Link building strategy & google penalties

Hello,

Ok so i can't quite put together a decent link building strategy!

To put my work in context, I have a niche authority blog in france (where i live) and a few other mini niche sites.

I've produced some really good quality content but despite what some people are saying, I keep on getting outranked by sites with more aggressive linking strategies.

I've tried some dofollow blog commenting (at a very slow pace : 2 per days per page) and it's worked ok.
I'm trying to accelerate the linking rythm but i fear google penalties (and i've got first signs that this is hurting because i've lost some significant rankings on one of the keywords)

I've tried angela's backlinks from the wso and it's worked well for one keyword, not at all for the second (which was a pretty recent page from my blog, which could be an explanation).

I don't trust the senuke type of software for express social bookmarking and article posting because i can't imagine google doesn't pick up that kind of "hyperactivity" so i've shied away from trying.
Am i wrong ?

And then, there's press release, article marketing, social bookmarking, youtube, forums, link exchange... Il feel confused/overwhelmed.

Can anyone give me some guidelines regarding how many links per page per day is ok for google ?

Plus, what kind of mix between the different link building strategies works best. Should i stick with 2-3 linkbuilding strategies or is a mix of all strategies more efficient ? Which are more effective and whick seem like a waste of time/energy from your experience ?


Thanks