Doing Outreach and Most Sites Asks for Money. Is It Bad to Pay?

[Titan243]

I’ve been reaching out to websites in my niche regarding guest posting for a couple of weeks now and most of the time the websites want money to include a link in the article or our bio on the page. Is this normal? I don’t necessarily have an issue with paying $30 or $50 to acquire a backlink from a DA 20+ website (from a monetary view) but I’m worried about the long-lasting effects.

This may be a really basic and dumb question (because I think the answer is already “yes”) – but is this considered buying backlinks? And is this always a bad thing? The content being provided is quality and the websites being pitched aren’t spam; but so far pretty much every website that has responded wants to be paid to include a guest post on their website. Is funding guest posts in this way still considered whitehat SEO?

Previously, I only considered PBNs and services that provided you with “X backlinks of DA XX” to be buying backlinks but I’m ready to stand corrected.

 

[Ryuzaki]

but is this considered buying backlinks?

Yes.

And is this always a bad thing?

No.

Just don't accept an author biography or anything that says "this is a guest post by blah blah" because all of that is supposed to be nofollow and if it isn't Google may apply it, and there's been manual actions because sites collected a lot of guest posts that announced they were guest posts but didn't use nofollow.

If you give them a guest post, and this is some low tier site and you just want the link instead of the branding, then take just the link (rather than credit for being the author). Google won't know the difference in these cases, as long as you're sensible about your anchor texts.

 

[CCarter]

Is this normal?

Well, on the flip, why would anyone take time out of their day to do anything for free? Especially knowing it will genuinely help you make more money. Out of the kindness of their hearts?

 

[bernard]

I’ve been reaching out to websites in my niche regarding guest posting for a couple of weeks now and most of the time the websites want money to include a link in the article or our bio on the page. Is this normal? I don’t necessarily have an issue with paying $30 or $50 to acquire a backlink from a DA 20+ website (from a monetary view) but I’m worried about the long-lasting effects.

This may be a really basic and dumb question (because I think the answer is already “yes”) – but is this considered buying backlinks? And is this always a bad thing? The content being provided is quality and the websites being pitched aren’t spam; but so far pretty much every website that has responded wants to be paid to include a guest post on their website. Is funding guest posts in this way still considered whitehat SEO?

Previously, I only considered PBNs and services that provided you with “X backlinks of DA XX” to be buying backlinks but I’m ready to stand corrected.

Authority Hackers have talked about this in some detail now, because it apparantly is so common.

They say to consider it an "editorial fee" and I agree. As long as it's only $30 or $50, then it's really just paying for someone to bother publishing and reading through it. Otherwise, as the internet is today, you could do nothing but read other people's guest posts.

The thing that matters is if the site is legit or a guest post farm or in the process of becoming one. Out of the last 20 blog posts, how many are paid?

You might also want to look into offering them a link exchange or social media mentions instead of money. Usually a legit webmaster will prefer those, because they can't buy a link for $50 anyway.

 

[PaulDragos]

I’ve been reaching out to websites in my niche regarding guest posting for a couple of weeks now and most of the time the websites want money to include a link in the article or our bio on the page. Is this normal? I don’t necessarily have an issue with paying $30 or $50 to acquire a backlink from a DA 20+ website (from a monetary view) but I’m worried about the long-lasting effects.

This may be a really basic and dumb question (because I think the answer is already “yes”) – but is this considered buying backlinks? And is this always a bad thing? The content being provided is quality and the websites being pitched aren’t spam; but so far pretty much every website that has responded wants to be paid to include a guest post on their website. Is funding guest posts in this way still considered whitehat SEO?

Previously, I only considered PBNs and services that provided you with “X backlinks of DA XX” to be buying backlinks but I’m ready to stand corrected.

This is the industry today. If you want results you got to pay.
No way around it I'm afraid. There is no way to go around the system. Competition is more fierce than ever in every niche. Even what were considered 'easy niches' in the past, have become more competitive nowadays