Hey toy hackers welcome to this week’s Episode where we are going to be talking About link building and we are going to Be talking about it because link Building is changing quite a bit because Of the fact that everyone is now doing Shotgun skyscraper i did not expect this To get this popular but here we are Today and so link building is changing Again and acquiring quality links is not Just a matter of just mass emailing People to get links and we are going to Be talking about the ways you can adapt To this new reality in today’s episode So if you are excited for this team Building episode don’t forget to Subscribe like give us a comment etc These help the podcast and for now let’s Get started with the episode Hi everyone welcome back to the atari Hacker podcast as usual when we get a Lower number of downloads the week Before we make an episode only building The episode after so we get the Downloads back so here we are with a Bunch of link building tips that we’re Going to be talking about and i’ll be Honest i haven’t prepared very well for That podcast mark has done most of the Work so he’s going to be talking for Most of that episode but the truth is He’s the one managing our link building Team so he’s going to be the one that is Has more first-hand experience my main
Goal here is going to be uh you know Pushing him around and trying to find Flaws in our link building system As i as i talked to our team in our last Link building meeting i want plausible Deniability so if they do something Dodgy i can pretend i don’t know what’s Going on but i guess i will not know I will i will not have that excuse after That podcast sorry uh but before we get Started mark how’s it going it’s been a While actually that we recorded an Episode so i was dying to know how You’re doing if you remember in the last Uh episode Uh i talked about getting my wall behind Them painted Uh so that’s it’s happened i’m sure You’ll all have noticed um it’s changed From one very subtle color of white to Another very similar subtle color of White but i think it looks like the the Spread of like the english cuisine as Well you know when you guys cook it Looks it looks a lot less yellow i would Say um but this is just phase one so There will be many colorful things and Um i talked to a designer about getting A mural done on the wall today so you Know watch this space there’s a there’s A there’s a lot more to come Well such teasing uh yeah i i hope your Tips are better than your background That’s all i hope for the secret that i
I can promise you they will be Okay because literally mark did all that Stuff and we’re like did you do anything On the call i know and he’s like yeah of Course can you see and nobody now tim Noticed so yeah that that that was uh This is this is just the black expected More after that there will be there’ll Be more color coming soon don’t worry so It’s slightly whiter now yeah it’s not Yellow anymore okay well good enough uh Let’s just jump into the podcast oh by The way subscribe like etc and i wanted To say as well this podcast episode Might not be as well edited as it has Been in the previous week and the reason Why is because our video editor he’s Ukrainian and right now he’s running Away and trying to basically be safe so He doesn’t necessarily have time to edit The episode so might be released a bit Raw i hope you guys don’t mind and Actually we’re probably going to drop a Link for donation for ukrainians in the Description of this video so if you guys Want to do a donation go ahead and do That uh but yeah that’s probably why This is not going to be Very well edited but now let’s jump into The topic and talk about that uh so as i Said i didn’t prepare very much mark so You you are gonna have to host mostly I’m just gonna have to ask questions or Even though i know some of the stuff
You’re going to talk about Okay so This podcast this episode is basically a List of mistakes that i see a lot of People Who are doing link building in 2022 make Now i believe we’ve actually done a Podcast on this on mistakes uh people do With link building some time ago maybe Two or three years ago But a lot has changed since then a lot Has changed with our the way we do link Building paid links is in the mix now All that kind of stuff so i’m just gonna Go through a bunch of things one by one And you can kind of grill me on them to The best of your ability or you can just Sit there and you know to roll your Thumbs Whatever you want yeah Uh so the the first one we’ve got is and This is all based on doing outreach Based link building uh some of it will Apply to things like harrow as well but It’s it’s mostly for people who are Doing cold outreach and trying to get a Link So the first one is that people are Falling for inflated metrics now we all Need metrics to help us understand Whether a site’s good or not how Powerful the link is all this kind of Stuff but How good and how reliable are the
Metrics that your favorite keyword tool Uses Well we have to remember that any metric You’re you’re having Is just their estimation it’s not what Google actually thinks it’s the the Whole The the map is not the territory saying Uh and in recent years it’s been Possible and we’ve seen this happen Quite a lot actually as we’ve been doing Link building that site start gaming Their seo metrics So that they can sell people would do That yeah can you believe it you know Wow World really this is this was this was Very surprising to me in a non Stochastic and usually seo people tend To like really respect the rules and Just like play nice with each other and Stuff so i’m really surprised actually So there are two ways in which this is This is happening and uh the first one Is Sites are are basically gaming dr domain Rating or whatever the equivalent metric Is and ahrefs domain domain rating dr is Essentially a Zero to 100 score of how many Links slash how good those links are uh That the site has it doesn’t take into Account any on-page it’s an hs matrix as Well like but like other tools have
Other matrix similar like the main Authority and yeah it is called foreign Exactly now It’s possible To Use things like redirects from let’s say Google this doesn’t work anymore but Last year i believe or the year before Uh there was a way in which you could Put in like google.com Url Queue question mark Equals domain.com and it would it was Basically like redirects to your domain But it’s a redirect from Google from google.co.uk from google.in Yeah all these like google tlds Redirecting to your site and that would Allow you to Game your dr And there are any site which allows you To create a redirect to to your own site You can essentially do this uh and for a While this was working i believe they it They they kind of cottoned on to it but There are still plenty of other tactics Out there out there that are working Like this which i’m not going to go Through because i don’t want everyone Else to that was There was a lot that got patched like i Give an old one that worked probably Like six years ago um if you are adding Your website to your youtube profile it
Was actually a do follow link So you were getting like a dr 98 link or Something this just on day one of your Site and you jump to like the r20 plus Uh it’s been patched a while ago but Like there is still some around but a Lot of them are fixed now i would say Yeah but it’s it’s still possible and we See this almost every week sites which Have been gaming their their dr we think We’ve been gaming their their dr now you Might then think well well you know just Look at traffic then that will tell you Uh the the real deal like whether it’s a Legit site or or not well they’ve also Been gaming the traffic metrics on on Ahrefs and on on other tools as well So there are a number of keywords out There which have just insane volume Uh but very low keyword difficulty A famous example which was doing the Rounds on Various facebook groups recently was the Keyword 0x0 space 0x0 now this is some Kind of error that microsoft windows Displays quite frequently apparently Because 50 million people search for it Per year give or take And currently it’s keyword difficulty Seven when i looked at it last year was Keyword difficulty zero So What people were doing is ranking not Not even for the main term but for a
Variation or a long tail version of that Or even you rank on page two or three For that that term You’re still getting thousands or Hundreds of thousands of visits per Month according to ahrefs according to Sem russian Various other tools And That then if you if you’re not looking Closely If you’re looking at a site that has a Hundred thousand traffic oh it’s a legit Site it must be must be real but Instead what you need to go and do is Look at the top keywords report in Ahrefs organic search and then you can See are they all just ranking is all of The traffic from this one keyword and is It a [ __ ] keyword or are they do They have a ton of pages ranking for Relevant keywords to to the topic so it Takes two seconds just to do a little Bit more due diligence there but it can It can help you to To avoid this similarly with the the dr Thing if you just go into the backlinks Report sort by descending order of of dr And then if you see a ton of redirects At the top Then you can start to think oh maybe That something’s going on here they’re Trying to inflate their d i found a new One actually i was just what you were
Talking so uh a short link shortness They walk and they show us links on your So like the if you have a bitly Shortened link for example you get a dr 95 link ar 29 link to your site And that’s going to boost and like you Can probably find a hundred Link shortener sites that have like the R60 plus or something quite easily i’m Pretty sure you could boost dr quite Decently just doing that so yeah but Basically seos have been like oh we need Traffic we need to tr Links from urls with traffic we need Links from domains with traffic we need To see google likes it etc and link Sellers were like okay we need these Links and now they find a bunch of Shitty ways to take these metrics and Then people are just Blindly buying into this and the Industry is becoming hypocritical and Not very Uh not having a lot of critical sense Again and a bunch of people are buying a Bunch of [ __ ] links thinking they are Good links thinking it’s going to help Them but really their [ __ ] that’s what You’re saying Yeah basically um And it’s not so much that this is like a Huge problem it just happens a lot Because people are lazy and they don’t Look into the metrics yeah enough to
Really understand they just want that What’s the traffic what’s the dr It’s you know it’s in a spreadsheet some Somewhere their agency that they bought The links from has has given them those Metrics and they’re happy with that but Just a little bit of looking beneath the Surface and you’ll find all these these Issues the goal with with links you’re Getting is you really want to get a link From a real site right and the sites who Are doing this to to inflate their Metrics they’re generally Not real sites and what i mean by that Is they exist purely to sell you links They’re not Making money with affiliate marketing or With ads or with anything else because They don’t have real traffic they don’t Have A real business model they just exist to To get you links and you you generally Want to avoid Those sites i would also say that Certain agencies and they differ how They do this but they’ll often specify Oh we get you links but they all have Traffic and then they’ll give you a Minimum of they’ll say our minimum is a Thousand visitors per month But i don’t want you but a thousand Visits per month is not particularly Indicative of a good site always Especially if the site has like 10 000
Pages from guest posts or something Right yeah or if it used to have it used To have twenty thousand visits per month And it’s gone down to one thousand or Something you know so like that standard Yeah but that’s not the house ambition Is a very successful site you know the Trajectory of a site is important and so You know again just looking into the the Organic traffic over time we think about It a thousand visits per month that’s 33 Visits per day between you going to your Own site and Uh you know various crawlers and keyword Uh stuffing tools and all sorts of stuff Like that like the just the the the spam Traffic you gets normally takes you over That that number anyway so Um yeah it’s gotta be gotta be careful Careful with that So anyway that’s that’s the first first One following i have a question for you Where do you put your threshold then Let’s say the site is real if the site’s Real it doesn’t matter how much traffic They have um That’s the thing but if you’re only Relying on dr and traffic to look at Then you start getting into a situation Where you have to set criteria you know Dr this or above traffic this or above Is my requirements but If i’m doing a link building campaign And i see a
A real site by let’s say there’s a local Business um in Let’s say we’re doing our paintball site Again right and the local paintball Fields here here in edinburgh scotland Uh which is dr0 and gets 200 visits per Month but it’s a real business like i’ve Been there i haven’t actually but like Let’s say let’s have Um We’ll show the photo right now on the B-roll We can get me on the green screen with a Paintball gun you know going there Anyway you can just put pretend you have A mask yeah That’s good that’s a good one actually Anyway uh If i know it’s a real business then Finally i’m happy to get a link link From for from there uh the criteria Don’t really matter the case so i think Relevancy matters as well right it’s Like the less relevant the site is the Most successful you want it to be so It’s kind of that cone of like if the Site is very relevant i don’t care how Big it is but if the site is not so Relevant then i would want it to be a Bigger site and it’s kind of like you Have that that funnel basically where It’s like either big site that is uh not So relevant or small size that is Relevant and anything in between and
Kind of scales like the more Authoritative the site is the less it Has to be relevant for me to want to be There i would say that’s look at it and I’m i’m gonna jump ahead to like our Final one in the list just because i Think it’s relevant here um Yeah but One one thing i’m gonna talk about later Or let’s talk about it now is that over Overthinking bad links is is Just like pointless so you’re gonna get Some [ __ ] links in there um every site All of our sites have terrible links in There most of which we didn’t even build Ourselves one or two that we do build Ourselves which are bad looking back on Things slipped through but if it happens Like don’t worry too much about it you Know just just move on like it’ll it’s a Small Percentage number in the in the grand Scheme of how mainly you’re getting in Total so yeah it makes me it makes me Laugh it makes me think of uh of this Reddit i mentioned the the subreddit Just start i think one time they Actually made a post mentioning that i Mentioned them so maybe they mentioned That i mentioned them that they Mentioned whatever but anyway people are Taking uh the url of the case study site For tests and just like Picking that one bad like the couple of
Bad links that it has because it does i Would say some links is like it’s not The best thing some of them are great Some of them are not perfect and just Basically just betting on the downfall Of this site based on these three bad Links or something so it’s like i think That that goes to these kind of people Where it’s like yeah not everything that You do on all your sites is absolutely Perfect and you know you you’d show it To your mom let’s just say uh probably Not but at the same time Not everything has to be perfect Provided eighty percent of what you do Is good enough uh you probably do fine And uh you should check your computers You’ll see that you’ll find a bunch of Shitty things and i was gonna say you Should check the links of the top three Results of the most competitive keywords In your industry And you will find a lot of shitty links A lot of bad stuff etc and google still Puts them on top of everything so that’s I think for me that is the proof of Concept that you can get away with not So good if you look at any site’s Backlink profile you’ll find tons of Terrible links and this was something Which we did and a number of other Agencies did this back when we had an Agency uh if you’re pitching uh Uh a client and
They’ve said oh we’ve worked with this Seo agency before you just go through The links they built like oh yeah this Isn’t good look at this one look at this One look at this one it’s like very easy To find negative things that other seos Or in-house seos have have done Yeah it’s kind of like a game to get the Other guy higher than just uh like get Them get people to swap agency right i Mean that’s how it works and then people Are going to criticize your walk behind Your back when they go talk to another Agency your clients it’s just the agency Dance that’s how i call it Every time there’s a google update People go talk to another agency this Other agency finds those three things That are not so good highlight it to the Client says these guys are [ __ ] then They get hired the next update they Still get smashed and then they change Again basically the the classic agency Dance Process uh do you wanna join on the next Point yeah so the next one is on Unnatural placements so you Often see people stuff in a link where You can you can see why they’ve put it There because like there’s a keyword Related to it but they’ll they’ll it Totally won’t fit in with the context of It like There’ll be a link to your golf site in
The Car blog next to a volkswagen golf or Something like that or i Got i asked her a link building team for Any recent examples they had and they They sent us this one which i’ll put on Screen now it’s of uh most hated Countries in the world And then um I don’t even know why someone create This article But underneath colombia Just for the records i like colombia It’s not not a bad country at all um But it says like also stuff about the Drug trade and and All the like pablo escobar stuff and Then at the end it’s a someone’s just Stuck in the sentence by the way people Like to date and then the anchor text is Colombian girls and it’s a link to like Uh i don’t know dating site or catfish Sites yeah Um and it’s just like That that is the least amount of effort Someone i think i’ve ever seen someone Put into to get get the make the link Placement look natural it just It stands out a mile away and it’s just Just not good so the litmus test here And what you should be asking yourself When you’re looking back on links you Make Is
Would this site conceivably Naturally naturally link to you there Now i know most sites aren’t linking to Your commercial pages and all that stuff But just conceivably could it happen uh In this case no nobody would ever link To uh colombian girls of the anchor text Right right there it makes noise Our friend eduardo would probably in That context but let’s not go there Okay We’ll get him on the podcast to talk About the darker side i think he would Be Very interesting but uh yeah i i it’s On the other hand you know if i wanted To be playing devil’s advocate i think Like how much does that really affect Seo and how much does google will you Catch this I’ve seen sites rank which really really Really out of context links like that Um so I think it’s more i would recommend this More for the sake of safety if you get Manually reviewed or something like that Um As for algorithms picking this up in the Cleanest way Not So much i’ve seen seis do quite well With just buying placements on random Pages like this so i i agree but that’s It that that’s that’s kind of what i
Wanted to say is to to do this properly Is it’s really not difficult at all i Think there’s there’s two things that People people miss Uh first in when you’re doing a link Insertion which is when you are Paying for or getting another site to Uh add your link to an existing article It can be tricky right if the if the Right sentence or the right paragraph Doesn’t exist in there um trying to Stuff in a few words or or find Some anchor text it’s difficult So just write another paragraph uh two Sentences is enough and you can stick at The end of one of the sections and and Fit it in and it’s really not in fact It’s sometimes easier it’s faster to do That sometimes than it is to really Figure out exactly where the best place Within the article um should be i think It’s also obvious when you put it at the End I think it’s much better at the Beginning so like in that paragraph for Example you could have put like despite People loving to date colombian girls Colombia is still one of the most hated Countries because blah blah blah and Then you would put that link and it Would already feel a lot less bad even Though it’s obvious because it’s the Only link like that in the article if All articles if there was two or three
Things like that in the article it would Be a lot less obvious i would say So don’t put it at the end put it mid Sentence or the beginning it is uh Usually a lot a lot less obvious i would Say and the the other thing to consider Is if you’re doing a guest post where You’re you’re writing the whole whole Post and sending it what often happens In companies and agencies is You’ll Come up with a topic you’ll agree that With the host site you’ll then go to Your writer and say hey can you write an 800 word article about this topic and They’ll they’ll do it and then You the site owner or the link builder Will then go and take that article and Like fit the link in Uh First of all that creates more work for Yourself and you’re encountering the Same issue where it’s sometimes Difficult to fit in if the writer hasn’t Written it with this in mind so what We’ve been doing quite successfully Lately is we have uh targets lists for Uh like high and medium and low Sometimes priority Places that we want to link to on our Site and so when we give uh A guest post to write to to one of our Writers we give them this target list And sometimes even hey we want to link
Specifically to this page can you can You fit in so we just get the writer to Do the work and then it’s much easier For them to naturally uh fit it in Uh so that’s that’s that’s Again a really simple thing but it helps A lot Yeah i think a lot of people are really Lazy in their placements and i think It can have i would say do it for people Like uh if you’re gonna pay for the Placement maybe like write it for people Because if you ask the site to do it A lot of people probably won’t do it to The standard as you expect it to be done To be honest Uh next Yeah so the next one is paying for links To your low value pages So Back in the day when we weren’t doing Any paid paid links taker shots um They were We would take a link to really wherever We we could get it because we were so Happy that people would would link to us But i mentioned this before we talked About paid links when it becomes more of A transactional thing we’re giving you This so you give us these these links Uh then you can be a bit more I guess demanding on exactly how you Want that to to go down So one thing which i see a lot of people
Not do is they’ll though they won’t Have a clear idea about where they where They’re trying to link to or which pages They’re trying to push or which which Pages on their site have a lot of Internal links to other pages they want To uh push so you know stuff link juice Flows around uh which is a big thing so Just first of all having a targets list Very important and then second when You’re when you have the opportunity to To get get a link like go for that Commercial link to the Uh affiliate review or the the sales Page or whatever Uh it is that it’s hard to build links To naturally right if you’re if you’re Whatever makes you money yeah uh just Just do that yeah don’t be afraid to to Ask for that Yeah basically when you pay for links The rules change right you dictate how It’s done not the site not like you’re The customer at this point and so you You dictate how you want that service to Be executed not the site that hosts the Link deciding how they link to you Because they’re doing a favor to you It’s a huge change of dynamic um and i Think um a lot of people have made that Transition for paying for links we’ve Made a lot of podcasts on that so you Guys can go check that out but I think people have not necessarily make
That made that mental transition despite The fact that maybe they have switched To paying for links uh and i think yeah You you need to treat this like i’m Paying for that service this is how i Wanna and sometimes you might you know You might want For example what i like is i like to Request a link On the page that receives a good amount Of link on that site for example i think That has lots of value to me rather than Like a random guess random page that has Zero link or something so i think uh That’s you know i put the site in hrefs I look at the top pages by link and then I look at kind of a connection to one of My money pages and i’d be like okay guys I want from this page to this page and i Want decent code text uh even if it Costs small usually it’s not going to be That much more that it’s given how much More valuable that link is going to be I’ve almost never seen but i don’t think I’ve ever seen a situation where we’ve Agreed okay we’re gonna pay you x for a Link and then we’ve told them what link We’ve had and they said oh no sorry we We’re gonna charge you more for that Because it’s a review or a sales page And even if it happens if it’s a bit More it’s like what i mean it’s not Mother target on your side it’s more the Page on their site where you want the
Link from because Some pages are also 100 times more than Others depending on the links they Receive right the links to page And so if you pick the right page on the Domain you can really get a lot more Value from your links and so um I i would be willing to pay even up to You know 1.5 times if uh if it was the One of the top three most linked to page On the site versus like a random page That receives no external link and so Yeah changing that relationship Dictating how you want things uh Negotiating around that i think is Something that not many people do and i Think also people are lazy to even do That work of finding the most valuable Pages on a given domain and doing that Connection with their sites because you Need to find a relevancy link as well Between them you can’t just pick the Most link to page uh you need to find a Way that you would insert your link in a Semi-natural way at least so but doing That work you get so much more mileage And you get much more bang for your buck As well if you’re paying for links i Would say The the other thing on this i would say Is that if you if you have a target list Of let’s say 20 sites that you’re Working on make a google analytics Custom report with all of those uh urls
In it and then you can you can track Over time how much traffic those those Pages are getting and is your link Building working it’s quite motivating Like the cohort that we’ve been looking We’ve been working on for like last Three months which is doubled in traffic Um on one of our sites so it’s really Good to to see that it’s quite Motivating for the link building team as Well to kind of see the fruits of of Their labor Um sort of on a similar note to this as Well and we’re talking about not being Afraid to to ask for things to ask for Links to specific pages don’t be afraid To ask for more than one link as well And again this especially goes when You’re you’re paying for links but also Works on on free links as well uh if You’re doing a guest post it’s a good Opportunity to get a lot of uh to put Multiple links to Your content in there especially because You can shape your content right write It in such a way that you reference you Know several different resources around Your your site that you want to link to Or You can also link to other people’s Sites that are doing link building as Well and you can get into the situation Where you’re doing this trade like we’ll We’ll get you one link from this this
Site and you get us one from a Similar-ish kind of uh site and and you Can enhance your link building by kind Of doing other people’s link building at The same time it doesn’t cost you Anything extra and it doesn’t really Take any any extra Effort so if you Know other people who are doing link Building this swapsie kind of thing is a Pretty popular tactic these days as well We’re doing quite a bit of these these Days i think uh i mean yeah it’s it Works basically combining the efforts of People and making your team basically That’s becoming uh it’s becoming a team Game versus uh so if you’re if you’re Too you’re gonna be able to if you’re Doing link building and you want to swap Then get in touch you know we’ll see Where we can Just go in the comment section on Youtube just just find people if you Want to um i i i want to i wanted to say As well that uh like really One One kind of theme of this podcast i want To get across crosses When you’re doing negotiation when You’re doing link building like Don’t be afraid to ask for a little bit More because More often than not they’ll they’re Happy to to give you extra links to
Um you know link to higher value pages From higher value page all the stuff is Once you have that agreement in Principle and you’ve agreed to pay them The money it’s They’re kind of happy to accommodate you Is what i’m saying Yeah you’re the client yeah Uh what’s the next point Uh falling for guest post farms so this This kind of falls under what we talked About before with the inflated metrics But it’s it’s different because you you Get a lot of Uh guest post farms which don’t have Inflated metrics like they haven’t been Using those tactics i i described Earlier they just gen uh legitimately Have that uh authority or the the domain Rating or the the traffic This may be because the site you know is Just it’s just old or they have done Some legit seo in the past or it’s a Drop domain it’s a very common thing That that people do they’ll get a drop Domain that’s you know dr 60 or Something rebuild the site turn it into Create a bunch of general categories uh So that they can Appeal to a much wider audience and sell More links and then uh Yeah That turn that into the the business Model selling so you can make good money
Uh doing this i know Of i don’t know them personally but i Know of people making you know seven Figures a year selling links um this way With a Portfolio of so why are we building Sites again Oh i mean it’s a It’s a fairly short-lived game i would i Would imagine i don’t think these uh Well Once Everyone watches this podcast they’ll be Wise They’ll be hemorrhaging customers by the Way next week we have our new site farm Blueprint to teach you how to sell a Bunch of shitty links no that’s not true Um but uh yeah i mean i i think it is it Is a viable it’s a there’s a demand for It Um and and you can make money from it And i think the truth is i think you Don’t need to be as talented as you have To be for Some other more absolutely absolutely And i think this Sometimes happens more in the agency World because as site owners we’re we’re Very concerned with how we spend our own Money right but with an agency Especially if the client’s not that seo Savvy uh you know you’re getting them Links they don’t really know what to
Look at and think oh it’s a real sale as Traffic okay Fine um so They’re more willing to Uh take that route than than perhaps we Are i do have a good example of a site Here this film daily um we see tons of Sites like this and they They just cover every topic you know News tv lifestyle learn all this stuff That’s my movie yeah which i’m going to See on thursday so no spoilers please Um i haven’t seen so Sites like this when i look at this site I My spidey sense just goes off uh and i Think this this could potentially be a Uh a guest post farm and the reason for That is because there’s it’s not really Obvious who’s behind it there’s very Rarely uh an about page or a real person And the only Business model that they seem to have is Is just pumping out [ __ ] content if you look at the the Links that they have uh The sites that they’re linking to Recently It’s all checking that right now yeah Asian Onlinecasino.net yeah yeah Casino.com 777 pokeys.casino Golden reels blog that doesn’t look very Uh
Very promising yeah so like the number One report i i don’t even try to think i Just throw them in hrefs i look at the Linked domain report i look for the Casino size you have to be careful Pretty much you have to be careful Though because if you go and say people Hey if you look uh look at that report And find those sites don’t don’t get a Link You’re not building any links because All of the casino sites they’re they’re Getting links on these sites but they’re Also getting links on not all but many Of the good sites as well especially if They’re if they’re paying i’m looking at The density of casino sites let’s just Say that Yeah So like i’m looking at how often i find Them compared to other types of proper Sites Yeah so that is That is the way to do it but there’s Obviously a lot of nuance in that and It’s so it’s it’s hard to Give a blanket rule and and often people Will will Decline a good link just because they See one casino site in there which which You shouldn’t do they’re pretty good Casino sites they have lots of money so They do get links yes uh and they like Eventually google could just not discard
Any site that has got links to casino Sites because i actually like how that Links to a ton of candid casino sites Because everyone’s trying to get edu Links and stuff yeah um so like what we Discovered harvard.adu like what do we Do Um no that’s not how it goes So yeah you need to be a little careful With that but like you you know when i Open the repo and like You know i don’t even scroll and i see Like six casino sites And then next to something called Buytruefollowers.com which i know this Is you know selling followers on Instagram etc and it’s typical industry That’s buying links Uh i see this golden ring stuff this Like this rock like A lot of dodgy stuff basically if you See like male enhancements casino uh Like basically as soon as you start Falling into that it’s becoming uh very Frequent in your link report then Yeah On top of like being a side that talks About everything that’s when you’re like Yeah probably probably not a good target So again a site that talks about Everything is not necessarily a guest Post farm but a lot of them are so it’s It’s one thing to to to be aware of Um
Yeah if there’s no real person behind it And if you’re linking out to a ton of Crap sites and then be very careful Yeah yeah and what are the metrics of That site actually like is it okay i Don’t know let me uh just check that Actually i’m opening it 73 73 actually And uh 930k organic traffic so here you Go like metrics that people would be Quite excited about And and and to be frank like do you Think like how much do you think a link From that site helps your rankings Like it’s a very vague question because Like how much is like you know six it’s Like I think there are two yeah i think there Are two scenarios Either it has no impact at all Or Which i’m Or it does have some impact already um But it may not in future it’s even Better than it depends So Either it helps or it doesn’t yeah But exactly thank you If if if if i was going to put my money Out i would say that it probably Actually does In some way uh it works it does work At the moment yeah no i i’d say Having that link will Improve your link portfolio overall
Today um but i wouldn’t necessarily want To get that link just because If google was releasing an update that Was targeting links that kind of links i Would believe would be Within the target pool Absolutely like i think it’s it probably Helps today in today’s environment if Nothing changes ever it’s probably a Link that is valuable to get Um the day google releases a link update Which one day will happen i don’t know If it’s in two months or if it’s in two Years uh but one day google will look at Links again Uh that might not be the kind of stuff That passes the filter and this comes Into Your appetite for for risk and what kind Of business you’re building is it Short-term long-term these casino sites These crypto investment things You know they make they make a ton of Money really quickly but they’re not Lasting 10 years you know that Something’s gonna happen to to these Sites and they’ll just move to a new Domain and build it again you know start Or they have 10 other ones So Their appetite for risk is going to be Different from yours you know hopefully If you’re you’re building a legit Authority site that you want to last for
Years decades even Uh so that’s why it’s a little bit Different i think that’s uh that’s a Debate i’d like to open another podcast One day like is it not now that you’ve Pretty much opened up to buying links Um now the question is like Is it more profitable slash easier to Rank and tank Or build in the long term you know Obviously we are attorney hacker we’re Promoting long-term business but i think I think when you cross that line of Paying for links That is a question that uh Needs to be discussed even though you Might strongly feel for one way or Another i think it’s an interesting Discussion to have uh probably you don’t Do anything illegal at all i do think It’s interesting i also think it really Depends on what what is your selling and What business you have I mean yeah i would say that ethically You know our our values our morals are You know pretty pretty decent uh Certainly compared to a lot of sites i’m A good person um Yeah But you know the more you go into that Um Like short-term short-term short-term Play uh the more this stuff is is Worthwhile but like it’s it’s more case
Of is that that kind of business you Want to run or life you want to lead you Know i know one person who who ran a Bunch of like borderline scammy sites Like that and uh had a mental breakdown Uh of it just couldn’t take it anymore And uh Yeah they don’t do that anymore so i i Don’t know who that is but uh i always Used to make that uh That joke that uh people like you know Stuck that money that uh like paid Affiliate forum right a lot of people do Like porn ads and stuff like that and Working is really dirty industries and The joke was that the job is to Photoshop dicks on photoshop all day to To sell some male enhancement or Something like this and it’s like a Terrible a terrible terrible uh Lifestyle basically and actually i Talked to some of them and it’s like Well they made tons of money it really Is not like so there’s a there’s a lot Of questions to us but i think what is Interesting is that From the moment you start paying for Links you’re kind of making one step in That direction and it’s it is right it’s Uh If you were really legit if you were Like 100 pure and everything you would Not even pay phones right you’d be like No my stuff’s gonna be so good i will
Never pay for links and i’ll just accept The long run etc so once you’ve made That first step i think it is that Question of like how far do you go and Why like uh what what is was it what is Not was it and what fits into your System of ethics as well as a person Um But uh but it’s like I think we should make a whole podcast On that maybe we should even invite People or something like i think it’d be A cool one to talk about If you have a mail enhancement site and You would like to come on this podcast And talk about it I don’t think i don’t think we’re ready For that on our podcast yet um but uh But i i i a lot of these things are Questions like is is money more Important to you or like is uh just Running a decent business but having a Good life like a la a work and a Lifestyle that is interesting because it Was the same with pbs right when pbs Were all the rage and and uh i i now People have realized and that just Paying other sites is cheaper than Running pbns for a lot of people Um Like people were just setting up WordPress all day and just Doing shitty sites all day long with fun Content and so on it was terrible it
Wasn’t fun right but some people were Making really good money selling pba Selling uh payday loans on these and Selling all these like a really Expensive offers And uh And it was An interesting question of like the Balance of like happiness quality of Work Growing your own skills versus how much Money they can make basically Um so i think we should we should open That topic at one point because it’s an Interesting Uh topic Um Do we have one more point yeah we have Two more uh so the next one is Failing to negotiate or failing to Negotiate hard Uh and this is a A real issue i see a lot of people doing Outreach especially because Us as website owners tend to be more Kind of introverted and less like salesy Hard negotiator type Um but you really kind of have to when You’re You’re paying for links especially And i’ve seen a lot of guides out there Say that you should you know low ball Them by fifty percent or a bit forty Percent of what they they offer and
Stuff Um i don’t need to say any like general Rule that you can you can apply because Some sites really over inflate their Value um and and you really do need to Super low ball them so our rule of thumb Is that if it makes you or if it doesn’t Make you really uncomfortable Offering Uh like a really low price back to them Then you haven’t gone low enough so if You’re like oh yeah that’s about fair Price then you need to go lower you need To be uncomfortable with the number and Be almost embarrassed that you’re Offering so low Because i can tell you from from doing This a lot it just works Uh we’ve got a put example on the screen Um Where this this website was we’ll blur Out the the actual website but they were Charging us 175 pounds for a guest post That was their first offer And we responded can we make it work at 30 this one time 175 Pounds about what 200 dollars 220 So 30’s 35 bucks something like that a Huge What’s that a sixth of what they they Offered And then they said yes 30 pounds is fine Thank you You don’t ask you don’t get
Now Sometimes i’ve watched the apprentice so I know i know all this stuff you know Sometimes what happens is a site will Use a negotiating strategy of telling You that they don’t negotiate so they’ll Say the fee is In this case i’ll put it on screen 99 This is non-negotiable And so what do we do Uh We negotiate with them uh so we we all We low-balled them we offered them forty Dollars i think was an alright site they Said no it wouldn’t be possible so we Went back and said Uh we would be able to stretch to fifty Dollars this is the most we can do can We make it work and they said okay So the non-negotiable people who are Selling for 99 Uh went with 50 in the end and they Named their first son mark as well so And this is this is just uh this is just A couple of examples you know if you’re Doing this uh a lot then you really need To be pushing hard pushing into your Pushing out of your comfort zone and uh You can get a lot a lot more than you You’d probably expect If price negotiation isn’t working then Try and get extra links links to other Sites Links from different pages better pages
All that stuff um just just use every Angle i think yeah which page links to Your site it’s the negotiation point in My opinion because nobody cares i mean Maybe after this podcast people will Cover uh nobody cares and you can get as I said wait wait wait like a hundred Times better links if it’s the right Page linking to your site um so i’m i’m Surprised that people don’t care about This as much Uh and then the next point we’ve got is Also kind of around negotiation it’s Just on losing control of your your Emotions and this is a surefire way to Kill any negotiation There are In general two things that are really Frustrating or that are the most Frustrating i find with link building Negotiation One is when someone is Taking a lot of your time right you have A 50 email chain back and forward and They’re they’re arguing over the last 25 Cents of the of the of the price Um it kind of reminds me of i went to Marrakesh uh seven eight years ago in in Morocco and they have this like bazaar Where they’re selling all sorts of goods And they they just They spend hours negotiating not hours But like five minutes negotiating with You on everything and everything’s
Always 10 20 times more than the actual cost And everyone knows this everyone knows The game but they’ll do it they’ll bring The calculator out oh what’s your best Price go back and forth back and forth This whole Negotiation dance Is Designed to take your time so you you Kind of invested in the process You’re a bit tired a bit weary so you’re More likely to to concede and you’ve Come this far you’ve sent them in this Case you know 40 emails And then uh there’s like the five Dollars what they’re arguing over the End so like oh i’ve invested all this Time it’s a sunk cost i might as well Just agree to it so you get a little bit More now for some people for some sites It’s worth doing that To squeeze a little bit more uh money Out of you i find it quite annoying as Someone who you know values his time Um but you have to kind of like keep Control of your emotions and and avoid Um Giving in too easily or You know saying something you you Probably shouldn’t to them um in an Attempt to get it done quickly because It’s it’s not going to not going to help The situation at all
And the other Negotiation Situation is when they just don’t really Have a good idea of what their site’s Worth so I mean this is fine if they if they Underestimate it but often they’ll Overestimate it so you’ll you’ll be Looking for a link for uh from a dr40 Site with You know ten thousand traffic or Something like that and they’ll say oh That’s six hundred dollars And it’s like there’s no way in hell It’s just it’s so far out that that’s That doesn’t even make sense and you Have this uh You try and negotiate and i’m sorry it’s It’s fixed or the most the best i can Use 590. something like that And they just don’t understand Like influencer deals or something yeah So that that’s that can be a common Thing that they they think you want Access to their their brand or their Their community or something yeah they Don’t even really have one as i we just Want the link uh so they they’re kind of Unaware and As Try as you will to kind of educate them On on how the the whole market for that Works it’s just it’s pointless uh you’re Wasting your time with that uh so just
Move on and and find another site really Um So yeah just in general keep control of Your emotions and uh and remember it’s Always it’s a business deal it’s not Personal so Don’t get too frustrated when When people piss you off because they Will and a lot of people don’t know About seo as well like it sounds like It’s like you know when you are in this Industry you think like everyone knows That stuff like when i talk to people i Just assume everyone knows exactly how Google ranks stuff but like no like when I tell my mom how does google run stuff She thinks that it’s when people click On the results you know which you know It probably is part of it but like uh It’s probably it’s not it’s not the main Thing you know it’s like otherwise like You never have a chance if you don’t Rank number one um so yeah so it happens Uh Anything else that we need to cover Uh no i think that’s that’s everything All right well thank you everyone for Listening we hope the editing was okay For that podcast we don’t really know How it’s going to come out to be honest Uh but we are thinking very much about Maxim or video editor who is good friend Of ours and uh hopefully he’s going to Be okay
And thank you for listening and yeah i Was just going to say remind people Again i’m not exactly sure what format We’re going to do but in the youtube Description and comments we’ll put a Link so you can donate some money to the Good people of ukraine in this uh Difficult hour of their yeah Exactly so uh please do that and also Please while you’re down there just Click on the like subscribe all that Stuff And uh we’ll see you in two weeks for Another episode have a good day bye [Music] You