Page 71 - AVN October 2017

publisher. By all means, speak to your attorney if you
like, but understand at best it will be a very expensive
proposition and at worst it can backfire completely to
try and use traditional legal remedies.
For example, people who run “hate blogs” tend to
become more combative, not less combative, when
they are served with legal documents that they often
perceive as threats. Even more problematic is the fact
that content online quickly becomes available in many
iterations across dozens, hundreds or thousands of
other websites. This means that even if the person you
sue does agree to take down the content in question,
it likely still exists, or will exist again in the future on
some other website that they have zero control over.
3. You Can’t Delete But You Can Dilute
Given the fact that you can’t ever really delete
anything off the internet, and assuming you have
acquired some relevant domains with corresponding
social media accounts to improve your reputation,
what exactly can be done to fix the problem?
Simply put, you can dilute the negative content by
overwhelming it with positive content that is more
interesting, newer, more frequently updated and better
produced.
The old way of thinking was that you could keep
your private matters confidential by choosing not to be
out in public online. That paradigm has now changed
completely. Because everything is easily searchable,
your best chance of keeping something a secret is to
have your name so heavily populated with content
online that it becomes harder and harder to find the
negative needle in the massive haystack of articles,
tweets, and blog posts about you.
IF YOU WORKED IN THE
BACK OFFICE OF A DVD
STUDIO A DECADE AGO
AS A SUMMER JOB, IT
MAY BE FAR EASIER AND
FAR CHEAPER TO JUST
OWN UP TO IT.
4. It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Reputation management is like other forms of
search engine optimization work. It requires persistent
effort over a sustained period of time. Google and
other platforms value newer content more than older
content; they look for sites that update often and
weigh the quality of the content being produced—and
in the end, we are trying to push the negative content
down to page eight, where nobody bothers to look
(which means we need seven-plus pages of quality
content to rank ahead of it).
Reputation work is not the sort of thing anyone
can do over three or four days and then tell you it’s
all done. Make sure you are engaged in the process
and know how to update your own sites with fresh
content. Best case, you or a professional will build
out a large portfolio of properties that can be part of
a link-building campaign which results in new items
outranking negative content. Then you will be able
to take over the campaign completely by posting new
content from time to time to keep the sites fresh and
maintain their ranks.
5. Be Honest With Yourself and With Others
If you worked in the back office of a DVD studio
a decade ago as a summer job, it may be far easier
and far cheaper to just own up to it and admit it
than would be to try and bury a story in The New
York Times that happens to mention your name and
associates it with the company. If you are about to get
engaged and you used to be male talent in hardcore
gay porn videos, tell your fiancé the truth. Reputation
management isn’t a method for changing who you are,
or a time machine for going back to make different life
choices. It is a way to prevent the public from getting
the wrong idea about you based on moralistic stigma
and political correctness gone out of control.
There is nothing wrong with consenting adults
legally working in the adult industry, and you should
be proud of your past—it is what makes you who you
are today. That being said, there is also an obvious
reason why you don’t want a prospective employer in
a new career to Google your name and find you in one
video after another from five or six years ago.
6. Professionals Can Do More
There are many more advanced techniques that
can also be put to use, depending on the particular
specifics of your individual case. Everything from
hiring a model to be part of a reputation swap, to SEO
techniques aimed at devaluing the negative content,
ways to discredit sources, access to networks of
positive relevant links that will help prop up your new
content, and more.
7. Hire Carefully—It Matters Quite a Bit
Be smart about whom you hire, what they promise
and what it will cost you. There are companies that
essentially extort their clients by being the source of
the negative content—such as police blotter sites and
that type of nonsense—and then turning around and
asking for payment to fix those manufactured issues
with another unrelated brand that handles reputation
services. There are fly-by-night asshats who promise
REPUTATION
MANAGEMENT IS LIKE
OTHER FORMS OF SEO
WORK. IT REQUIRES
PERSISTENT EFFORT
OVER A SUSTAINED
PERIOD OF TIME.
FEATURE
THERE IS NOTHING
WRONG WITH
CONSENTING ADULTS
LEGALLY WORKING IN
THE ADULT INDUSTRY,
AND YOU SHOULD BE
PROUD OF YOUR PAST—
IT IS WHAT MAKES YOU
WHO YOU ARE TODAY.
completely unrealistic results in just a week or two if
you send them a boatload of Bitcoin up front, and then
they quietly disappear with your money.
If you are someone who has worked in the adult
industry, you already know people who understand
the way the internet works. You may even have been
a webmaster yourself at some point. Don’t forget that
reputation work is just like other forms of SEO and
many of the same rules apply. Ask around, get a real
sense of what work will be done, and make sure there
are clear milestones set before you agree to pay any
amount of money.
Even the best reputation professional cannot
promise you a specific rank by a specific date in time.
However, they can definitely tell you how many sites
will be built, how many articles published, how many
blogs posted, and where the backlinks will come from.
And they should be able to provide solid references
for their past work. As long as you aren’t trying to
desperately buy a handful of magic beans, you should
be able to find a quality professional capable of guiding
you through a process that yields worthwhile results.
In summary, your reputation takes years to build
and can take years to rebuild. There is a lot that can
be done, and there are useful ways to accelerate the
process if you find the right professional team to
work with. Think ahead, be persistent and make sure
you understand each step along the way. Also, try to
maintain your sense of humor; it’s especially valuable
during trying times. If all else fails … you can always
change your name to Derek Jeter, because once you
do that, no matter how hard they Google that name,
they will never manage to find a single item about you
anywhere online.
Stewart Tongue has more than a dozen years of experience working in the
industry. His company ReputationCurator.com has worked with several current
and retired industry executives to improve their online reputation.
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