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- Sphinn It!
Went Hot: January 29, 2008 - 8:45 am
Posted By: Ruud 177 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.slightlyshadyseo.com)
Category: SEO
"I’m not going to give you the code, but I will at least give you what you need as far as what you should be concentrating on creating."
15 Comments
Comments
Great introduction. You know how to put things - no doubt.
Just an awesome post.
Aweseome post. Should come with a health risk warning for Incredibill though :).
Even though I have no desire to go this route since frankly it seems like it's going to take more time/work than White Hat, it's cool to see a layout of how these things are done. I think it's important for all search marketers to at the very least read about this kind of stuff just so they can form an understanding for their competition.
"Blackhat is a game based largely on quantity."
The above quote from the article while perhaps obvious sums things up very nicely to those wondering what the game is all about.
I really wish I knew more about this kind of stuff. Learning... Learning.
Shady is quite the rising star in the SEO community. He's got some real quality posts on his site. Keep 'em coming, Shady!
Thank you very much! I'll do my best to keep em coming!
So, you all Sphinn and praise someone that Spams for a living. I don't get it.
Can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't Sphinn it as a vote in support of Blackhat SEO, I Sphunn it because I found it an interesting, well-written, informative article.
@seanmag
Well I can't speak for everyone either but I sphun this because SSS had written a very informative post. No fluff and lots of details. He's sharing knowledge.
I've been a server admin for years now and spend time reading about hacking and vulnerabilities. Do I go round hacking/cracking people's servers? Of course not. However they have given me information that was useful in defence of my server, new methods/techniques and generally made me more informed.
It's the same thing with blackhat material I read. Some of the people in those spheres are extremely well informed and at the highest levels of technical ability (catch Ralph/Fantomaster and have a chat about cloaking sometime!)
Should this stuff be published? I believe in personal responsibility. Once they have knowledge, people have to choose what they do with it. Keeping people in ignorance or burning books doesn't seem a very enlightened way of dealing with this question.
@baiduyou & Nick
I completelty understand your points - and especially the part about being informed of the techniques, even if you don't use them. In fact I personally admire SSS's intelligence (he knows his stuff), although I loathe his practice which reinforces everything that is wrong with SEO and for which the industry as a whole takes a big negative perception hit.
On one hand, SSS smears the scraper/spammers of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, yet he practives in the same manner - scrape, aggregate, monetize, disappear. Repeat. In the scope of things, although he's a small player, he lends to the problem.
That said, I'm not a google goody two shoes; I disdain their carte blanche position on paid links for example. But downright spamming of boards as a way to generate short term traffic and make a fe bucks. At the end of the day, it's a fly by night loser's game.
I especially take issue with hugoguzman's comment that SSS is a rising star in the SEO community. MY personal feeling - if SSS were a white hat that stretched the lines within the gray areas (i.e. paid links), I'd have no problems. But spamming boards, cloaking re-directs, etc. I think it just detracts from his credibility and gives a black eye to the commmunity.
SSS reminds me of that devisous intellignet mind, that if put to good use, would havbe a phenomenal career rather than lurking in the underground shadows that inevitably fail
What I like about Shady's posts is that he doesn't waste my time with why paid links are good or why Google is not the government. He posts stuff that anyone can monetize if they took the time to experiment. And even if you don't like black hat SEO, if you're a professional SEO, you can learn from black hat tactics that test the limits of Google's algorithms. That's more informative than anchoring your reality on Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
This stuff isn't illegal, and I personally find trying to repress it is more reprehensible than the original content (not that I find the original content reprehensible; I don't).
@sean:
Educating the masses so they can make their own decision as to what is right and wrong is something worthy of respect and certainly not leading to inevitable failure. Personally, I believe SSS is already off to a phenomenal career.
@SeanMag: I don't smear them for their promotion practices so much(although I'll admit I shy away from things like RX for ethical reasons).
I smear them for 2 reasons.
1)Most take on clients w/o warning them. I consider that an absolutely wretched thing
2)For the indian SEOs and such, I dislike them for both reason #1 and the lack of...challenge? in their approach. The big appeal of blackhat for me is the technical know-how required. How you have to stay one step ahead. I see no value in hiring someone for $1.25 per hour to post on blogs or forums. There's no skill involved.
I know that the tactics that I use detract from my credibility within the community. But at the same time, I feel that it's what got me at all recognized in the first place. Something legitimately different that's out there. Granted, I don't expect I'll someday soon be speaking at any SEO conferences or whatnot, but that's something I came to terms with.
As for the career comment, thank you very much :-) Someday I plan on heading towards the side of "good" or whatever. But for now, my primary concern is paying my way through school, and getting up the capital to start something truly excellent.
@NickWilsdon: That's good :-) I accept that my advice will be used like that. Quite frankly, I rely on it. If I'm doing some blackhat link dropping, I dont want to be dropping it on the boards of SEOs. They cause me problems. For this very reason, I don't generally use proxies for link dropping. Once I'm banned, I'm banned, and I'm fine with that. I would much rather find the message board that hasn't been accessed since 2002.
@HalfDeck: I believe that 99% of what I put out there is used for exactly what you're talking about. Education, and understanding of Google's limits.
@Wheel: Seconded.
@Gamermk: Thank you very much!
@Everybody: I understand the problems that many have with blackhat, really I do. I've been annoyed by comment spam once or twice as well, and had to compete with blackhats more experienced or skilled than myself frequently. But my stand now is as it probably will always be. Google has disallowed almost every single competitive linking method. Or at least discredited them. And quite frankly, it's crap.
If they're going to create excessive rules barring even legitimate, quality sites from ranking, I'm not going to waste my time creating too many of those. I'm going to fight back.