Duplicate content: One version is commercial and the other non commercial for linking purposes

[jamesjd7]

I wanted to know if the following plan would be considered white hat or black hat.

I am in the process of creating an instructional how to guide for a particular task.  My how to guide will be a DIY guide so that with time and practice, customers can do this task for themselves and save money.  I think that it would be a great resource.

I want to ask other websites for links to this how to guide but the problem is that my blog has a commercial feel to it.  These other websites that I plan on asking for a link probably won't link to my site because it promotes my services.  They would be non profits, etc.  My site needs to appear non commercial.

In order to get around this stigma, I want to duplicate my how to guide twice on my blog.  The first instance will be for normal visitors searching for my services. In the second instance, my banner, my tel number, my call to action will be deleted from my site.  My website will be neutral.  When I request a link from the non profits, I plan on sending a link to the neutral portion of my blog in the hopes that they will see a non commercial site and link to me.

What do you think?

I could also tell the webmasters that I've neutered my website for this resource only.

Will this plan give link juice to my root domain?

[jamesjd7]

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them.  Perhaps, my explanation wasn't the best.  I'm not planning on deceiving anyone unless you consider neutering a page as deceptive.  I could just tell them what is going on.  Plus, there has to be a link to my main page.

my blog is www.ocpatentlawyer.com.

[StoresDirect]

If you take the premise that the most valuable links are acquired by forming real relationships with people the strategy you propose seems short-sighted as you would be building relationships on a basis of deception.

As you haven't provided a URL I can't make any evaluation of how off-puttingly commercial your site appears. However, there is an alternate approach open to you, albeit one which requires more work.

My instinctive response to this problem would be to look for a way to make my site more attractive to the non-profits rather than hoping to get away with deceiving them. Perhaps this could be accomplished by dedicating part of the site to provision of free resources. Perhaps there are ways you could help the non-profits, or natural ways to show that you are about more than just the bottom line. There are many ways you can get what you want by giving people what they want - the non-profits may have a different agenda to you but there are probably ways to foster relationships by serving their needs http://www.seomoz.org/blog/99-ways-to-build-links-by-giving-stuff-away-and-improve-your-brand-too-14029

Suppose you use your "neutral" page to get links and it works. What happens when a potential customer clicks through to your neutral page? You miss the opportunity to convert engagement with your free resource into awareness of your product offering. It's like inviting people to the opening of a store with the offer of a free buffet then covering up all the products.

Although this strategy could bring some link juice to your root domain, it would be directed to a page you really don't want to rank or even for normal visitors to see. Seems like a waste to me! Personally I would be reluctant to devalue a linkbait page by "neutralising" it or to employ deceptive practices to promote a website. People don't like deception, search engines don't like deception, and if linking sites realise you've deceived them you are likely to lose the links.