While many individuals and corporations tend to ignore the significant impact of issues raised against them that would eventually damage their online reputation, some have already taken steps to protect their internet reputation – either as a preventative measure or as a response to a negative attack. However, many think that all internet reputation management strategies are applicable to all and any situation that an individual or corporation may face.

The truth is, every challenge to their reputation has certain unique elements in them that would require a customized approach and strategy towards protecting their online reputation. To understand what they are dealing with and what course of action or strategy to take, the individual or corporation should try to understand what are the types of issues their online reputation are up against.

The following discusses in brief the issues individuals or companies can face with during their internet reputation management campaign:

* Passive Issues – these includes negative information about the person, product or service that has been made and posted in the past but has been updated. These include blog comments, journalism articles, product reviews and other online documents.

* Active Issues – these involve an active or deliberate action by another entity to post negative information about the person, product or service. These entities can also be constantly updating these entries in an antagonistic manner.

* Protective – this is a pro-active or preventive action in an attempt to minimize the possibility of negative or defamatory information to surface online, by creating and enhancing positive entries about the product, service or person through a global network. This includes constant monitoring of comments, entries and search engine results.

Internet reputation management is an important element in protecting the image of a professional or company online. However, doing it haphazardly or through a shotgun approach would lead to poor results that could only make matters worse. The key thing is to know what you are up against so that appropriate actions can be used to deal with these issues and eradicate them all together – leaving you with a blemish-free online reputation.