Ok, we all know that if you want to get anywhere in the SEO world, you pretty much have to buy links. Is this ‘Black Hat‘? Who knows. Rand posts some information on the subject with some pretty nice examples of sites that have used payed linking.

In the current search marketing environment, it’s exceptionally hard to find a website that’s ranking highly for competitive queries in niche fields that isn’t employing paid link tactics to bolster their position.

I personally think that SEOs need to develop the skills and a network of venues for the procurement of paid links if they want to be effective. The ‘White Hat’ vs. ‘Black Hat’ debate has never been an issue to me. It’s our job as SEOs to do the very best that we can for our client’s. You can label that whatever you like. I know that we have had great success, and it’s due in large part to our willingness to look past what some people call ‘Black Hat’ or the enigmatic ‘Gray Hat‘ labels and just do what works. That’s what we get paid for, and that is what our clients want.