Getting backlinks - is this a good idea/

[Boiler repair]

... There are ways to use the automated tools smartly...

There is no way you can write software that will build a back link from my site to yours, end of.

 

[cc976a]

There is no way you can write software that will build a back link from my site to yours, end of.

That's not what Peter is saying. No you can't build software to take a page on someone's site, add a text link, and re-upload to their server.

The automation part is finding blog posts that you can reply on, directories you can add links to etc....

I am definitely finding link building manually is working, but probably because most link building 'companies' go for mass unrelated volume rather than research and target - which is what the big boys will be doing

 

[Boiler repair]

The automation part is finding blog posts that you can reply on....

Which is exaclty why some big companies found themselves kicked out of top Google rankings after Panda.
Blog farms = blackhat.

 

[peter_w]

I think you are just thinking about this far too closed mindedly. Automation means more than just going out and spamming dodgy blog networks. It might be that your automation is things like finding contact details for 1000's of websites. Or perhaps discovering the quality of the site by automatically grabbing the backlink information. And as cc976a has suggested, you could also use automation to find 100 blog posts that talk about repairing boilers, and then use some other automation to narrow down your "hit list".

There's lots of scope beyond what you will have read on blackhat forums.

 

[DomainMagnate]

for new sites spammy links do more harm than good. You might get some benefits in the short term but after a while you'll usually get some penalties or sites deindexed. I've stopped using all the automation software a year ago, with the recent algo changes its just not worth it anymore

 

[Sussexite]

One really good link eg from a relevant page on a relevant site with high PR and good anchor text is worth a hundred poor quality links.

Concentrate on getting a small number of high quality links to start with - even if you have to write content specifically to attract a particular link you would like.

 

[woffer]

I have quite a few websites and believe there is scope for the profile back links, blog links, directory links etc providing it is coupled with great on page unique relevant content. Ideally every link would be on a highly relevant, high PR, great authority domain. But when you are trying to find links for alcohol withdrawal symptoms or such it is not always possible.

As a general rule we are trying to turn our sites into authority sites now by offering a lot of great, unique content on a whole range of relevant to site topics. We are picking up traffic on sites that have only had 3-4 homepage links from directories based on the quality content we have across the whole site. Providing we keep adding new pages of content and tweaking, it wont be long before we start to get people naturally picking up our content and linking to it.

All above, my experience and IMO (don't want to get blasted off the forum)