Single links from $1. No courses, no retainers, no ranking promises.
Buyer's scorecard
A scorecard will not make a seller honest, but it forces the awkward questions in the right order. Give one point for each yes.
Print this page. Score the seller before you pay, not after the refund email goes unanswered.
Each line below is a yes or a no, and you get one point for every yes. A seller who will not answer a line scores zero on it, which is itself useful information.
We apply the same list to ourselves, and you should too.
None of the twelve is clever. They are the questions an auditor would ask of any supplier.
Naming the domains matters most, because without a domain you cannot check traffic in Ahrefs or Semrush and you cannot read the site. The ranking-promise point matters because Google's systems, including the March 2024 core update and the work against link spam, change on Google's schedule and no seller controls them.
Order status matters more than it sounds. A seller with a live screen shows you where each placement stands, and a seller with an email thread shows you where they would like you to believe it stands.
For a worked example of a bad score, see the pyramid teardown.
| Score | Reading | What we would do |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 12 | Transparent | Place one small test order and check the result |
| 7 to 9 | Mixed | Ask the missing questions in writing, then decide |
| 4 to 6 | Weak | Walk away unless the price is trivial |
| 0 to 3 | Pitch only | Close the tab |
We can honestly tick most of these, but not all. Our articles are written automatically, with one link to your page, and no result is promised. Whether that suits you is exactly what the scorecard is for.
Twelve out of twelve means the seller is open. It does not mean the link will help.
Relevance, the quality of the page and the state of your own site decide that, and no scorecard sees them. Use the audit routine to check your side, and keep orders small until you see results you can explain.
Re-score each time. Sellers change, lists change, and a score from last year is just a memory.
Copy the twelve points into a sheet, one column per seller. Add the date at the top.
Over a few weeks you will see which sellers answer quickly and which go quiet. That is telling. Those habits predict how an order problem would be handled later, and they cost nothing to record. Compare against any pitch you receive, whether it is ours or anyone else's. Also note whether a seller changes the terms between the first message and the invoice, since that habit rarely stays small. A sheet makes it easy to see.