Intro from a former white hat business owner

[Skilium]

Thanks for this great resource.


Ecommerce has been my sole source of income since I graduated. (Liberal arts graduate during the financial crisis of 07/08, so you can see why I didn't get an RL job. Nowadays I'm glad I never became a cubicle drone - making money online is more fun, and potentially more profitable.)


Though my business is doing well for now, I reckon I need to diversify, like any other investor.


I'm sure everyone here has had accounts get banned, websites get taken down, etc. When it first happened to me, I was totally shocked - as I had a legit, white hat thing which I had literally spent years building (it got taken down over a personal dispute). My revenue dropped from $4000/week to $0 overnight.


It made me realise how dangerous it is to rely on any ONE account, any ONE website, any ONE platform. I also realised it's silly to play by the rules, because all it takes is for you to piss off the wrong person and you're screwed anyway.


So here I am, totally ready to turn to the dark side. I'm armed with VPN and Virtualbox, but still learning all the tricks I'll need to maintain separate identities for my projects. (Advice in this matter is most welcome.)


Once I've got that figured out, I'm looking to start some blogs. I have plenty of ideas about my niches and content, but I need to learn the specifics of SEO and income generation.


Looking forward to meeting some people and making some $$$


-- Skil

 

[TheUnborn]

Welcome buddy,great to have you here,enjoy the amazing information on seo shared here everyday

 

[SmoothBlackHat]

So here I am, totally ready to turn to the dark side.

Then you're in the right place. Many of us "turned black" after being penalized for nothing.

 

[Aatrox]

Then you're in the right place. Many of us "turned black" after being penalized for nothing.

I turned black even before I started

Anyways, welcome. You're gonna love it here.

 

[Castiel999]

Lol I am in my initial stage and one thing i realized is turning dark is the only way to protect ourself from all the bullcrap.

 

[cesali]

Welcome in BHW

 

[webwars]

It's not the dark side ... you're actually waking up and walking into the light!

 

[Johanssson]

Welcome aboard. It's great to have you here.

 

[alvinhy]

Welcome onboard! Hope you like it here

 

[bartosimpsonio]

Welcome aboard, Skil!

 

[JessMoney]

I turned black even before I started

Anyways, welcome. You're gonna love it here.

me too , playing with the REAL rules (because for example Facebook is a grey business too) and all that stuff is what I learned before making any money

 

[mercurialv]

welcome to the dark side

 

[prlinkssale]

Welcome To BHW.. You are now on Best Internet Marketing Forum.. Enjoy the IM..

 

[fullyniche]

Welcome to BHW Community aboard. Enjoy your stay on here.

 

[Dan Da Man]

So you got burned and you are looking to start over and get burned again?

Didn't you learn your lesson the first time? SEO is a chump game. Where there is no control, there is no business.

You got owned. Don't get owned again.

 

[Skilium]

Thanks for the welcomes!

me too , playing with the REAL rules (because for example Facebook is a grey business too) and all that stuff is what I learned before making any money

Yup, getting into online business made me realise how grey *everybody* is. In the end it's just about making as much money as possible, by whatever means possible. That's what all the big boys do.


So I started thinking: if they're like that, why not me?


If you want to be philanthropic, there's plenty of time for that... *after* you've made your riches!

So you got burned and you are looking to start over and get burned again?


Didn't you learn your lesson the first time? SEO is a chump game. Where there is no control, there is no business.


You got owned. Don't get owned again.

Actually, what screwed me had nothing to do with SEO or Google, it was something else entirely.


But I agree that it sucks to base your business on something that somebody else has absolute control over. The sad fact for online businesses is that there is virtually no competition for major services on the internet.


Advertising? Google.
Search? Google again.
Payment? Paypal.
Selling? Ebay/Amazon.


...and so on. Brick-and-mortars usually have many competing services to choose from, so they don't care as much if one service goes power crazy and bans them. We don't have that luxury.


But imho, the solution to that is not to just turn away from whatever got you burned (SEO or otherwise). I'd rather diversify. If I had a dozen income sources all from different activities, then it doesn't hurt me so much if one or two sources die on me. I still have an income while I work on replacing the dead ones.