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Is it realistically possible to get guest posts, PR links, or HARO links without spending any money?
Posted by on January 29, 2026 at 4:44 amIs it still realistically possible in 2026 to earn guest posts, PR links, or HARO/Connectively links without spending any money? I’m not talking about paid placements or gray-hat tactics, but purely organic efforts like strong content, genuine outreach, and journalist pitching. Have you personally managed to get links for free, or has pay-to-play become the default now? Curious to hear what’s actually working, what’s stopped working, and whether “zero-budget” link building is still viable in real-world SEO.
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1 Reply
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Yes. But in order to get those links, you have to specialize in SEO content writing. You cant just tell “someone” to write it out and build them. You get what i mean? Another way is to hire an SEO content writter.
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Unique viewpoints in your pitches are important
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I still see free links happen, but they are way slower and way more selective now. The only times I have gotten them recently were when the pitch included original data or something journalists could not easily get elsewhere. Generic guest posts and HARO style replies with opinions mostly feel dead unless you already have a name.
From testing, zero budget works only if you are willing to spend time creating assets that answer very specific questions, then pitching narrowly. If you blast outreach, it just disappears. It is viable, but the opportunity cost is high compared to paid placements if you value time.
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Yes I use a couple of platforms myself. I do 1x per day and currently have an average of 2 links a month. My niche is specific so sometimes my replies are a long shot trying to find a unique angle on something. Seems low but some of the links I have got you could never buy and from extremely high traffic / high authority sites. Some of them have invested in a certain AI detector which flags the replies. I now do first draft ai then use Grammarly + completely re-write it in my own words.
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I have one of my guys doing cold approach to parallel niches for guest posts. I works good
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if the content is worth linking to for whatever reason, sure. if not then very difficult.
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Some niches work better than others. My train times website naturally gets links from enthusiast blogs and photo sites etc, while my business site – well, everyone seems to still assume that by giving someone a link is like giving them 10 years of your life
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It is possible, but…
A client of mine landed a few mentions and links from well known news publications in Australia. Didn’t cost a cent. But they are considered experts in their field (decades, market know how…), and do have semi-established contacts.
If you don’t have that, spending money is the way. -
Sure, but it does take indirect time, effort and money. I primarily create link worthy articles like statistics pages, research oriented content (like condensing reports, pulling out what other writers/editors are writing or searching for). They get organic backlinks naturally now. The difficult part is the beginning where you have to rank those pages, but as time goes by, it becomes a flywheel when more of such pieces are published
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