It's great to contact higher ranked bloggers in your niche and buy backlinks or guest post or whatever with them than it is to get a backlink from someone you pay who u have no idea where the backlink is going to come from. but you have to do due diligence if you want to be associated with that site.

I'm gonna stick with NO.

I am an avid watcher of Matt Cutts YouTube videos, and I get the feeling that backlinks are a bad way to go.

Even though I am sure buying backlinks will give you a "boost" in the search engines, in the long run, they will ultimately be viewed as spam when these websites get Google slapped in the future.

Keep it clean and white hat from day one then you will never have to worry about being penalized.

Let the backlinks come naturally.

BUT - I find it a little bit worrying that a WA member - especially such a high ranking one and long serving - is saying that they are good and is promoting such services.....

Perhaps it's an old post. Google updates the rules and now backlinks are not a good strategy.

Of course you can, BUT there is no guarantee that you won't be penalized.

It appears he knows something Kyle does not: Are Backlinks Good for Rankings? Nope.

Not in my opinion no.