Can white hat persevere?

I am seeing some challenges in my niche. I have been in the top 5 on page 1 in Google for over a year, but recently my site has slipped. It seems the competition, at least the ones I am concerned about are using questionable methods.

One of the folks has created multiple store fronts and they have all risen pretty quickly. I have looked at a lot of their links and found they are in articles that are obviously computer generated or at the very least outsourced, based on the very broken english and poor translation and transparent content.

The other competitor I have found is all over the ripoff reports, has his mug shot in several papers and was arrested for dealing in counterfeit goods, defrauding customers, drug possession and growing marijuana.

I write all my own articles, make my own pages and try to do things the "right way" but seems like I just keep slipping.

My niche is a little tough to write a lot of meaningful content that will get picked up. Is using UAW (unique article wizard) white, black or grey? does it work?

Is there anything that ban be done?

Thank you,

Of course… The strongest sites on the web are white hat sites…ie wikipedia

I doubt this is the reason for you drop. This type of stuff is pretty much useless unless the articles are on pages that have their own juice. People do not link to crap like that. If your competitor is a member of a content creation network it must be a pretty poor one with no quality control then. BUT still it sounds like your competitor is link building… Are you? If this is the method (submitting rubbish articles to article sites) he is beating you then you should be very happy because a couple of decent links will blow him away…

Marijuana possession is not one of the over 200 things in Google algo to the best of my knowledge… If he is all over rippoff sites good for you… These are positives but have no effect on rankings. BUT still it sounds like your competitor is link building… Are you?

It sounds like your competitors are building more links then you…

This is such a defeatist claim. Your competitors are in the same niche they have the same advantages and disadvantages of the product/level of competition/interest etc You are at no disadvantage as compared to any other niche… You need to think theme not just product…

What do you think? If you start creating trashy and/or plagiarized articles from others and post them on your own site or article sites do you think a) people will link to them b) Google will reward you…. Stop looking for a short cut…. Only two exist to my knowledge. 1) pay for the links 2) Create content that goes viral…

Create content that will earn you quality links and leave the bottom feeding scumbag tactics to your competitors

Your welcome… Best of luck!