How To Grow Rhinoceros Hide: a primer on skin care for the internet marketer

by Bonnie Boots

Is your skin soft and smooth? Television ads would have you believe that soft skin is the key to a happy life. But let me tell you the truth-if you want to be happy in the world of internet marketing, you'd better have hide like a rhinoceros.

I began my work as a writer with magazines. When I moved from magazines to newspapers, I was shocked at how much harsher the climate was.

I'd never received anything but polite, thoughtful letters from magazine readers. But once I was in newspapers, I began receiving mail so nasty and threatening I had to turn some of it over to the corporate lawyers--just in case I actually was found dead in the parking lot some night.

I learned quickly that there was a big difference in the readership of newspapers and magazines.
 

Magazine readers who wrote to me were largely educated and thoughtful.  Newspaper readers who wrote me were largely upset with the world and sometimes off their medication. Publish an opinion these folks disagree with and they maul you via mail.

It grew worse when email arrived on the scene.

It takes some effort to write a letter out longhand, address an envelope, find a stamp and get to a mailbox. But email can be fired off in seconds.

People with problems love email. It gives them a sense of power to put all their anger into a digital box and send it off like a bomb, ready to explode on someone's desktop.

If working in newspapers did one thing for me, it gave me an exterior like elephant hide. I learned to shrug off insults and laugh at the impolite...or so I thought.

Then I moved to the internet. The number of unbalanced, nasty, mean-spirited and unethical people I came in contact with multiplied exponentially. Even elephant skin was not thick enough to shield me. So now I'm working to develop rhinoceros hide.

Don't think I'm just an overly sensitive woman. More than one manly-man I know has nearly gone into melt-down dealing with abusive email.

"The situation is impossible," one told me. "I get so dispirited I can barely bring myself to open my email in the morning."

He solved the problem by hiring an assistant. "I don't like the extra expense," he said. "But it's either that or give up completely, because I can't take the abuse."

Another man found that as his subscribers and sales rose month by month, so did the abusive email he received. His solution was to reduce his business, month by month, until he reached a stress level he could handle. Another expensive--if effective--solution, but still cheaper than developing an ulcer.

Any activity you take part in on the internet exposes you to all sorts of people. Posting in forums and on social networking sites, blogging, Twittering, putting up sales pages and other normal marketing activities draws attention to you--and in some people's minds, draws a target on you.

It's sad, but as I've learned from working in media from print to radio, the more miserable people are, the more they feel compelled to reach out and spread their misery.

If you've never worked with the public, stepping out onto the internet and discovering this abusive element can be a huge shock. You have to be prepared to deal with it.

So tan yourself as vigorously as possible. Rub yourself all over with steel wool. Encourage scar tissue and sun damage and arm yourself with a good plan for reducing stress.

Because there are many warm-hearted, good-natured and positive people in the world,  but you'll need hide like a rhinoceros to shield you from the rest.



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