Question

What do you guys think about the paid courses that go for $997 that preach you, whitehat link building still exists (you don't have to pay websites to get a contextual link)? I'm talking about the people that tell you it's the subject line that matters when writing an email, that tell you to write content better than what they're already linking out to, that tell you we don't "pay" for links etc. Do you guys have any success with this type of "whitehat" link building strategy? (the quotation marks are there for a reason) If I'm sending out 100 emails I'll get maybe 50 replies out of which 48 will say that you have to pay $235 for a link (idk what's up with that number but it's very recurring) and 2 will allow a free one which are basically useless because they're just shitty websites, okay that sounds bad, they're okayish websites. Out of spite I get the two because writing solicited is exhausting. P. s $997 is just a number I came up with since that's mostly used by "influencers"

Answer 1

For that money, you'd be better off attending a Blackhat World conference.  

Comments

@donaghue6 Collins Aymen to that. The nuggets that you get from blackhat can sometimes point you in the direction of whitehat. Idk if that makes sense.  

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Anybody talking hat color already has some dark stains on their pretentious white lid. One can pick up well-rounded advice at BHW though.  

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@donaghue6 Collins Nobody could've said this better.  

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@ichor Do tell. Then $1000 guru class will reinvent your entrepreneur spirit but the same money at BHW will permanently taint your soul?  

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Case in point. What a bizarre response.  

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@ichor I think you picked the wrong group. This group is about using search engines like organic ads. You seem to be interested in ad hominem.  

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Bizarre again, now stooping to trying to make this personal. I mean seriously.  

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Crazy-making might not be registered in the academies as a fallacy, but it is a form of gas lighting which is utilized in ad hominen narratives. Not ad hominem is responsive to the question, which in this case is and only is "What part of what is the bad advice referenced in the comment? "

Answer 2

Yes. White hat link building is still the way to win on the toughest keywords. You can’t fake it. I don’t know of any courses that teach it. I’m curious if they exist. There are tons of little pieces to it. It’s not fast or inexpensive. It is a great value though, and has worked the last 15 years.  

Comments

@donaghue6 Oh absolutely, it's just trial and error. Maybe the mainstream link building strategies are all exhausted and it's time to test out new ones  

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@shayn1 I’ll tell you the secret. Spend 100 hours researching and writing the piece. Just make sure you have the right topic first.  

Answer 3

SEO courses sell well. You can get free white hat links from places where it's in their best interest to link. For example you can get links from embassies to posts about visa conditions. Etc. But that content has to be driven by sharing value not by "SEO".  

Answer 4

I love HARO when it comes to link building, , , provide value, , perfect pitch plus perfect link!  

Comments

@quaggy I stopped being a fan of HARO because of A some of the websites that you get a link from get pummeled or are in the process of getting pummeled by Google and B and this is a big reason, 95% of the time they're not niche relevant.  

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HARO's great for links you can show off, but in terms of moving the needle, it's a lot of work for a link you can't control. It's not like you can tell the journalist to add a link here to this page with the anchor text "lawyer in texas".  

Answer 5

Create really good content that has original research and network within your industry. Look at what Backlinko does.  

Comments

Takeaway from Backlinko is the effort he/they put to link outreach. It's way more than sending a few e-mails.  

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@almatadema39: That sounds great in theory, but there are certain niches where it’s next to impossible to come up with original research that’s compelling enough to link to. On top of that, even with a great outreach system in place, in some industries literally everyone charges exorbitant fees for linking out. It’s simply not always scaleable without a massive budget in place.  

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@passable what are the industries where you’ve found this to be the case?  

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@hidalgo: In the travel niche, for example, pretty much everyone charges for links—and absurd amounts at that. I've seen GPs on DA30-40 sites going for as much as $250-300 :O

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I was thinking about this comment section, you did mention backlinko right, everybody is going to link to Brian Dean because he is a figure in the seo community. Same goes for other people talking about link building and how easy it is for them to build links. But if you take someone like me or the 99% of people over here it won't be easy to score "whitehat" links. Sure he has "examples" of people doing those types of link building but we don't even know the back story of those people. And it's like what @passable said it's impossible to get links in some niches.  

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@shayn1: Yep, that’s exactly it. People have wised up since Brian Dean popularized skyscraper outreach. Most site owners these days know the value of a backlink and aren’t going to forego a chance to make a quick buck (or get a link back in return).  

Answer 6

I wouldn't spend that kind of money .  

Comments

@narcotize Your comments are super insightful, I usually look around for your comments in technical posts. Plus, I've found your take on EAT very fascinating.  

Answer 7

If you are getting 50 replies from 100 emails, you should be the one selling the course. And of course you have to pay for the link. Those people telling you that website owners are going to link to you because you "provide value" are mostly full of shit. That rarely will happen. Money talks.  

Comments

@boatload Hahaha. I literally lost it at the first line. I should've been more specific with those emails, so of those 100 emails, the first email is usually a super super generic one to get a conversation going which kinda bumps up the reply rate. I was just testing this idea out but nope, doesn't work. On another note, I always like reading your comments in other posts  

Answer 8

I can only answer what you specifically mention, but. 1. The subject line is indeed more important than ever in emails, given how low click rates are (but that doesn't mean the body of the email matters any less than before). 2. You should always strive to write the best content you can produce. That's never not been the case, though obviously there isn't one objective version of what "best" means - it depends on an array of variables. 3. Never pay for links. If you want to pay anyone, pay a PR pro to help you craft an idea to pitch to targeted media people. It's expensive, and sometimes doesn't work, but when it does it can be very powerful. Mass spamming for links. it can work, but SEO fundamentals is a better investment of time and energy in my experience.  

Answer 9

I'm in the home & garden niche and it's really unrealistic to obtain highy quality free links. The only free links we're getting are image reposting sites.  

Comments

@krakau2013 that is good to know because I am having the worst time trying to get links that don’t have a paid element. I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Lol

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@ryswick all my links are paid and all of my high performing competitors links are also paid.  

Answer 10

Yeah, I got a couple links this way a few years ago without a lot of effort

Answer 11

Pay me 2997 USD and I’ll tell you.  

Answer 12

I spent 91K on content writing last year with 2 full time and multiple freelancers. Content quality I get is rather impressive, but the only free links I get are those who does content partnership with you, and they actually take the entire content to be used in their site. Impact on ranking = close to none. Branding = just a little.  

Comments

@meeks76 how do you sell content marketing to clients given what you concluded (impact on ranking = about 0; branding = just a little)?  

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@hidalgo I am using the content on my own sites actually. The initial question was not about content marketing and quality, I was answering in terms of non-paid links, which I was referring it to a difficult and long process. A faster way to gain traction from quality content is actually to go out and obtain links.  

Answer 13

There's no whitehat link, i am watching thespurceseats from beginning, and now the site is a big site, for a week they are publish thousand of article and already autorithy, talk about whitehat , huh?  

Comments

@cyn8 thespurceseats?