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The manifest

Notes from the supply side of link building

Pricing data, vetting checklists, and white-label playbooks — written from fulfillment volume, not theory. What we learn shipping placements for US agencies, published for the agencies doing the buying. Subscribe via the RSS feed or Atom.

Pricing data

Link building costs in 2026: what US agencies actually pay

Guest post and niche edit benchmarks by DR band and niche, in-house vs outsourced cost per link, and three sample monthly budgets.

Read the benchmarks
Playbook

White-label link building: the 2026 agency guide

The fulfillment workflow, the margin math, the six things to demand from any supplier, and the three risks to contract away.

Read the guide
Quality control

How to vet guest post sites before you spend a dollar

Nine checks in elimination order, the DR-vs-traffic quadrant, and the red-flag table that predicts a worthless link.

Read the checklist
The DR-vs-traffic quadrant
Why a high DR alone doesn't make a link worth buying — the core idea behind our vetting post
DOMAIN RATING → ORGANIC TRAFFIC → Expired-domain trap AVOID High DR + real traffic BUY THESE Low DR, no traffic WORTHLESS Lower DR, real traffic NICHE GEMS
FIG. 01 — Traffic is the axis that separates a real link from an inflated DR number. Full method in how to vet guest post sites.

The data behind the posts

Every benchmark here comes from the inventory sheet. Get the per-domain version.

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