How many times have we seen someone publicly accuse another of some wrongdoing? The accusations are varied and rarely substantiated. The accused find them selves having to defend their honor even when it’s often impossible to prove the accuser is making things up. Others chime in supporting one side or the other. Often the accuser has already lined up supporters, waiting in the wings to give credence to the claim. Then the accused calls on friends to come in and discredit the accuser. In the end, the entire thing ends up being a futile finger pointing exercise.

What’s interesting about these incidents is they rarely do the harm that was intended. In most cases it has the opposite effect, with the accused noticing a sudden jump in affiliate signups or new members. In fact, I once watched a video producer get beaten up pretty badly in a consumer forum. By the end of the day the producer had made record sales for the year. This effect is so predictable some sponsors actually stage attacks against them for the sole purpose of picking up more affiliates.

While we’d all prefer to get nothing but good PR, there is truth in the old saying, “any PR is good PR.” I learned a long time ago the best way to do someone harm is to pretend they don’t exist. The people or companies that are on my shit list never get mentioned. I don’t type their name in blog articles or board posts. They simply do not exist.