When we first launched our Link Building Task Planner series back in 2005, we provided the first step-by-step guide to link building that anyone could follow. The strategies revolved around a fill-in-the-blanks style of SEO—directory submissions, press releases, article marketing and (optionally) text link purchases. Back then, these strategies made sense and they were highly effective at the time. But today, SEO is a very different game than it was just a short five years ago.

Fast forward to 2010 and link building has changed significantly. Many of the cookie-cutter approaches to link building no longer produce the same high level of results. Today, link building relies on strategies more commonly associated with traditional marketing, networking and public relations.

Today's professional search engine marketer (SEM) is using creativity to literally produce content that people feel compelled to link to. And, ultimately, success depends on being able to promote that content in such a way that gets it noticed by those who have a self-interest in telling others about it (via links). This means that you, the SEM must focus on building relationships with the people who manage authoritative sites and have the power to link to you.

That's exactly what we are covering today within this report. But before we start, let's lay down some foundational principles of effective link building for 2010.

Successful link building strategy can be segmented into three categories...

1. ...