Outreach Volume Calculator
How many prospects, emails and hours it takes to earn the links you want, and what that costs in your own time.
Work out the real cost
How it works
prospects = target links / (reply rate x conversion rate)
hours = prospects x (research + writing + follow-up) / 60No averages and no benchmarks. Every number in the result comes from an input you set, which is the only way an estimate like this is worth anything.
Why link building does not get cheaper
Almost every part of SEO compresses with skill. Writing gets faster. Technical fixes get faster. Outreach does not, because it is a fixed number of minutes per conversation with a human being, and there is no version of expertise that removes the conversation.
That is why this calculator asks for minutes per prospect rather than offering a benchmark. The honest cost of a link is your reply rate and your time, and both of those are yours rather than the industry’s.
What to do with the number
- Compare it to a quote. An agency retainer and your own hours are only comparable once both are priced. Most people never price the second one.
- Put it in your payback math. Module 1 asks for a monthly cost. This is it, for the link half.
- Re-run it after one real cycle. Your actual reply rate will not be 12%. Once you know your own, the estimate stops being an estimate.
The full argument, including what Google’s spam policy does and does not forbid, is in the link building module.