I will just tell you that in past i used to rank my movie sites above original brands (like 2 years back) and have also ranked for keywords like "buy backlinks" , "seo company" (top 3). But i had to give that up because half my staff was from freelancer and they never completed anything in time. My focus shifted to applications and i enjoy that now.

Answer one question to yourself - Can you beat amazon for keyword amazon ?

Answer - Yes. IMO google does not have a keyword url combo that someone who types amazon should see that site at top but it's just that the "top 100 sites on keyword amazon link to amazon.com"

But let's be real and not logical - You would need millions of links to your website to beat them.

Case Study 1 : Pokemon video website

I had adsense on my site then. The original website had 50,000 links to it (2 years back). My website only had 64 and still i was at top

Case study 2 : Dragon ball z videos

Original website had 11,000 links to it but mine had only 82 and still i was ranking on top (adsense like $300-$400 per day on both websites)

Recent Studies : Have ranked lose weight fast, get ripped and few others

I have 12 niche sites making me money from health to entertainment. I do only seo - none of that social is this that crap.

One line definition of what google wants :

" Your backlinks should be natural, should have authority, and should be niche relevant"

What i give them :

Your backlinks should be natural - I build tier 1 links from guest posts, blog posts, web 20s (yup they will always work) etc. etc. (basically different hosting, geo-location etc.)

should have authority - Ofcourse - High PA, DA and authority.

should be niche relevant - I buy links from niche relevant blog sites only (they are costly but work very well)

What i give them as a blackhatter

Nothing special - I just rank my tier 1 links in top 100 and my website ranks on top 10 automatically

The basic guide to rank high no matter what keyword you target is :

" Your tier 1 links should always have the main keyword in their title, original content and should be lengthy + informative. Now all you need to do is rank these posts (guest posts or blog posts or web 20s) in top 100 and see the magic"

Recent case study about "weight loss" website

1) I bought 20 guest posts from someone (not here on bhw)

2) All guest posts had the main keyword in title

3) I loaded up magic submitter and build few campaigns to these posts (please confirm with your providers if backlinking is allowed or not). Then the usual GSA campaign to these MS links indexing etc. etc.

In 2 weeks my website was in top 80 and 5-6 posts were in top 100. After 4 weeks all posts were in top 80 and my website was in top 30. 7 weeks of constant MS + GSA my guest posts were in top 50 and my site was 5th rank on page one.

Now i am enjoying rank 1 (beating medicine, web md, wikihow etc. for that keyword). I have 65 guest posts from different providers and 53 are in top 100.

Have you ever wondered why blog comments, profile links etc. just never help your website rank? Why is it that contextual links always succeed over everything else? Why is it that google can find footprint among your backlinks? With this strat it's almost as safe as it gets in the game. Yes i have suffered blows of penguin and panda but not that big. Especially if i rank for medical keywords without much spam under 60 days.

Notes :

1) This is easy rank system and can be used with Amazon, youtube, clickbank, CPA etc. etc.

2) Tier 1 links are supposed to have authority (rank high themselves) be niche relevant (ofcourse lol) and authority (back them up with more links)

3) Never waste too much energy trying to game Google. It's very easy.

4) I have successful records of over 56 websites in top 5 since July 2013. 10 of them were built in Dec 2013. This shit works.

5) I never use anchor text or keyword links . I link on 3 things : whole title, naked url and main domain without extension like if site is bhw.com then bhw.

Tiered link building always works provided you understand the meaning of word tier 1. I myself never ask my clients or users to link directly to their website using spun content. Save it for lower tiers.

So in short : "Build 20-30 contextual links to your websites and rank them in top 100. Guest posts and blog posts are fantastic but if you are not making that much money stick to web 20s"