What is the best way to boost no. of quality sites linking in?

[sparkit]

Analysing my site ranking compared to competitors, I see that our weakness is getting others to share our content and link into it via their own blogs and social media - although I would say our social media activity is pretty good.

We have also worked on getting listed free on relevant sites related to our product area (learn spanish in spain) in order to increase sites linking but this is still minute compared to our 2 main competitors. (As a note: paid listings are not totally justifiable for us at this point in time but perhaps in the future we will expand on this).

Am I missing something here?

[MikeRoberts]

Community outreach could help... find some bulletin boards/forums/etc. where your presence would make sense and start becoming a resource to others. The more helpful you are the more likely people will trust your brand and consider you over your competitors (Just don't be on the forums with intent to constantly try to sell or push your product because that can just be spammy, unhelpful and hurt you in the long run).

More, unique and relevant content on a consistent basis will help with potentially getting more links, shares, comments, etc. The more opportunities you give people, the more chances you have. Just make sure you're not spinning crap for the sake of having something new. Every bit of content should be as fresh and original as possible.

[TakeshiYoung]

There are no shortcuts to getting quality links, that's what makes them so valuable.

Some ways you can acquire quality links include:

• Writing guest blogs for the top blogs in your niche
• Holding giveaways & contests to attract links
• Creating amazing, shareable content
• Being newsworthy and getting coverage from newspapers and blogs
• Making donations to high authority organizations, charities, and student groups

If you  need more ideas, here's a great list:

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies