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BLOG: WHAT LINK BUILDING COSTS

Nine pieces on the money side of this. What link building actually costs, what a given budget buys, how to outsource it without getting sold inventory, and how to brief a service so you get the thing you paid for.

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How much does link building cost in 2026?

Real numbers: per link, per month, by tactic and by stage. Where the cost floor sits and why nothing credible happens below it. Includes the arithmetic that shows why $99 links cannot exist honestly.

Pricing · 12 min

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How to outsource link building without getting sold inventory

The four supplier models, what each is actually good at, and the six questions that reveal which one you are talking to within a single reply.

Buying · 12 min

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Guest posts vs niche edits: which should you buy?

Different costs, different speeds, different risks. The ratio we run and why, plus the specific situations where each one is clearly the wrong choice.

Tactics · 11 min

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What $3,000 a month actually buys

An honest breakdown of where the money goes at three budget levels, what output each realistically produces, and the point at which buying volume stops making arithmetic sense.

Pricing · 11 min

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Cheap links: what they actually cost

The full bill, including the parts that arrive later — remediation, disavow work, lost quarters, and the awkward conversation when a competitor screenshots your backlink profile.

Risk · 11 min

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How to brief a link building service

The nine things to specify before the first call, written as a document you can copy. Getting this right changes the conversation from "what do you sell" to "can you do this".

Buying · 11 min

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Retainer, project or per-link: which pricing model to choose

Three commercial structures with genuinely different incentives. What each one makes the supplier optimise for, and which situations suit which.

Pricing · 10 min

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What is a link building campaign, exactly?

Campaign versus programme versus one-off. What a real campaign contains, how long each phase takes, and what should exist on paper before anyone sends an email.

Fundamentals · 11 min

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How to budget link building by funding stage

Bootstrapped to Series C, with the allocation that works at each and the specific mistake companies make at every stage. Includes when the answer is to spend nothing.

Pricing · 12 min

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