Black Hat Experiments is a new section on the blog where I talk about ideas I (or someone else) had that seem like a good idea.  I haven’t scaled them, tested them, or really done anything – I just think it’s a good idea.  Here is the link to the category section where you can “see” them all.  Black Hat Experiment Category.  Side Note: Guest posts are welcome to BHD right now – either for this section, script contributions, or discussions. It’s a great way to get some exposure to your blog, service, etc…  I don’t charge for guest posts, and I won’t take ones that just promote some service.  Contact me if you are interested.  I won’t post another one until we get a few comments (good or bad) on each volume.

Polls and Hot Trends – Using Auto Blogs to Clean Up!

FIrst what’s up with hot trends?

I’m sure by now you are aware of Google Trends.  If you aren’t – or don’t quite get it,  google trends provides you with the top search terms for the recent couple of hours.   If you are autoblogging using these terms you show up in googles blog search and get traffic.  You also get links back from *(via trackbacks) from other sites on the same hot topic bringing you in more traffic.

Why mess with a poll?

Many marketers use polls as a way of “tricking” folks into signing up for a CPA ad.  I’m sure you’ve seen those lovely ads that say things like:  “Is Madonna Really Sleeping with the Lakers?” Click here to vote and win an ipod.

It then takes them to a fake poll, and then they fill out the cpa offer for a free ipod.

The marketer gets a couple bucks and life goes on.

How to bring it all together and have it make sense.

So most people using hot trends to auto blog use polls but they only use one per site.  With a little coding you can easily have your poll ads match what’s going on.  Let’s see what’s “hot” right now:

So let’s say you use a plugin to allow PHP in your posts (phpexec I believe), and a plugin to put something at the top of every post (can’t remember which one – generic header I think).

You’ll have to be posting with just the “keyword” as your title – and nothing else.  So let’s pop in a little php code to the top of every post:

Do you think everyone else is searching for <?php the_title(); ?> right now?  Click Here to Vote for a Chance to win a FREE Ipod!

Let’s be honest and admit that you will have some “Duds”.  There are hundreds of variations you can do — such as:

Our last  <?php echo rand(15, 50 ); ?>visitors have also been curious about <?php the_title(); ?>.  Do you think you have something in common with them?  Fill out our “Profile” form for a chance to win a free mustang convertible.

Then take them to a page where they fill in a form about their age, weight, hobies, etc…  after they submit it send em on over to the CPA offer for the mustangs.  Make sure you grab their e-mail as well and dump em into a newsletter.

(note:  you could just hack into singlepost.php and do the same thing with out all the plugins – easier that way)

Basic little hacks to wordpress with some very basic PHP coding and you have a little more content on each page, a “new” User experience…. and a way to monetize crap traffic to a auto blog

This can’t last forever

Auto blogs that scrap for google trends get burned pretty quickly.  Here is how you protect yourself a bit.

1.) Install a plugin that “hides” categories from the front page.  This will help you pass any human reviews.

2.) Have “real” posts that do show up on the front page.

3.) After running it as an autoblog for a few weeks/few months turn it off – and make it real.  BURY that category so it doesn’t show up in the sidebar at all.

4.) You can always use something like power up wordpress to manage your real posts for all your autoblogs.  Bury that spam in a flurry of “legit” posts