HEY MORON... WHAT ABOUT THE MIDDLE? Now that you asked...

Though not required 15 & 17 are some additional things I add to propel things a little more. 15 & 17 I have used extensively, 16 is new.

15 is a free service or you can pay for more power. I use the free one with great results. One article goes to 30 blogs for 60 backlinks. Use keywords and only link to your ezine article. Like 9 the jury is still out about Google slapping landing pages for mass submissions. I don't think this would apply to FTS because they only post 2 or 3 blogs a day, but just in case, I stick to linking to Ezine only with two links. It is up to you.

16 is something I just started using and as far as I know the only product of its kind. If it works as stated it will boost your existing backlinks by the power of 10 or more. Cost: $47. A bit techy but if I figured it out and set it up I think anybody could.

17 is a back link service subscription for 50 PR 4+ sites I use to boost my Ezine article in the early stages and to boost my money site on the more competitive keywords. Can also be used to boost other articles if you have the time. There are many services out there, I know of two that are great.

The important thing is to be able to do steps 1 - 14 well and this will come with practice. Once you have that down these extra nodes (that cost money) can be added. For that matter, a simple PPC campaign could be added also to bring more traffic (won't bring link juice). Don't take on to much, be sure everything you add you are able to keep up with.