Spending plans
Two budgets for a film review blog: $100 and $1,000
Film sites live on festivals, premieres and awards season. Below, we spend two imaginary budgets on a review blog, and explain what we would skip.
Blogzic editorial team ·
First, what bulk should mean
Bulk is a trap word. To buy bulk backlinks in the sense of fifty identical links in one afternoon is the pattern that Google's March 2024 spam update was written to catch, while a bulk order of eight varied links across eight sites is merely a busy month.
We use the word to mean one basket, several donors. Everything below follows that rule, and everything below is an example with invented numbers, not a record of any real site.
The imaginary blog is called Midnight Reel. It has about 120 reviews, a festival diary and a decent mobile score, and the owner wants more people to find the review archive.
Not sure how an order runs? The order walkthrough covers each click. For the music side of the same thinking, try the album release plan.
The same blog, two budgets
| $100 plan | $1,000 plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of links | 6 to 8 | 25 to 35 |
| Typical row price | $8 to $20 | $10 to $60, with two or three above $100 |
| Where they point | Two review pages and the archive | The archive, ten reviews, the festival diary |
| Pace | Two a week for three weeks | Spread over about four months |
| Content mode | Automatic for most, own article for one | Own article for the three strongest |
| Check-in | Search Console after 6 weeks | Monthly, with a note on each order |
What we would do with $100
Small money rewards patience and restraint.
Pick one page that deserves it
The best review you have, or the festival diary. One page, three links, spread across a fortnight.
Hunt the cheaper culture sites
Filter niche for film, entertainment or general culture, and keep the price at or under $15 a row.
Keep $20 in reserve
A surprise premiere or a leaked trailer can make an old review newly relevant. Money held back lets you act while the topic is warm.
What we would do with $1,000
Bigger money buys range, and range buys safety.
Divide by season
Festivals in September, awards in January, summer blockbusters in July. Reserve a quarter of the budget for each window.
Mix donors on purpose
Some film sites, some wider culture sites, a few local news sites in your own language. A varied mix looks like real coverage.
Spend more on fewer rows
Two or three rows at $60 to $150 can sit beside twenty smaller ones. Choose by traffic and topic fit, not by Domain Rating alone.
Where the money should not go
Skip lists of fifty donors for ten dollars. That is the same bundle the 2012 Penguin update and the December 2022 link spam update taught the industry to distrust.
Skip links to the homepage only. Review pages and the archive are where search visitors want to land, and a mix of targets looks more natural than one URL collecting everything.
Which budget fits
Start at $100 and earn your way up
Nothing about a film blog requires $1,000 on day one. Run the small plan, check Search Console impressions for the targeted pages after about six weeks, and only then decide whether to scale.
- If impressions rise on the targeted pages, repeat with different pages
- If nothing moves, check content and speed before buying more
- Either way, record the date and URL of each order