Protect Your Brand at All Costs

It amazes me sometimes that people get angry when they see that I have websites under JTFoxxscam.com, JTFoxxcomplaints.com, JTFoxxFraud.com, where there are real testimonials from my real clients.  They seem to always accuse me as if I am hiding something. I having nothing to hide, but I will protect my brand at all costs.

First of all, in business, your brand everything. Seventy percent of reviews written on Google are BS, made up, or maliciously done by your competitors trying to destroy you. When people search online, they don’t try to look for the best in people.. rather they will try and look for anything negative that will sway their decision to not buy or invest. It is weird, but negative reviews create affirmation for people to not take action.

I myself was a victim of such malicious attempts by numerous competitors who had put out a defaming report about how I screw clients over and how we never pick up the phone. Not only was this false, but it also couldn’t be further from the truth. My office obsesses over customer service; we train on it at least once a week. Despite this, over the next few months I lost a few clients because they had believed such ignorant, made up comments. Rather than waiting, I decided to call the website which had posted the comment.. which by the way was hiding behind the first amendment and didn’t want to talk to me. That probably lasted a few minutes until I offered cash. Offer accepted and minutes later I had the name of the person (which was fake), an email address (also fake), and an IP address. My forensic IT person took the IT address, put it into a database and it gave us the exact address. Googled the address and what do you know, it was a competitor. The next step was a nasty letter from my lawyers and then the competitor begging for mercy, resulting in a big settlement for me. Not a pleasant experience, but I was lucky to get such results; many don’t.

Anyone who would resort to making up fake reviews so that they can hurt any person, company, and brand is not only bad karma but simply not ethical. BS lawsuits filed which are one sided and more often than get dismissed or settled out of court always get one side of the story. No one reports the good news that it was dismissed, they report only the bad. Good news doesn’t make the news. If it bleeds it leads.. as they say in the news world. We are a society that strives on negativity rather than stories of success and significance.

What does this mean for you?

Well, you need to protect your brand. I have heard dozens of people who had their name combined with scam/fraud/complaints.com purchased by a competitor who then built a BS website making false allegations– everything ranging from indictments, rape, to being investigated by the FBI (all fake). The person or company is defenseless because the website has a hosting program in another country and there is nothing you can do except cry and see your reputation and brand equity wash away along with your business. When your kids, friends, family, future business prospect all Google you, this is what they see. Bad reviews climbs fast in Google and good reviews doesnt really get read.  So you have to protect your brand, it’s almost suicide if you don’t. Remember the higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more you are exposed– a downside of fame and success, big or small, is in your market place.

What should you do?

1)   Buy at www.onedomainhost.com (I own the company),Jtfoxxreview.com JTFoxxscam.com, jtfoxxfraud.com, jtfoxxcomplaints.com, and JTfoxx.com, except do it in your name.

2)   Get a testimonial from every client with whom you do business and spread it out among all your websites. Keep your best ones for the review site. DO NOT MAKE UP FALSE REVIEWS. It is not only unethical, but also could haunt you later in business and life. If you choose to do nothing and put no testimonials up, that’s fine too but at 9 dollars a year, it’s worth keeping them under your control.

3)   Sign up your kids’ and grandkids’ names. Dot coms are becoming very valuable and there are people who snap up other kids’ names in the hopes that one day they will buy it from them. You may not think you need them now, but one day they may be an author, entrepreneur or the next president.

4)   Use a free WordPress blog; it will give you maximum SEO.

So to answer the critics, why would I put real and honest testimonials on the various websites rather than lose business to people who might see malicious, defamatory and libelous fake testimonials that threaten all the hard work I have put in? All you have in this world is your name, credibility and reputation. What gets put on Google tends to stay there forever and can haunt you for years without the proper SEO strategy. It used to be that bad news would have a lifecycle of 1-2 days– not with Google; it follows you like the plague.

Everyone always says, ‘this will never happen to me’, until it does. I have seen people whose kids come back crying because other kids Google their family and they see a fake review saying that the father had scammed someone, which was not true. It’s something I wish never happens to you or your family. You must take preventative action now, because if someone does attack your brand, you will have some seasoned websites and track record to defend yourself against any attacks.

Rather than to see others happy and succeed in this world, most prefer to tear others down. I was one of those who would point the finger, but my coaches made me realize that when you point the finger at someone you usually have 3 fingers pointing right back at you.

Remember, in life all you have is your name, reputation and credibility, and if you don’t protect it, it will wash away with any chance of legacy you have here on earth.

JT Foxx