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Link building is an essential necessity for all bloggers, unless you don’t want to be indexed by google and drive a ton of traffic to your blog, then by all means - skip right past this blog post.

Here is a definitive - simple list of things you can do to get incoming links.

Give away Freebies
Contribute to popular forums, using your link in your signature.
Write a pillar or link bait article, and get it plastered on digg, reddit, and other viral sites.
Create video link bait that goes viral on youtube.
Post your link as the source on Question and Answer sites like Yahoo Answers.
Write a Wordpress Theme, or Plugin. Themes are great because you can link back to your site in the copyright area.
Do something unusual that gets you noticed on a popular news site.
Share the link love, link to others who may link back.
Insult an authority in your niche, might get you flamed but it may get you some good backlinks.
Become top commenter on do-follow blogs.
Produce killer content that people quote, and link to.
Use Ping.fm to post your blog posts across multiple social networks so people see it, and link to it.
Cross link from your other websites.
Provide a great service, or design a web app.
Make an ebook. Give it away for a great way to get new email subscribers for your blog.
Starting an affiliate program, is a great way to get a ton of incoming links, and authority.
Write guest posts for other blogs in your niche, make sure to add your link in the bio box.
Submit articles to article sites, linking back to your site in the bio.
Purchase Reviews, or ask people to Review it.
Become DoFollow and Submit your blog to dofollow directories.
Write reviews, if you give a good review the site may link to you, if you give a bad review then other sites might link to your review.
Submit to free and paid directories.
Write list posts, people love lists(you’re reading this post aren’t you?), and lists get lots of links!
Make a poll or survey that people are interested in.
Create a wikipedia page about your blog, that links back to it.
Sponsor other sites, get them to review you.
Start a charity or non-profit.
Hold contests. Then post that contest at Blog Contest Site.
Release a firefox extension or plugin that is a must have.
Interview someone famous, or at least semi-famous. Even a popular blogger will work, your mom, though in most cases won’t work.
Writing meaningful, non-spammy, comments on do-follow blogs.
Ask for people to retweet, digg, or stumble your best articles.

Source: There's a blog in my soup