Do you think that the situation ever arises where it is worthwhile paying for advertising? Many of the services I have seen, well they seem like a rip off for what you get. Are you better off just learning to it yourself?

Personally, you shouldn't trust any advertising agency. Learn and do it yourself is the best option. Unless you are busy making BIG money and let they handle it for you.

Small businesses learn how to market themselves. Big boys have a team to do it for them .

Are you talking about paying for ads like banner ads, etc? Sometimes this can be very cost effective as banner ads are generally quite cheap. Not a great tactic for sales but good for building your brand if you have a catchy banner.

If you're paying someone else to put up advertising for you, then I wouldn't recommend it unless it's a very good service. Many of these services post your ad at a bunch of crappy FFA sites that no one actually looks at.

I was talking more of the all in one packages that claim to tackle all advertising that you will need, on your behalf. Fees are normally fairly extortionate of course, and no I have never used one.

I can't imagine the advertising from such places would be worth it. While the advertising they do may be worth the carges on a per hour basis it may not bring in the clients you want and thus will be costly for not much to show for it. Doing it a bit slower by yourself is a much better bargain, plus you won't have to worry about their tactics.

I'm very gun shy when it comes to paying someone to do my advertising. I would have to know exactly what I was getting and still think it was a good deal. I'd much rather do it myself even though I'd have to take the time. Besides that if I do it myself I can't be mad at them for not living up to my expectations.

You're right that tactics may be dubious, and this is a big concern of mine. We actually had a client at the place I worked (before freelancing), come in and ask if anyone was knowledgeable in black hat techniques. We all worked to educate him as to why it was a bad idea but he pressed forward.

It only took about two days before Google banned him. A few hours at the top of the search engines, and it was all gone.

I prefer to handle the promotion and marketing of my websites and businesses myself. Their techniques are sometimes what people consider blackhat and I don't want that lol. In the end, I am the one who knows what I want :p