Starting out White Hat first. Question for you all

[regularBBQ]

First post here, aside from my Intro. Glad to start getting involved.

I have a blog idea that features a lot of unique content. I've been working on the project for about close to 1 month, and plan on promoting the site after I'm satisfied with the design and I have about 8 - 10 posts that are of quality.

Question I have is, do you guys feel it's smarter to try White Hat SEO, and get experience that way, and then try out Black Hat SEO methods after gaining some experience? I'm thinking of that process as kind of like playing through a video game by yourself first, then being taught shortcuts and ways to shave off time. Do you feel this is a smoother learning process? A lot of the threads I read on the Black Hat forum I don't really understand as well as I should. I want to get to the point where I can not only think of methods on my own, but be able to read a method posted by someone and objectively analyze the quality of it, and see why it could or couldn't work without much difficulty.

Also, for the blog project I mentioned, do you think 8 - 10 posts is too little before I start promoting the site?

 

[Getwhatchuwant]

Well I guess yes if you are just learning. It is important to learn how to find link opportunities and get involved in guest posting etc..but for me I like it the other way around, Black hat to rank quick and white hat as my insurance policy. Once I get the site ranking I switch to white hat so even after sometime google takes away all my BH links I still am left with a site that has quality backlinks.

Of course it is critical (to me anyway) to stay white hat ON your site meaning provide useful content that is unique and compelling with plenty of images and video. That is what the reader wants so make sure to give it to them.

8-10 posts is ok for a start, I would try and get it up to 100+ eventually if it is worth the time investment but yes you can start to rank with about a dozen posts or so.

 

[Pilot]

The #1 thing I wish someone had told me before I got started: don't try to game the Google of today. Game the Google that will exist 2-3 years from now.

 

[kiggd]

The #1 thing I wish someone had told me before I got started: don't try to game the Google of today. Game the Google that will exist 2-3 years from now.

I'd like to add to that something once said to me when I was younger. ​Cheat the system or get cheated.