@ Everyone: Thank you for the 'thanks' and kind words. Hopefully this will point someone in the right direction.
@ Jenny:
1) For easy competition KWs my 2.0s are mostly exact match. Some non - exact match. The more challenging the KW the less main KW targeted my 2.0s are. This is to prevent over optimization. If a KW would require PBN links to rank, my 2.0s are a hyperlink or branded. No strict rule, I mix it up. In general, 2.0s are only exact if they are my power links.
2) GSA is a tool. You can build the links all manually. With GSA you can automate the entire process if you learn the filters and can specify links to build on specific platforms (Such as .edu or .gov links) if you were so inclined. If you do not have GSA, you just build them by hand. Building ten filler links a day is not that much time or work. Spin an article, write blog comments, register accounts, ect. No one on BHW is going to offer a complete SEO service. The closest to what I am describing is one of the 'All in one' services which give you a couple hundred links over a month for $XX +.
3) GSA is the most simple tool on the market. My home PC set up is this:
- GSA Captcha
- GSA
- GSA Indexer
- Good Internet
- Emails
I have used it on a VPN in the past, with a list, with proxies, ect. I build 10K+ links a night while I am working to several projects with no special set up. Maybe $200 total in start up to get this rolling.
As far as time to learn, that depends on you. I have ZERO technical ability to code and do not understand half of what I read about computers. But I learned how to use GSA extremely well after tinkering with it and running campaigns for five days, 20 minutes a day setting them up. After that I could build links to my money site safely, filter any option, and specify what specific types of links I wanted to build. Food for thought.
I would suggest every newbie have this to start with:
1. Do KW Research Yourself
2. Register a Wordpress or Blogger (Free, easy, and if they burn you get another)
3. Buy GSA.
4. Experiment with GSA on the site with your KWs.
Some people shit on GSA for tier one, trust me when I tell you this the program does EVERYTHING but Web 2.0s. It is horrible at 2.0s because you NEED proxies, fresh email, scraped list of working 2.0 sites for GSA and a LOT of processing power to build a couple 2.0s. The program just does not build them well. Other tier one links? Guest Posts, .edu / .gov links, automated profiles, web 2.0 profiles, ect, can be done with GSA.
If you want to have a bad ass SEO Powerhouse set up, I would suggest:
Scrapebox (For lists and footprints)
GSA
GSA Captcha
GSA Indexer
3rd Party Indexer
3rd Party Captcha
1000 + Proxies
Powerful VPN
1000 + Email list
If I offered services on BHW, that is what I would have.
For those doing SEO for themselves, my set up works perfectly well. In two weeks of GSA for ten projects, I have 2K links on the low end, and three projects have 70K links. In total, over 350K links from my home set up. This is all tier two, and one tier three. Most projects have strict filter such as under 100 OBL for links, not posting to same site twice, only a few types of links selected (Do Follow, Articles / Microblogs Only, ect) and GSA is scraping as it goes. Plus, I have a lot more sites and KWs I am ranking than a new IM'er. It works well enough for me with my home set up so it should for you too.
Before you go all out with any investment, start small and learn how to make it work.
This is my round about way of saying, if you want to play ball you need the gear to play. If you are targeting a KW with even one other SEO in the top ten, you need to outwork them and catch up to get position one. Unless you are good at KW research, you will have some competition. Why handicap yourself by not having a tool to help you? $200 for the full GSA pack of indexer, captcha and the software is a steal for what it does. Get a 9 - 5, save up and buy it. It is without a doubt worth it.
In perspective, if you buy a 10K link blast to one page with no filters from a seller, you pay at least $5. If you want filters you need a custom job which gives you far less links for more money. On BHW you will pay $20 for a small contextual tier two and a 10K blast. Myself? One of my projects on a Parasite has 15K Contextual tier two, all Do - Follow, very strict filter and 30K tier three with the only spam being Blog Comments with strict filters. This would cost me a LOT for a custom job. For this single project GSA paid for itself.
I am not a GSA fanboy either. Do not go on their forum. It just does the job well.