Making link recommendations to client

Do you recommend clients to do any self-link building?

[Eljaybe]

Link building is becoming more and more of a challenge these days for websites, especially with the popularity of social networking sites, blogs, consumer-generated content, etc. I'm curious if any of you SEOs out there propose a link building strategy to your clients that include these type of sites and do you recommend they do the link building on their own? Or do you offer to do it for them? I can understand submitting a client's site to directories, contacting webmasters for links, etc. But how do you go about getting the attention of these other sites (besides the natural way - good content)? Do you contact the bloggers, etc. and tell them about some great product or service your client offers? Or do you have your client deal directly with these sites?

[mack]

Some clients just done "get it" when it comes to link building. I always offer to do this on a set fee per hour. But I state there is no way of specifyign how many link they will actualy get.

You mentioned blogs and social networking. These can be a goldmine of you have a site that can be somehow introduced to such places. Although sometimes you would need to be involved with the sites niche and have an understanding.

Mack.

[Eljaybe]

I agree with what you're saying about some clients that "just don't get it". They obviously need someone to do the work for them. But there is so much controversy about paid links and if they are worth it? And the popularity of blogs and social networking sites - they could make powerful link partners. But it seems to me that clients have to have someone on their end communicating directly with these sites and building that relationship. The amount of time and effort that would have to go into that, I don't think a typical client could afford to have an SEO do this work for them - and there is the question of credibility - why is Company "A" having an outside source communicate on their behalf? They should be contacting consumers directly so it won't appear so much of a marketing strategy. Maybe I'm not making much sense, but I'm sure you know what I'm getting at. ;)

[jimbeetle]

I always not only encourage but more or less demand the few SEO clients I work with to be partners in link building. They're the one that carry the business cards, regularly talk to their customers or vendors, belong to industry and social organizations, present at conferences, comment on industry blogs, have social profiles, etc. I can do some of the general stuff but don't think the effort would ever be as effective.

[Eljaybe]

jimbeetle - so you basically just make the recommendations to the client with the hope that they follow your advice (regarding social media sites, etc.). And you do all the basic link building for them - contacting content sites and directories for links - right? I just wonder how often clients actually take the advice SEOs give them and do it. I think that clients have a hard time finding someone on their end to handle link building (which is why they hired us), so more often than not these recommendations basically go in one ear and out the other. At least we are giving them good counsel. It just makes our job harder if they don't follow advice - which makes it more difficult to show great results.