Whitehat vs blackhat?

I got accepted into 2 cpas so far but still learning. What i am wondering is, what are the differences between whitehat methods and blackhat methods, the pros and cons and so on. I know this is "blackhat"world but still woulg appreciate it greatly

Just wondering which way i should head... Thanks

Whitehat means u do each and everything the correct way, no cutting corners and less likely to be banned from any network.

Blackhat just means your going to cut every corner u can possibly find to bring the money in, and the chances of being banned is extreamly high

At the end of the day, both methods can bring u in serious income, its all about perfecting the method, and some methods take longer then others.

ok thanks for reply, but i already knew whitehat is good, blackhat is bad in terms of evil and good lol. i wanted to get more details of what entitles blackhat making it blackhat, which earns more bank but what are the cons and pros.

also i heard whitehat you need around 5 cpa accounts and with blackhat you need over 15.. why is that and so o n.

Well its just that way that its better to have lots of accounts because if you have 1 with tons of earnings and then get caught and have your account terminated, you'll lose a lot of $$. with earnings spread over many accounts, losing one because you got caught won't be that big of a problem.

Anyhow, I know lots of people here do both black hat and white hat, try both to see which you'll like to do more. White hat generally takes more time and is more about developing a lasting site, which will generate a lot of revenue later. For black hat, its about quickly getting your sites up and popular to earn the most, and abandon once your methods get you banned from places, then just rinse and repeat.

If you implement whitehat methods, you'll have long term consistent income till you stop the promotion.But its bit hard to achieve.Well, blackhat is the way using shady methods.no one can say the income'd persist for long.its all luck.

ah ok, i guess it seems whitehat is the way to go if you are planning on quitting your day job. About getting banned, if you get banned you can never get back into the company again? so i am wondering, is there really so many different companies, if banned that will allow you a steady income if you go pure blackhat.

btw thx for the replies thus far guys

Greyhat is were its at!

i am a gray hatter. my leads are legitimate (they convert) but the ways i get traffic are not.

xboxman260 said:

Greyhat is were its at!

Click to expand...

angelas111 said:

i am a gray hatter. my leads are legitimate (they convert) but the ways i get traffic are not.

Click to expand...

Ah, this is where I get a little lost. I've been lurking for a while in this forum just trying to learn as many things as I can. I came across the post wondering the same thing as the original poster. Except for I had a pretty good idea of the difference between the two.

Where I've been stumbling is wondering what is the difference between blackhat and grayhat.

I noticed about every method, every book or course that teaches a method that isn't 100% whitehat is then classified as a blackhat method.

Could anyone give an example the difference between the two? I don't expect anyone to give the methods they personally use to make money. I was just wondering if anyone could give any generic method that would show the difference blackhat and grayhat.

Any advice would greatly help.

Thanks.

P.S. I hope I didn't ruin the post for DonKon. I just thought it would be helpful for anyone else thinking the same thing.

The way I used to interpret Grey / Black was that Black was illegal and Grey was immoral but still legal.

laidbackguy said:

Ah, this is where I get a little lost. I've been lurking for a while in this forum just trying to learn as many things as I can. I came across the post wondering the same thing as the original poster. Except for I had a pretty good idea of the difference between the two.

Where I've been stumbling is wondering what is the difference between blackhat and grayhat.

I noticed about every method, every book or course that teaches a method that isn't 100% whitehat is then classified as a blackhat method.

Could anyone give an example the difference between the two? I don't expect anyone to give the methods they personally use to make money. I was just wondering if anyone could give any generic method that would show the difference blackhat and grayhat.

Any advice would greatly help.

Thanks.

P.S. I hope I didn't ruin the post for DonKon. I just thought it would be helpful for anyone else thinking the same thing.

Click to expand...

Nah man glad you posted it because that was my next question.

laidbackguy said:

Ah, this is where I get a little lost. I've been lurking for a while in this forum just trying to learn as many things as I can. I came across the post wondering the same thing as the original poster. Except for I had a pretty good idea of the difference between the two.

Where I've been stumbling is wondering what is the difference between blackhat and grayhat.

I noticed about every method, every book or course that teaches a method that isn't 100% whitehat is then classified as a blackhat method.

Could anyone give an example the difference between the two? I don't expect anyone to give the methods they personally use to make money. I was just wondering if anyone could give any generic method that would show the difference blackhat and grayhat.

Any advice would greatly help.

Thanks.

P.S. I hope I didn't ruin the post for DonKon. I just thought it would be helpful for anyone else thinking the same thing.

Click to expand...

Greyhat is basically blackhat but you don't do things like ewhoring.

If you are going to try Blackhat methods, it's best to do them on accounts with companies you don't mind being banned from. Whitehat is completely safe, so there is no real reason to worry about being banned from something. Greyhat is in the middle, but I don't know a whole lot about it as far as the risks of being banned. Yellowbus said it best. Greyhat is legal, but immoral.

DonKon said:

Nah man glad you posted it because that was my next question.

Click to expand...

@DonKon: Thanks!

Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate it but do you think we might be able to do it with an example?

I don't want anyone to feel like I'm wanting them to reveal one of their personal techniques, so what if I put a technique out there and see what you guys considered the method as black or gray.

So for example, a method I saw posted here on BHW. Lets say you go on to CL and post that your giving away a nintendo wii. You wait for people to respond wanting the free system, but instead you come back telling them that you have already gave it away. But if there still interested they can get a free wii by going to this link. Where you send them to a cpa submit offer to get a free wii.

Now would you consider that as black or gray. Me personally from what I understand, I would consider that gray. The reason is because the visitor is looking for a free wii and you provided them a reasonable way of getting on for free. Which should convert better for the merchant.

What I would consider black is having people fill out any kind of cpa offer that they care nothing about. For example, giving ebooks away through torrents and having people fill out an cpa offer just so they can get the password to the ebook.

I look at this as blackhat because the lead is not going to convert for the merchant because the visitor doesn't care about the cpa offer at all.

So what do you think? I would love get your feedback.

Thanks everyone.

Laidback guy, IMO you pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one. If the offers are somewhat targeted and the offers are converting for the advertiser then you should have nothing to worry about. Just my 2 cents.

yes laidbackguy. that is exactly it as far as i concerned. you're not providing crap leads that will never convert. you are providing decent leads however your method of getting them is "grey hat". to me full black hat is providing crap leads that will be unlikely to convert for the advertiser.

Blackhat=possible violations of TOS, bending/breaking the rules for fast results
whitehat=frustrating. it is considered long-term, but how can anything be considered long-term when Google controls the destiny of many of these so-called long-term businesses?

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the responses. If anyone else has an opinion I would love to hear it.

Thanks again.

this is great info, thanks for the replies so far

Wait, wait, wait...

Whitehat isn't always longterm. Just because something is agreeable with the CPA network/Google/whatever's TOS doesn't necessarily mean that it will take a long time to implement nor does it necessarily mean that it will be profitable long-term.

Anyone that has ever promoted via PPC will tell you that all day long.

And blackhat isn't always illegal and/or immoral. At all. The definition of "blackhat" has been so diluted lately that I can see where this confusion comes from. Basically, a campaign can be "blackhat" and still be perfectly legal and perfectly moral. Just because the TOS of some company doesn't agree with it doesn't make it illegal.

For example, say you run an extremely large FB group that is extremely relevant to an offer from a network that explicitly states that they do not allow FB traffic. But you've got a TON of people that are chomping at the bit for this offer. The leads will convert for the advertiser, the traffic isn't being tricked in any way, but technically since the traffic is generated in such a manner that is frowned upon by the short-sighted TOS, congratulations, you just became a "blackhat."

Is it illegal? What laws have you broken? None.

Is it immoral? If the traffic wants the offer and isn't being duped and the leads convert for the advertiser what moral issues are being violated? None.

But you're a blackhat.

Now, this could technically be referred to as "gray hat" as well but keep in mind that these terms are subjective.

Blackhats are only blackhats because there are status quos that are now in place across the industry that are frowned upon. Ten years ago, these tactics were merely referred to as creative marketing.

See how it works?

So what's an affiliate to do?

CYA - cover your ass.

If the leads convert for the advertiser then cover your ass and make sure the networks don't know shit. Just blank the referrer and tell the network to get bent when they want to know your sources. Of course, you don't actually want to get in a pissing contest with your network because the more they like you, the less they ask questions.

AS LONG AS THE LEADS CONVERT.

You keep that in mind with anything and everything you do by making sure your leads are worthwhile for the advertiser, keep a good relationship with your AMs, and they won't care how you get the leads (for the most part. again, the less they know the better...wh, gh, bh, whatever).

Hope this helps.