Hello ladies, gents, cartoon animals and others.
Before we start:
This has been a long time coming. The method provided here was more popular from 2016 to 2018. Right now, you will rarely see it getting any attention. The reason why?
Primarily because there has been a shift in mindset when it comes to making money online. Back in the day, things were more strategically oriented. You could find complete breakdowns on various forum boards (our opinion).
Things are different now.
Social media changed the space. For better or worse? Hard to tell. But did human nature change (when we are talking from a psychological perspective) during that timeframe? Not at all. The same principles are still working.
You must be aware that social proof is a powerful selling tool.
Humans have been programmed that way since our early days. But that’s the theme for another article. What we are about to show is an “expensive” blackhat method of gaining social proof for yourself.
What’s The Secret?
Before we go further. Let’s dive deeper into the term “expensive”. Meaning? Well, the method outlined will end up costing you up to 5.000$. The next question is, how expensive is it? An example of the pricelist is below.
Now another side of the story. Let’s take for example lead gen as your service offering. The bare minimum is the 500$ you will pull per client. Here we are talking about the low-tier service that we could teach everyone to do at this point. Without taking anything else into consideration.
So should you consider this as an expensive investment or not? Depends on where you are right now in your journey. In case you have acquired 2 - 3 clients and have a predictable cash flow coming in. There is no reason why you should not utilize the site of your choice.
There are two “terms” you will be looking up:
Guest posts
Press releases
Guest blogging, also called “guest posting,” is the act of writing content for another company's website. Generally, guest bloggers write for similar blogs within their industry in order to: Attract traffic back to their website. - proechosolutions.com
What is Blackhat here?
Individuals are selling you their “spot” to bring traffic or build a social presence on credible sources. That someone else will most likely put money in their pocket where it should not go. That’s not the story we should care about. What you should care about is that you will get the article you want.
Disclaimer:
You are doing this at your own risk. There is a reason why it’s blackhat.
So the main idea behind it?
You are going to present yourself or your business as you were featured on the site of your choice. Because you did well. Company X featured in Forbes. Is this lame? In our opinion absolutely. But does it build social proof and catch the eye of your prospects? Absolutely.
Right what we are aiming for.
When you are dealing with the “boomer industries” or local businesses. Social proof such as the one mentioned here is unbeatable. No one can deny that a typical local biz owner is not impressed when he reads you were featured in X source. All that while googling your brand name and having the article you paid for appear. All the magic is there. Making yourself stand out and look credible as much as possible. What the whole term “social proof” is all about.
Personal Brands
Keep in mind that the same approach could be used for your personal brand. You are someone offering consultations or any other kind where you are directly trading your time for money. Building social proof is one way to go.
You would be surprised how many CEOs/CFOs and other C-suite roles pay for services such as this one. It’s not a coincidence that you will find articles about them on certain websites. It’s all part of building social presence and social proof that comes in as a result.
Have you ever wondered what a paid personal brand article looks like?
You don't need to worry about not being familiar with Spanish. This is an example. You can find the full article on the link.
How To Find Sellers?
You will only need one account. The BlackHatWorld one and if you want to speed up things it’s recommended to get yourself a Telegram account. You don’t need it. But the communication between you and the provider will be faster. Since you will not have to rely on email communication - often slower.
The first step is typing out the search term. How to pull it off? Type the webpage you are interested in. In the example we are going to be as shallow as possible → Forbes.
You will see a bunch of the threads popping out as visible in the image below.
After scrolling for a minute or two - you will realize there are straight-up requests (WTB - want to buy) and other threads where you can find yourself a seller. As already mentioned above you are looking for guest posts/press releases.
The majority will be buying those since they are playing the SEO game. Here we are not the experts on the topic and we are not going to explain the logic behind it. But the general idea with backlinks is you build up your ranking. Meaning someone will search for the term Y and your webpage will pop out.
Last thing to do?
The vouch part will be completely on you. Unfortunately, we can’t help you much with it. But things should be pretty simple once you understand how the reputation system works on the website. You will notice that all “legit” sellers have something similar to this inside their threads.
That doesn’t necessarily mean ones that don’t have approval are not legit. But as we already mentioned make sure to vet. No reason to lose money because you didn’t do the vetting part right.
Few threads that are legit when it comes to service such as this one.
The examples provided here should be enough to get you started. Giving you general ideas on what you should be looking for when it comes to sellers. Not only sellers but also the forum in general and how credible sources operate.
Extra tip
Spend time researching forums when it comes to BlackHatWorld. It’s underrated when running a hustle on the side or trying to start one. You can find anything on the site - from old-aged outreach accounts to stuff such as this. Loads of value to be found.
BlackHatWorld was already mentioned in our earlier work.
Worth It?
We gave away all the magic there is when it comes to the “expensive” and often overlooked method of getting yourself social proof. At the end of the day, you will decide if the investment is worth it or not.
Stick to trusted sellers and don’t take too many risks. It’s easy for those without experience to get burned on “stupid” details. As a general rule, follow the sellers (thread links) we provided above, and you should be fine.
In our opinion, the investment is worth it. But keep in mind it’s on you to read up on the industry you are dealing with and whether it will benefit you or not. Better said how your prospects are reacting to certain exposure and the social proof behind it.
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