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Blackhat- what really it means? (9)
11-16-2019 10:15 AM
#1
cpa2020 (Member)
Blackhat- what really it means?
What really are Blackhat strategies and Blackhat offers? Please give some examples.
Some affiliates say Blackhat is/can also be useful, but some say just go Whitehat. Some say, even to run Whitehat offers successfully, you need to have knowledge of Blackhat strategies. Is it true?
Are Adult offers considered Blackhat?
11-16-2019 10:34 AM
#2
twinaxe (Senior Moderator)
For the term "Blackhat" there can be different explanations, depending who you ask and what you run and where you run it.
I think generally we can say that Whitehat means playing by the rules and Blackhat described tactics that work against the TOS of the platform you are using.
It´s a very simple and general description but in the end this is mostly how it is.
Some affiliates say Blackhat is/can also be useful, but some say just go Whitehat.
Running Blackhat stuff = stuff that is forbidden on platform XYZ for sure can give you an advantage over affiliates who only run clean stuff.
But nontheless running Blackhat is no magic pill that instantly brings profitable campaigns.
Some say, even to run Whitehat offers successfully, you need to have knowledge of Blackhat strategies. Is it true?
Of course it can help to know about shady tactics even when you run straight WH, additional knowledge is always a good thing.
But more important it´s the other way round.
To run successful BH campaigns you better should know running WH inside out.
For WH you basically only need to know how a platforms rules and how to use it.
To run BH you need to know the same but additionally you need to know how to bend or break the rules without getting caught.
Or how to exploit a platform for your needs, find loopholes and stuff.
So in my opinion it´s much harder to run successful BH stuff for longer timeframe.
Are Adult offers considered Blackhat?
You can´t say that adult generally is Blackhat.
It really depends for example where you run it.
Adult on FB = considered as BH
Adult on Pops = not considered as Blackhat
Adult on Push on Propeller = considered as Blackhat
Adult on Push on Zeropark with adult targeting = not considered as Blackhat
My tip is to better not think about running Blackhat as long as you don´t know properly how to run normal stuff.
11-16-2019 12:06 PM
#3
vortex (Senior Moderator)
Twinaxe has already provided a very accurate and detailed explanation.
I just want to add that blackhat often involves some sort of dishonesty - either the offer is a scam, or the advertising angle is misleading, or both.
Which is usually why a campaign would be rejected by the traffic source.
Another thing worthy of mentioning is that in order to run blackhat, a technique called "cloaking" is often used. This involves the use of a "cloaker" which is a tool (commercial or developed in-house) that can be used to differentiate traffic source reviewers from the 'real' visitors, so that the former can be sent to an innocent page while the latter can be sent to the actual misleading landing page and/or offer.
Lastly: In spite of cloaking, traffic sources may still "catch" blackhat campaigns, which do sometimes result in account bans. Thus, blackhatters often need to have a way of getting new accounts - whether it be through buying, renting, or creating new accounts themselves.
Hope that answers your question!
Amy
11-16-2019 01:04 PM
#4
stickupkid (Senior Moderator)
Blackhat- what really it means?
Deceive is the keyword when it comes to black hat I think. The dirty version of "attraction", the first of AIDA-model. Black hat offers are the ones where there is little chance the consumer actually "gets" (win the online jackpot, a supermarket voucher, losing fat drinking black charcoal coffee etc) what is being told in the ad and/or lander. White hat offers are transparent and honest (in eyes of society). When pushing crypto, most people don't know it's 9/10 a total scam. That's were people get deceived, hence a black hat offer.
But the approach in the ad can be white hat. Let's say you are a "digital nomad" and you write a blog about your trips around the world. Once in a while you mention something like "all this travelling, how does he pay for that?", then you can bring in subtle you are active on Bitcoin Revolution and make good money out of it. Still deceiving but this way Facebook won't kick you very quickly. I mean you contribute with great travel related content and people probably will like, comment and share it. If you keep outgoing affiliate links to a minimum I am sure this can be a very interesting approach, without getting too much complaints and spam reports.
Especially when it comes to social media traffic sources you have to find the right balance between convincing people to take action on your campaign (like an ad, fill in a form, deposit money etc) and a level of feeling not annoyed enough to write a bad comment/review or hit the spam button. Switch angles often to keep level of feeling annoyed low.
11-20-2019 07:05 PM
#5
roifreak (Member)
If you are broke and want to try to make some fast money, maybe go Blackhat to start.
If you care about a long term, sustainable career, whitehat all the way.
I define Blackhat as doing anything outside of an Internet property's allowed rules. It's as simple as that.
11-21-2019 03:54 AM
#6
profit-rex (Member)

Originally Posted by
cpa2020
What really are Blackhat strategies and Blackhat offers? Please give some examples.
What is Blackhat (BH)?
If you promote offers that are not compliant with policies of a traffic source you are doing Black Hat.
Inorder to run non-compliant offers or use non-compliant landing pages in Facebook/Google you need to cloak. There are many cloakers available, they are not a secret anymore. What cloakers do is show safe page to bots and Fb reviewers, and money page to target customers.
Example (1) Non compliant landing page: Selling Skin creams in Facebook advertising as it is promoted by Kylie Jenner.
Example (2) Non compliant offers: Selling crypto/casino products in Facebook
There are no exclusive BH offers. Most offers accept BH/WH traffic. BH traffic is higher quality if it comes from social media and search traffic, so advertisers might give you a good bump for it.

Originally Posted by
cpa2020
Some say, even to run Whitehat offers successfully, you need to have knowledge of Blackhat strategies. Is it true?
Its not true that you need BH to do WH. Zero. That should be clear, or you will start looking for the magic BH bullet lol.

Originally Posted by
cpa2020
Are Adult offers considered Blackhat?
No -> If you run it in adult traffic sources.
Yes -> If you run it in Facebook/Google/Native .etc where it is not allowed.
Lastly, I want to add the major differences between BH and WH (In general, not always)
1) BH has higher fixed operational costs. You need to spend around $1000-$1500 a month on infrastructure like cloakers, residential ips, payment solutions, farming, buying accounts and fingerprint protection. WH has lesser fixed operational costs if you are doing everything yourself.
2) BH has lesser need for optimization. WH needs way more optimization.
3) BH has higher ROI -> 50-200% is common. WH has lesser ROI -> 10-50% is common.
4) BH scales slower as you dont want to trigger traffic source compliance teams and bots. WH can be scaled way faster.
5) BH people are hated by traffic sources, so you wont be able to be friends with them. WH people are loved by traffic sources, so you can meet them in their headquarters and build a relationship with them once you are a good player.
6) Biggest show stopper in BH is traffic source compliance teams, bots and strong safety algorithms (These are getting day by day due to AI). Biggest show stopper in WH is competition and lack of testing/optimization.
7) BH campaigns can be completely stopped all of a sudden -> A traffic source update can make your funnel impossible to go live again. So you need to come up with completely new stuff and think how to trick traffic sources stronger algorithm again. WH campaigns hardly stops suddenly.
PS: I am new to STM. I heard we are not allowed to discuss BH here, in which case mods please delete my post

Thanks
11-21-2019 06:16 AM
#7
cpa2020 (Member)

Originally Posted by
profit-rex
What is Blackhat (BH)?
PS: I am new to STM. I heard we are not allowed to discuss BH here, in which case mods please delete my post

Thanks
Very funny

. Your post is very informative.
11-21-2019 12:16 PM
#8
eduaffiliates (Member)
The main reason people use blackhat is that it allows to get results fast. However, it also means they risk being penalized by Google and other platforms.
The key difference between blackhat and whitehat marketing is that in whitehat the aim is to play by rules until eventually they work in your favour. On the contrary, blackhat aims at avoiding or abusing rules to get quick results before the algorithms punish you and your campaign is wiped out.
11-21-2019 06:19 PM
#9
artoallan (Member)
What really are Blackhat strategies and Blackhat offers? Please give some examples.
Blackhat offers basicaly means that you're bending the rules. This could be many things, a good example could be sweepstakes/pin submits/cc submits where the pre-lander/funnels pursway the visitor to believe they won a giveaway/competition and need to fill in data to receive the gift.
Some affiliates say Blackhat is/can also be useful, but some say just go Whitehat. Some say, even to run Whitehat offers successfully, you need to have knowledge of Blackhat strategies. Is it true?
Whitehat can be just as good as blackhat. So both whitehat and blackhat can be succesful, however blackhat tend to be a bit easier than whitehat since you're lieing or impersonating bigger brands.
Are Adult offers considered Blackhat?
Adult offers are considered as "Redhat", a term thats not widely used. But since adult offers can be run through platforms that allows these kind of offers, it can be redhat.
If you do however promote a porn offer on a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram, it would be considered blackhat.
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