contracting out link development

[figment88]

I'm thinking of contracting out some link development for the first time. Can people with experience in this areas answer some questions:

1) if you pay on a per link basis, how do you make sure the links are not pre-existing. Do you have to do a detailed link inventory first.

2) if you pay on a per link basis, how do you make sure the links will be there for awhile

3) if you pay on a per link basis, how do you make sure they are not putting you on linkfarms or pages with loads of outbounds

4) what other problems do you have to be leary of.

[robotsdobetter]

3) if you pay on a per link basis, how do you make sure they are not putting you on linkfarms or pages with loads of outbounds

Most link building services allow you to approve of the page that your link is going on, if you sign a contract make sure that you put it in there.

2) if you pay on a per link basis, how do you make sure the links will be there for awhile

Again get this in writing that they have to stay on there for a certain amount of time and if one of your links is removed off of a site they will have to find some other site that will place your link on their site.

4) what other problems do you have to be leary of.

Often times they will place your link on non-related sites or on sites that are not in the search engines. Also ask them how they will find your potential link partners because of the risk of the link builders owning the sites that you are placed on.

[glengara]

4. I was looking at a Gift-Basket site that only supplied the North American market, all their links were from India, good quality links maybe, but it looked so artificial...

[stevenb 1959]

This link development is so frustrating, it makes me want to keep to myself. LOL
I get link requests all the time and I only reply to those that say no link pages. I get alot of link requests saying we put your link on a certain webpage and when I go there the PR is white which makes me leary. From all the experiences I read here in WW and from my experiences I set my criteria for a link exchange very high.
I reply and say I will link only to a webpage that can handle my link and I will only link to a webpage that I can make #1 in serps for that link text phrase. I have webpages that are number one for single words( all determined from the top 500 keywords on the web.
These people never reply and I figure they dont reply as they figure they can't pull the wool over my eyes.
So this means I have no link partners.
I have all this SE strength sitting on these webpages of mine and I know the search engines devalue this strength if too much is left on the webpage (hoarding)
I was wondering what to do with it and I figured I might sell it. Lets say I charged a perspective customer for bringing up their search phrase in the serps, lets say they were 22nd and I brought them up to #8, then I could charge them a price for the increase of 14 (22-8=14) and factor it by the days I kept this increase. Is this a good idea? I figured it was a no risk guarantee to the perspective customer. Is there a better way to calculate what I would charge customer?
I would be interested in hearing your ideas, experience and knowledgable opinions.

[lbsguy]

It is extremely important to choose the right service provider. Link building is a very methodical process and it can do as much harm as it can do good. The most important thing in link building would be choosing the website with which we can link. We need to analyse the website and make sure that it is not a link farm/FFA, it is from the same industry, it has good PR etc. Coming to your points I would like to put forth my views in the same order.
1) Either you give them a detailed list of websites wherein they have to seek links excluding these websites or you can tell them to do the analysis themselves.
2) Again here you should make a agreement or put a condition that the links they have gathered should be there for certain period
3) Putting it on Linkfarms or pages with loads of outbounds is certainly a point to worry. It depends on how much your service provider understands the websites from where he is seeking links. You need to work closely with him, monitor his work and tell him that you will not pay for any such websites and upon you pointing he should remove and provide you with a new link.
4) Link building is a slow process and your service provider should be knowledgeable enough to seek links from websites which give you the maximum benefit. It would be good to ask them what is the process they follow for link building for a better understanding. If possible some references.