Why does SEO gurus swear by "earning" backlinks rather than buying them?

Google say to not buy links, but SEO "gurus" also loves to give out the same advice in their how-to guides. it's the same echo-chamber of "have awesome content" or "build relationships with other webmasters".

But attempting the recommended strategies, the success rate is very low.

Like if I send hundreds of emails saying "thanks for mentioning our brand, can you please also add a link to our website?" the huge majority will reply asking for a money in order to do so. Same experience with infographics, studies, 404 replacements, flattery and so on. The success rate is incredibly low to get anything for free.

Not paying for links sounds like bad advice to me and isn't a realistic way forward if you wanna do link building at scale for a competitive industry. So why does these SEO gurus advice against it? In many cases they work for agencies that offers PBN, outreach or guest posting services in which the client must pay them to get links.

Have anyone here managed to gain hundreds of links for free by just sending love letters to webmasters? Do you think that SEO gurus give good advice?

I mean, getting links organically is the ideal scenario, so those gurus are not wrong

But most people don't have the luxury or patience of having their sites linked to organically over 2-3 years until google ranks them, so they need to buy links.

Both methods are fine IMO, it just comes down to your goals and preferences

I gained a bunch of High DA backlinks organically. The only way to do this is by writing high-quality and interesting content such as guides, reviews or news. Or to come up with interviews or anything like this. Something outstanding.

Doing outreach for more than 2 years, what i learned there are plenty of ways to get backlinks from good sites in free, just you have to implement some tactics.

I've got a niche blog in my language that is on top1-5 spots on all the articles (or like 70-80% of them) without a single purchased link. So... it's possible I guess?

Of course they tell you not to buy links.

If everyone buys $50 guest posts and pbn from BHW, who's going to engage them for their thousand-dollar “consultation”?

Once they brainwashed you to believe that they are the guru, they can then sell their “guru services” to you at “guru prices”.

It does in fact work.

I've gained natural backlinks from people linking out to some of my how-to articles even though they were ranking on page 3.
These guys literally went 3 pages deep just to link to my stuff.

The only problem with this is time and the actual content. Not all content gets backlinks for apparent reasons like quality, grammar, etc.

However, this is another matter.

My point is that natural/organic backlinks are real; it does happen, and you don't have to rank first page to get them.
It just takes time, and patience which not everybody has.

This is why niche websites start to pickup after 1-2 years.
In an era where people are too lazy to microwave a 3 minutes popcorn bag, they are not willing to wait for that much.

Another point people miss is that internal linking counts as much too.

I think many are missing the point here.

Organic links work, of course.
The problem is the poor scalability and unknown waiting period.

If your goal is a niche site with 10k traffic, sure, organic links are enough.

But if you have any ambition to grow it into a huge authority site, you gotta need more than that.

Simply because competition will catch up with you eventually.

Agreed with some of things written above, BUT you should also keep in mind that organic outreach can potentially earn you backlinks from websites that simply do not sell them. These details can become a game-changer when competing in a tough niche

Not really a debate. Do both. There is no down side to buying links, other than the cost. Just make sure you buy from sites where you can test the DA strength.
I also like to know TF/CF.

May the force be with you!

we are very rich.

It's just like having a girl want to make love with you and paying her for it. It's always better to see it come naturally, trust me, I`ve done both)

Why would you buy their course if they can't convince you that bought links don't work and they know how to earn them?

It's all part of the 'guru experience'

I think "Gurus" cant say "Go buy Guest Posts" as Google epmloyes knows most of their websites and they may Fcuk them lol

So they just claim that they receive Guest Posts for free, or from good content. But IMO they just lie.
90% of Gues Posts are paid

The white hat way is ideal for any person looking to establish a brand/traffic/online following of any kind, but it's just not the fastest/most realistic.

Sure, we'd all love to post content & have authoritative sites link back to us, with little effort of farming those links.

Officially, that's the statement of most SEO/Marketers. Unofficially, in this world, you've gotta take what you want and MAKE it happen. That involves building links.