LAST EDITED ON Nov-05-07 AT 02:21 PM (PST)
 
Here's some linking strategies that are well covered by others...I'm posting them here just as a reminder:

Forums
- Post Legit comments and include your sig...Problem is, many non-marketing forums don't allow sigs or even outside links.

How to find forums:
- Use your TuelBar to search, there's a tab for "forums".

- Search google using:
"keywords" + forum

- Xrumer (forum post spammer tool) This is more of a warning than a recommendation: Xrumer is a hard core blackhat program responsible for a large part of forum spam. It's like $500 and very secretive. They don't sell to everyone...And probably wont' respond to your emails, either for sales or support.

Press Releases - Best used with link bait type pages. If you can come up with a "newsworthy" and interesting article, a press release can be very beneficial. Most major news outlets sites are very well respected and getting a link from one of them can drive major traffic as well as give a high trust link.

Also, you can gain some links just by having your release included in the press release directories.

See:
10. "67 Press and Media Release Distribution Centers"
on the Web 2.0 resources thread:
http://www.dombom.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=38&forum=DCForumID42

Testimonials - You can gain some links giving testimonials...Although many webmasters don't actually link to your site. Use with caution: Giving too many testimonials will dilute and weaken your own brand.

Purchase Links - You can always buy links....But Google's really cracking down on this. I suggest you avoid link selling sites and instead approach the site directly.

Then, insist that you get a contextual link and not a clustered, "sponsored" link.

A contectual link is like the one below:

"Hi, my name is Kurt and I have a internet marketing software site with tons and tons of great application."

It's "contextual" because the link is contained in the content itself.

Here's an example of "clustered" links:
link 1
link 2
link 3

You'll usually see these links all by themselves over in a side-bar, navigation table.

If you pay for a link, INSIST on contextual links...