Looking For White hat Idea to beat Huge Competitor

I Make Dollars said:

The first thing you have done wrong is go down the whitehat route.

Go blackhat, white hat is nothing but bull excrement.

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I think I know where you're coming from, but could you explain further on this..? People usually say that properly done Whitehat + Quality site equal rankings, so I'd like to hear your input for this...

If you are trying to rank for "honda civic" I would start by making the best youtube video about that car. Dissect the car on video, every cupholder and every ashtray should be talked about. People who are watching that video are considering buying that car, so they will watch it. With a link in the description of the video to a page with great pictures and feature lists of that car. If you have a passion for the subject you can rise to the top white hat style in less than a year.
On one of my websites I just did a huge review of several products much more in depth than has ever been done before. The result of that review brought me homepage links (that I didn't ask for) from over 10 of the top websites in my niche. End result= Domination of a tough niche, by creating stuff people want that was not available before. All for the price tag of 0$ and some time and motivation, with little chance of a penalty in the future. That is how to start out and keep your domain penalty free for the long term IMO.

Don't think about the biggest keyword phrases, yet. Build up a strong social presence and go after all the long-tail keyword phrases. Cover the whole topic thoroughly. Go after as much as you can. Once your authority and trust is built up from all that work, you will have a chance at ranking for those big phrases.