QUOTE(7Spoke @ May 6 2012, 01:32 AM)
Link quality is becoming more and more important as google is starting to roll out new updates. The most beneficial backlinks are the one that come from reputable sources ( No spam sites).
In my experience I believe that guest posting is one of the most beneficial forums of obtaining backlinks . It allows you to tap into an entire new traffic source thats never been seen before by your site. But you have to remember that when you make that guest post it has to be some of your greatest writing because, FIRST Impressions Count! so you want to make it interesting enough for them to want to come back to your site later on.
I definitely have to agree that guest posting is one of the only "quality" ways to build backlinks these days. Since the recent Panda update, most other backlink types have been completely devalued (ie: directory, comments, signatures, article exchange, paid, reciprocal, 3-way, etc.). If you have too many of these types of links (with too similar link text), your site may have actually been hit by an "over-optimization" penalty.
Having a link within the content of a related blog post, on a related website, is the best kind of link