Agencies? Do you use one? Can you recommend three? :P

[PROFRBcom]

Do you currently or have you in the past outsourced your link-building, PR, etc to an agency of some kind?

If so, are you happy with that service? Would you recommend them to others?

Were you unhappy with any companies and wish to flame them? I would like to know who to avoid, what red flags to look for, etc.

[magnusbrand]

Better to find such things on affiliate marketing forums as the threads on such forums have open discussions where a user can leave a response due to which one can know the potential of those links by ratings and reviews from customers.

[universal4]

I disagree completely.

While seo forums might recommend "some" agencies that can help, the vast majority of those recommended will have experience selling travel, cars, various tech agencies, artists, orange widgets, and just about ANY other industry.

For gambling and online gaming verticals, referrals from here will carry FAR MORE weight then any general purpose forum.

As for flaming agencies, I would flame almost every single one of them that would come here to the GPWA and try to buy or sell links and not disclose links on sites they do not own, and 100% of them that just send blind email spam to compiled lists of domain owners. (the 2nd one is what the vast majority do - except those that have their own in house list of site owners where links are sold all the time - oversold)

Rick
Universal4

[PROFRBcom]

Yeah, all I have seen is garbage offers so far.

Not a single recommendation or referral from any GPWA member to boot.

[TheGooner]

I get spam SEO offers every week via email.
All usually from gmail or non-descript addresses and very few with an actual website or company behind them.

I've never tried any of them - and accordingly I have no recommendations.

[universal4]

As for recommendations of specifics, if I were to hire someone, there are a few members here who I would consider, but none of the seo only or marketing only types, but there are a few members here that are affiliates first and do some seo or link acquiring services on the side.

I honestly thought after your original post you might rec a few private referrals.

If I wanted to purchase a handful of links outright, I would probably just approach a handful of GPWA Members privately.

While some may not agree, I think a small number of solid links from quality sites may well do better than some person hired to gain links as their motivation is to just earn the payment gaining the links, and less about the quality of the links.

Rick
Universal4

[PROFRBcom]

As for recommendations of specifics, if I were to hire someone, there are a few members here who I would consider, but none of the seo only or marketing only types, but there are a few members here that are affiliates first and do some seo or link acquiring services on the side.

Yeah, I figured this might be the case also.

I honestly thought after your original post you might rec a few private referrals.

Not a single referral. Seems no one wants to share their experiences.

If I wanted to purchase a handful of links outright, I would probably just approach a handful of GPWA Members privately.

Easier said than done.

There are a couple dozen members here I would love to get links from. Not spammy **** either, just casual, natural links. Not even pointed at money pages!

Alas, virtually no one is interested in such things.

While some may not agree, I think a small number of solid links from quality sites may well do better than some person hired to gain links as their motivation is to just earn the payment gaining the links, and less about the quality of the links.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Quality over quantity in links and love!

[Fortune Palace]

Not a single referral. Seems no one wants to share their experiences.

Maybe some have a decent agency but don't want them to get swamped with new work, to their detriment.
Maybe some are cautious about posting in a public forum the fact that they buy links.
You'd probably get more traction with the second group by asking for recommendations via PM.

[PROFRBcom]

Maybe some have a decent agency but don't want them to get swamped with new work, to their detriment.
Maybe some are cautious about posting in a public forum the fact that they buy links.
You'd probably get more traction with the second group by asking for recommendations via PM.

I understand both of those concerns.

But who am I going to ask via PM. Should I PM all of GPWA and pray lol?

The whole point of a post is for people to see it and if anyone were so inclined to share knowledge, they would.

So far, nada.

[ddm]

If I wanted to purchase a handful of links outright, I would probably just approach a handful of GPWA Members privately.

proper agencies don't tend to "sell handfuls of links", so you would probably draw a blank there (*unless you're buying a good handful very regularly)

The whole point of a post is for people to see it and if anyone were so inclined to share knowledge, they would.

So far, nada.

i guess people have enemy mindset vs frenemy mindset (more +EV, imo)
I'd love to see a poll:
Do you consider your GPWA comrades as

a- industry peers
b- enemies [would never collaborate with]
c- frenemies [would collaborate with]

[Dingo]

I've worked as a hired SEO specialist for several companies, and every time management decided to hire an SEO agency, it ended up throwing money in the trash.

I remember a £65,000 SEO audit from one well-known agency. That report included 122 pages, everything was there, there was domain availability in other domain zones, but there was no list of broken pages.

When I had my own SEO agency where I worked alone, I would wake up in the middle of the night and look at my clients' google analytics stats. New clients started coming in and I had to hire people, and as a result, the quality dropped a lot. That's when I realized we were doing bullshit, just like most other agencies. But since I couldn't find inexpensive and qualified staff, I ended up closing the agency.