Get Backlinks – Here are the 10 methods and backlink tools I use

As a result of the recent Panda and Penguin Google changes, I have changed my approach to backlinks. In the post below, I have crossed out the backlinking methods I no longer use.
My blog has 7670 backlinks as stated in my blog post Blogging Guide Blog Is One Year Old and since then I’ve had a number of personal emails asking me how I get backlinks.
By the way, today (July 2012) the number of backlinks is 7790 46931.
In this post I share 11 6 methods I use but first…what is a backlink:
Simply put, a backlink is a link on a website (including blogs) that leads back to your website / blog.
In search engine optimization (SEO), page rank is at least partially determined by the number of sites that link to yours. It’s important to gain backlinks honestly, and if a lot of other sites link back to you, you will naturally get more traffic to your page.
There is a lot of argument around the quality of backlinks.
We are to believe that a backlink from a website that is in the same niche as yours carries more weight. That would make sense.
Also, we are to believe the higher the Page Rank of the website you are getting backlinks also carries more weight.
So, ideally we want backlinks from websites in our niche and with a Page Rank of 10!
There are not many of those around unfortunately.
My approach is to mix it up and not get too hung up about whether the backlinks are in my niche or coming from very high Page Rank websites. Personally, I have too many other aspects of my on-line business that I want to keep running.

One more thing to mention…

When back-linking vary the anchor text you use. Read my post on anchor text here: How to use anchor text to your advantage

1. Blog Commenting

An easy way to get backlinks is to target Blogs that ‘Do-Follow’.  If you want to follow do-follow blogs (i.e. the ones that provide you with a backlink), here’s a great list: http://followlist.com/
When you comment try and include your name AND your anchor text. Something like: Terry @ Tips for horse lovers
In this example the anchor text is “Tips for horse loverse”.
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There are two sections of template code that relate to backlinks. One section simply creates the links that readers see next to your posts. The other section displays the backlinks themselves. We'll look at these two parts separately.

Backlink indicator:

The following piece of code will print a link reading "Links to this post." It should be placed between the <Blogger> and </Blogger> tags that display your posts, and you'll probably want it in the byline, near the author's name and the comments links.

<BlogItemBacklinksEnabled>
<a class="comment-link" href="<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>#links">
Links to this post</a>
</BlogItemBacklinksEnabled>

First, notice the <BlogItemBacklinksEnabled> tags that surround the others. This is so the rest of the code will only be displayed on posts for which backlinks are enabled. Then, the link tag points to the post page where the backlinks will be listed in detail. You can put whatever text you like in place of "links to this post."

Displaying the backlinks:

This part of the code will also go between the <Blogger> and </Blogger> tags, but you will probably also want to enclose them in <ItemPage> and </ItemPage> tags as well, so the backlinks only appear on your post pages, and don't clutter up the main page of your blog.

<BlogItemBacklinksEnabled>
   <a name="links"></a>
   <h4>Links to this post:</h4>
   <dl id="comments-block">
   <BlogItemBacklinks>
       <dt class="comment-title">
       <$BlogBacklinkControl$>
       <a href="<$BlogBacklinkURL$>" rel="nofollow">
       <$BlogBacklinkTitle$></a> <$BlogBacklinkDeleteIcon$>
      </dt>
       <dd class="comment-body"><$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>
       <br />
       <span class="comment-poster">
       <em>posted by <$BlogBacklinkAuthor$> @ 
       <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$></em>
       </span>
       </dd>
   </BlogItemBacklinks>
   </dl>
   <p class="comment-timestamp"><$BlogItemBacklinkCreate$></p>
</BlogItemBacklinksEnabled>

Once again, we've enclosed everything in <BlogItemBacklinksEnabled> so posts that don't allow backlinks won't print anything.
The <BlogItemBacklinks> tags mark the section of code that cycles through each backlink to print it out. The <$BlogCommentAuthor$> and <$BlogCommentDateTime$> tags print out the information you would expect them to, and the <$BlogBacklinkSnippet$> tag shows a small portion of the text from the page in question.
Finally, there are a couple little tags to round out the functionality. <$BlogBacklinkDeleteIcon$> inserts a delete button for each backlink, but only if the person viewing it is an administrator of the blog. No one else is allowed to delete backlinks. The delete button works the same as it does for comments. <$BlogItemBacklinkCreate$> creates a link to BlogThis!, which readers can use to write their own blog entries linking to your post.