Before we go any further with Adsense or any other Internet Marketing method, I would like to define a couple important terms. Whitehat and Blackhat Marketing.
Let’s start with Blackhat Marketing. Blackhat Marketing is any marketing method you employ that is deceiving, false, or intended to trick search engines or human readers into taking your desired action. Whether the desired action is to get to the first page of Google, click on a link, fill out a form, or make a purchase, Blackhat Marketing accomplishes that by unethical ways. An example of Blackhat Marketing would be visiting other people’s blogs that are unrelated to the topic of your site, and dropping a random link to your website in their comments section without providing any kind of useful feedback or information along with it. This is referred to as ‘comment spamming‘, and even though you are gaining a backlink to your website (which I will explain why backlinks are so important later), as well as giving your site more exposure, you are doing so at the expense of someone else’s unrelated blog. In my opinion, this would be considered not only a Blackhat method of marketing, but also completely ineffective.
Another example of Blackhat Marketing would be posting an ad on Craigslist stating you have a brand new iPad for sale, and because you won it, you are selling it for an extremely low price. Then, when you get inquiries on it, you respond by telling people it is already sold, but they could get one for free too by visiting this link. (No, that page does not contain my affiliate ID…so if you sign up for the free iPad, I get nothing) The desired action there is an email submit to get paid. (This is Cost Per Action Marketing, and we will get into that later.)
Now, let’s talk about Whitehat Marketing. Whitehat Marketing is pretty much the opposite of Blackhat Marketing. It is a completely ethical way to promote your website or blog, and it is also useful for the reader. It is dropping your link in ‘appropriate‘ places and staying above board in regard to the rules set forth by the search engines when trying to rank on the first page or first few spots for your keyword. An example of Whitehat Marketing would be using your keywords in the Title and Description Tags of your website or blog appropriately. This is called Search Engine Optimization, and though it might not seem like ‘marketing’, it is a way to market your site to the search engines so they know how to rank your site accordingly.
Another example of Whitehat Marketing is hanging flyers on college or university bulletin boards for free scholarships containing links such as this. (And no again, this link does not contain my affiliate ID…I am simply using these links as examples) That would be a completely appropriate place to promote the above link, as college students are always looking for ways to pay for their education.
Whitehat Marketing is basically doing everything in your power to always provide your reader or potential customer with useful, valuable content, and not try to spam them with unrelated ads at every turn.
Now that you kind of understand the difference between Whitehat and Blackhat Marketing, you will be happy to know that I am ONLY going to be focusing on the Whitehat methods of Internet Marketing.
None of the methods I reveal in my blog or Facebook group will ever get your websites or blogs banned from search engines or affiliate networks. We will stay completely above board and ethical in our quest to make money online! Awesome, right?
Stay tuned for my next blog post as I dive more into the steps you need to take to make money with Google Adsense.
If you haven’t already, please join my Facebook group Clever Little Ways To Make Money With The Big Bad Internet to stay up to date on all my blog posts! See ya’ next time!
