Which link building method should you use?

You forgot video Marketing, directory submission, rss submission.

Here's the list I usually post when people ask this:

Here's the list of ideas I usually post in response to this question:

Traffic Sources:
USFreeads
affiliates
Slide sharing (Slideshare.com)
Link Directories
traffic exchanges
List Brokers
Popups/Unders/Overs etc..
Software apps (facebook, toolbars, etc.)
Software/scripts included in CPanel/Fantastico
Pinging your pages and the pages on other sites which link to yours.
Blogs
XML sharing (PADs, Feeds, Sitemaps, RSS etc.)
Wikis
Article directories, and reprinted articles
CPA
PPV
Tell-A-Friend scripts
Twitter , myspace, youtube, facebook etc…
PRs
Sofware links (PAD)
Datafeeds
PPC
Videos, audios
RSS
JVs - ezine, links, ty page, A/Rs
offline (physical books, testimonials/forwards in other peoples books - word of mouth, seminars, networking, business cards, radio advertising, tradeshows, workshops, roadshows, mail, local sponserhips etc)
Recommendations
Viral Marketing (ezines, software, ebooks etc.)
Ezine ads
Testimonials
REviews
comments
Knols
webinar / teleseminar
Online TV stations and radio stations
Ebay
Craigslist
buying other websites with existing traffic and links
buying expired domains with existing traffic
Outsourcing sites - Elance etc.
Traffic swaps
Giveaways
co-regs
giving away templates
Images (Flickr etc)
service offline businesses
Merhandise
Banner Ads
Craigslist and similar
previous customers returning (emails, links in books, promotions etc.)
forums
message boards
yahooanswers
community sites
google news - alerts
Kunaki
cafepress

How about Question and Answer Website? - it gives you direct contact to your target market

Why just focus on using just one link building method. When you can combine each and every one you have mentioned above and build a large base of seo links and traffic back to your site.

One thing I would also like to point out is that in most cases when using ppc you are not building a link. Every now and again a link or two will show up from your ad being placed but once the page it was on gets crawled again it will be gone.

One link building method you left out which I think is actually more powerful then most of the ones you have mentioned is with videos. You are allowed to ad links to your video descriptions. However you can not add text to that link. It is still very powerful though and can bring in alot of traffic for years to come.

Andy's list is great, but who can handle that many places? It is a long, hard process. You need to be selective and choose the ones that you like and works for you.

@andy henry awesome list man , do you provide SEO services?

i think article submission, forum posting and social bookmarking are the effective methods for link building

Mostly people just link to my sites more naturally now. I am not pursuing any of these strategies aggressively, though occasionally I will dabble.

I only do Classified ads and social bookmarking, because for me this two are good in traffic and backlinks.

Blog commenting and forum posting is the better to promote a site. I use this method. It very easy and effective.

I think you have already listed all the significant link building method. Great job. Thanks for sharing.

Presently, I am using forum posting, blog commenting and social bookmarking.

Article submission and blog commenting are good source of quality links. Right now we're doing Linkwheel I hope we can get good result from it.

If you are creating a quality site, it is best to diversify your backlink building methods as much as possible.

What you REALLY forgot was emailing sites in your niche for a link (offering a high quality unique article in return...but many will do it free.)

It's amazing how people leave out the MOST EFFECTIVE link building activity out there. Yes, you need filler links, but ONE LINK from a site that Google loves ranked for similar keywords can make you jump and hold far better than a series of profile, forum, social, web 2.0, etc. "yuck" links.

Best to start a site off w/o monetization and have something cool to offer for free on the homepage (no opt-in) for the first few weeks as sites will be far more apt to just link to you since you're not a threat... then you flip the switch on and they don't come back and check until you've passed them

Unfortunately, I think the reason most people pass is b/c they're creating thin affiliate sites vs. building a brand - a list - and making the big affiliate bucks by selling your subscribers again and again as a trusted and noted authority.

Q&A and web 2.0 should be included, they can drive traffic as well.

in my opinion all the above link building methods are very useful for getting nice page rank in different search engines.i think article submission and blog commenting are the best methods to build quality back links.

There are a ton of great ways out there to build quality links to your site and get you some serious traffic. What it really boils down to is having quality content, having integrity and consistency. Overtime this combined with a consistent and regular strategy and whole lot of hard work will pay off in huge ways.

You need to have the passion and the will to succeed otherwise these long terms ways of building traffic to your site aren't going to show you any significant pay off.

To be honest, I don't really see how article marketing can work for back-links building. They provide you with a PR (n/a) somewhat non-contextual link, so can a blog comment or a forum post. Just that a few article directories give you do-follow link. It's just not worth it.

I would go with blog commenting and forum posting. Serves both purposes of link building and traffic and also easy to do...social media is good for traffic spikes and instant popularity!