How much do you spend per month on software & other SEO tools?

[ktotheb]

Hey guys, I'm new here & this is my 1st post so thanks for your patience.

I know a lot about on-page SEO but I'm just learning about off-page SEO and backlinking. I've been lurking around on here for a few days, and I notice that there are tons of different types of software and services you pay for by the month to help with your efforts (ie UAW, AMR, BMR, ALN, Scrapebox, Linklicious, Outsourcing writing, etc)

I was wondering how much on average you spend on these tools as well as which ones are the most important. I realize it's an investment that will pay off in the future, but there are so many to choose from it's overwhelming and I don't know which are the best or most important. How much would you recommend that a newbie spend?

Also I'm on a mac, so if you could recommend software that runs on mac I'd appreciate it.

Thank you

[ozsubasi]

I don't spend anything at all on software, GWT provides most of what I need and if I want to use third party tools I just use those that are either completely free or the free versions of the paid ones.

[Bofu2U]

Originally Posted by ktotheb

Hey guys, I'm new here & this is my 1st post so thanks for your patience.

I know a lot about on-page SEO but I'm just learning about off-page SEO and backlinking. I've been lurking around on here for a few days, and I notice that there are tons of different types of software and services you pay for by the month to help with your efforts (ie UAW, AMR, BMR, ALN, Scrapebox, Linklicious, Outsourcing writing, etc)

I was wondering how much on average you spend on these tools as well as which ones are the most important. I realize it's an investment that will pay off in the future, but there are so many to choose from it's overwhelming and I don't know which are the best or most important. How much would you recommend that a newbie spend?

Also I'm on a mac, so if you could recommend software that runs on mac I'd appreciate it.

Thank you

It's a little harder for recommendations on your end because of the Mac part, unless you just go with SaaS's (Software as a Service - translation: you can run it through the browser based on their servers). The bottom line everything comes down to is no one can tell you how much you SHOULD be spending, because they may be making $500/month while you're making $10 - spend based on your ROI.

Everything is just a nice ROI calculation. If you need an initial investment number I'd just hit it with something that's the most robust investment (example: SENuke does the same thing as 3-5 other tools, but if you tally up the monthly cost SENuke probably wins by $50-100/month). Just think about it from the perspective of "how much am I willing to invest in this to see what happens".

[Tadresources]

There are very few things that software and other SEO tools can accomplish that you cannot do manually. The key is finding out how much money the time and benefit is worth to you. This is different for everyone.

I prefer to keep as much of my work manual as possible. Others have semi-automated systems cranking out their work around the clock. Just remember that results are not always guaranteed, if you are going to invest in tools, be sure that you can afford to not see results with the money you have spent.

[simonrv]

I don't spend a dime on SEO software and tools. Instead, I spend my money on freelancers that do link building works for me. I've never tried paid SEO software and tools since I preferred outsourcing it when I learned SEO.

[lukemeister]

I spend a couple hundred bucks a month on services that help me build links for SEO very easily, and that's about it, everything else I try to buy as one time fees if I need software (such as Market Samurai, Dragon Naturally Speaking and stuff like that) so I don't have recurring costs.

[setsune]

Originally Posted by simonrv

I don't spend a dime on SEO software and tools. Instead, I spend my money on freelancers that do link building works for me. I've never tried paid SEO software and tools since I preferred outsourcing it when I learned SEO.

Hi simonrv, where do you usually outsource? any recommended guy?
Thanks.

[patco]

Nothing! I prefer do my SEO alone and the results are great.

[megans]

I do not spend anything on seo either. I have just read the forums and done the research on my own and implemented the techniques. You'll probably find the majority of webmasters who are serious about making a living from this industry, would rather learn seo themselves than pay someone else. Especially these days with so many cowboys in the seo industry.

[MikeWike]

It depends on your budget.
At first you (when you enough time and motivation) you should start manually. Then, when you finally start to make some money you can hire someone or use some services OR buy the tools and do it by yourself.

[ktotheb]

Originally Posted by Bofu2U

Everything is just a nice RI calculation. If you need an initial investment number I'd just hit it with something that's the most robust investment (example: SENuke does the same thing as 3-5 other tools, but if you tally up the monthly cost SENuke probably wins by $50-100/month). Just think about it from the perspective of "how much am I willing to invest in this to see what happens".

Thanks, that's super helpful. I think this is what I'm looking for - something I can try that does everything. I'll look into SENuke

[BTBAMBB27]

I spend a couple hundred of dollars on softwares and services. I agree on the point that there's nothing you can't manually do what softwares can , but they definitely save you time.

[NicheDad]

Also, look into purchasing bot creation software to create your own automation tools. MUCH easier and cost effective in the long run.

[CreativeFlair]

We spend about $150 a month, mainly because of working with some of the most competitive keywords in existence and needing to hold on to first page rankings.

[KyleGolemMedia]

I don't know how important it is that you have a "monthly spend" for these types of things. I do, however, think it's very important to learn from seasoned Warriors (not calling myself one...still learning) and seeing how they're leveraging certain pieces of software. I would say total I've spent about $150.00 and along with networking, I have the ability to do pretty much anything I need in my walk of IM. I own Places Scout which is among the more expensive pieces of software but I would never go back on it. Completely worth the money...especially since it went up in price

So yeah...spend some time learning but consider the fact that you have to hit the ground running at some point.

Final thought: Join the war room. It's worth the money if you're looking for WSO's and such...tons of free ones.

Kyle

[nik0]

I bought some tools in the past like AMR, SeolinkRobot, Scrapebox and I use a cracked version of Senukex cause $149/month is really too much for what it does.

Apart of that I am subscribed to BMR, SubmitYourArticle and ALN, so thats about $150,-/month.

Furthermore I spend quite a bit of money on high PR society and certain fiverr gigs like 500 social bookmarks, 500 wiki backlinks and 20k xrumer profiles (this last one mostly to blast other backlinks). I don't want to bother with BMD myself and I have no idea what kind of software they use for the wikis and the purchase price of $600 for xrumer is also a bit too much based on how often I purchase these $5 gigs.

And then there is outsourcing content ofcourse. So it adds pretty fast all together. Thats also a reason why I started to sell services on this forum, to cut the costs as I'm pretty much in the phase of investing/building up my niche empire instead of laying back and enjoying the passive income. It's damn hard work

[TBInternetMarketing]

I spend around $70 a month on SEO services. Fortunately my sites make me a lot more than that