McSpike - 7:44 am on May 5, 2011 (gmt 0)

I admire your skepticism... but I have made my living based on being a "broke" whitehater, albeit, I am still unsure what is truly considered "white hat". But my point is that even broke webmasters working from their living room apartment can outrank a big budget company any day if they use their brains rather than try to use their wallets. If you ask me, its obvious what Google wants...it wants useful sites for users. All the other things (links, onsite seo, etc.) is noise. Yes you need it, but if you make delivering something unique, useful and of high quality your priority, I say you will win the race and stay ahead.

actually, not my skepticism. it's the optimism of some that is to be admired. resources play a big role when you are to produce a lot of quality material as opposed to mediocre material. they play a role when you are to hire content producers that cost 5 times the ones that produce cheap but poor results. With content the saying "you get what you pay for" is very very real. Time also is connected to resources. You buy time with resources. It's resources that help you adapt and produce quality before the new change hits the streets. Resources help you test the theories you have in your mind faster. You can have more networks at work so you can see what exactly works: white, grey, black, red, blue... Quality, quantity and time need resources that is it.

As for the little guy beating the whale, sure, there are always chances to pick up the crumbs. That always existed. You pick enough and move on from there and learn a lot on the way up. You just come to realize over time that wishful thinking often is just that, a wishful thinking.