Is it worth paying to add an article to another website?

[DHS_SH]

I have done some research into the types of sites that my competitors have inbound links from and upon closer inspection it appears that in many cases they would have had to pay for this kind of exposure.

I already do a lot of guess blogging (for free) in an attempt to get my content out there, but is it worth paying to add my content (with backlinks) to established sites with good Domain Authority or PageRank?

I, as I'm sure do a lot of you, have been inundated throughout my SEO career with offers to pay £X for this and £X for that. What is a good rate to pay? Is it dependent on what you expect to get back or is there an industry norm?

Happy for general chatter on this as I want to try it but if I am to get the budget from my manager I need to be certain it will pay dividends and is worthwhile.

[josh-riley]

I personally won't pay to play. These types of scenarios are often when Google algo changes can come back to bite you as it can be considered gaming the system. Yes, people do it. Yes, there are agencies that make money off of selling the service to companies. Yes, it's common, etc.

I prefer to put my attention towards trade pubs and other legit sites and put content there and get backlinks. There could be cost if the pub wants an advertorial vs them doing an article, but it's still a more legit site than many others you could end up partnering with. And prices can vary too much per pub to be able to make a generalization on cost.

[DavidKonigsberg]

Google doesnt like paid links that being said - It only pays if in a world without seo you would want to be featured on that site in that way- (dont over do it and dont use brokers reach out and negotiate the feature your self)

[SEOAndy]

I agree with the comments above put if it is a reputable and good quality site, would Google know if you were paying for if it's in your niche and good quality? I don't think so personally.

It's all about diversifying your anchor text and making sure sites you get good links on have your link within high quality and readable content that people would want to read.

Google can't see whether something is bought for or not, it can only tell what link is bad and gaming the system and which aren't.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

You should only seek links from quality sites.  Quality sites typically wont link to your site for money, but they do want quality content, and you can pay a well-known expert in that field to write quality content for that site and the article can include a link to your site.  Everything should be relevant to your site (e.g. both the other site and the article).  So, if you find a site you would like to link to your site, rather than asking them for a link, ask them if they would post an article written by an expert in that field.

Best,
Christopher