This is only a rumour, right? Has anyone actually had any real success in getting out the quicksand quicker by obtaining a high PR link or link from an authority site? If so, how high was the PR on the linking site? How quick was your site released from the pit? Did you get the link naturally or did you buy/rent it?
Personally, I have seen the sandbox avoided (i believe it's a filter/ trigger) by getting as natural links as possible. 1000 identical links is not very natural. 1 Homepage link from an old (with old links to it, been indexed for a long time, ideally on topic and ranking for the terms you want) site can work well imo.
I can tell you that I registerd a domain at the beginning of December, linked to it from a few of my other sites (PR3, PR4) and it was listed and getting traffic within a few weeks.
If you build links slowly and build up gradually then you may likely never get sandboxed. But, as far as getting authority links to get out early... I doubt it. I got a DMOZ listing for a site that was sandboxed for 4 months at that time... it didn't get out until another 4 months later.
It's a bit of a catch 22 really though.... You build links naturally and slowly in a competitive industry, and still remain at the bottom of the SERPs. As for the DMOZ listing, I very much doubt that played any role in getting released from the sandbox. You broke out after 8 months, which pretty much sounds on par with most sites.
It depends on the terms you want to rank for... if there isnt that many results for your terms or searches it is easier to avoid the sandbox even by just throwin coop weight to your site. Good luck.
I would just like to add a bit... the sand box phenomenon occurs just when it finds search phrase competetive... and finds the link building is not natural... i.e you get 100's of links in couple of weeks time... that sounds odd as well... Manish
press realeases are good to promote the site helping to get out of the box, u can publish also articles with your link back is the resource part.
Just one question does press release with a backlink to our site guarantee that the site will come out of sand box?
I'm afraid not rado_guy. However if you read the thread titled 'A sure fire way to get out sandbox...' in this forum I have made a post about some comments Shoemoney made that said came out of the mouth of Matt Cutts, the Google engineer, in regards to the sandbox. It involves getting in to a few quality established directories (Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, Zeal, Best of Web Directory). All of which require payment, except DMOZ (although you could try bribing an editor as many will approve your site for a fee) and maybe Zeal where if you pass their quiz you can submit sites and hope they are approved by other 'Zealots'. Of course this would guarantee nothing, but it may well reduce the time you are in the sandbox greatly, especially if you don't use 'shady' methods of getting links. Pete