A link building service would've charged me somewhere between $400 and $500 for a backlink I built this week.
I paid the site owner $110.
I'm still knee deep in my link building campaign, and this week I locked in three new links by emailing site owners directly. I want to show you the actual emails, the negotiations, and a free tool I built for you so you can start doing this today (I also made a video walking through all three if you'd rather watch).
But first, a quick note, because I think people way overcomplicate SEO.
I wouldn't say I'm an amazing at SEO, but focusing on the user signals and authority has made it work out.
There are literally hundreds of ranking factors and I couldn't name half of them. The stupid simple version that's worked for me:
- Define your SEO strategy with a single keyword people actually type into Google. Not a lengthy description of a problem nobody searches for (classic beginner mistake).
- Create content to maximize user signals. Value at the top of the page, immediately, based on what people are looking for. Worst case: short engagement time is better than a visitor bouncing.
- Tell Google (and the LLMs) exactly what you want to rank for with your headers and your page copy - basically on-page SEO.
- Build backlinks. Summed up in one word: Authority
Most of you already knew all of that. And most people do fine on the first three.
Backlinks is where everyone gets stuck. So here's exactly how I built mine this week.
Backlink #1: The $110 backlink that services sell for $500
The site: DR 59, around 6,000 monthly visitors to the root domain, 92% US traffic.
I wanted one specific article that gets 156 real human visitors a month (95% US). Some percentage of those readers will click through to my directory every single month, and that's the user signal I'm optimizing for.
It started as a complete cold email to a stranger:
Three hours later:
Great, we're not too far off!
But before agreeing, I pulled up the post I'd originally asked about and checked its metrics in Ahrefs. Strong DR, zero page traffic. Why would I pay $120 for a page nobody reads?
So I dug through their top pages instead, found their second highest traffic article (still totally relevant to my niche), and countered:
We met at $110. A better page than the one I originally asked about, for less than his counter, with my exact match anchor text sitting at the top of it.
So far, not a single site owner has cared whether I want a link placed on one page or another. If you check any reputable link building marketplace, anything near DR 60 with real traffic is $400 and up.
Backlink #2: The $85 link from a small blog
This one is a DR 23, about 1,300 monthly visitors. Definitely not the most authoritative site, but small blogs are my favorite links to build. The owners actually love their topic, they're easy to work with, and they reply fast.
This guy got back to me in under 30 minutes. His opening move? Negotiating with himself:
I countered at $85, mentioned my directory is a hobby project, and Venmo'd him the same day.
One trick I use every single time: once we agree, I send them one sentence they can copy and paste straight into the article. They don't have to write anything, and I get to choose my anchor text.
Backlink #3: Another backlink worth $500 (I paid $75)
DR 61, 1,400 monthly visitors, 97% US traffic. The page itself only gets 6/monthly visitors according to Ahrefs, but Ahrefs underreports constantly (my scratch and dent directory shows 65 monthly visitors, and it's actually getting 6,800), so a low page number doesn't scare me off when everything else fits.
Michael, the site owner, got back to me the next day:
Notice the ask at the bottom. His article was location specific, so if the article is "top 10 anything in New Jersey," your anchor text and your target page should be New Jersey too. More readers actually click it, and everyone wins.
I went with a branded anchor on this one, meaning the clickable text was the name of my website, not the keyword I want to rank for.
As you build more links, it's good to mix it up: some exact match, some partial, some branded.
Still nobody knows what a backlink should cost
I've sent roughly 330 emails now, with response rates up to 12% depending on the niche (insane for cold email).
I've said this before, and every week of this campaign keeps reaffirming it: backlink pricing is complete chaos.
Nobody knows what to charge. I've had a DR 6 site with zero traffic tell me it's $250 or nothing. I've had sites send me a full price sheet like a restaurant menu (with house rules, like no gambling links).
There's an entire underground marketplace running through email, and I'd bet millions of dollars move through it every year.
That chaos is good news for you. Everything is negotiable, and site owners are way more down than you'd think. A little money, a personalized message, and a real reason your resource deserves the link.
If you're struggling to build backlinks, I built you a free tool
If you want to try this without setting anything up, I built a free tool that does the tedious part for you.
You give it your keyword, your site, and a budget range. It finds relevant pages with real traffic and hands you ready to send emails (verified site owner email, subject line, full body):
On setting your budget: for a low ticket niche with plenty of bloggers around it, I offer $45 to $75. For higher ticket niches I'll go $100 to $150. Sometimes higher. Just depends on the niche!
If you have Ahrefs or Semrush, pop the sites in there to double check traffic before you send. Then just send the emails from your own inbox manually.
Okay, now I have a selfish ask: thoughts on done-for-you link building??
I've been toying with the idea of a service where I just build these links for you. I manage the whole campaign, you get the links.
As someone who has spent thousands of dollars on niche edits that's led to absolute junk, I'd only pursue this if I could get you relevant backlinks with real human traffic.
So if cold outreach sounds like way too much and that's something you'd genuinely pay for, there's a spot on the free backlink outreach tool to drop your email.
Or you could just reply to this email :)
Whether it goes live is TBD, but strongly leaning towards it!
Either way, go send a few emails this week. It's manual, but it's the best way I know to build links that are actually relevant, and having link building skills put you at the top 90% of SEOs.
Keep Building,
Frey
