Yesterday I wrote a quick post about understanding who you are working with in your online business and being careful who you take counsel from.

Will Bontrager posted such a well thought out reply that seemed much better deemed a guest post. So as suggested by Will he’s my newest guest here on the Marketers Mojo blog. Good idea Will!

Here are some fantastic tips on researching experts, freelancers and potential online business partners:

Researching the expert should include at least Binging or Googling the expert’s personal name and company name. If a name is more than one word, put it in quotes for the search.

Example, using my name:

“Will Bontrager”

Sometimes it happens that a name is the same as a celebrity or many people have the same name. In my case, the bicycle brand “Bontrager” may be the reason for some inappropriate results. And there is also a judge “William Bontrager” – in the same US State as where I live, no less.

Searching for the name and appending +forum or +recommend or +”not recommend” can narrow the focus. Examples:

“Will Bontrager” +forum

“Will Bontrager” +recommend

“Will Bontrager” +”not recommend”

Note: There are people who will say negative and malicious untrue things about others with the intent to ruin online reputations. If you find negative entries, it may be prudent to give the expert you are researching the opportunity to respond.

After all that, dig into the expert’s domain name.

If your domain registrar does not provide a whois lookup, you may go to http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools and use the WHOIS/IPWHOIS Lookup tool on that page. Type in the domain name.

Example, using one of my domains:

willmaster.com

Now, Bing or Google the name under the Registrant section. The address and telephone number, too, if you want to dig deeper.

(If the Registrant section is anonymous or uses an anonymous email address, consider carefully whether or not you want to do business with someone who hides who they are or where they are located. NOTE: It is common and recommended by some to record an email address different than the domain. The reason is so the registration record can be updated even if the domain web site should for some reason be unavailable.)

Another thing to check on the domain registration record is the date the domain was created. When you look at the willmaster.com registration record, you’ll see

Created on: 20-FEB-98

Consider how long the company says they have been in business and verify the domain registration creation date is consistent with that claim.

If the company does not say how long they have been in business, the domain registration creation date can be an indication, albeit not a certainty.

Thanks again Will!