Totally new to this...what should I do?

[Clinton]

SlimPicky, how's this getting on?

Any other good questions? As I said at the start of the thread, I'm hoping to use this thread as an example for newbies on how to ask for help/where to start etc.

[Clinton]

Related post: How do I start a new website?

Tip for newbie webmasters: Don't ask a question and disappear. Take the time to read replies, continue with the discussion and answer questions people that ask you when they trying to help.

[artifactz]

slim im in the same boat as you my friend
at this moment i can only give you words of encouragement positve energy activates constant elevation
please keep me updated on your progress

too many books lead to a confusing story

[Rover]

Dear Slim Picky,
I have developed a lot of niches and I disagree with what some of the other people say. #1- You need to test the market and that involves getting a lot of sites up quick and seeing what kind of traffic they get. 2- Google will sandbox you, unless you know some black hat stuff, and that means waiting at least six months to get anything (it does depend on the niche), 3- I agree on building out a couple of niches hard core, once you determine what they are, but you need real test data to make a decision. There is no magic thing to tell you and it takes a lot of time at looking at things to get the hang of it. 4- I would use Dreamweaver to make the sites because it is so easy to use and you can make the site how you want it 5- I would hire a technical person to set the stuff up for you. It will save you tons of time.

Finally, there is a lot of bad and scammy information out there. Aaron Wall of seobook.com is one of the best sources of real information. He is all white hat and can tell you how to succeed. However, you have to learn all the black hat stuff on your own because nobody will tell it to you. In any case, with limited funds to you, black hat is not an option. Like Google always says, focus on building a lot of good content. That's the key to a white hat strategy.

If it were me, I would build out as many sites as you can for the first six months and then see which ones look best to monetize.

[Clinton]

White hat is often referred to as "ethical" SEO and is often used to mean "legal" methods, suggesting that blackhat is "illegal". That is very misleading. Each SE puts together it's own rules as to what SEO it would like you to do. Whitehat is, quite simply, a rigid following of those rules. However, those rules aren't what methods work with the SE, it's what they'd like you to do - two very different things. Blackhat simply involves finding and using the methods that the SEs haven't told you about.

There are plenty of ways to find out about blackhat SEO. You have forums like blackhatseo and others, ebooks, blogs that give you programming tricks (like this one) and more.

Is there anyone here who has any good argument against blackhat SEO?

[hooperman]

Is there anyone here who has any good argument against blackhat SEO?

Only that I don't know any and those that do have an advantage over me.

I have an objection to crap sites cluttering up the SERPs, but not all high ranking crap sites have used blackhat. Similarly, blackhat stuff might be used by sites well deserving of high positions in the SERPs (to get there quicker). I'd be interested to know if anyone has an objection to a site using BH even if it deserves a high rank anyway. I'm not sure I have an objection to that.

[Rover]

I would say that the main argument I would have against black hat is: #1 - If you do it wrong, your site tanks and is often very difficult to get back into the search results. and #2- Black hat techniques are a short term strategy. In the long run, white hat will win the day. As a side, most SEOs will agree that a good black hat strategy will beat out any white hat strategy. In fact, a good black hat can also beat a white hat person at white hat tactics. Sure it doesn't makes sense. It is just a fact. Some SEOs call a white hat strategy as someone that has got no game. The fundamental question is this, "Are you playing to win, or is it enough to just be in the game?"

[Clinton]

I have an objection to crap sites cluttering up the SERPs

Me too (except if they are mine ).

I'd be interested to know if anyone has an objection to a site using BH even if it deserves a high rank anyway.

Deserves? Don't most webmasters think their site deserves a high rank?

"Are you playing to win, or is it enough to just be in the game?"

Define "win". Whitehat webmaster ranks on a not very valuable term, makes $5000 per year and may continue like that indefinitely. Blackhat webmaster uses the same investment in time/money and gets to #1 for a valuable term like levitra or poker and makes $500K per month. But he only lasts three months and his site is removed from the index forever. Who won?

[hooperman]

Deserves? Don't most webmasters think their site deserves a high rank?

Maybe, but the people on this board can look objectively at their sites, know that they don't deserve the spot they have (I think you revealed one in another thread, your bpc site IIRC) and feel guilty about hogging the #1 spot (jk ).

What I meant was that there are web pages out there that are dazzlingly good and I wouldn't mind if I knew that some BH had been used. If a page that was unquestionably bad ranked highly through BH efforts, maybe that's a different story.

But then, what does it matter if someone has an "objection"? I suppose it's what you do that matters, not how you feel about it. Maybe a more interesting question is: if some blackhatter was beating you up in the SERPs, would you study and pass your BH exams to take them on at their own game?

[Clinton]

if some blackhatter was beating you up in the SERPs, would you study and pass your BH exams to take them on at their own game?

When scapers were hogging the SERPS, I used to think that - leave it to Google and Google will sort them out. After all, it's in Google's interest to present users with the most relevant and useful sites.

Fat chance. Month after month after month passed. It was over two years before Google worked out an algorithamic and scalable way of dealing with them