You're right – lots of new bloggers don't know that not all links are created equally, and the directory thing can be burdensome, and rarely pays off. Now, if you can get a "link monkey" as some so affectionately call it, then you're in business.

first off, i wasn't ragging on your post. it was a good article that got me thinking (just incasr you got that impression).

Too many bloggers spend hours trying to submit their sites to directories and link farms and its a complete waste of their time. There isnt any quick way to the top. Its a slow gradual process that requires you to post a lot of original posts.

When I talked about links, I didn't really mean directly links. They're ok, and better than nothing, but we know that links aren't created equal. I was referring more to quality links, like from other blogs or regular websites.

And the more links you have from related sites, the better you're going to rank – that's why a lot of the older, more established sites rank so well. Age of course helps immensely, but all those links built over the years make a huge impact too. And if you can build tons of links, Google's going to love you anyway – and you can get that fantastic, targeted, Google traffic that we all love.