OK, so I have come to the conclusion using the big text link ad services is something I need to give up. It looks like there is a big danger of fellow webmasters to report your sites. So - I still hear backlinks are vitally important. Frankly, you are still going to have to pay someone to mention you on their site unless there is something media worthy about your site that catches the masses attention. What kind of backlinks are considered valuable? Do they need to be referenced in an article? In regards to the hyperlink itself, do you still want them to hyperlink a keyword or phrase or should they only hyperlink the url to your site?
You need to get links from authority pages/blogs (those with high PR) you should still use a suitable keyword phrase as your anchor text (if you want to rank highly for it). Ideally the keywords should be in the domain, so you don't need to add any unrelated anchor phrases.. but sometimes it's just unavoidable... Hope this helps! J
What you trying to say is paid backlinks are the only valuable backlinks out there, while I give out backlinks from my blog, completely unpaid, and without any solicitation whatever from the blog owner. I give backlink to only useful and relevant resources, related to my blog posts. Such backlinks are what called, valuable backlinks, if they are from high PR pages. Don't take the impression that only paid backlinks are valuable. In fact, TLA has already been blacklisted by Google for backlink trading, and now TNX.net is also placed on hold. Don't use these services if you want to retain your Internet business.
I know someone who has seen results from buying tnx links. I don't think it's a great idea for long term ranking but I have seen it work. If you're not too worried about the long term or just want to see some short term results it has it's place. I don't like to recommend paid links but like I said I've seen them work.
I don't think there is much risk in purchasing links, otherwise competitors could buy a bunch of links pointing to your website. There is a risk that these links could eventually be devalued. The bigger risk is selling text links on your website. That is where Google could penalize your website.