Sonny Lambert

Why won’t RipOff Reports Owner Ed Magedson Remove A Rip Off Report from the site?

Because they don’t have to….There is a law that safeguards RipoffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, PissedConsumer.com and other similar sites that are built using user driven content. The law is called The Communications Decency Act, and even though it wasn’t written to guard websites like to Ripoff Report, it did just that. Allowing these site owners to be treated as 3rd party individuals and not directly accountable for the content contained within the websites they manage.

It is the writer’s accountability. So even if the complaint is a false, incorrect, and possibly even written namelessly, it’s going to stay on ripoffreport.com forever.

Is This Fair? Not in most cases.
Is this Legal? Yes and No
Can I sue ripoff report? Sure (The question is will you win? Not likely.)
Can I sue the author? Yes and you have a better chance wining. (But What?)

What Should I Do If I have a RipOff Report?

Don’t panic and DO NOT go on the site rambling on about how the author is so and so, and they did this and that… Do not add fuel to the fire or you will find that it will make matter much worse! By posting a rebuttal on ripoffreport.com you will that page (link) stronger and rank higher on search engines like Google, and that is the true problem anyway, the fact that the ripoff report page about you ranks so well on search engines.

DO NOT RETALIATE against the author and get in to a comment or complaint posting war. This will cause you more problems, but it might make you feel better for a moment.

The best thing you can do about this is be smart and invest your time and energy in forcing the ripoff report further down search results. By using quality content and scores of domain names and social profiles you can bury a rip off report link. This process can take time and money, but it works if done right.

Hire a reputation management firm like PositiveBoost.com – We can help you with these issues and in some cases even have bad links like rip off report removed from search engines completely. In most cases we must put our efforts in to getting the rip off report links off the first few pages of Google and Bing.

Customer relationship management (CRM) consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with its current and prospective customers. CRM software is used to support these processes; the software system can be accessed, and information about customers and customer interactions can be entered, stored and accessed by employees in different company departments. Typical CRM goals are to improve services provided to customers, and to use customer contact information for targeted marketing. While the term CRM generally refers to a software-based approach to handling customer relationships, most CRM software vendors stress that a successful CRM effort requires a holistic approach. CRM initiatives often fail because implementation was limited to software installation, without providing the context, support and understanding for employees to learn, and take full advantage of the information systems.

A few short years ago, MySpace was THE social networking site on the Internet.  Back in June of 2006, it was the most popular social networking site in the United States.  In April of 2008, it was overshadowed by its rival, Facebook.  Despite advances in technology, however, both sites have always been on the receiving end of assorted types of criticism, most notably, the way they can make personal information exceedingly openly available.

MySpace was created in August 2003 as an replication of Friendster.  It was created by a number of eUniverse employees, among them Tom Anderson (everybody’s first MySpace friend) and had every advantage starting up due to being launched by eUniverse, which simply advertised MySpace to the 20 million eUniverse users, very quickly building a strong following.

Facebook, on the other hand, was initially only available to students at Harvard University (where its creators attended school), and was gradually expanded to include other Boston-area schools (including BC), and then in due course to anyone aged 13 or over.  Currently, Facebook has over 500 million users worldwide.

Another  criticism of Facebook has been that it’s not as easy to “personalize” a profile as it is on MySpace.  On a MySpace profile, depending on one’s level of expertise, absolutely everything can be customized, while Facebook profiles tend to be much more static.  However, it’s always been this author’s opinion that excessive customization on MySpace profiles leads to the exact issues that too many external apps do; namely, the profile get bogged down, don’t load, and eat up phenomenal amounts of bandwidth.   Facebook has a much better integration of its “extra” features, like games, applications, etc.  With MySpace, loading those external apps tended to bog down one’s profile greatly, while on Facebook, all these things are neatly sorted.

For reputation management I choose FaceBook over MySpace. Facebook has a more professional demeanor and almost always ranks well on Google. MySpace seems to be littered with more spam and fake friends. FaceBook allows you to have your personal profile and a facebook page, which allows users to “like” you. They also have a very easy advertising platform somewhat like Google Adwords. You can pay per visit and get more “fans” or likes in this case.

When I jump on MySpace (Very Rare) it reminds me of a night club full of underage drinkers and bad strippers. It is not a place for most business to feature their brand. At the least I would say MySpace needs an overhaul.

I have always told my clients the #1 reputation management tip I could share with them when it comes to online reputation management is: Keep The Peace!

Do not start a fire out of 1 spark that shows up online. It is very hard to constrain ones self when a negative review or mention pops up online.  It feels personal and sometimes is personal, but you have to understand it is business as usual.

Do not file rebuttals to online complaints and certainly do not fight fire with fire. You want to cool this situation off and make it go away. Set your emotions aside and think about what you are doing.

I have seen many small businesses owners make matters worse by threatening people when they say bad things about them online. The worst thing you can say in most cases is: I will sue you! – It is unlikely that you will sue someone for posting negative things about your online, and even if you do it is more unlikely that you will win the case, and if you do win, it is even more unlikely that you will “win” anything worth the battle.

Remember the websites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, Complaints.com, Scam.com, Yelp.com, and so on… Are NOT liable for the content that a user posts on their website because of the CDA LAW. 

Do not threaten site owners and say you will sue them! Why piss off the people that hold your reputation in their hands? Respectfully explain the situation to them and be humble if you plan on contacting site owners. Be very humble and honest.

In some cases I do not recommend contacting site owners at all. It can backfire on you in some cases.

DO NOT file fake reviews about yourself or your business along with a complaint or in general. If you get called out or caught doing this, it will make matters worse.

Before you make a move call an expert (me) :)  - I will give you free advice and tell you how it is without trying to drain your pockets!

Feel free to call me anytime: 1-877-238-7902

Sonny Lambert

http://www.PositiveBoost.com

No matter what type of business you are in, at some point in time you may need reputation management help. It is rare for every business to make everyone happy and sooner or later you might get an unflattering internet posting about your business or worse.

Getting a bad business review or any type of negative mention of your business name online can cause your business loss of sales, revenue, and consumer trust. The fact is, most internet users will turn to highly visible internet sites like complaintsboard, yelp, and rip off report to file a complaint against you. These online complaints will usually rank very high on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. When people search your company name on Google and these complaints show up, it is time for some aggressive online reputation management.

Your goal in a case where a complaint or bad review shows up high is to make it go lower in the search listing. You will need to basically bury that “bad” link.

Here are a few tips to help you control what search engines show within the top results about your business:

1. Register Your-Business.com, .net, .org
2. Install a blog, micro-site, information portal on these new domains with unique content.
3. Create business social profiles on popular social media sites like Twitter, FaceBook Pages, Linkedin, Econnect.Entrepreneur , and others.
4. Link these social sites to your new websites (1 link per social site).
5. Get back links to the new domains and social sites you created. Back links are basically when you find a website with authority (PR) to link to yours. Do not use sites that are link farms or link directories. Try to find bloggers and websites that do not openly advertise that they sell links.
6. Find bloggers that will write about your company in a positive manner. There are thousands of blogs that will write about your company or publish an article about you for free or a small fee. Link to your websites and social site from within these blog posts.
7. Join forums within your niche or industry and become active on these forums. Use your company name as the username and in the signature of all your posts.
8. Write articles about your business and press releases. Submit these articles to trusted article and press release directories. Again, try to get some links back to other pages about your business.
9. Create free blog accounts on free blog providers (blogspot, wordpress, and others) use yourcompanyname.freeblogsite as the url, and start posting original content.
10. Keep updating and adding content to all of your social networks. Stay active online and be patient.

There are thousands places to make new content that will show up high within Google’s search results, the above mentioned tips are some of the more popular methods and can be used for businesses and individuals.

Follow my company PositiveBoost.com on Twitter for Reputation Management Tips VIA Twitter!

http://www.twitter.com/positiveboost

Quick Tip: Create a twitter account, it is a great reputation management tool…

Recently, PositiveBoost has launched its new website www.PositiveBoost.com for online reputation management services. The PositiveBoost team will help individuals and businesses control what search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing show about them online.

The new service by PositiveBoost will help insure that their clients have a positive online reputation. With thousands of blogs, forums, review sites, and complaint sites online, it is easy to let your reputation slip in to a bigger issue than you think. The reputation management experts at PositiveBoost can help you eliminate negative press and online reviews that is unflattering to say the least.

Online reputation management is not a new concept and PostiveBoost does not claim to be the first company of this type to emerge, but they do claim to have perfected the reputation management process. Having worked in the reputation management and search engine optimization field for over 10 years, the founders of PositiveBoost have a strong knowledge of search engines and how they rank websites and content.

The new company plans on making a strong entrance in to the industry and helping people and businesses with reputation issues across the globe. The types of businesses that can benefit from a reputation management service are endless.

Every business can not keep all of their clients, competitors, and employees happy. The amount of resources online makes it almost effortless for someone to file highly visible online complaints against a business or individual. The growing trend of Reputation Management and Social Media will make a service like PositiveBoost.com a needed one for some time to come.

The new service is offering free 30 minute consultations by phone to all new inquiries over the next 3 months in an effort to stimulate the popularity of this type of service.