How do I get quality, relevant backlinks?

[WillBlackburn]

Hi,

I am trying to improve the SEO our my website which sells mens designer clothes.

I know the huge value of backlinks on relevant, high ranking/authoirtive sites.

Problem is how do I find these sites?

I am currently using twitter, facebook and google to find relevant blogs, websites, forums etc... (ones in the fashion, menswear, designer clothing field) but it is a slow and tedious process.

I there any tools, that I can use that find these high ranking sites or is it a case of me searching, searching and requesting to have an article published from blog owners with a link to one of my product pages in etc...?

Any help on backlinking and best way to approach would be great.

Thanks
Will

[SEO-Doctor]

"...it is slow and tedious"  I'm affraid that's link building for you.  The longer and harder a link is to get, the better it is likely to be.

There are lots of different tools you can use to find places... here is one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwraahDiDm8

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Yep, link building is a tedious process and requires a fair amount of input and effort. Of course you could go down the 'black hat' method of submitting to spammy article sites and link directories, but that's probably not a good way to go, especially in the long term.

Creating some truly unique and quality content and getting it out in the social media should hopefully get other people to create natural links to your site, but this isn't always easy.

You could always use an SEO company

[WillBlackburn]

Cheers.

I would use an SEO company but as a small business and brand owners requiring payments, it will be a few months before we have the cash to do so. So I am trying to learn myself as I have a fair bit of web knowledge and it is something that interests me, so learning SEO would be good for me.

I understand the spammy directories etc... but what I am asking is what methods are out there for finding these quality links?

Do I just google them, tweet them, facebook them and then see if they rank highly with the mozlabs tools?

How do people go about finding them and then getting the owners permission? Whats your email text to them?

Cheers

Will