Slightly Shady SEO | Blackhat is Back, Baby.

The 2 biggest things on the Web nowadays are Web 2.0, and Spam 2.0. And the rule of Spam 2.0, is having the user never know it’s spam. Which is why we game the social networks. This technique is used primarily for quality content(shiite will trigger spam reports, violating the 1 and only rule of spam 2.0), and is just a variety of ways of forcing it to the top of the heap.

Disclaimer: I’m honest with my blog readers here. I’ve said I use unpopular tactics before. I’ve gotten every kind of threat and flame you could imagine for it, and I just don’t care. So with that honesty in mind, I’m saying that for this blog, I do not game social anything.

Ok, so now onto the juice. There are a few types and ways of gaming the social web. They are, in order of effectiveness(when implemented correctly): The Cult Leader, The Account Spinner, the Moderator, The Targeted Friender, the Prick, and the Friender.

1. The Cult Leader - The cult leader got his standing by his biting wit, and his astounding ability to be the first person into every discussion. Not the most well liked person by many, he doesn’t give a shit. His wit and tact have not only earned him friends (like the friender), but friends that actually look up to him, and will digg/vote/sphinn/add at a moments notice. He’s what every “friender” wants to be, but never will be. Sometimes, the “cult leader” is a position gained intentionally by having every. single. damn. thread. e-mailed to him for far too long. Many of the time though, these e-celebrities have an organically grown position. It is rare that this kind of person turns gamer, but it has been known to happen.
2. The Account Spinner - I’ll get shanked if I go to far in depth on this one, but the article would be incomplete(and perhaps a bit too Whitehat) without him. This is my personal favorite. The account spinner is the phantom of the filters, slinging more IPs per day than most of us have ever used in a year. He cracks captchas, auto-registers e-mail accounts, and commands more personalities than the lord of the schizophrenics. He’s been known to use the personalities to argue with eachother, rank eachother up and down, and generally anything to ensure people don’t recognize the reality that they’re bots. And yes, he scoffs at your 3 digg accounts, and buries them with one swift click of the mouse, as the pain of 400 “buries” come in from private, un-listed proxies across the globe.This is the riskiest, and most difficult to pull off, but if you can dodge all the filters,  you’re effin golden. Works best on bookmarking sites, where there is no need for artificial conversation, and the moderators aren’t used to the torrent of spam places like Digg are. Oh yeah. And with this method, you have to be INSANELY good to game digg.
3. The Moderator - The rarest breed of gamer, but definitely amongst the most effective. The moderator owns or moderates(gasp) the site he’s trying to game, and is almost above criticism. Over-gaming will result in a traffic loss, or possible a loss of position, but so long as he can keep himself in check, he’s got his bases covered. For an in depth look at this, I’ll point you guys over here, to SeoMoz, where I read a badass article on this particular breed of gamer. I mean, come on, the guy even breaks this category up into MORE categories. Don’t you love it?
4. The Targeted Friender - Much less abusive than any other method listed here, the targeted friend is a much more successful variation on the “friender” listed below, the targeted friender adds friends, yes, but keeps it refined to people that seem to be interested in their topics. More intelligent than your average user, every decision is for business, but overall does not injure the community in any way.
   This is my favorite method for news related sites. I wish I could say I was more shady on those, but honestly, it works really damn well, and benefits everyone. There’s too much moderation for account spinning.
5. The Friender - Everyone on the social web would love to deliver one of these fuckers a big e-slap to the face-hole. Adding you anytime you say something anywhere ever, the friender adds completely indescriminately, hoping that you will be interested in the miniature replicas of phones from the 1940s he hopes to some day push to the front page. If you’re one of these, just stop. You’re embarassing yourself. Try and move up to be the more respected targeted friender

Alright, on a closing note, all of those who enjoy the posts that are more technical, more will be coming soon. The thanksgiving holiday limits how often I can be online, so posts are kind of hasty.

Posted on Saturday, November 24th, 2007 at 1:20 am in the category:Web 2.0. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.