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Well the morning is almost over for me and I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing. It's certainly been an interesting morning and produced a heap more work for my business but, at the same time, someone else has made me angrier than I've ever been in my life.

I won't go into what made me angry but right now I'm doing my best to calm down ... do a little bit of deep-breathing ... and focus on my business rather than fronting the person who made me so angry and asking him to make his slimy allegations to my face.

It wouldn't really be of much benefit if I did that ... he's a big man when you have your back turned but he runs away screaming like a girl when you look him in the eye.

The best thing for me to do is just move on and keep on helping his competitors do more in the search engines and marketing generally ... and frankly that's not so hard to do.

Now if you've been attacked by keyboard warriors and trolls I understand that your first reaction is going to be something akin to unleashing the dogs of war. There's nothing more important to you than your reputation and your ability to make money in this industry but what happens when you do get into a fight on a board or in a forum?

The very first thing that happens is that you lose your focus. In this business your focus should be on making money and that's hard enough to achieve when you have no distractions. When you're angry over something that someone said online about you then you become distracted ... your focus shifts from making money to making mincemeat out of the person who attacked you and suddenly you're ability to make money is hampered by your anger.

The second thing that happens is that your ability to concentrate on what you should be doing falls away. Instead the problem with that other person fills your thoughts and you start to make silly mistakes. If you're like me then you make enough silly mistakes even when your thought-processes aren't clouded by anger so when you do get angry you'll make even more mistakes.

The third thing that happens is something psychological ... and it happens without you even noticing it. The person who attacked you becomes the most important person in your life because you're thinking about them all the time.

And when you're thinking about someone all the time that person is controlling you. They're controlling your emotions ... they're having an impact on every moment of your waking life ... and they're affecting the way you interact with others. They control you and, if they're a troll, they know it and they're not going to let go of you.

Instead of defending yourself when a troll or keyboard warrior attacks you all you're really doing when you join the fight is to put yourself in their hands. You become something of a puppet and when they jerk your strings you react and that's what they want you to do.

So what's the best way to deal with a personal attack by a troll or some other form of low-life whether it be online or in real life?

If the attack comes on a message board or in a forum just ignore it ... move on ... stay focused on your business and let the troll rave on. The worst thing you can do to someone like a troll is to ignore them because that's when they realize that they have no power over you and without power they're nothing.

In real life the slimy accusations aren't made to your face ... they're made to your friends, family and the people you do business with. When you hear that someone has attacked you and your reputation there's no point going to the person who made that attack because that's admitting that they have some power over you.

Instead of confronting the person who made the allegations go and talk to the people the low-life spoke to. Talk about the issue that was raised and not about the person who raised it ... be an obviously better person than the low-life who made the allegations and you won't have a problem.

And once you've dealt with it ... move on ... don't let those who want to attack you creep into your head ... don't surrender to them. Focus on your life and your business and you will win every time.

It's certainly working for me right now.