zehrila - 11:55 pm on Jul 24, 2012 (gmt 0)

@graeme_p: As martini said, you do actually need a strategy of your own, you cannot trust a link builder. Well, to get you started, what i can suggest is you can hire a cheap link builder or some fresh college graduate who wants to make some quick cash, but give him a clear guide line, make him a "To Do" and "Not to Do" list. E.g if you have a gadgets site, ask him to look up for niche local and web directories which show up number one or two for keyphrase like Blue Widgets Web Directory, then tell him to do further analysis of the directory and if it doesn't have site wide spammy sponsored links and other spam signals, then its probably good to get listed there.

Secondly, ask him to engage into social media and try to reach out people who might be interested in your content.

One more thing you can do is, ask your link builder to search for guest blogs via google, fb, twitter and try to connect to site owners, be friend them on social media, build great quality content for them they cannot refuse and get your posts published on their blogs. Build your strategy around those lines and instruct your writer/linkbuilder to strictly adhere to the strategy.