I have hired SEO for my site, but I just don't think it is worth it in most cases, and I think it is super risky.

Of course if you find the right people or person it can be very worth it, but finding those right people or person can be really hard. There are so many people out there that will screw you with SEO work, and I just don't trust it. Way too many people that don't know what the heck they are doing, so I prefer to just do it myself.

I'll hire out for specific little stuff of SEO like writing articles, submitting articles, maybe some forum posting, some comment posting, directory submissions, blogs - but I won't just hire someone to do "SEO" in general.

I think the best way to go is to just hire out for individual tasks.