for all to see. This is something I will never forget.
Just this past week, it came to my attention that a one-off review on an unaccredited site no one has ever heard of is not only disgracing my company's name but is coming up as the top search on Google! I was furious. So many thoughts began to rush into my head. I could feel my anger turning what was just another quiet Sunday morning into a stress-filled day. Before anger overtook me, I had to stop myself. One of our fundamental teachings at YellowTunnel is understanding one's self and utilizing psychology to better handle tough situations - trading and personal.
And here lies both.
Taking a pause to evaluate the situation, I began thinking of how I could channel this negative experience into a positive one.
My first move was to further research what is said about YellowTunnel and its reputation. While I do not believe the words of this review, I could only know for certain by doing my research.
As I've done in the past, I searched for YellowTunnel reviews, and in a top position, I found one of the most popular Yelp-like sites: Trustpilot.
Searching the site, there were zero poor reviews regarding YellowTunnel. Furthermore, looking deeper into the search results, YellowTunnel had several positive reviews from accredited review sites and finance blogs. The awful reputation described by that initial review was echoed by no one.
Then, I searched for that particular site's reviews. Other sites quickly pointed to the scam-like nature and malicious intent of this site. Trustpilot.com themselves warned users about this dishonest reviewer who essentially extorted people.
Within the review, the "contact us" link was prominently featured and I reached out. Sending in my feedback, I explained how the review does not mention any names of clients or appear to be informed by any client experiences and pointed out the inaccuracies.
When I received my reply from "Wes from Kenya" it became evidently clear this was no legit review site, but a scam site used to sully my company and brand with the intention of extortion.
"Wes" replied, essentially saying he could change the review to a positive one if I were to pay. While his site's reputation was in the gutter and a known scam, it appeared his reviews were able to successfully pierce through multiple google results and showed up near the top for over two years.
Searching online again, I looked into the best ways and tools to deal with fake reviews. My options were not as quick as I had hoped; reputation defenders and reputation tools against fake reviews all would take time before resolution.
As much as I did not want to pay this scammer, I did not want this malicious review to harm my site any further, and going through efforts to remove it via Google or a "watchdog" site would simply take too long.
Paying for the removal was just the first step, I was set on turning this negative experience into positive results. If some "Wes" from Kenya can attack my site's reputation this easily, then it could be done again. Now was the time for me to fix that issue, ensuring we weren't at the mercy of scammers.
When looking into this situation, I got in contact with Google and was informed about review removals. For them to take down a fake review, three conditions must be met:
- your name appears in the URL
- you are being asked for financial compensation to edit the review
- the content of the review is used for "exploitative removal practices"
For more, please see: How Google Deals with Reputation Defending
While "Wes" clearly violated Google's policy and met these conditions, the site was "live" for long enough to cause damage. That is why I paid to have it removed in this situation and then turned my focus to fortifying my online reputation so that this could not happen again.
After taking care of that poor review, I am looking into additional measures I could take to prevent these types of situations. This brought me to a deeper understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and online reputation. Taking this knowledge, I intend to use it in future company decisions, and something I will regularly check in on going forward.
This is no different than another one of our fundamental tenants at YellowTunnel: do not get complacent. YellowTunnel has been chugging along for a few years now and perhaps I became complacent with its reputation. But now, just like with the market, there is no room for complacency.
As soon as you feel complacent in the market, that is when things usually go poorly - I've learned from personal experience. That is why whenever I feel complacent, a sense of paranoia kicks in. Nothing stays as is, and the most vigil traders are the best ones.
The market moves this way as well. Bull runs don't last and bear markets eventually turn around. A complacent trader is susceptible to these pitfalls, especially when the market turns when black swan events happen or even when simple shifts in the market knock them from their tried and "trueways. A great trader has multiple ways to handle the market, just like a great site would have multiple positive reviews - and YellowTunnel, we have both.
That is why I recommend being part of our YellowTunnel trading community, where you can discuss and dissect multiple trading strategies with others. This is exactly what we did in my latest Strategy Roundtable, which we hold weekly on YellowTunnel. I recommend checking out our latest Roundtable webinar in its entirety below:
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