Did you sell links from your site?
Hi fellows!
Recently I started receiving emails about guest posts, broken links, etc. Some of the people who reached me were OK with paying for links and I earned some money.
After some research, I found out that I was targeted by Link building outreach campaigns (https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building)
Help me explore if there is an opportunity for creating business in this niche.
Do you get lots of such emails?
Did you sell links? And what was the price point? What was your experience?
I get TONS of emails like this, as I run two sites that rank in search for various terms. One of them was getting over 100k sessions per month pre-COVID.
I receive numerous emails per day, both about guest posts and looking to buy links.
For my travel website, about 1/3 of people don't pretend they want to guest post. They just straight up tell me they want to buy a link and ask my price. For my tech blog, it's 100% people trying to "recommend resources" to me. I think it's because they assume developers aren't savvy to the link building industry.
Personally, I do not sell links or accept guest posts from people looking to place links. Period.
My take is: If those sites email you, they probably email thousands of people and Google may eventually find a pattern in their links. Then, you'll get penalized for making a dofollow paid link and it affects YOUR website.
(It's also easy to tell which emails are poorly automated)
I don't judge people for selling links per se (it is extremely common and it is not illegal), but I personally use other tactics for link building that are a) not paid b) more natural.
If you personally want to sell links, I would definitely check the backlink profile of the proposed website (if they disclose it) and see whether it's full of spam.
Link building is a really interesting topic but there are few things I abhor more as a website owner than getting constantly spammed with automated backlink requests.
That's a black-hat method, and you'll be penalized sooner or later.
Its a big industry and outreach is good for any blog, buying links not legal according to Google, but lot of people in FB and forums selling their links. Because not many bloggers happy with adsense earnings and amazon affiliate incomes.
You can make money out of it, but keep away from spammy links, make it look natural as possible.
Thanks! Very insightful