For me the biggest change came from treating it as a process problem rather than a people problem. Most of the pain in this thread — price rises after the quote, links quietly removed, slow replies — happens because the terms were never pinned down before money moved.
Before I pay for a placement now, I get the terms agreed in writing in one message: price locked for that placement, the exact page it goes on, anchor text, ********, and a minimum live period with what happens if the link comes down — free replacement or a refund. It's not a contract, just a message both sides can point back to. That one habit has cut the price-hike and removal problems more than anything else.
Then it's a simple tracker, one row per webmaster: contacted, quoted, paid, live, verified, and a re-check date. I re-check every live link at 30 and 90 days. Silent removals get caught while the webmaster still remembers the deal, not six months later when the conversation is long dead.
Follow-ups run on a fixed cadence too: one nudge after 3 working days, a second after 7, then I move on. Chasing the same person for three weeks costs more in time than the link is worth, and it's usually a sign they won't be reliable later either.
Two smaller things: keep 2-3 backup sites per niche lined up before you need them, so one webmaster going dark doesn't stall a campaign — and pay promptly once a link is live and verified. Webmasters remember who pays fast and who haggles after delivery, and that goodwill is what gets you answered first next time.