Unfortunately, being online means you’ll be attacked by flawed characters, some of whom aren’t human. It comes with the territory. Here are the 7 troll types and how to appropriately respond to each.

Or … Listen Instead!

Find my podcast wherever you listen to audio!

“How dare you?” That’s what some trolls try to convey, mostly to newcomers. They are attacking you and, perhaps, damaging your self-confidence.

These haters of everyone go after those with new channels because they think newcomers are vulnerable. They sense an opportunity. But once you have a slightly larger audience, they’ll go away.

Why? Because these haters are cowards. They don’t like attacking people whose fans defend them.

You might pay particularly close attention to their insults. I find them enlightening while also being very intimate. They’re giving you a glimpse into what they fear the most.

But they really shouldn’t share what would hurt them the most. Somebody could use it against them, and their family members and co-workers probably do. Mostly, these haters make me feel sad.

Some fans object to your content. What do they object to? Well, it could be anything.

Your clothing, hairstyle, writing style, or cats wandering through your YouTube videos might put these trolls off. The trigger can be whatever takes their fancy. And there is nothing you can do to change their minds.

I’ve had haters of my prior business content continue that hate for years. It’s like I’m their best friend. They seem to be getting something crucial from even my minimal attention.

With these trolls, block or ban them. They’ll never purchase your products. And they’ll attempt to make a bad experience for the rest of your fans, like during live stream events.

On YouTube, you can block all comments from them or ban them from your channel. Although it can’t be undone on YouTube, block their remarks. You’ll still get their views but not their seething rage comments.

Call these trolls what you will: Misogynists, chauvinists, racists, and others. They have some biases that they cannot contain. Unless your content needs them, I’d treat them like haters of your content.

I mention this troll type because they are hidden surprises. I’d had hundreds of YouTube live streams with a few regular fans in my prior business. But then, much to my surprise, one of those fans became a hater.

My best friend (who happens to be a woman) was visiting from out of state. And she was pictured in the livestream in the background, seated at my second desk. And so, I found out a regular fan was an outrageous misogynist.

He started making all kinds of inappropriate comments about my friend. It made everyone uncomfortable. They were so bad that I had to block his comments permanently.

If you have a website, you’re going to get emails. They’ll be from website developers wanting your business. And, daily, they’ll go about it poorly.

And when you start getting traffic, you’ll get lots of emails from search engine optimization (SEO) experts telling you to stop what you’re doing. And apparently, instead, do what they want you to do.

Wannabe experts purchase these email templates. A favorite technique is to send you a first email where, at the bottom, it shows a second email they’d sent. But they haven’t.

But these so-called experts are only contacting you because you’ve already succeeded. They hope you’ll want to hand over your successful work to them. But these trolls are attacking your confidence.

If you need some help with website development or SEO, I have one suggestion. Look at their email address. If it’s from a Gmail account, they aren’t professionals.

Many of these troll types are bots, little snippets of code that automatically deploy. If you manage your website, you’ll see statistics on the number of attacks you get. I’ve gotten 474 hits in the first three months of my website.

However, bots also post comments on YouTube and other social media channels. I was hurt by a comment suggesting everyone knew what I was saying, so I should stop until I remembered that nobody else was talking about my topic.

So, don’t be misled. It might help to understand that these comments are highly polished, and every word is scrutinized for maximum effect.

What helped me was getting the same comment three months later. Even the grammar errors were identical. Those errors are deliberate, making me realize the artificial nature of the bot comment post.

That Nicaraguan prince offering you millions of dollars for a few hundred of yours first is an email with many spelling and grammar errors. Why? So many people receiving it will think they can take advantage of the prince, as intended.

There is a lot of pornography on the web. And bots will post on live streams. It’s pretty sophisticated.

Sites like YouTube have banned terms that these bot posts with links carefully avoid. You can block such posts automatically by adding a few of your own banned words. Again, these posts are highly polished to get through YouTube’s defenses.

You can add more of your own that they won’t anticipate. It’s a bit of work of constant vigilance, but it does make for a better audience experience.

My other business has a YouTube Channel that recently reached 50,000 subscribers. This measurement is a vanity metric that has little real meaning, but trolls take an interest.

What happens is some of your audience members realize that you’re famous. That you could reach people if only you would talk about something completely different. But something significant happened to that audience member, who has now transformed into a troll.

It might be their live stream event, their attempt to sell puppies, or a political cause they care about.

Whatever it is, your audience doesn’t care. Why not? Because you’ve collected them for a particular niche.

If you talk with your audience about something else, they’ll lose interest fast. Your new troll might say one percent of your audience could make a difference to their cause. But they don’t care if you lose your audience, which can happen quickly.

Being famous comes with 7 troll types. Some types arrive early and disappear quickly, while others stick around forever. You need to know what you’ll get and how to deal with them effectively.

• Previous: Generative AI and Carefully Embracing the Future
• Next: On Social Media, Where Is the Best Place to Reach Your Fans?