One thing I have noticed over the past few years is that there is a lot of hate on the Internet.

If you don’t believe me then go and look at the comments on Youtube, Digg, Ebay, Spikedhumor or pretty much any website that is popular.

So what happens if some of this hate is directed to you or your website/blog?

Try not to take it too personally. There is a good chance that the person that is giving you hateful comments has never met you in real life, so they don’t know you as a person. Therefore it would be foolish to take their insults to heart.

Hatred is often just jealousy in disguise. I had a lot of success on my blog in December of 2006, but for every person that gave kind comments there were three people who gave negative comments. Unfortunately negativity and jealousy is the price you pay for being a success, just ask any celebrity. For every person that admires a world class sports person, there are likely to be 10 people who dislike him/her.

Don’t accept the gift of hate. Remember that if someone is angry or filled with hatred then it is THEIR hatred, not yours. It only becomes yours if you accept the gift of hatred.
There is a monk called Brother Thay, who had these wise words to say about hate:

“If your house is on fire, the most urgent thing to do is to go back and try to put out the fire, not to run after the person you believe to be the arsonist. If you run after the person you suspect has burned your house, your house will burn down while you are chasing him or her. That is not wise. You must go back and put the fire out. So when you are angry, if you continue to interact with or argue with the other person, if you try to punish her, you are acting exactly like someone who runs after the arsonist while everything goes up in flames.”

So remember, life is too short to waste your time on the haters.

Dean
(Dean writes at DeanHunt.com)