Confessions of a Google Spammer - Journey From 50K a Month to White Hat

[Linda Buquet]

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This is not the type of story I normally share, but it's a super intriguing look at the life of spammers, how they work and why spamming Google doesn't work long term.

It's just a fascinating, but long read. A candid look into the life of Jeff Deutsch, self proclaimed spammer. I got sucked in, then had to stop 1/2 way through due to time constraints. But like a great book, it was sure hard to put down and left me wanting more.

<a href="http://inbound.org/post/view/confessions-of-a-google-spammer">Confessions of a Google Spammer</a>

"Before I became an inbound marketer, I once made $50,000 a month spamming Google. I worked a maximum of 10 hours a week. And I am telling you from the bottom of my heart: never, never ever follow in my footsteps."

"Rand took the stage to kick off LinkLove 2012... He took the stage with a big smile, introduced himself and then proceeded with this presentation called ?F#$%! Link Building?. My heart sank.

I went from slightly butt-hurt to outright angry and defiant. He was insulting our entire industry."

"I swore I wouldn?t let Google make us stop hustlin?. But Rand was right. Within 2 months, our entire network of 5,000+ blogs?for which we paid more than $80,000?was deindexed, dead, simply kaput. Our $100k/mo business was ruined."

"In short, after 5 years of considering white hats and inbound marketers to be snobs, I?m finally drinking the Kool-Aid.

You win, Google. Content is king."

So those are just some scattered snippets. When you get time to read the whole thing I think you'll find it mesmerizing, at least I did.

And so did others I guess. 700 upvotes at Inbound and 207 comments. Some of the comments are golden too. Especially the initial banter between Rand and Jeff.

Your thoughts???
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[JoyHawkins]

This story is really eye-opening. Thanks for sharing Linda.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Just read the entire thing. Wow is about all I can say. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Joy and Scott. I thought it was a gripping read.

It popped up for me because the whole post was published somewhere else this week.
I thought it was the original, so wrote it up thinking it was new. Then found the original which was published back in May. But a story like that does not need to be fresh new news, it's classic and evergreen.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Oh man:

"Yet another guy (also in China, like me) was working with prison wardens who forced their inmates to mine World of Warcraft gold for sale online." - killed me.

Fascinating read. I agree with Rand in his comment, blackhat vs whitehat isn't a moral argument, it's about long term success vs short term.