White Hats, Grey Hats and Black Hats

Introduction

I admit I am a newbie at Internet marketing. The first task I set for myself was to understand what the hell all the hawking was about, so I undertook some education. I have since consumed Internet marketing books, ebooks, audios and videos until they came out my ears, including crap on MLM, hypnosis, horse racing and God knows what else. From the hype alone, I should know enough secrets to put the best CIA agents to shame.

I don’t have many secrets, though. All I have are some thoughts, overviews and technical information. I am putting some of it down in an organized fashion, in a kind of blueprint form. This is more for me because I want to eventually make money from it. Use it if you think it’s worth something. I don’t mind sharing. The customer base is huge and growing. Just don’t spam it.

I wish I could take credit for so me of this stuff, but it came from many sources. Those of you who are old-timers will know where a lot of things came from. Later, when this study comes to a money something, I will throw in the sources, elaborate a 200 page ebook, a 600 page loose-leaf binder course, 12 CD’s, a DVD six-pack, and membership site with guest guru participation and lots of freebies. Oh yeah, I forgot. It will only be $1,995, down from $3,995 for a limited time only because I think you are extra special.

I care.

On Hats

The whole purpose of Internet marketing is to sell people stuff or get them to do stuff that pays you.

That’s it.

There are three basic approaches. If this bothers anyone, I don’t mean to be offensive. I am simply stating categories as I see them. I will be using them as I go along.

White Hat: Sell the best stuff you know, believe in it, and follow the rules.
Gray Hat: Do White Hat stuff, but throw in some bullshit and if, per chance, you sell some crap, take the money and run.
Black Hat: Get as much money for as little as you can. Favor quantity crap over quality value.

We can go outside this scheme altogether and sell freelancing services, but that’s employee mentality. My focus here is on entrepreneurship and getting rich. If you get real broke, sell some writing or coding or flip some hamburgers to get by until you make it. I didn’t bother studying techniques for any of that.

Another division of online promotion is useful:

Spam: There are many names for this, shotgun approach, throw a lot of mud on the wall and see what sticks, etc. The crux of this approach is to automate quantity and not care so much about profiling.
Targeting: There are colorful labels for this, too: laser targeting, finding schools of hungry fish, niche marketing, etc. The most important aspect of this approach is profiling a customer base through different kinds of studies.

White Hatters target. Black Hatters spam. Gray Hatters do both.

- Next in “The True Capitalist’s Approach to Online Business” :

Markets and Products

Psychological Triggers

Technical Information

Writing

Conclusion