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Thanks Lucas, good info. Yes, that is my experience as well. Do you remember the firm?

Almost all Wordpress  pagination plugins' add "noindex, follow" to page 2,3,4 So Maybe it's better than rel=canonical  , Let me just try!

Good link building companies are very expensive. Theres webuildpages.com. $2500 for 10 permenant links. They are good quality. Also, I'd be sure to keep away from judging links by solely by PR. It's not a good metric on its own.

Best thing you can do is check fiverr and maybe digital point and be VERY VERY selective in who you hire. Test them on a site you don't care too much about and be detailed in the tasks you give them. Stay away from mass submission type stuff; directories, articles, etc. I'd look for someone who can truly do niche linking or competitor offset links for you (in house). Maybe someone on craigslist you can train.