Hello. I understand that there are not many people who visit this blog, but, if you happen by then check out the following things I have been learning on the webforums:
The Nature of Backlinks, focusing on Dofollow blogs:
http://forums.seochat.com/google-optimization-7/the-dofollow-movement-220415.html
How to approach directories for backlinks, among other sources:
http://forums.seochat.com/google-optimization-7/directory-listings-potential-backfire-220436.html#post627982
Highlights:
"Fact: Within the Google intelligent indexing software the textual analyzer determines subject matter of any given scanned page.
Theory and confirmed by tests and, I believe Matt Cutts: If on that scanned page sits a link to another page, the intelligent software tests the surrounding area/paragraph to determine if the text around the link text confirms or is relevant to the text within the anchor text of the link. If so, it then matches that relevance to the page relevance of the linked to page.
Bottomline: If the above is true, a link from a dog grooming page that has as anchor text: "Web site hosting and e-mail services" going to a web design site would be declared a non-relevant link."
&
"JagNet agrees: after all, if all it took was 200 directory links to start negatively affecting your site, it would
be all too easy to do that to your competitors. "