conor - 4:00 pm on Oct 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

In an attempt to look natural whilst building strong links I have nearly always tried to create a mixed bag of incoming links. Some with;

Text links with targeted anchor text
Text links with un-targeted anchor text
Text links without anchor text - URL only
Unlinked instances of URL
Image links with targeted Alt,
Image links with untargeted Alt
Image links with file name as Alt
Image links without Alt

The more natural and quality orientated your link profile looks the better. You need to decide and research what ratios are normal for your industry/niche and try to replicate what naturally occurs...

Remember most freely given editorial links are not that optimised