What do you use to gather and build Links?

[moneywise_test]

I was just wondering what do most people use for gathering and building links? Is OpenSiteExplorer enough? When I am analysing competitors, there are literally thousands of links, how do you scan them and select the ones you want to use?

Any other tools?

[matbennett]

The best links are the ones that your competiors don't have and aren't going to get. That means that backlink analysis is not much use in uncovering them (other than maybe for inspiration).

Tools like OSE (or majestic seo / ahrefs ) can be useful in picking up low hanging fruit.  However it seems to be the big ripe juicy fruit further up the tree that makes a difference at the moment. The best tools for finding those are Google + Inspiration.