Pay for Link Building or DIY?

Time is money, after all… Look at the entire picture when it comes to building a website. You have only so much money – that’s your cash budget. You have only so many hours – that’s your time budget. You have only so much expertise – know your limitations!

You don’t want to rush madly into building a website without carefully allocating funds, whether they be monetary or otherwise. If you are a good writer, you can take on some of your own content needs, using part of your time budget and expertise.

That frees your cash up for other, more time consuming things that could take you weeks but a professional could do in days. It’s kind of like building your own house – you might be able to swing a hammer and get the walls up, but it sure helps to have a licensed electrician to run your wiring!

If we are going to play with a house analogy, let’s move on to the plumbing. If you don’t have traffic, you won’t have any flow. This is where advertising can help; just make sure you’re not flushing your cash budget down the drain!

Having a professional’s help can save you untold man hours out of your time budget. It can also bring your site to monetization faster, so your site can start paying for itself. Once you have established a solid site with some good content, decent linking and a smattering of ads, you can test, refine and test again to continue improving your site.

Make sure you understand exactly what you are getting if you pay for SEO services, however. You should clearly state your expectations, and make sure they are realistic before handing over any cash. If you check your expectations at the door, you can be free and open to what the professional has to say.

If you feel uneasy about an SEO or feel conflicted, get a second opinion first. Then make sure you have an agreement hammered into stone, signed sealed and delivered, detailing precisely what they propose to do for you. You should be sure to ask what their obligations are during and after the service period.

A good firm will be as transparent as possible without revealing trade secrets, and will always be happy to sit down and talk with you and address your concerns. There really aren’t that many secrets in the SEO world any more – at least in the white hat realm. Just good, solid, proven to work SEO.

Shy away from any company that brags about black hat or grey hat tactics, and remember that they aren’t the ones holding the bag if your website violates any rules. If you don’t want to get banned later, don’t give in to temptation dangled in your path – if “I can get you ten thousand links tomorrow” sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Focus on your strengths and find a way to get a pro’s help. It can make all the difference in the world!