Taken from ReviewTrackers.com: 70 percent of US consumers read reviews before buying online 11 to 14 percent of companies pay for online reviews The average fake review costs 5$ Americans waste about $5.5 billion on Christmas gift shopping because of fake reviews These statistics, if accurate, are absolutely insane! 5.5 BILLION wasted! That’s incredible. However, that’s not the most important statistic on the list for you and your business. 70 percent of US consumers read reviews before buying online. This means that people are looking for any holes in your brand or your competitor’s brand. Now is the time to close yours and open...

One of the most frequent questions we get is, “When you destroy someone’s reputation online, should you make-up bad things about them?” Every negative marketer has a different take on that question. Here is ours: As strange as it might sound coming from a negative online marketer, our integrity is of paramount importance to us. In this business, especially when it gets dirty, we have nothing — nothing at all — other than our honor, our word. We will fight dirty, but we will do so with integrity. I mean, we try to treat everyone the way we want to be treated. And we wouldn’t want to hire someone who lies — ever. Therefore, we just don’t lie. Yes, there’s a fine line between “dirty” and “integrity”, finer than most people think — and that’s what we spend our time trying to balance. Therefore, our general principle is: We use the truth, only the truth, and nothing but the truth. But we don’t use the “entire” truth, and we emphasize certain parts of the truth and de-emphasize others. Let me explain. In everyday life, even when you speak honestly, you don’t always share every little detail. If your wife asks, “Do I look fat in this dress?” — even if she does, you probably avoid answering the question, “Hey, that hat looks fantastic!”. We employ similar techniques, but on a massive, broader scale. For example, we’ll go and find your enemies’ clients. We’ll interview them one after another. We’ll then take the unhappiest — and feature them online. This is completely true and legitimate, and no one can argue with it or doubt it. Which is what makes it so...

A common question we’re asked is: if you’re going to post negative information — all of which is true, of course! — then, where should you post it? Short answer: everywhere! Long answer: there are lots and lots of web pages that let you publish your own content. You can start a blog, or a tumblr. You can get your own domain. You can go onto review sites. What’s really limiting you is, your own creativity. Just ask yourself, where do you see content posted online? Why can’t you just post it yourself too, in the same way? Creating a web site isn’t technically hard, you just need to do it! You need to write content and articles that is not only true, but compelling and serious and makes the user realize what is really happening. A lot of our favorite sources are systems that allow you to post your own information. Which is most “social” media and modern sites. Click around. Look for them. They’re not hard to find. You probably get 4,000 updates from all of them on your Facebook feed, errr, timeline every day! Indeed, Facebook itself is a great source. People live in Facebook. The person causing problems against you is probably on Facebook, too. What does his profile say? What are his pictures? Who are the people that know him? What are the comments? This is really just market research — and market inundation, we could call it! — but with a bit of a negative slant. This is negative online marketing, after all! We just need to be honest with ourselves about our opponent, his methods, his objectives, his resources — and around that, construct our strategy! Yes, of course we know: much easier said than done. That’s where we come in. We’ve been doing this a long time and we’re great at it. Conclusion: it’s not hard to do; just time consuming. And a bit risky. But that makes it...

Everyone is starting to open their eyes: there is negative online marketing everyone. Most people just pretend otherwise. The BBC is now all over the case. In short, Yelp now admits that 25% of all their reviews are fake. Yup: 25%. One out of every four reviews you read on Yelp is created by SCOUNDRELS. Lesson: don’t believe everything you read. Be careful. Be skeptical. Be smart. Then… ask yourself this: WHO is it that is making these fake reviews. What are they doing? Are they hiring Indians who would otherwise be writing fake SEO articles? (What do the Indians think of the world economy?). “Do Americans really believe this BS?” There is an art to recognizing the fake article…. and then, once recognized it, to game it to make it sound real. For example, bad grammar is a clear give-away. But more subtle is, being grammatically correct but uncommon phrasings. For example, an American would never write, “The restaurant ranks high in qualitative ratings in regards to both the service and the food.” Can’t you just hear that with a Sanjay-ish accent? Lets try to see what gives that away as Indian. In every day speech, Americans don’t say things “rank high in” — that’s fake-speak. In every day speech, Americans don’t talk about “qualitative ratings.” Good writing, real writing, must sound natural. Here’s a tip: make it fun. Enjoy it. Can’t you tell that I just LOVE writing out these articles for Negative Online Marketing. Life is short, and I’m going to do this anyway — so why not enjoy...

Do you even need to ask? Negative marketing is very, deeply effective. Here’s the way to think about it: Question: Who is willing to get their hands dirty with negative marketing? Answer: Not most people. Probably not you. Not because it’s not effective. But because you think you’re “above that” or “you don’t do that” or “you’re a good person.” In other words, you’re scared. You want to be on the side of Luke, not the side of Darth. But remember: Darth had to come before Luke. His father had to use the Dark Arts to achieve power — before he his son could then take the dark and might it light. SO the question for you is: what are you scared of? And remember: we’re here to hold your hand, to help you, to make it easy… and even safe. Plus, here’s a secret: everyone does it. Your competitors are assholes, and they’re busy destroying you, while smiling at you when they see you. You might not even know who your competitor is–maybe you think he’s your friend, when he’s not! So, you need to ask yourself: what are you waiting for before doing some online negative marketing? What is holding you back? Whatever is holding you back… is in your head. All of...

One of my favorite questions is when people ask me what tools I use to help with my negative marketing. There are so many cliches that help us deal answer this: “Garbage in, garbage out” “A moron with a hammer is still a moron” And there are many other that make similar points. This more general point about the world applies to negative online marketing and negative SEO, very strongly: There is no tool that will save you from doing the hard, creative work yourself. If there was, everyone would be using it, and then you wouldn’t have a competitive advantage over anyone else and your work wouldn’t be worth anything, right? Here’s how I’d look at it. There are lots and lots of tools — and they’re awesome tools that will help you a lot. But you should only use them when you are super-duper advanced, when you are so advanced, that you don’t even need to be reading this blog! A pilot needs to fly amazingly on his own — before he can use the Airbus Autopilot. Would you want someone who can barely fly to be flying your Airbus plane to Paris, even if most of the flight is on Autopilot? Well, read for yourself one of my favorite airline crash stories (it is very intense, I warn you — but worth it). People like tools because they’re a SHORTCUT. But that’s all they are: a shortcut. Shortcuts, in negative marketing on the internet as in life, seem easier and quicker — but don’t teach you what you need to be an expert; they don’t give you the subtle signals about what’s working and what’s not so you can improve; they don’t give you the experience you need to grow. You can memorize Hamlet, or you can look up the quote on the Internet: if you take the shortcut, you don’t internalize the depth of the words. So go, young man, and memorize Hamlet! Avoid the shortcut. Do the hardwork. Then, when you’ve done awesomely, come back and lets find some great...