Have you had to cover your online tracks?

[Glen]

When I got into internet marketing not far from 2 years now, I was of course asking the most basic of questions online, Paz and Joc can testify for that.

In this time though I've been learning, testing and testing some more about internet marketing (SEO / Social Media), literally doing this stuff 7 days a week because I found it something that I'm really interested in and I think you can pick things up pretty quickly if you are passionate about them.

Now when you start to offer services in this industry, it is possible people could point our your past. This doesnt bother me as you can see how far people have came and I guess prove that everyone starts off knowing nothing.

If I was applying for a job that needed 5 years SEO experience though, I guess I would need to 'cover my tracks'. Have you ever had to do something like that yourself?

P.S. I'm not looking for a job nor do I ever plan too look for one.

[Jocelyn]

Can't really say I had to worry about this. Since I don't take customers or look for a job, I could not care less about anything thing I did before... and even if I was... all I'd answer about any comment about anything I posted or did would be... "So what"

But it's easy to say this when you don't care about the job or the dude in front of you...

[Paz]

Yeah I've never done anything online I wasn't proud of so I've never had to cover my tracks. Reputation management is something that will be increasingly important though. We search for applicant's names in Google and find they have blog diaries that are a complete turn off for us.

If someone asked for 5 years experience I'd apply anyway and explain to them how 5 months is an eternity in SEO and if you're asking for 5 years experience you really need my expertise....

[Glen]

haha I guess that was a bad example but you know what I mean ;)

[Dave A]

I think covering your online tracks is a lost cause nowadays. I did a background investigation on a company once that was accused of stealing a concept. A Google search produced a very interesting result for a page that was no longer available - but Google's cache shot of two years previously still was.

But I wouldn't sweat it too much. I think we are often our own harshest critics. The fact is that gaining experience is littered with "mistakes" - and most decision makers know that all too well.