Thinking About Buying Links? Read This First…

Buying links is a clear violation of Google’s TOS.

But, we still (occasionally) pay for links, for a number of reasons:

1. It works. When done properly, there’s no risk of penalty because its impossible to distinguish what’s a paid placement and what’s not.

2. PR companies have been buying coverage for decades. You think that [fully funded] startup got coverage on FastCo because their “app” is so amazing? No, the wheels were greased.

3. It breaks Google’s rules, not laws. Have you seen the filth on Instagram? Companies are paying “influencers” to advertise products and are not disclosing it. This is breaking the law (and ethics), there’s a HUGE difference.

A perfect example of shameless, law breaking, product hawking bullshit that’s corroding Instagram.

We’re merely trying to get link placements from quality blogs that drive traffic back to a relevant page on our site.

Yes, we’re manipulating the algorithm, but technically all forms of link building (and SEO) are doing that.

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What NOT to do & what TO DO when buying links

Let me clarify what we don’t do:

• Use link networks (private blog networks, PBNs, anyone publicly selling links)
• Fiverr or any other low cost market place
• Vendors that email you with placements on authority sites

We take an outreach driven approach to buying backlinks:

• Focus on working with real sites and blogs, not networks or vendors
• Target websites that accept advertisements and ask for “native” placement as opposed to banner ads
• Find bloggers who don’t make any money and offer to “sponsor a link” on their website
• Offer to pay contributors at large publications for content

By finding our own opportunities, we’re assuring the links we purchase are on quality sites that not only build link equity, but drive traffic and awareness.

With that being said, let’s get into the gritty details about how you can execute this for yourself.

The process we follow to execute this at scale

Having a process allows us to stay on task and perform this at scale for multiple clients.

It’s important to note sponsored posts should be used sparingly – you don’t want to base your entire link building campaign around them.

In addition, make sure you thoroughly audit the website to understand anchor text ratios, link velocity and competitive landscape. Failure to do so can end up in your website getting slapped.

I’m not going to talk about campaign setup or tracking (we use Buzzstream). Let’s just jump into finding the opportunities and securing links.

Method 1: Find sites accepting ads, advertorials or sponsored content

The easiest way to find clean links to purchase is find websites that actively accept advertisers.

You can find them by using targeted search engine operators + keyword modifiers.

When selecting keyword modifiers, we want to start with ones relevant to the brand. Once exhausted, move into similar topics.

Allow me to demonstrate using an example from a Miami based immigration attorney client.

a. Keyword modifier set 1: directly related to the business

Legal, law, attorneys, legal blog, law blog, law blogger, etc.

Take these keywords, combine them with relevant search operators and exhaust all possibilities. Record all opportunities in your database.

b. Keyword modifier set 2: geo relevant

Miami, South Florida, Downtown Miami, Brickell, South Beach, Miami blogs, Miami bloggers, etc.

Take these keywords, combine them with relevant search operators and exhaust all possibilities. Record all opportunities in your database.

c. Keyword modifier set 3: topically related or relevant

Travel, travel blogs, travel blog, travel blogger, etc (immigration is loosely related to travel).

Take these keywords, combine them with relevant search operators and exhaust all possibilities. Record all opportunities in your database.

Method 2: Build a list of niche relevant bloggers

Offering a blogger money has the highest success rate of any outreach tactic we’ve leveraged.

99% of bloggers aren’t getting paid to write, they do it because they love it. When a business contacts them offering to advertise, it’s validation to their efforts – they love it.

It’s important to only targeting bloggers, not businesses. Offering a business money for a link is never a good idea, it’ll only damage your reputation.

There’s a ton of ways to find bloggers in bulk. Here’s a few:

i. Ahrefs Content Explorer

Ahrefs has quietly rolled out some amazing updates this past year, their Content Explorer tool is one of them.

I instruct my team to look for topics, not keywords, then filter based on quality and social engagement.

Click through on relevant results and scrape contact info with Buzzstream’s browser plugin.

ii. Search Google for ‘lists of bloggers’

Simply adding a keyword plus operators like “list of blogs” or “top bloggers” will result in hundreds of opportunities.

iii. Scrape Twitter or Follerwonk

I wrote an in depth post about this a few weeks back so I won’t rehash it here. Check it out for a step by step guide.

Method 3: Find ‘contributors’ to niche relevant publications

Honestly, I can’t believe major media sites like Forbes, HuffPost, Entrepreneur, etc haven’t gotten penalized yet.

Not only is their content terrible, but I get 3 – 5 emails everyday from different vendors hawking links on them.

That led me to discover how easy it was to find contributors and offer money for placement. Seriously, it’s crazy.

Here’s what to do:

• Go to a major publication in your niche
• Find a relevant section on the site (money, business, sports, etc)
• Look for “contributors”, NOT editors or staff writers
• Their emails are almost always in their columns
• Record them in your database

Just a forewarning, a lot of these contributors are not looking for money and will get pissed when you offer.

But hey, that’s part of the risk you run engaging in this type of outreach. This is a straight up numbers game and not everyone will be cool with it.

Pitching prospects and securing coverage

Now that you’ve got a massive list of opportunities, let’s talk about the right way to contact them.

NOTE: Please, PLEASE do NOT use our exact pitches! Take them and adapt them to your own brand. Using them word for word will only hurt the community!

i. Websites that accept advertisements (method 1)

Since these websites are actively looking for advertisers, it’s an easy pitch.

The key is to tell them you’re only looking for sponsored posts, NOT banner or email blasts.

When negotiating, check to make sure the following:

• The links are followed (NOT rel=”nofollow”)
• The post is NOT tagged with “sponsored”

Simply tell them if they don’t abide by those 2 rules, you will take your money elsewhere.

ii. Pitching niche relevant bloggers (method 2)

This pitch is a little more complicated. You could send them the same pitch as advertisers, but I like to take a different approach here.

I tell them I’m interested in inserting a link into an older post on their website. I do this for a number of reasons:

• It’s cheaper (you don’t have to write any content)
• It’s less intrusive for the blogger
• You can select a page with existing authority (i.e. links and shares)

I use Ahrefs Site Explorer to find pages with traffic, social shares and inbound links:

This ensures your link placement will receive traffic and extra equity.

Be aware though, this approach will cause some confusion and you’ll have to explain yourself further:

But, inevitably, they will accept:

iii. Pitching relevant publication contributors (method 3)

I’m not going to give you this pitch because it’s too valuable. It’s the reason we’re able to land our clients on major publications like HuffPost, Forbes and Thought Catalog for less than $150.

If you’re really interested in the pitch, you can grab it here.

Over to you

I’m curious to see the reaction from you guys on this post. Generally, I stick to writing about white hat link building tactics and this one is clearly gray (borderline black).

I’m always up for a good debate, so please, leave your thoughts in the comments!