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One of my favorite books is The conquest of Gaul
by the brilliant Julius Caesar. What does a book that is almost 2000 years old have to do with search engines and computing? you may ask . And again certain people (ironically the same people who seem to think that that unless you can directly monetize a new idea, it is worthless), will accuse me of just spouting useless nonsense, and possibly they may be right :). To be honest I find them very amusing.

Even Caesar from his earliest days was an ambitous man. He wanted to be the leader of Rome . The book was origionally a series of “news reports”, or dispatches that where sent to Rome, so that way people could see the great things he was doing (it is probably one of the earliest surviving forms of propaganda). So the book might now be 100% historically accurate, since it’s purpose was not so much to record history, but to show the world what a brilliant man Caesar was :). So what does the book offer, a rare glimpse into the workings of a brilliant mind. Always copy success, it is not a good idea to copy people that fail :).

The conquest of gaul was a campain that took place over a 7 year period, dispite lacking resources Caesar was successful. For Caesar did not just use military might to conquer, but he used politics, strategy and the latest scientific methods. All attacks that you must do, should be multipronged attacks. A good general is like the conductor of an orchestra. Alone each instrument of the orchestra just makes noise. But when the conductor coordinates the percussion, brass, wood wind, and string instruments together he can make this noise appear to be the voice of the gods. He does not play any instrument, possibly he may not even know how to play an instrument. He is the person that brings the individual instruments together and makes them act as one large instrument.

In the conquest of gaul, Caesars main instruments where his army, his in depth knowledge of local customs,beliefs and religion and his ability to apply science to solve practical problems. I will talk about each of these things and then show how it can be applied in other matters.

The army

I will not talk to much about the roman army. There are countless books about this subject. But these points are very important.

The roman legion was a well equipped, extremely mobile unit, highly organized,self sufficient and compared to other armies of the time period quite small. Mobility is extremely important I remember reading that a legion could be moved from Rome to any point on the frontier with 10-20 days. Even by modern standards this is impressive, look how long it takes USA to actually get ready to invade iraq. Also since legions where small they did not cost as much to maintain, if Caesar can do the same job with 10K men as opposed to 300K men, it does not take a military strategist to figger out who will win. How where they able to do this was organization.

What can we learn from this and apply to google ? For blackhat seo in the past the strategy was to make large dinosaur type sites that numbered millions of pages. Very little organization/strategy was involved (throwing shit against a wall, i believe is the terminology). And you would think that after seeing for 2 years because google’s algo has changed, that people would clue in that this does not work. But nope they are like the stupid barbarian hordes throwing themselves against the roman shield wall repeatedly. You would think after one such incident where they lose 100K+ guys in a day, and the romans lost 50, maybe they would clue in, gee this does not work too hot, maybe we should try something new. So in a nutshell have a plan, but the plan should not be set in stone, instead it should be able to adapt to new situations very rapidly. Google’s algo is now days changing almost daily, if you do not adapt you are dead.

Equipment is important. The roman legionares equipment consisted of a short killing sword, a shield, and a spear. But these tools most importantly where designed to be used in a variety of roles. Also they where crafted using the finest materials of the time period. Everything the legionare carried had a definite purpose, nothing was wasted.

You equipment should be the same. For example if you get a VPS/Server it should be able to be used in a variety of roles. Also you should purchase the best vps/server that you can afford with your budget (also the most expensive is not nessarily the best, research). It is no use buying $0.99 domains, if the registrar has a crappy interface that is very hard to use and wastes your time. You are better off to pay $1.50 and not waste your time with garbage. Common sense shit, but yet how many times have you seen people who purchase 100 x 0.99 domains, then complain that they are wasting XX hours trying to fix the mess. If your time is worth $20 per hour, then see which is more economical.

Also using the right tools for the right job. This deals with operating systems, computer languages etc. Research and see which is best tool for the job. A tool just because it is most popular does not mean it is the best tool.

Indepth knowledge of beliefs, customs, religion and superstitions

I do not like the title of this section. Maybe a proper title would be “know thy enemy”. In  Caesar’s book he talks indepth about the local customs of the gauls. How they live, thier religous practices and their politics. He also talks about how the various tribes ally with each other. He soon discovered that the foundation of the gauls where thier druids, and that they believed the oak tree to be sacred. Caesar of course came up with a plan of how to turn these beliefs against them and use them to his maximum advantage.

First he  forbid the practice of druids in the territory that he occupied. Then in a brilliant stroke any oak trees that his soldiers found he had his soldiers destroy, that way he was attacking the spirit of the people.

In the same manner with google find out what thier objectives as a company are. What are thier beliefs and how can they be used to exploit to maximum profit. You can do this by studying what sorts of sites does google rank. Also study the bios of the founders of google, and major key employees, from this you will see what types of beliefs they have.  Google propaganda is also a very good source. Remember most of the propaganda they spout is technical nonsense, but we are not after technology. No on the contrary, we are after what type of public face they want to show the world, and indirectly from this we can see what thier agenda is, and thier beliefs.

If is important not to get involved in “morality” discussions. In the case of Caesar he did not really care whether or not worshipping oak trees was good or bad, but this is just a weakness which can be exploited. On the same token how many times have you seen people arguing what google should be doing. Who gives a fuck what they should be doing.

This is a very broad area, it also is the most important. One day I will talk about this area in greater depth.

Application of science to solve problems

A great deal of his book deal with how he used mining techniques to do what appeared to be the impossible, and break a siege. Or how he would construct a double ring fortification in lighting speed, all because he used the latest methods available. He goes into an indepth discription of how he constructed a 2 lane wooden bridge accross the river rhine in only 10 days. Because the river was so swift, normal pilings where unable to be placed. His engineers believed it to be impossible to construct what he wished. Using ingenious techniques and materials on hand he personally came up with a solution. Unfortunately all we have left is just a few of his writings, but even from these glimpses we can see the brilliance of his mind and his thoughts.

I have talked about this before alot. But look at what materials you have on hand. Then think of how they can be exploited for maximum profit.

And like Caesar you if you wish to have a profitable campain with google you must combine these elements. Looking at what others have done is find, but you must strike out into virgin territory and do the impossible. Every piece of information you obtain, think how can it be used. Often at the time, certain information appears to be useless, but later on it can be the most valuable.

Hopefully one day I will have time to elaborate on these things and more.

Every morning when I get up I have a routine. First I fire up my laptop on the dining room table, then I check my numbers and see how I am doing from yesterday. My numbers are very important, coffee is brought to me, and no one is to talk to me until I have finished examining my numbers and drank my coffee. Also while I am checking my numbers, drinking my coffee, I also read on various boards new posting from the nite before, and I check the search engines to see how they are doing. As ussual I have digressed :), but I think it is helpful if you are able to do several things at once :). I have stated this before the most important things a blackhat can do are research (30% of your time should be spent doing this) and experimentation. Which bring me to what I want to talk about.

I can not find the origional source but the copy that i read was posted here

http://forums.seo.ph/showthread.php?t=2255

and it references to Mr Tan’s blog here

http://forums.seo.ph/showthread.php?t=2255  http://internetmarketingsingapore.com/blog/ 

The part that jumped out at me was his statement It’s difficult at the start, but your experience and failure will be the one thing that separates you from the pack.

When things are going good, it is pretty simple to run things, anyone can win, but it is how you deal with failure. Everyone has heard the great speeches of churchhill from WW2 when britians back was against the wall. Things looked pretty bleak at the start of the Battle of Britain. They has little resource, inferior aircraft, shortage of trained pilots and they where getting the stuffing knocked out of them. USA and the rest of the world thought it would be just a matter of time before they would be over run by the nazis. But despite these overwhelming odds, they found new ways to fight. And britain’s darkest hour when it was over became one of the brightest.

People often ask me what is my secret to success. And I think they are shocked when I tell them it is because of failure. 9/10 of my projects I start end in failure. But 1/10 end up making me $$$ :). Ironically most of the time the 1/10 are the projects that the experts tell me are stupid :). Most people when they fail either beat themselves up,just pack it in, or worse yet attempt to do the same thing over again. Insanity is repeating the same thing over again and expecting different results.

When I fail I attempt to analyse what went wrong.  But not in a fucking cry baby manner. I do not say stupid shit like, ohhhh if only google was not so mean, etc. Instead i try and look at what i did from an abstact manner. I look at what parts of my project did work, and they I try and see why did it fail. From the failure perspective I attempt to see what caused the demise. Then I try and think what can I change so if I repeat the project again it will be a success. If I think the project could still potentially be profitable (as in gain outwieghts risk) I will often repeat the project with new variables in place.

Another problem is that society in general has a taboo against failure. As a result people are scared to do anything for fear of failure, they then stick to the tried and true. When they are have to make a decision they will panic and then just make any stupid decision, instead of wieghting all thier options.

It is how you pick yourself up when after u fall down that shows what type of person you are. And that is what seperates the men from the boys.

Blackhat seo is contrary to popular beliefs is very hard work. First you have to study the serps, you have to read all sorts of blogs etc. Probably 25% of your time should be spent doing research. Research on what the search engines are doing, research on new tools and programming languages.

Then you have to find a way to monetize your traffic. When you are starting out adsense is ok, but to make the big bucks you have to find good affiliates. To get your traffic to convert you must match it as closely as possible to the right affiliate.

Example if user is searching for “black teen cheerleaders”, sending them to a teen site may get a few conversions, but if you send them to an affiliate that fills the niche exactly you will get a lot higher conversions. Common sense, but go look on the net on how many search engine spammer waste thier traffic sending gay traffic to straight sites or vice versa.

Not counting that you have to be constantly making new tools, or fixing your present arsenal of tools.

So lets say you have no coding ability, have no idea how google works, and are down right lazy. You would think a fellow like that would have very little career option in the SEO industry. Well that is where you are absolutely wrong. You can become a search engine guru. How on earth can you do that you cry ?

Well all you have to do is hang around forums like syndk8 or wicked fire etc. Just read all of the stuff posted there. Then just regurgitate this stuff. When you go for job interview try and look like an expert. Always give very vague answers, but the answers which people want. Mention words like duplicate content, google bomb, pagerank, trustrank, lsi. If you do not know what those words mean, do not worry the guys interviewing you will have no idea either. Also when you make statements never state absolutes, if you have any problems understanding how to do this read religous books, the bible is a good place to start.

After being a search engine guru a few of the crowd might clue in that you have no clue what you are doing. No worries, just contradict yourself. Or sometimes a good offense is the best defense. Accuse you accuser of being a fraud. Of course google short tail traffic does not convert very will. I thought I told you that. What you need is yahoo long tail traffic, why I have some of that and it converts like crazy. Most people are clueless and will not catch on. Don’t believe me, well religous leaders and politicians have been doing this for thousands of years.

Only problem is all this money starts rolling in, and since you are doing nothing you ussually become and alcholic or develop a nasty drug addiction. Ohhh well.

I always get a kick out of reading google’s recomended guidelines. They make stupid moronic statements like, would you be ashamed to explain to a competitor what sort of SEO tactics you are using. Me personally no, only reason why i would not like to explain to competitor my tactic because maybe he steal them and then use them for himself. I personally find this who blackhat / whitehat seo crap rather comical. But I guess i must be a blackhat , I never stuck the label on myself, others have.

Often I think that I must live in a hole, totally isolated away from the rest of the world. Recently one of my wife’s relatives came back from the USA to visit PH. While he was visiting it came up that both of us where into e-commerce (I am not sure what proper term is when u sell stuff on net as affiliate). Anyway we started to have a little chat. He then told me he was buying traffic using PPC. Perplexed I asked him why don’t you just rank your site ? He replied that takes time, not really I told him, you can probably do it in a week. He looked at me kinda funny. I then proceeded to explain to him what I would do. He then grins and tells me “That’s blackhat”. Irronically it never dawned onto me, until that point.

Anyway people always ask me what does it take to be a good blackhat. They seem to think that being a good blackhat just involves know a bunch of tricks / secrets . Or they seem to think that blackhats are extemely good coders. There also is this idea going arround that to be a blackhat you have to be extremely intelligent.

All of those things help, I will not deny that. Yes I have learned a few tricks about search engines, but all the information that is required on how to rank is publicly available. Anyone can find countless papers on Trustrank Pagerank etc. Probably because of my experience I am a better coder then most programmers, but then again I know better blackhats then me, who are not as good of coders :). As for the intelligence part, well lets just say I have a below average IQ :).

So what makes does it take to make a blackhat ?

Blackhat is a state of mind.

You know that yes google,yahoo and msn have the smartest, brightest PHDs working for them. And these eggheads have all virtually unlimited resource, and despite that you know you can beat them at thier own game, on thier playing field. Despite all the odds against you, you manage to succeed.

When you look at something on the net, immediately in your head, a little light flashes on, and you think how can i use that to rank higher in google.

Where other people tell you it is impossible, you do not get upset. You just look at them and wonder what in the world do they mean. For in the blackhat’s vocabulary, that word does not exist.

Other people may think that some canned tool they buy of the net makes them a blackhat. Or maybe hanging arround syndk8 makes them a blackhat, but no.