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What about reporting the "black links" - did anyone had success doing that ?

Yes probably i need to get quantity  and match them on number of c blocks (the only metric i;m behind)

I agree is not spam(Directory submissions)- and the cost is real - i made a list with url and cost per submissions and i'm getting close to 2k so far.

Hello,

Here is my situation - i'm number 10 for a moderate keyword and i want to rank higher .

Using the Open Site Explorer i studied the links of 12 competitors and noticed the following :

There are only 2 sites that are doing 100% white hat - one of them is on first page only because has a big,big domain autority, the other because is a brand name.

The rest of my competitors are on first page using  directory submissions (i discovered 200+ directories - and not counting those that are not indexed.), buying links (for ex check these 2 :http://www.dentistsburbank.com/links , http://www.dentistinaustin.com/links/ - there are 50+ more sites like this), spam forums and article submissions.

For my site i tried to get only quality links, tried link bait, quality articles - etc(and this for more that 18 months). Unfortunately it seems that my efforts are not enough(seems that links from military.com are not enough to beat 200 low quality directories) and i want to ask the community what should i do.

Shall i invest in directory submissions (it will cost around $1500) ? If not in directories in what shall i invest the money ? Are there any companies able to create successful link baits ?

Shall i report the paid links hoping that Google will take action ?

Any other ideas

Yes probably i need to get quantity  and match them on number of c blocks (the only metric i;m behind)