Utterly perplexed about these rankings...

I know google search results have been all over the place since the latest update, but I am at a loss to understand this.

For the sake of example, let's say the EMD in question is 'Are Aliens Real'.

About a month ago, I purchased are-aliens-real.com and over the course of two weeks, built approx 10 original quality pages/articles (500 words +) for the site, used a basic silo structure and added a custom logo. As far a backlinking, I have only done some manually social bookmarking.

Since I started monitoring a month ago, an exact google search put the 3 un-hyphenated EMDs on the first page.

arealiensreal.com - has 3 mediocre articles, 2 backlinks per seo spyglass and 2 adsense blocks

arealiensreal.net - has 3 pages, terrible layout and nav, adsense above the fold and masked to look like menu items, and 4 backlinks per seo spyglass (one is a squidoo pr7)

arealiensreal.org - one article (300-400 words), no adsense and NO backlinks

All the while, my site has been sitting around position 75 in the google serp.

Now, I understand that these sites are all older and are un-hyphenated EMDS, but...

Today, I now see are-aliens-real.net at the top of page two. This site has exactly one static page (created a week ago) relevant to the keyword and 3 totally unrelated articles. It has one backlink (pr-) and is running two adsense blocks above the fold.

How is are-aliens-real.net outranking me? My site is older (slightly), has the same EMD, and has 10 times the content.

Is it literally the because are-aliens-real.net is showing 1 backlink in SEO Spyglass, while my site is currently showing 0 backlinks (even though I have done some social bookmarking)?

Any input would be appreciated.