The "round robin link interview" over at Rae's blog, which Rand posted on recently, had me thinking...

"As someone who has more than his toe in the black hat circle, as well as doing white hat too, I'll quickly add, what would MY responses be to those questions?"

So I figured I'd give you all an insight into my mind, and let you see one black hat's take on it.

Question One: What are the factors you would take into account before buying a link from a directly contacted site (not a link broker or seller)?

My first question here would be, how many links can I get from them, and where do I want to point it.  There are sites that you can create, which are there purely to get as many links as possible.  Then, when you have a new site, you create a thousand pages on a subject, and point a couple of links from the old, link heavy site, to the new one.  Instant link from a PR6/7 site.

However, if I've already got a site that is on that topic, I'll just point it there direct.  So simple answer?  It depends - whether I'm dealing with an established site, or a future project.

Question Two: In sectors where links are particularly tough to come by (retail, B2B in boring industries, etc.), what are content tactics you’ve taken to appeal to relevant sites in those industries (specific examples would rock)?

Three methods - first, using social media, both legitimately and not.  In the first instance, creating an article purely for Digg/Reddit etc...  In the second, I'll use several MySpace user profiles I've built over time to look legit, and use bulletins to send something viral out.  A funny story, with a link attached to a copy of it at the page I'm wanting to rank.  It gets passed around, people put it on blogs, it gets referenced. 

Note: These, within themselves, aren't intrisicly black hat, as the first is exploitative, but mostly harmless, and the second is white hat theory done black hat ways for speed.  It's just using grey/black hat means to accomplish a white hat end result - in this case, creating a viral buzz.

Second, trackbacks.  Use blogs with trackbacks enabled to get links.  Reasonably quick, pretty easy to do. 

Third, RSS.  Yes, it's our old favourite, Really Simple Spamming!  (Kudos to anyone who knows which forum I'm referencing there...)  I'm not saying any more on this, because I've got some ways of doing it I'm not letting on about frankly!

Question Three: What is the current climate with paid links, and how can I navigate the paid links landscape so that I come out smelling like a rose on the other side?

Well, this is a funny one.  If you want to smell like a rose, stick with the big three directories (Yahoo!, Business.com, Best of the Web) and those ones specific to your niche.

If you want more interesting paid links, and to still smell rosey, there's a few things you can do.  Go for sites that are on topic, make sure your link is put into some content, that's on the theme of your site, vary the anchor text that's being used, don't buy on a regular basis, but buy consistently.  And don't do too many, because as your site becomes bigger over time, you're going to want to pay for less, and if you're buying lots, it's harder to back them down without it looking a bit sus.

You can get a link from nigh on anywhere and have it look fine.  You just have to make sure it's placed in a way on their site that it looks like it should be there.  So look at how people link.  Study genuine links, and emulate them.

Question Four: Automating the link acquisition process: How far do you recommend going with it? What are the benefits and pitfalls of automation?

As far as you possibly can.  I've got better things to do with my time than find links, frankly.  So automate it as much as you can, and spend your time being more productive.  However, I'd recommend caution here...  The automation I'm talking about will be mostly using scripts and software to get thousands of links over a relatively short period of time, through Spam 2.0 (spam through RSS, trackbacks, cloaked redirected links, social media misuse etc...).

Question Five: Name 5 specific techniques (queries, tools, process, or starting points) you would use to get links for a statewide real estate agent.

Ohhh, there's SO no way I'm going to go into specifics here!  Sorry :)  However, I'll give you an idea as to my process, both from a black hat PoV and then white hat too.

Black Hat 

Research phase 

Keyphrase Research -> Site Research -> Competitor Research. 

Tools used - WeCEO, Yahoo! domain tools, SEOQuake

Implementation Phase 1 

Low level spam, mostly trackback and RSS -> low level cloaking -> link directory creation on separate sites

Implementation Phase 2

Social Media abuse.  MySpace, Digg, the whole whack

Implementation Phase 3

After the link directory sites have got a PR of 6+, point them at the estate agent site

White Hat

Research phase 

Keyphrase Research -> Site Research -> Competitor Research. 

Tools used - WeCEO, Yahoo! domain tools, SEOQuake

Implementation Phase 1 

Links from blogs -> Press/media coverage -> viral content.  The idea here is to create more brand awareness. 

Tools/processes used - digging around to get a list of blogs, monitoring sites that have viral content distribution - YouTube, MySpace, Digg...  If you can't write copy, find someone who can.  Also, learn how to write press release and press packs.

Implementation Phase 2

Niche site links.  Get in touch with other people in the industry.  Get links from them somehow.  Start getting in those highly relevant links, irrelevant of the site PR.

Tools used - Phone.  Directories to find similar themed websites. 

Implementation Phase 3

Get creative.  Create a directory for estate agents in a larger area (that state and the surrounding ones, or the whole of the US, or all of one kind of house in every state...  Get a theme).  Start branding yourselves as experts.  Get more media and press coverage.  Get someone on the radio talking about how to get a better deal.  Have a blog with free tips and ideas.  Make the site into THE BEST estate agent site in the world.  Use offline coverage to drive traffic and online presence.  Links will come from the brand at that point, and how you are perceived

I realise I've not quite answered the questions as they might have been meant to be done.  I'm sure you can understand my reasons for being a little cagey in some places, but frankly I'm not going to give the whole game away on the more shady stuff.  But for the white hat things, I hope I've been as transparent as possible.  And hopefully the basic outline of how I work on the last question will help some of the newer people around, and give you some ideas as to other things you can be doing.