Hi SEONoob, thanks for coming by! Its really nice to hear you were compelled to register on the forum simply due to my thread – happy to be of service!
No worries about being an almost complete noobie – I was too not that long ago, and I would think I was one of the dimmest of the dim regards what it was all about! 
Take it easy though. Try not to rush at learning this stuff – it does overload, which can lead to utter confusion and dismay. I know its easy to say this, but take your time with it and it will all come to you soon enough. It falls into place!
Re your questions:
1. yes, point UAW submissions along with all forms of other backlinking to your “anchors” Anchors here being your key articles in the quality do-follow directories (I used 8 (article directories) or so for this exercise) and also the Web 2.0 “anchors”. There are others you can use besides. Other websites that you own for example can be great for quality backlinking to your main money site.
2. larger sites and super sites: you don’t need to rank every page on a large site. The idea of a large site is to bulk out the site for your visitors - information. Plus, it is said that Google does tend to value sites that have a bit more substance than that of say a 2 page site. I’ve seen quite a few 2 page sites at or near the top so this is not entirely substantiated.
Larger sites also get rankings for their long-tail keywords. Thus the more pages you have (as a general rule) the more chance you have of ranking for all forms of different keyword phrases, even with little to NO backlinking. Long-tails sometimes have teeny competition, so even though the keyword phrase may have teeny competition, it may still get a few hundred searches a month. Valueable searches that could almost all be coming to your site!
So no, you do not have to backlink to every page. Just focus on your main keywords – that could be only a single keyword, or perhaps 2, or maybe (given time) 20. Depends on how much research you want to do on your keywords and which niche you are targeting. Some niches have loads of great keywords that are not too competitive to rank for. You get the idea, I’m sure…
3. Tools to buy? None! No tools are must have’s even though I have “promoted” a few of them. I use them daily and the ones I really value are the ones I would recommend to those who can easily afford them (be that from their own internet marketing income, or from a job that allows you to invest in your online work). If I were to say which are key to a highly productive campaign then I would say these ones:
- The Best Spinner
- UAW (there are other similar programs – I use only UAW because its what I am familiar with)
- BB is pretty good, yes – I seem to be getting results from some of my other sites that would suggest this is a good tool
- LinkVana I would not recommend for now – its too costly and for me unproven as yet
- if duplicate content is a regular concern for you then I recommend a product called DupeCop. Its not entirely necessary to have this as you can get a feel for dupe content by using things like EzineArticles and Hub pages etc. to check if your content is dupe. But using this software saves time and offers convenience. Again, only necessary if you do a LOT of writing (review of the product on my blog).
There are a few free tools well worth checking out, which you probably have already. One mentioned before on here by Peter – Traffic Travis. I have not had time to check it out but it could be a real good one. Google Keyword tool is more than adequate for keyword research so although I use Micro Niche Finder and offer that on my site via an affiliate link – you don’t need it! Anyone who tells you that you do is either telling porkies or does not truly understand keyword research. (Oooops, I may get myself in a bit of hot water there!). MNF is convenient and can save a bit of time, but not totally necessary for a successful series of SEO and IM campaigns.
To be honest, I really should try to find time to do reviews on other totally free tools and pop that on my blog. If time permits, I will indeed do so. So please, if anyone has other suggestions re the free quality tools available then let me know about it, thanks!!
One more thing SEOnoob, don’t under-estimate hand submissions. Yes, they take time, and yes this time may seem best spent in doing other things. But, by ticking most of the boxes you get yourself a quality set of backlinks.
To tick the boxes often means you gotta spend time and make effort with the quality. By hand submitting it means that you are focusing on just that. Yes, I use a few tools – for sure I do. But, I much prefer the idea of getting back to basics and offering up more in the way of hand submissions and pure quality all round.
Stephen Crooks (famed for his AdSense Challenge the forum here from about a year ago – he swears by quality hand submissions time and time again! And I for one value Stephen’s opions very highly!
So if anyone wants to take a pop at me for suggesting hand submissions are a serious alternative to automation, then in essense you are also taking a pop at potentially one of the most successful AdSense earners on this planet!
These are the sort of links that are going to float your boat (your site, rather) and not the mass of 3rd rate rubbish that most of us SEO’ers and IM’ers go all out to get (and I am not different – except the rubbish I get goes back to my anchors which are far better equipped at soaking up the cr.p than would be my new baby website that I am trying to get ranked in Google for the first time).
Thanks for stopping by, once again – yup, the eBook will be out soon. I’ll be posting up on here about that (or at least hinting about it – the moderators may not be too pleased ).
Take care!
Regards
Joseph
This is a PS. IM Automator is one of the very, very best FREE tools out there!
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