How much time to make a link?

Hi,

I do some local SEO for small companies (so far it were companies with 1-10 employees.)

Right now I might have 2-3 bigger fish.. One is especially more risky as I know some of that people personal, and do not want to fail here. I made them an offer, and they want an increase of a lot of backlinks because their CMS isnt too SE friendly (dynamic etc.).

So... What should I charge them? I made them an offer where I based my price on 2.4 minutes per made backlink, based on my price per hour. Is that fair? I mean if I wont make it, I will use the coop and my own sites, to cover up so I am garanteed to make it. Still would 2,4 minutes be fair?

BTW: They might read this forum as I dropped this name somewhere in our meeting (I always talk about how great DP is so if I am completely out of line, please send me a PM instead of posting here or could I ask someone to delete the topic later when I know my answer?

 

IMO, it takes a lot longer than 2.4 minutes to generate a relevant IBL.
I spend longer than that simply looking at a site I might want a link from - let alone the time it takes exchanging email with various webmaster.
It's difficult to say how long it takes to get a link places, but to use directories as an example I bet you'd struggle to do more than 6 per hour.

 

Thats true and I took that in mind; as the CMS is less changable, so I need real relevant links with good anchortext.

Still they want so many, that only by doing local directories I wont get higher than 100 easily. So I have to use other plans as well. I know some links where I could spend half an hour, and get a sitewide link (+/- 50 relevant links). I will report by using MSN, so it shows mostly all backlinks. I know that this is rather cheap compared to the first idea; portals, but by spending 50% time on die hard single good relevant links, and 50% on bulk links, I thought perhaps it would be a good guess. Still it was a guess from me so thanks for your feedback, would love to hear more!

 

Doing a link-exchange network or something if your doing SEO, works wonders.

 

I know that. I am member of the co-op. Did you just post that to show your signature? My question is how long it takes to make a manual link, because I want to offer someone like 1000-2000.

 

Depends on the niche you are going to target. It would be easier for me to find links for a popular term instead for one that is less popular. If the links will need to target dutch audience only it will make it even harder to find right proper quality links. Will the links need to be on themed websites only? I think i wouldnt ask them a price per link but i would ask them a fixed price for a couple of keywords they like to target. Single keywords will cost more depending on its popularity of course as well , etc. Your customers need to ask themselfs the question , "how much is it worth to be number one for a certain keyword" . How much profit can we make by gaining a 300 new visitors each day to their website?

Just to give you a idea. We have been advertising with adwords for the last 5 months. We spend on average 500 to a 1000 euro per week on advertising to bring in new visitors to our website. Now since we rank first on all the keywords we target we dont need to spend that money anymore on advertising or less. So how much is our link campaign worth? I would say at least a couple of grants.

 

Depends on the quality of the site you are promoting. Good sites naturally bring in more links. Directory submission to relevent categories in definitely a very good idea as i know from personal experience. If you spend 3 hrs avg per day on getting links from directories you could end up with more then 200 links.

 

Another option is to use article submissions.Get someone write a good piece on your site theme and distribute it to major article directories.

 

2.4 minutes seems sort IMO too. Unless you outsource part of it.

I can move it to the Underground if you want.

 

Please move it to the underground. I mostly already got enough feedback to get an idea anyway.

So far it looks like I gave them a very cheap deal, as I expected. Just wanted to be sure as I adviced them more links than normal, because I cannot work much on the CMS. (I dont do cloaking).

Well. I know a good sites gets links more easily. They are a big company. The first 100 links will be easy. Also it doesnt really has to be all Dutch, as it is a SE strategy for them. Of course they expect traffic from the links, but the first 100 will probably give 90% of the traffic, so the others are just for SEs.

I will probably use some techniques, like advertising, on websites that get them sitewide. So I will get links normal / easily. So after all your comments, I think I gave them a relatively cheap deal (which I ment too as I know they are talking to other companies) and I just want a company like that in my portfolio.

I would still be interested in just... overal, general average rates. How much time to make a link? Generally? I think 6 links per hour, is doable, for every normal to good website?

Thanks for all feedback guys!

 

Yeah sure 6 can be done. Save the records. That will help you next time setting up new links again. You will then need less time next time finding quality links for the same kind of money and with less effort. Did you ever try using Arelis? This could save you even more time.