This awesome image courtesy of Albita on Flickr.comOh no!  Elijah’s gone to the darkside.  Stop freaking out.  I’m sitting in front of my lap top, not on a starship.

I’m about to go to bed – and as I do often – end my day off with a cruise around the cracks and crevices of internet marketing forums and their interesting inhabitants.  I’ve met some of the most interesting people in forums and I absolutely love how in a split second a thread can go from good to great or bad to suicidal.  I guess forums are kind of like my soap operas.

Anyways – Black Hat Marketing Techniques – some people use em, most people don’t.  Those that do usually make insane, short bursts of money.  The turnaround is much faster and the risk is much greater.  It can definitely be exciting.  If you’re wondering whether or not I’ve ever made money with Black Hat, in short, yes.  I find it great for beer money – as you can see above.

Now even though the Warrior Forum is lurking with guru wannabe’s and special offers, I always find myself attracted to the underground message boards.  I’ve learned some great stuff on White Hat forums over the years, but nothing compares to the innovation I’ve encountered when tip toeing over to the other side of the lawn.

I absolutely love Black Hat Forums – and here’s why:

  1. They are less stuffy – and a lot more comical (sometimes twisted).  I enjoy this.
  2. They are huge on sharing.  I’m sorry, but even if I had the money to waste, I wouldn’t pay $997 for a digital product.  It’s just not happening.  You can get the latest and greatest ebooks, courses, scripts and methods for free.  Always be sure to support if something has made you money.  I have had the entire woo themes library cracked for a year, yet as soon as I had some money to spend I started purchasing developer licenses for the themes I already have – just to be legit and show mad love.
  3. One of the main purposes of Black Hat is to cut corners, be steath and automate as much as possible.  Though I wouldn’t try half of the major techniques, learning about them really helps me to be innovative in my White Hat ventures.
  4. Black Hatters are always willing to lend a hand, and can be at times less judgmental.  Forums are all about authority, clout and respect.  I’ve contacted the owner of one particular BH forum several times with honest CPA related questions and he’s given me some really great feedback.
  5. You see more and more young kids in Black Hat forums.. I mean 15 year olds who are banking $5000/month.  This is an interesting spot to be in, especially when you can get a glimpse of how the younger generation is viewing internet marketing techniques, and what they bring to the table (considering this is their era).
  6. Black Hatter’s tend to be a little more compu-savvy.  They’re great for getting design, html and coding tutorials/answers.  Need to do a meta refresh?  Black Hat forums will help you out.
  7. From a personal standpoint.. if I had to hats in front of me and needed to put on one for a portrait of some sort, I would – without hesitation – put on the Black Hat.  Johnny Cash wore black hats… pffft.
  8. Money making methods are free.  Where you’d be paying $17 for a WSO, you’d never have to pay money for a method in the Black Hat forums.  It’s actually common courtesy to post up a method if it has worked for you.
  9. Most Black Hat forums have White Hat sections – and 90% of the time, the White Hat techniques are leaps and bounds more lucrative compared to their cousins in the real White Hat forums.

Anyways – all in all – being open minded towards all methods and mediums of business is essential.  Lots of people think Black Hat is about scamming people and ripping people off.. and sometimes it is!  But the amount of methods which fall into that category are pretty minimal.

If you’re really interested in scaling up your business a bit or need some creative juices for a new idea, just type in “blackhat forum” into Google and you’ll find exactly what you need.

If you’d like to do some reading, I’ve taken a few minutes and compiled a bunch of documents which I’ve directly profited from at one point or another.  These are all “grey hat” techniques, minus 1 or 2, that take no time to set up and could potentially make you money within 2-3 days… sometimes within 24 hours!  I am not the author of any of these methods, I’m merely passing them on to you so you can make some money too.

Here’s the link – all you have to do is donate something.  No set amount, whatever you feel like throwing my way.

Think about this for a second – who’s really Black Hat here?  The search engines who can see into your front window?  Or a bunch of ambitious people in a forum who’re trying to avoid being “seen”?  Stick that one in your pipe and smoke it.

Cheers,

Elijah