martinibuster - 5:24 am on Jul 25, 2012 (gmt 0)

...simply be the best in your niche, and show everyone how you are the best, and then tell others about it.

When you boil link building down the most essential bits of it, that's what you have left, what cain posted above. "The best" can be subjective, but citing reasons/features/awards/etc. that validate the designation of "the best" can help form the core of your approach.

Being useful is important. When forming the strategy it helps to put aside the idea that you are approaching people with the goal of getting a link out of them. Put that aside and think of it in terms of telling people what makes your site useful. To do that you have to think about who your site visitors are and what they want. Site visitors are after something. Who are they, what do they want? Where else are they on the Internet? Where else do they hang out? Build the strategy out from there.