Is this method still working?

Hi,
I studied computer science and work as a web developer. I have some free time now and I am interested in a quick and dirty way to generate 500 to 1000 Dollar per month.

I was reading about the following method https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/seo/case-studies/black-hat-seo-spam/
Panda update seems to be from 2014.

So I guess stuff like that is not working anymore.

Are there any other technical interesting approaches like that to make some quick money?

I am not so interested in writing tons of texts by myself. Maybe copy some stuff from competition.

[Don't promote yourself or any services]

Btw: where can I host a site that is outside of the reach of any lawyers? Any recommendations?

I don't know such a method but I can tell you this, Mathew Woodward uses a plugin to auto update his posts last updated dates and tricks google into ranking his crap.
Don't read his crap!