Link begging in all it's variations. For most anything in life, from your personal life to business, you have to give to get, except begging. So variations on link begging is pretty much what is left.

Actually, I'm totally against the "content is everything" principle from Google.

With the recent google update it appears that quality content is king.

There's no difference if you're for or against this principle - if you have [quality] content you're in for success. Otherwise - well... ;)

other methods? PPC and Link Buying.

John, don't get me started on this please :)

I guess that what is "quality content" for Google and what is "quality content" for me differs way too much. If quality content is mesured by words/pages count, then I'm against it. There are lots of quality sites that aren't supposed to be made of content. That's why Google sucks so much.

Do you know a good trade site where I could buy quality links?

Thanks :)

>buy quality links

I think you could perhaps use the word quality there as subjectively with links as you do content ;o)

martinibuster may not be too keen on having a list of suggestions of people who sell links... if you're looking to improve search engine ranking by buying links, google offers an easy way to find these services by allowing a query such as 'buy links'. Note that the 10th result for me is Matt Cutts indicating how to report such links.

I think you could perhaps use the word quality there as subjectively with links as you do content ;o)

LOL ;)

Content isn't everything - it's just "most things" online.

You can still offer an outstanding tool or experience, it is just that development of these tools and experiences tends to be more costly overall.

Content isn't everything - it's just "most things" online.

The remaining things are "quality". It adds up to quality content.

And what does Quality mean?
- Oh, that's another story.

I am confused by the tone of the OP and get the impression of somebody who expects to make money simply by having a web site.

Thinking about this from a 'what Google say they want' point of view then your wish to not rely on content means you've lost before you begin IMO.

Google doesn't know who the best web designers are, and it has no way of figuring this out. What it DOES know is who the most noteworthy and cited web designers are.

The way you become noteworthy is to be cited by others - especially in your niche. You don't do that by asking for links. You do that by becoming a recognised expert and a business / person of note. You do THAT by being active in your niche. That means being seen to talk authoritatively about your specialist subject, getting your name and your brand out there. That leads to citations, these confer trust on your site and it ranks for its key terms.

There is no way around this if you want to 'play it by the rules'.

If you wanted quality referrals for your business offline, how do you think you'd get these? You have to apply those same principles online.

The library here is full of great ideas. If you haven't already I suggest you spend a few days reading it. You should end up with plenty of ideas and inspiration.

I'm reminded of a wordpress blog I once saw that was PR5 but only had one post titled "Hello World!". It lasted for years but eventually a human came around and nuked it to gray bar, probably with a lasting penalty too. I refuse to believe the algo got it because it lasted well over 2 years at PR5, it was part of a network of quality sites by one owner.

I'm reminded of a wordpress blog I once saw that was PR5 but only had one post titled "Hello World!".

Well, at least it was unique...

~~~~~~~~

I think that it might be a good idea to revisit the original poster's question though, in particular this part:

The thing is that I don't want to waste my time writing content on blogs, press releases and such. Actually, I'm totally against the "content is everything" principle from Google.

I missed the part about the content being "offsite" instead of onsite (they specifically mentioned writing on blogs and press release sites).

I think that maybe some of the comments were referring specifically to onsite content. And google's comments that "content is everything" is geared toward onsite content, not offsite content (I am pretty sure).

Anyway, for what it's worth, when I go link begging, it is a lot easier to get links to my higher quality pages than it is to my lower quality content.

i can suggest you to go for directory submission, social bookmarking and blog comments.

I agree with the other posters good advice and comments above.

I will add a link to this forum's Library [webmasterworld.com]. Read ALL of it, even the older posts as the information within them is timeless and still relevant.

Ignoring the good advice here may result in your getting a Google penalty. There is no timesaving shortcut to link acquisition. Many have tried and Goog has slapped them down for it. There are many offerings of automated link solutions (recip links, forum signature/comment blasts, etc) that a few have reported do not withstand the test of time (for ranking). These automated link solutions may work initially in a few niches but in most they do nothing or drag your site down.

Getting back to the initial issue ...

Good content would definitely help to increase your rankings. But as a webdesigner, there might be other things that could help you to attract visitors to your site (images, videos, ...)
Good user interaction could also help to improve your rankings in a post Panda Google world.

As concerning link building,
I would analyze the backlinks from your best ranking competitors. Link buying (recommend you teliad or linklift) will be an option for you, as you could find there some high quality backlinks that would be difficult to get for free.

This post is a joke right?

I am a lazy ass who does not want to do anything. I want to rank without any effort but I cannot find anything on here about ranking without any effort, can you help a freetard, lazy ass broke web designer like me.

Everything in life is time or money, decide which one you have more of and use it.

No its not a joke. There are thousands just like this.
Maybe they can hire some guy from India to give them forum links from .info domains. That may help.

Directory submission and bookmarking is very good for link building.