Black, White Or Grey?

As we are constantly tossing out terms like "white hat", "black hat" and "grey hat"- please share with other DP readers your definition of each.
There are many methods to gain traffic for income purposes, and they will indeed fall into one of the categories listed.
Surely there are no right or wrong answers in this regard, but plenty of opinions.

 

White Hat: The guys who do things by the book, how search engines want it done

Black Hat: The guys who do things dishonest, like cloaking

Grey Hat: The guys who do things the mainstream way, and the things that are looked down upon. They just do what works for them, whether its right or wrong.


thats how i see it

 

White hat believes "content is king" with a boost from good SEO.
Black hat will get you banned.
Grey hat pushes the limits and may or may not get you banned. Hopefully it just results in a warning.

"It is better to ask for foregiveness than ask for permission."

 

Your avatar looks like vagina. That's how I see it.

 

Gray Hat is the norm: where you follow the rules, yet you purchase links.

 

"there's no white or black, it's all shades of grey..."

 

if you're making more money than me and you use a strategy I don't know about, it's blackhat.

otherwise it's grey.

 

I think the techniques that can get you penalized or banned on Search Engines, are Black Hat

 

Avoid black hat, but look into some grey hat techniques, just be careful and sue common sence. its not really getting banned for using a method thats gonna get you a handfully of visitors.

 

Great responses so far...thanks!
Any more have thoughts to add to this?

 

The Spanish King who lose the war said ;
- you fight for only money,gold,treasure,but we only for honor..
Napoleon Bonaparte:
-yes you're right.Always The person is willing to work for what they “need”.

does anybody say white hat?

 

haha nice one

 

there's nothing wrong with blackhat. it can be rather fun, and it can pay-- at least for a while. just don't risk losing things (ie your quality sites) that you can't afford to lose. do it on different domains. if you're really paranoid, a different host with a different registrar for your domain.

it sounds odd, but playing with some blackhat stuff can teach you things that'll help you in the white/grey world.

 

Very interesting strategy.
The webmaster in me says that there are millions out there that have done just that at some point- even if today they are strictly "white hat".

 

most people that have very successful white hat sites have crossed over into black hat... at least a bit. well, maybe not most, but a lot.

it's also nice to be able to identify what your competition may be doing that's blackhat as well. where you go from there is really up to you

 

The world is not #000000 and #ffffff.... it's more of a mottled #cccccc.

 

In short:

White hat - Good guys
Black hat - Bad guys
Grey hat - either

If you want your website to be optimized fast and safe same time, use greyhat methods

 

It all really depends on the specific situation/site:

If you are building up a brand name, dont risk using blackhat.

If you wants some quick but pontentially non sustainable profits, use blackhat for quick but short term returns.