Originally Posted by gringo

Getting banned from forums and blogs isn't the main problem. The main problem is the uselessness of the links you waste $500 on. "make sure that your link builders build quality post"? Show me some bought forum posts/blog comments that don't make the buyer look stupid.

In fact, most posts/comments I see - and this includes the ones that haven't been bought - make the author look stupid. Why? Because the poster has an ulterior motive and cares not one jot about spreading knowledge and helping other people. Instead, the poster thinks only of what they can get out of the post.

Well not all of the posters is posting only for signature. They can share knowledge and at the same time benefit from their signatures. If I where the client I won't spend my whole money to poster that doesn't care about my site. The client should learn how to pick good poster.

I would pocket the $500, spend it on myself, and do the link building work myself.

Originally Posted by Jenie0109

Well not all of the posters is posting only for signature.

Dispense with sig links and watch this forum lose 90% of its 'useful' posts.

Originally Posted by Jenie0109

The client should learn how to pick good poster.

Good poster/bad poster, it doesn't matter. Sig links from a SEO point of view are virtually worthless so no amount is worth $500. Of course, a popular belief is that sig links are an important part of your SEO campaign. But who encourages this belief? SEOs who make money from such illusions, is who.

And then the mantra gets mindlessly regurgitated by the masses who don't know any better, reinforcing the belief.

Hello one and all..... I've been away, just come back to see the nice and friendly advice you have all left me.

Seriously, what is wrong with only having a small budget and not much time on your hands? We all weren't born loaded with cash and time enough to study and do our own SEO.

Thanks for some of the constructive comments..... as for everyone else, you only have ****ty remarks when you are to stupid to write something useful ... or are you too busy finding your own links and doing your own SEO ?!

Ooops, forgot about the question.

1. You could spend $500 on some good content and let nature take its course: that content inadvertently captures searches for "long tail" phrases, a few visitors link to your nice content here and there, thereby strengthening your SEO etc.

2. You could go on a link buying spree, visiting all the high traffic sites in your niche (though nothing to do with SEO, the end result is the same - more traffic). And the more traffic you get, the more likely you are to attract links naturally, bolstering your SEO efforts. For people to link to your content you need to get the people there in the first place - and your content needs to be worth linking to. Is it? If not, see option 1.

3. Buy an existing site that already has traffic and use that to help your other sites.

Originally Posted by gringo

1. You could spend $500 on some good content and let nature take its course: that content inadvertently captures searches for "long tail" phrases, a few visitors link to your nice content here and there, thereby strengthening your SEO etc.

This one is apparently more difficult than it sounds.

I've been running ads in the marketplace offering $100 for tutorials but, so far this month, no takers (though I did get 3 last month).

I guess the real issue is, writing good content takes time, as a result, it's not cheap.

Guess I need to figure out a way to create a bigger incentive without breaking the bank...